CIRCLING BACK TO THEIR BAND
Guitarist/composer talks about A Perfect Circle’s show Wednesday at the ACC, new songs — and no-photo rule
There is, Billy Howerdel has learned over the years, a certain disadvantage to having one of rock’s greatest and most recognizable voices in his band: that voice is in high demand, and he only has access to it in fits and starts.
It’s been encouraging to fans of A Perfect Circle, then, to see a suspicious amount of renewed activity throughout 2017 on the part of Howerdel and his friend, former roommate and on-again/off-again bandmate of nearly 20 years, Maynard James Keenan, who also serves as frontman for art-metal behemoth Tool and his own eccentric Puscifer project.
A fall tour brings A Perfect Circle to the Air Canada Centre Wednesday, while a bruisingly epic new single entitled “The Doomed” was cast out into the world in mid-October. Could this mean a fourth album, its first since Emotive in 2004, is finally on the way? Dare to dream, people.
Apparently it’s coming next spring and will be produced by Dave Sardy, who has worked with everyone from Slayer to the Dandy Warhols.
The Star spoke with Howerdel shortly before sound check with his resurrected Goth-rock quintet — the current lineup features Jeff Friedl on drums, Matt McJunkins on bass and former Smashing Pumpkin James Iha as Howerdel’s fellow guitarist — late last week in Portland, Maine.
Talk turned to future A Perfect Circle plans, his recent extracurricular activities as a film composer and the logistics of working with Keenan, as well as the band’s somewhat controversial “no photos” policy.
The latter — though plainly declared in signs at the venue — nevertheless saw some 60 people who wouldn’t put down their cellphones forcibly ejected from a show in Pennsylvania two weekends ago.
What’s precipitated the sudden return to action this year?
There were always talks of this cycle happening for several years in the past, but Maynard’s been busy with other things — trying to get a Tool record off the ground and working with Puscifer and his winery — and it finally just came about.
You haven’t been sitting on your hands all this time, I presume.
Yeah, in the meantime, I’d scored my first feature film. It’s called D-love. It got done a year ago and it’s kind of in the festival circuit right now. It’s doing really well. I think it’s been to, like, 14 film festivals and won 12 of them.
It must be satisfying to be able to come back after a few years off and find a sufficient audience for your music out there that you can still fill arenas.
Yeah, it doesn’t go unnoticed and we’re very thankful for it, for sure, even more so in the spring. We kind of came out of nowhere but that spring run, especially, was really, really well attended. It was kind of shocking to us . . . I guess we’ve dug in a little deeper somehow. I don’t know into what, but it’s nice that we’ve had some staying power after all this time. It’s not the “we need to pay the mortgage” tour. It’s certainly for the love of doing it and because there’s something to say, musically and lyrically.
What can you tell me about the new record?
We’re all in the middle of it right now. It’s sitting five feet in front of me in my mobile recording studio that I’ve got set up every day in the dressing room. So in between all of the duties on tour, I’m still kind of plugging away at it. We’re definitely over the halfway mark and I’m feeling really good about it. I mean, not to put the pressure on, but I think it’s some of the best Maynard lyrics and vocals I’ve ever heard.
Are you doing anything differently this time around?
I had the idea of bringing in another producer. I’ve always produced all the records and, in working on that movie score, I had somebody tracking for me for, like, two or three days and it was nice to just sit back on the couch and have someone hit “record.”
I must say I’m impressed with how diligently you guys are enforcing the “no photos” thing. It’ll be refreshing to go to a gig these days and not watch everyone else watching through their phones.
You know, I didn’t realize what a big story this was until someone brought it to my attention maybe two days ago. There’s no mystery. Maynard’s kind of been doing this for years with all his bands. Usually the ones complaining are the squeakiest wheels. I’ve read more support for it than anything. I’m not saying that to be self-serving, it’s just my observation. But whatever I’ve read is people, like you’ve said, being appreciative of being able to connect with the experience without being distracted. Now if we could just get security to stop flashing flashlights in people’s eyes.