Billy Howerdel
“As a musician you’re cursed, because you listen to the radio and you often know how it fits together. Before A Perfect Circle, Billy Howerdel was a guitar tech for Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More, GN’R… the stuff I grew up on, and he took bits from everywhere and mashed
them together so it was dark, tonal and atonal, rock with melodic string sections and interesting time signatures.
“I remember when I first heard Mer de Noms and it blew my mind. It changed how Esoterica thought about music: ‘How the hell did you do that arpeggiated guitar on first track The Hollow, and what is that sound on the last track, and where did that meandering bass that shouldn’t really work on Orestes come from?’ But the real genius of Billy was bringing together incredible musicians – not just Maynard James Keenan but Josh Freese, Danny Lohner and Paz Lenchantin as well. There was this alignment of planets that was new, different and amazing.”