Billy Howerdel

Multi-instrumentalist Billy Howerdel is best known as a founding member, guitarist, producer, and principal songwriter of A Perfect Circle, one of the most celebrated alternative rock bands of the early 21st century. He also fronted the band Ashes Divide, which released one album in 2008, and his own debut solo album, What Normal Was, in 2022. Born in 1970 and brought up in the small town of West Milford, New Jersey, Howerdel was interested in music from a young age. He was heavily inspired by new wave and post-punk acts such as the Cult, Adam & the Ants, the Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen, Missing Persons, and Elvis Costello, and decided on a career in music after seeing Pink Floyd play live. In high school he was enthusiastically involved in an extra-curricular audio club, which led to his interest in audio production. He started out as a sound engineer for bands on the Jersey scene before becoming a sought-after guitar technician, working for a variety of high-profile rock bands including Faith No More, Guns N' Roses, the Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, and Tool. Meanwhile, he worked privately on his own music. Tool singer Maynard James Keenan was impressed by Howerdel's demos and offered to be his vocalist if he ever formed a band, and A Perfect Circle was born. Keenan's clout got them a deal with Virgin straight away, and they released their debut album, Mer de Noms, in 2000 to wide critical acclaim and commercial success. Thirteenth Step followed in 2003 and the covers album Emotive (for which Howerdel provided some of the vocals) was released in 2004, with Keenan dividing his time between the two bands. Howerdel's atmospheric, emotive, vulnerable songwriting struck a chord with audiences and provided an attractive contrast to Keenan's other more muscular and intellectual band. Howerdel also produced all three albums. In 2005 A Perfect Circle went on hiatus. While Keenan was working with Tool, Howerdel continued to work on music and created a solo project, Ashes Divide, which didn't stray too far from his Perfect Circle material. He played most of the instruments, produced, and sang on its debut album, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright, which was released by Island in 2008; it performed well, albeit modestly compared to APC. Howerdel formed a touring band and took the album on the road. A Perfect Circle re-formed in 2010 and performed sporadically, but didn't release another album until 2018's Eat the Elephant, released by BMG. Keenan then returned to Tool for the release and tour of that band's long-delayed full-length, Fear Inoculum. Howerdel began work on another Ashes Divide album, but the project morphed into something quite different, a more low-key and electronic-based set of songs directly inspired by his formative influences in new wave and post-punk. He eventually decided to release the album under his own name. Titled What Normal Was, it came out in 2022 on Alchemy, Rise Records, and BMG.
© John D. Buchanan /TiVo