A Perfect Circle: The Gun Shy Interview

Posted by Chris Harris on September 23, 2010 in Exclusive, Gun Shy Interview

Last week, after teasing fans online, A Perfect Circle made us all smile when they revealed that they’d be returning from hiatus to kick the West Coast’s ass with a series of unique shows this fall: Each city on the trek will get the band for three nights, and on each night, the band will play one of their three albums in its entirety. This week, guitarist Billy Howerdel tells Gun Shy Assassin that new A Perfect Circle tunes are not far off.

“New songs are definitely in the future,” Howerdel tells Gun Shy. “As to how they’re packaged and how many, that’s yet to be seen. But we’re working on it. [Frontman Maynard James Keenan]’s possibly working on some new stuff; I don’t know where it’s at right now. I’ve thrown some songs to him and he’s working on it. I’m working on new music, too. We might debut some of these things at some of these new shows in the fall.”

But that’s not all. In addition, Howerdel says he’d like to document the upcoming reunion shows for a possible DVD release in the fall of 2011. He also spoke about what brought A Perfect Circle back together, and the possibility of more shows this coming spring and summer…depending on how far along in the writing process Tool are at that point for their next LP.

“There’s no plan to do shows on the East Coast,” he says, adding that the band’s already started practicing and sound “the most solid” he’s ever heard them. “We’ll possibly be doing some shows in the spring and summer of next year. We’re still mulling over what the possibilities could be, but there are no specific shows that we’ve talked about. We’re just trying to get a general sense of what a tour might look like next year. It will be a short, little jaunt.”

Basically, Howerdel says that A Perfect Circle’s six-year break was necessary because of his other band, Ashes Divide, but more specifically, because APC’s singer has so many fingers in so many different pies: He’s in Tool, Puscifer, and runs his own vineyard.

“His fingers are very sticky. That’s a good way to put it. Very sticky fingers,” Howerdel agrees. “[Reactivating A Perfect Circle has] been something we’ve been talking about for a little while. It’s been on-and-off again for a few years but the reality came when Maynard found a window in his busy schedule and it seemed to be the right time and I’m always excited to start doing some APC shows again, but we just had to wait for the right time.”

While Howerdel says he knew APC would one day be resurrected, it took Activision to ultimately make the reunion possible. Back on June 15, Maynard and Billy played at the video game firm’s E3 press conference and “it was one of those things where, it felt so good to play together again. I think that was a nudge in the right direction…what brought us back together.”

Howerdel says that the positive response to the reunion news has also given the band more drive.

“It’s really nice to hear the interest from people out there who are still interested in APC after all these years,” Howerdel tells Gun Shy Assassin. “A lot of bands wither away, but it doesn’t seem like the appetite died down a whole lot. It made us feel really good, and it takes something like that to get Maynard’s attention.”

Posted in Exclusive, Gun Shy Interview | Tagged a perfect circle, adam jones, apc, ashes divide, billy howerdel, maynard james keenan, puscifer, tool | 20 Comments