Billy Howerdel

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Billy Howerdel (born May 18, 1970) is the founding member, guitarist, singer-songwriter, and producer for the bands A Perfect Circle and Ashes Divide.

He has recorded four acclaimed studio albums with the former, and in 2008, Ashes Divide released their debut album, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright.

Early life

Howerdel was born in New Jersey. He attended high school at West Milford High School, where he played sports, took an interest in a television production class, and was active in an extracurricular audio program. This program gave him the foundation for his post-high school audio-technical pursuits and eventually led to his high-profile guitar technician positions. Stephen Porcello, the high school teacher who was the adviser for this program, took Howerdel to New York City and helped him select his first electric guitar.

Howerdel spent several years sound engineering for New Jersey artists and further worked as a guitar technician for numerous others, which, before forming A Perfect Circle, included Faith No More, Fishbone, David Bowie, The Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Guns N' Roses, and Tool.

Personal life

In a 2008 interview, Howerdel said he did not take drugs, drank only occasionally, and practiced Transcendental Meditation.

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Recording career

Howerdel played for Tool during the tour and recording of nima, which was his first encounter with Maynard James Keenan, who lived in 1992. During this period, Howerdel performed Keenan's songs, and Keenan agreed to perform if Howerdel ever decided to form a band. Despite initially considering a female vocalist, Howerdel would eventually accept Keenan's invitation. Howerdel formed A Perfect Circle in 1999 and invited Keenan to join. The initiative was a huge success. Mer de Noms, the country's debut album, went platinum in May 2000, selling over one million copies by the end of the year. However, complications arose: Keenan could not dedicate all of his hours to the band, who is now fronting Tool, and as time went, he became more and more involved in the musical process, contributing to differences on the musical direction for the second A Perfect Circle album, Thirteenth Step. The album, which was released in September 2003, was also a hit, with Keenan taking a break from the band so that Keenan could return to Tool and Howerdel could pursue solo work.

During the writing sessions for Thirteenth Step in 2003, Howerdel first began working on solo material. Approximately three to four songs were written during the time, including the album's "Strripped Away," which was also performed at soundchecks at A Perfect Circle (APC) concerts. In addition, the APC demo "Army" was eventually turned into Howerdel's own "The Stone." APC decided to begin assembling an anti-war cover song called Emotive shortly after the Thirteenth Step in 2004. Keenan encouraged Howerdel to "get people used to [his] voices" and assist Howerdel in his solo career. APC went on hiatus as a result of Emotive's completion, while Howerdel's continued to produce new content.

Howerdel began assembling more songs, and he named his project Ashes Divide (stylized as ASHES dIVIDE) and began recording an album. Except for drums, for which he recruited session musician Josh Freese, he handled nearly all instruments in the studio, except drums. "The Stone," the project's first single, made its radio debut on January 22, 2008, and the full album, titled Keep Telling Myself, was released on April 8. The album features a guest cello by Devo Keenan, Maynard's son. In addition to Freese and Keenan, drummer Dean Sainz, Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano, Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba, and former APC bassist Paz Lenchantin were among the recording's contributors.

Howerdel formed a band to promote the album, and they went on tour throughout 2008. Jeff Friedl on drums, Matt McJunkins on bass, Jonny Radtke on lead guitar, and Adam Monroe on keys were among the lineup.

In its first week, the album debuted at number 36 in the United States, selling 15,800 copies. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Alright had sold 61,000 copies as of August 2010.

Dividend tours extensively in 2008 but pulled out of an opening slot for Puddle of Muddd because of undisclosed reasons and fell out of the public eye. Maynard James Keenan revealed that he and Howerdel were composing music for APC, and that Ashes Divide was splitting up.

In the late summer of 2009, Twitter and Myspace blogs announced that the band was still active, and that the band had appeared in a few live shows. They debuted "Untitled," but "Trafficking" has since been dubbed by fans of Ashes Divide shows in late 2009 and early 2010. Howerdel said in April 2011 that Ashes Divide would have released music in late 2010, but that APC would not have been revened for touring.

Howerdel updated the status of the project's second album in December 2012, claiming, "right now, I'm focusing the bulk of my attention on a new Ashes Divide album," the group's second album, which includes 11 songs. Still working on finishing vocals and writing lyrics, and hopefully [will] get it mixed in January or February." However, the album's progress was postponed until Howerdel decided to rename a few songs to APC instead.

On May 8, 2013, the band performed their first live show in three years at the Satellite in Los Angeles for Pathology Brand's "Wednesday Society" fundraising concert. Howerdel said in April 2017 that he still worked on new stuff but that the sound had deviated so far from the project's first track that he was considering whether or not he'd release it under the Ashes Divide name." In April 2018, he reiterated his plans to release a second album, but that several songs on his fourth APC album, Eat the Elephant, including "So Long" and "Thanks for All the Fish," were among the songs.

Despite not having a formal release date and then again in 2021, Revolver ranked Ashes Divide as one of their most awaited albums of 2020.

Howerdel revealed the name of his second studio album, What Normal Was, in early 2022, rather than the Ashes Divide moniker.

Howerdel has occasionally appeared live with the band Abandoned Pools. In 2005, he wrote and recorded music for Jak X: Combat Racing, which also includes remixes of Howerdel's songs by Danny Lohner and Dean Menta, as well as including contributions from Josh Freese, Troy Van Leeuwen, Joey Castillo, ex-A Perfect Circle bassist Paz Lenchantin, and Wes Borland. Howerdel appeared on Guns N' Roses' album "Chrisis is a Person" referring to the song "There Was a Time."

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