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NEWS : STORIES
Guitarist Billy Howerdel, perhaps best known as the creative strength behind avant rock outfit A Perfect Circle, is in video-treatment hell. He's thumbing through a ton of ideas, and his head is spinning. "Most of these treatments are so
Howerdel is nervous — a fact he's not about to hide. Ever since A Perfect Circle, fronted by Tool mainman Maynard James Keenan, went on an indefinite hiatus a few years back, he's been writing material on his own. These songs will materialize sometime in March in the form of Keep Telling Myself It's Alright, the debut LP from Howerdel's new band, Ashes Divide. Howerdel inked a deal last summer with Island Records, and he's in full-on promotion mode: doing phone interviews, pulling together a touring band and approving the album's artwork. "It's exhausting," he said. "I'm trying to put together what I think is the right set of people for my band, but I don't just want people from my close circle of acquaintances — I'm looking outside of that and trying to get some fresh faces. I think we're supposed to go on tour sometime in late April or early May, and we'll start off in the States and just take it from there." While Keenan has said in previous interviews that, as far as he's concerned, A Perfect Circle is over and done with, Howerdel is not so sure. While he does intend to pour all his focus and energy into Ashes Divide for the next three years or so, he doesn't rule out a return to the Circle. "I don't know what the future's going to hold, but all I can see is Ashes Divide now," he said. "I wouldn't say APC is dead, but until further notice, we're not doing a whole lot. We might do a surprise thing here or there, but right now, Ashes Divide will have my full focus." Howerdel is well aware that some might compare Ashes Divide to the work he's done with A Perfect Circle, and the earliest material he had written for the album sounded a lot like APC. He either scrapped or reworked most of those songs in an attempt to make them his own. All in all, the guitarist, who handles vocals on the disc, said he spent 18 months and change pulling Keep Telling Myself It's Alright together and hopes fans will give Ashes Divide a fair chance. "Before I recorded a single note, I just kept thinking, 'Everyone's going to say it sounds like A Perfect Circle with a sh---y singer — that's just what everyone's going to say, no matter what I do,'" he explained. "In the beginning, that was a huge obstacle for me to overcome, but I tried to keep a level head as far as not letting that stuff get to me. I think I wound up taking the opposite route, because the earliest stuff never sounded earnest to me." But there were other hurdles standing in Howerdel's way. For starters, he'd never written lyrics before, let alone sing them — something he was nervous about even attempting. He was also working, primarily, on his own, with no one else to bounce ideas off of. But in time, Howerdel did hook up with several collaborators for the record, including drummer Josh Freese and Keenan's 11-year-old son, Devo, who plays cello on the LP. "And I brought [Nine Inch Nails'] Danny Lohner in halfway through, just so I had an extra set of ears to bounce ideas off of," he said of the man who co-produced the Ashes Divide debut. "Danny was actually one of the first people to encourage me to sing, and Maynard was also really supportive in that area. Maynard was pushing me to step out and do it years ago, and I owe a lot to those guys for the support, because it's scary coming out of the shadows of Maynard. He's one of the best singers living today, and he's an icon." According to Howerdel, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright is "what it is," and he "did the best I could with it, and I'm very proud of how it turned out." He said the album's lyrics are highly emotional and honest and tend to center on personal situations he had to deal with and change. "Some songs are about getting out of bad situations, working through denial, and coping with your problems and trying to move forward," he said. "I think the title of the record kind of sums it up. Writing lyrics, it was like a puzzle in my head that I think I figured out." He added that the album treads that fine line "between being a spaced-out, ethereal soundtrack and a fully blown pop record." In addition to Freese and Devo, the record will feature drummer Dean Menta, Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano, Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba and former A Perfect Circle bassist Paz Lenchantin. Initially, Howerdel said he was toying with the idea of approaching Keenan to help him craft the record's lyrics. "I just wanted to have somebody help me write lyrics, and I figured I'd take it from there," he said. "But then, I started feeling like it really should be me doing this. At the end of the day, I'm happier they came from me." This report is provided by MTV News
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