When seeking a sense of calm from the world’s disorder, Billy Howerdel of A Perfect Circle’s coping mechanisms are simple. “Tension in your world – whether it’s the tension in your macro world or personal world, there’s always stuff that comes up. Some people take it out on a punching bag, we do it through music. You’ve gotta find that pressure release valve.”
A Perfect Circle are an alternative rock enigma – blurring the lines between prog and metal, they’ve carved a niche within an oversaturated scene. Striking the perfect equilibrium between experimental sound work and accessibility, they have consistently punched above their goatee-donning contemporaries, catapulting them to the forefront of heavy music’s consciousness. Their debut album Mer de Noms, released 18 years ago solidified this identity – it’s a brash and bold statement that combines the hypnotic merits of atmospheric soundscapes with biting social critiques.
With a heightened sense of aesthetic mysticism, their legacy is founded in a crux of interplaying elements. Marrying the personal with the political, the accessible with the experimental.
In 2004, the band last released Emotive, their poignant attempt at conveying a message on ‘anti-political apathy’ and since then, the world has only become more of a moral minefield. This year, A Perfect Circle are set to release Eat The Elephant, their 4th studio album, created out of a need to embrace the inherent and essential chaos in creativity – a trait exacerbated both musically and lyrically for the band.
“Tension in your world – whether it’s the tension in your macro world or personal world, there’s always stuff that comes up. Some people take it out on a punching bag, we do it through music. You’ve gotta find that pressure release valve.”
“Creativity is kind of chaotic – hopefully it’s chaotic, you don’t want to be homogenous or go down the same road the whole time,” says Howerdel, the band’s founder and songwriting spearhead. “It’s always changing, I don’t have anything, in particular, to go to but I’m always inspired. I think just taking a break sometimes from playing an instrument, getting some perspective and having a burning desire to get always helps”
Waiting 14 years between album releases is a difficult feat – but it Eat The Elephant was born out of necessity. “I think it’s just heightened states of emotion that drive creativity – it can be reflective or reactionary.”
On the album’s lead single, ‘TalkTalk’ melancholic piano arpeggios that soar over enigmatic frontman Maynard’s vocals, culminating in a subtle yet moving riff fest, that lyrically plays with themes of religion and ethics, reflective of Howerdel’s views on the reactionary heart of creativity.
“I’m always inspired. I think just taking a break sometimes from playing an instrument, getting some perspective and having a burning desire to get always helps”
“When you’re feeling overwhelmed, sad, pissed off – music might the contrast of that because you can’t take it any longer, you never know.” For Howerdel, necessity drives his self-confessed “obsession” with the music, stopping what he describes as “creative paralysis” in its tracks.
“The muscle memory mode of playing mode of playing music, whether it’s singing into your voicemail. I start getting on a role and I want to keep creating new ideas. The task at hand is to finish a record, so you can’t twiddle forever.”
“You’ve got to lock down and focus on the songs at hand. Once songs start sounding good, then I get obsessed with them, but we have to set deadlines so we don’t end up in creative paralysis.”
This focus showcases itself in the tight songwriting and – found most stark on ‘The Doomed’ simple yet impactful drumming patterns and the acoustic-driven, middle-eastern inflicted ‘Delicious’. It’s substance over style, using varied element tastefully, leaving space for the listener to interpret and take what they want from the song, paying tribute to their back catalogue.
“The muscle memory mode of playing mode of playing music, whether it’s singing into your voicemail. I start getting on a role and I want to keep creating new ideas. The task at hand is to finish a record, so you can’t twiddle forever.”
During the writing of Eat The Elephant, Howerdel saw himself take to the keys rather than his trusted six-string for foundations at first. Howerdel, a former guitar technician for The Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails, noted the move pushed him towards grander melodies and richer harmonies – a trait the at times suffocating obsession with guitar tones and soundscapes blocked him from.
“I wrote most of this record on keys and piano – we’ve typically written with more guitar if any of this was written on guitar, that initial spark came from the sounds and soundscapes more so than a riff.” Although he fesses up as not being “much of a musician’s musician”, Howerdel is the force behind the band’s distinct sonic output – a trait exacerbated on Eat The Elephant, which he also attributes to the work of legendary producer David Sardy.
“I’m old enough to speak with younger musicians, a lot of band’s first records are their best because there is a dying desire to create, if you can tap into that, then you’re going to create something great. We make records to stay true to that.”
“I have strength in putting sounds together and finding the notes rather than how well they’re played, approaching this record from keyboard instead of guitar was also reliant on sound – it got me out of the sound creating the dictating the creativity – usually it would come from the delay or the reverb, whereas piano you can kind of be anywhere.”
Eat The Elephant feels like the necessary and vital next step for a band who’ve yielded an undeniable influence on modern rock music. When pondering on the expectations longtime fans may have of the new album, Howerdel mused on the band’s ability to stick to their guns – honesty is the thread that weaves the time between albums.
“I’m old enough to speak with younger musicians, a lot of band’s first records are their best because there is a dying desire to create, if you can tap into that, then you’re going to create something great. We make records to stay true to that.”
The new album Eat the Elpehant is available for presale now at https://www.aperfectcircle.com and is available worldwide on April 20th via BMG
