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A perfect circle6/26/2023 The band's current lineup features Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, bassist Matt McJunkins, and drummer Jeff Friedl, the latter two also being contributors to the related Puscifer and Ashes Divide projects. Band collaborator and producer Danny Lohner and Marilyn Manson bassist Jeordie White were also members for a short period in the early 2000s. Primus drummer Tim Alexander had briefly stood in as a drummer prior to Freese in the band's initial live shows however, this was prior to releasing any material. The original incarnation of the band included Paz Lenchantin on bass, Troy Van Leeuwen on guitar, and Josh Freese on drums. Prone to downtime due to Keenan's other musical commitments, the band has featured a variety of musicians throughout alternating periods of activity and inactivity, and has changed line-ups on each album, leaving Keenan and Howerdel the only constant members. The band reformed in 2017 to record a fourth album, Eat the Elephant, which was released on April 20, 2018. Band activity was sporadic in the following years the band reformed in 2010, and played live shows on and off between 20, but fell into inactivity after the release of their greatest hits album, Three Sixty, and a live album box set, A Perfect Circle Live: Featuring Stone and Echo in late 2013. Shortly after Emotive's release, the band went on hiatus Keenan returned to Tool and started up solo work under the band name Puscifer, while Howerdel released a solo album, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright, under the moniker Ashes Divide. A Perfect Circle has released four studio albums, the first three during the early 2000s: Mer de Noms, their debut album in 2000, and followed up by Thirteenth Step in 2003 then in 2004, Emotive-an album of radically re-worked cover songs. But I’d still prefer to tour, make a record, take a little break, then tour and make another record.A Perfect Circle is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan. “That frustrating, for sure, but maybe that contributes a little bit to the magic that can happen when we do get together-that feeling of not being predictable, not punching a clock. “When APC will reconvene is never exactly defined,” Howerdel admits. So when he writes these days, he keeps his options open for using the music in Ashes Divide, a film score or APC. A Perfect Circle will always be his primary gig, but he realizes-everyone else in the band has different priorities. Remaining fluid through such transitions has kept Howerdel grounded. In the interim, longtime friend of the band Greg Edwards (Failure, Autolux) will perform on the dates, which begin April 14 in Tucson, Arizona. Then, in typical A Perfect Circle fashion, Smashing Pumpkins announced their reunion, which prevented Iha-who remains a member of APC-from touring with the band until June. With the help of guitarist James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), bassist Matt McJunkins and Puscifer drummer Jeff Friedl, Howerdel and Keenan finished Eat the Elephant in early 2018 and scheduled a tour. You’re left grabbing the reigns and trying to make this thing do your bidding, and that doesn’t always work. “If you go into a reverb pedal and then feed it into a distorted amp, you lose definition and you gain this wall of sound that’s hard to control. “Having reverb in front of the amp can create a lot of ambience,” he says. He toyed with other gear that was lying around the studio when he tracked the album with Dave Sardy and added a reverb pedal to his effect chain. When he was writing guitar parts for the demos, Howerdel reached for his Les Paul Classic 1960 reissue and plugged into a modified Marshall 1978 JMP Super Lead 100 or a smaller Super Goldtone GA-30RV. “And once I became a little better it allowed me to push my creativity instead of falling into a pattern.” “A few years ago I decided to dig fully into synths and keys, which I was very bad at,” he says. A Perfect Circle’s James Iha (left) and Billy Howerdel.
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