Billy Howerdel (born May 18, 1970) is the founding member, guitarist, songwriter, and producer for the bands A Perfect Circle and Ashes Divide. He has recorded two 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 Township High School in West Milford, New Jersey. He played some sports but took an interest in a television production class and was very active in an extracurricular audio program. This program gave Howerdel the foundation for his post high school audio technician 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 into New York City and helped him select his first electric guitar. He spent several years doing sound for New Jersey bands and stepped it up working jobs as guitar tech for numerous bands. Before forming A Perfect Circle, Howerdel worked as a guitar tech for Faith No More, Fishbone, David Bowie, The Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Guns N' Roses, and Tool, among other bands.
A Perfect Circle
Howerdel functioned as a guitar technician for Tool during the tour and recording of Ænima, working with Maynard James Keenan, whom he met in 1992. During this time, Howerdel played Keenan some of his songs, and Keenan offered his vocals if Howerdel ever decided to form a band.Despite originally considering a female singer, Howerdel would eventually accept Keenan's offer. In 1999, Howerdel founded A Perfect Circle, and invited Keenan to join in as the singer.
Other projects
Howerdel has occasionally played live with the band Abandoned Pools. In 2005, he wrote and recorded music for the video game Jak X: Combat Racing, which also features remixes of Billy's songs by Danny Lohner and Dean Menta, and musicians Josh Freese and Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age, Atom Willard of The Offspring, Joey Castillo of Queens of the Stone Age, ex-A Perfect Circle bassist Paz Lenchantin, and Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit, also worked on the Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy, specifically the song "There Was A Time".
Current work
Billy Howerdel is currently actively involved in his new solo project, Ashes Divide. Howerdel handled nearly all the instruments in the studio for the release, except the drums for which he recruited session-man Josh Freese. The first single, "The Stone," gained some radio play, and the band toured for the album throughout 2008.
Gear
Guitars - Gibson Les Pauls, predominantly a 1960 Les Paul Classic Reissue. Plays Ernie Ball strings, with Dunlop 1.0mm Nylon picks.
Effects - Custom rack built by Dave Friedman at Rack Systems.
Cabinets - VHT Straight Cabinet / 4x12
Lexicon MPX R1 Midi Foot Controller and Ernie Ball expression pedal
Tuner - Korg DTR-1 Rack Tuner
Rack - Lexicon MPX-G2 Preamp / Multi-FX / Looper, GCX Guitar Audio Switcher / Router, TC Electronic G-Force Multi-FX, TC Electronics Fireworx, DigiTech GSP-2101, Eventide Orville, Custom Audio Electronics line mixer and line transformer
Amp - There is much debate as to the details of his "Naked" amp. It is certainly a one-off custom-made amplifier, but not much else is known. It has been claimed on Internet Discussion Boards that it is based on a Naylor SuperDrive preamp with a power section based on a Marshall JMP, but this should be taken with a grain of salt. His most recent amplifier is a Dave Friedman modified 1978 Marshall JMP-100 Superlead, modified for (at least) a master volume control, channel switching, and an effects loop. Adam Jones of Tool has mentioned in magazine interview having been introduced to another line of amplifiers by Howerdel, which may be the Diezel head amp included in Jones' equipment list from "The Tool FAQ" of toolshed.down.net
Billy has replaced his previous effects rig with an AxeFX Ultra made by Fractal Audio. He is also using Naked amps made by Dave Friedman of Rack Systems.
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