Billy Howerdel

THE A PERFECT CIRCLE GUITARIST UNVEILS HIS SOLO DEBUT, WHAT NORMAL WAS, WHICH TAKES HIS SYNTH ROCK AND SHOEGAZE INFLUENCES TO NEW LIMITS

- Amit Sharma

WHEN GUITAR WORLD puts it to Billy Howerdel that his lead lines tend to be single-note ideas sometimes with the added depth of a lower or higher octave he agrees wholeheartedly. Caked in reverb and delay, it's more of a textural approach than anything too chordal, at times tricking the listener into thinkin they're hearing something else entirely.

"What I'm going for is a swarm of many bees," says the A Perfect Circle mastermind with a laugh. "And yeah, I guess I'm trying to fool people and make them question whether it's a guitar or synth. As much as I love rock, especially Led Zeppelin and the first two Ozzy Osbourne albums, when I started listening to Cocteau Twins and Siouxsie and the Banshees, I became more interested in soundscapes."