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The Pulse of Radio reports: The first single from A PERFECT CIRCLE guitarist Billy Howerdel's new ASHES DIVIDE project, called "The Stone", has hit the airwaves. The song is taken from the debut ASHES DIVIDE album, "Keep Telling Myself It's All Right", due out in March. Howerdel has been out of the public spotlight since A PERFECT CIRCLE last toured, but told The Pulse of Radio he's ready to get his new band off the ground. "Yeah, I'm ready to launch this thing, and I'm looking forward to it, and in a way it feels like so long ago that I was on the road, 'cause it was, it was 2004, so I'm excited to get back out there and start doing it again," he said.

Howerdel sings and plays guitar, bass and keyboard on the album, which also features A PERFECT CIRCLE's Josh Freese on drums and A PERFECT CIRCLE and TOOL frontman Maynard James Keenan's 11-year-old son Devo on cello.

In addition to working on ASHES DIVIDE, Howerdel also contributed his programming skills to some recording sessions for "Chinese Democracy", the long-delayed and still unreleased new album from GUNS N' ROSES.

ASHES DIVIDE has yet to announce tour plans or a live lineup.

A PERFECT CIRCLE Guitarist Discusses ASHES DIVIDE Project; Video Available - Jan. 17, 2008

Matt Pinfield recently sat down with A PERFECT CIRCLE guitarist Billy Howerdel to discuss Billy's new ASHES DIVIDE project. Watch the interview below.

The first single from ASHES DIVIDE, called "The Stone", has hit the airwaves. The song is taken from the debut ASHES DIVIDE album, "Keep Telling Myself It's All Right", due out in March. Howerdel has been out of the public spotlight since A PERFECT CIRCLE last toured, but told The Pulse of Radio he's ready to get his new band off the ground. "Yeah, I'm ready to launch this thing, and I'm looking forward to it, and in a way it feels like so long ago that I was on the road, 'cause it was, it was 2004, so I'm excited to get back out there and start doing it again," he said.

Howerdel sings and plays guitar, bass and keyboard on the album, which also features A PERFECT CIRCLE's Josh Freese on drums and A PERFECT CIRCLE and TOOL frontman Maynard James Keenan's 11-year-old son Devo on cello.

In addition to working on ASHES DIVIDE, Howerdel also contributed his programming skills to some recording sessions for "Chinese Democracy", the long-delayed and still unreleased new album from GUNS N' ROSES.

ASHES DIVIDE has yet to announce tour plans or a live lineup.

YouTube Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAlDyGpYRVo

A Perfect Circle's Billy Howerdel Is 'Coming Out Of The Shadows Of Maynard' With Ashes Divide

New project features Josh Freese, Maynard James Keenan's 11-year-old son, Devo.
By Chris Harris

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 fantastical and abstract," he explained, adding that pinning down a music-video concept for the song "The Stone" is just one of a myriad of items currently on his to-do list. "Reading video treatments is like pounding your head with a hammer. It's tedious and laborious and confusing at times. It's like, 'So, I'm going to be wearing a red tutu, waving a machine gun from the top of the Eiffel Tower?' I don't think 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."

ASHES dIVIDE is the brainchild of guitarist and producer Billy Howerdel. Music fans know him as the founding member and producer of A Perfect Circle who featured Tool’s Maynard James Keenan on vocals as well as members of Smashing Pumpkins, Queens of the Stone Age and Marilyn Manson. Rather than simply rest on the multi- platinum success of that project, Howerdel decided it was time to start fresh, under the pseudonym ASHES dIVIDE, with a new collection of songs and collaborators.

The proficient musician played nearly every instrument on the upcoming album. The drums were masterly handled by his A Perfect Circle bandmate Josh Freese. Maynard James Keenan’s 11 year old son, Devo, added some gorgeous cello. With Howerdel providing such a rich and layered production style to the sessions, legendary engineer, Alan Moulder (My Bloody Valentine, NIN) was enlisted to mix the results. Fans of APC and bands like The Cure and Smashing Pumpkins will fall for the album’s alluring blend of rock bombast and dark atmospherics. The internet has been buzzing about the debut single “The Stone,” and rock and alternative radio has already added the song to their rotations. The album, Keep Telling Myself It’s All Right, will be released in March. In the meantime, Howerdel is putting a touring band together for a worldwide tour.

Howerdel produced and engineered the new album sessions in Los Angeles. Mixing took place underway in London by innovative Brit producer Alan Moulder. Moulder is known for his work with Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, My Bloody Valentine, as well as fellow Island band The Killers’ two albums.

New Jersey-born Billy Howerdel is a self taught musician who started out doing theatrical stage lighting. Took to the road as a guitar technician for many bands, among them David Bowie, Guns N' Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins and Tool. Although Howerdel and Keenan became friends years earlier while crossing paths on tour, it was not until the recording sessions for Tools 1996 album Ænima that the two planted the seeds which would later become A Perfect Circle circa 1999.

Not surprisingly for ASHES dIVIDE's debut album, Keep Telling Myself It's All Right Howerdel played just about every instrument used. There were a few exceptions, however. He enlisted the skin pounding talents of Josh Freese, whom he worked with on A Perfect Cirle. And since the spectre of Keenan can never be too far behind, Howerdel ended up snagging his 11 year old son Devo Keenan to play cello.

"The Stone" Rocks Radio - Debut Single By ASHES dIVIDE is Most-Added at Active Rock & Modern Rock For 2 Weeks

ASHES dIVIDE – NEW BAND FORMED BY BILLY HOWERDEL, MASTERMIND OF A PERFECT CIRCLE

“The Stone” – premiere single from Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright, debut album by ASHES dIVIDE, in stores April 8th on Island Records

(February 1, 2008 – New York, NY) “The Stone” debut single by ASHES dIVIDE achieves rock radio’s rarest double play, as it is named Most-Added at the Active Rock and Modern Rock formats for the second week in a row – and debuts inside the Top 40 at both formats: #24-bullet on the Active Rock side and #25-bullet at Modern Rock.

“The Stone” is the first single from Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright, the first album from ASHES dIVIDE, which arrives in stores April 8th on Island Records, a division of Island Def Jam Music Group. ASHES dIVIDE is the new band formed by lead guitarist, singer and songwriter Billy Howerdel – founder/producer of multi-platinum group A Perfect Circle, the band he led with Tool frontman Maynard Keenan through two platinum and one gold record.

“The Stone,” which went on-sale at iTunes this past week (January 29th), is on the receiving end of a big kick-off during Superbowl weekend (Feb. 2-3) on Jed the Fish’s “Out of Order Catch of the Week” show, syndicated to more than 25 modern rock stations, originating from KROQ in Los Angeles. On Monday night, April 14th, Billy Howerdel will be heard live on “Rockline” (with an interview, acoustic performance, and questions from callers), syndicated on 70 Modern and Active Rock stations, originating from KLOS in L.A. Back at KROQ on the album release date, April 8th, Billy will be heard live on “Lovelines” (with an interview and questions from callers), also syndicated on 70 Modern and Active Rock stations.

Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright, Howerdel’s long-awaited first solo project, has been the subject of countless blogs and chatter at his website (www.myspace.com/billyhowerdel) for a year and a half. In last week’s Entertainment Weekly, “Your Next Obsession” polled film and television music supervisors on upcoming album picks, and Dana Sand (of Steve Carell’s Dan In Real Life) commended ASHES dIVIDE: “So very dreamy rock with a ’90s feel.”

Howerdel produced and engineered the new album sessions in Los Angeles, playing guitar, bass, and keyboard parts. Longtime collaborator Danny Lohner (APC, Nine Inch Nails) helped out with the recording process, while drummer Josh Freese (APC), and Keenan’s son Devo appear on the album. Other contributors include Johnette Napolitano (Concrete Blonde), Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio), and Paz Lenchantin. Mixing took place in London by innovative Brit producer Alan Moulder, remotely monitored by Howerdel back in L.A. Moulder is known for his work with Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, My Bloody Valentine, and fellow Island band the Killers’ two albums.

New Jersey-born Billy Howerdel is a self taught musician who started out doing theatrical stage lighting. He took to the road as a guitar technician for many bands, among them David Bowie, Guns N’ Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, and Tool. Howerdel and Keenan became friends years earlier while crossing paths on tour. But it was not until the recording sessions for Tool’s 1996 album Ænima that the two planted the seeds which would become A Perfect Circle circa 1999.

APC released three groundbreaking and critically acclaimed albums on Virgin Records: their RIAA platinum debut, Mer de Noms (May 2000) which entered at #4 Soundscan with 188,000 copies and placed three songs on the Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts (“3 Libras,” “Judith,” and “The Hollow”); the platinum Thirteenth Step (September 2003) which debuted at #2 Sound­scan on 231,000 first week sales (with the #1 Rock track and video “Weak and Powerless,” followed by “The Outsider” and “Blue”); and the RIAA gold eMOTIVe (November 2004), an overtly political album released on Presidential election day, primarily cover versions of political material including John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks,” Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” Black Flag’s “Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie,” and more. Two weeks later, the CD + DVD package aMOTION was released, a collection of all their video clips on one disc, and nine remixes of songs on the other disc.

Billy Howerdel works from intuition, a modus operandi which has defined his career, guiding the move from his days in theatrical lighting around New York and New Jersey to his work as a guitar technician. Billy worked with a number of high profile rock bands, ultimately leading to his creative breakthrough as the songwriter/guitarist/producer for alt-rock giants, A Perfect Circle.

Going a step further, Billy’s uses his intuition to guide his own music. He does so without the aid of formal musical training. In fact, in a recent interview about his new project “ASHES dIVIDE, Billy stated, “To this day, I still don’t remember certain notes on the guitar neck.” He started playing guitar in high school, and picked up the technical aspects quickly, roughly in six months. He recalls getting to the point that he didn’t want to learn much more. That was the moment when he realized, “I had to stop thinking about patterns and scales, and work from emotion”. He states, “The best way I can describe it is that it was like opening your eyes and then blurring them out of focus, that’s how I approach music.”

The intuitive, unpredictable and yet immediately identifiable sound of Howerdel’s guitar work is at play in ASHES dIVIDE. This is his project – he’s the primary songwriter, musician, producer, and vocalist. It’s an album featuring a wide range of styles, moods, and thoughts, with echoes of early 80’s modern rock/Dark Wave mixed with shimmering guitars and heavy rock overtones. It’s both anthemic and subtle, an album that fans of The Cure to A Perfect Circle will certainly appreciate.

ASHES DIVIDE ON "THE STONE." Former Perfect Circle man Billy Howerdel has a new project called Ashes Divide. They recently shot a video for "The Stone" and Billy says it was not an easy clip to shoot. "It was painful to make I'll say that. It might not look it. I look back at it and I'm like, 'Wow what a wimp!' It looks ridiculously and crazy like videos do. There's a narrative there that was there in the beginning and I'm sure it's watered down and lost, but it's something there." "The Stone" is off the upcoming Ashes Divide debut album, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright. You can hear the track at MySpace.com/AshesDivide.