Billy Howerdel

Infobox musical artist

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Name = Billy Howerdel
Img_capt = Howerdel playing the guitar for his band Ashes Divide.
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Background = solo_singer
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Born = birth date and age|1970|5|18
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Instrument = Vocals Guitar Bass Guitar Keyboards
Genre = Rock Hard rock Alternative rock
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Associated_acts = A Perfect Circle Ashes Divide
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Billy Howerdel (born May 18, 1970) is the founding member, guitarist, songwriter, and producer for the bands A Perfect Circle, and Ashes Divide. On April 8, 2008, Ashes Divide released their debut album, "Keep Telling Myself It's Alright", through Island Records. Howerdel handled nearly all the instruments in the studio for the release, sans the drums for which he recruited session-man Josh Freese.

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. [cite book |last= Summers |first= Jodi |title= Making and Marketing Music |publisher= Allworth Communications, Inc. |date= 2004 |page= 16 |isbn= 1581153872 ] Despite originally considering a female singer, Howerdel would eventually accept Keenan's offer. [cite web|title= ASHES dIVIDE official website @ IslandRecords.com — Home |publisher= Island Records |url=http://www.islandrecords.com/site/artist_bio.php?artist_id=680 |accessdate=2008-08-23] 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 "", 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.

Current work

Billy Howerdel is currently actively involved in his new solo project entitled Ashes Divide which is set to tour until October 6, 2008. [cite web |title= ASHES dIVIDE official website @ IslandRecords.com — Tour |publisher= IslandRecords.com |url= http://www.islandrecords.com/site/artist_tours.php?artist_id=680 |accessdate= 2008-08-28 ]

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.Fact|date=April 2008 He is also using Naked amps made by Dave Friedman of Rack Systems.

References

External links

* [http://www.myspace.com/ashesdivide Billy Howerdel's New Solo Project]
* [http://www.knac.com/article.asp?ArticleID=3151 KNAC.COM - Interview with Billy Howerdel]
* [http://www.billyhowerdel.com/ billyhowerdel.com - Official website of Billy Howerdel]
* [http://www.guitargeek.com/rigview/467/ guitargeek.com - Billy Howerdel`s stage rig]