A Perfect Circle, with new music on the way, to rock Cleveland

Rock act A Perfect Circle back together for tour and, eventually, new album

Since the turn of the century, the orbits of A Perfect Circle band members — Billy Howerdel (Ashes Divide), Maynard James Keenan (Tool, Puscifer), James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), Jeff Friedl (The Beta Machine, Devo) and Matt McJunkins (Eagles of Death Metal, The Beta Machine) — have their own gravitational pulls that have taken them away from the platinum-selling group and created long hiatuses with various start-stop periods. ¶ The good news for fans of the alternative-rock act is the group earlier this year started playing out, which means Keenan has found time to return to one of his many side projects. On the other side of that coin is former Tool guitar tech Howerdel, who you get the sense would prefer to keep a more regular schedule.

“We’ve had some false starts,” said Howerdel, calling from Washington, D.C. “I can say I thought it would have happened some years earlier. Maynard’s been doing other things.

“They’ve been trying to make a Tool record for a long time, and he’s got Puscifer. Also, he’s concentrating on his winery. So I’ve been kind of patiently waiting for the moment that makes sense, and here it is.”

Less guitar-heavy than Tool, A Perfect Circle arrived in 2000 with its debut, “Mer de Noms,” which was followed by 2003’s “Thirteenth Step.” The album featured the band’s biggest single to date, “Weak and Powerless.”

The group then quickly put out its third release, “eMOTIVe,” in 2004. The album’s wide-ranging collection of covers included John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and Devo’s “Freedom of Choice.”

Quiet for the majority of the next decade, A Perfect Circle reformed with a retooled lineup in 2010, playing tours and releasing a couple of new songs. Now, after such a long wait, the group plans on finally releasing its next full-length original album in 2018. The project features recently released new song “The Doomed.”

For a hint of where A Perfect Circle has gone stylistically with the new project, Howerdel said 2012 one-off single “By and Down” seemingly set the course for the band’s current sound, which defines new songs “Hourglass,” “Feathers” and “The Doomed,” which are being played on tour.

“I don’t know (if) we’re rewriting the formula for A Perfect Circle, but we’re certainly trying to spread our wings a little bit,” Howerdel said.

“There are some songs on the record that I say are a little more of an overture.

“Whereas on ‘Mer de Noms’ I can point to ‘Orestes’ for a sense of who we are, there’s a new song — we don’t have a finished title — on the record that does the same. And some of my favorite A Perfect Circle stuff we’ve ever done is coming out with certainly some of the best — if not the best — Maynard vocals that I ever heard. I’m looking forward to sharing.”

Fans can get a taste of the new tunes when A Perfect Circle returns to Northeast Ohio for a show Nov. 18 at the Wolstein Center. The only question remaining is if it will take another dozen years after the release of the new album for the group to put out more material.

“You know, we’ve talked about some plans, but I don’t know, we’ll see,” Howerdel said. “I would certainly hope not.”

“I don’t know (if) we’re rewriting the formula for A Perfect Circle, but we’re certainly trying to spread our wings a little bit.” — Billy Howerdel, A Perfect member

SUBMITTED Expect a long-awaited new album from A Perfect Circle in 2018.