2017.11.20 - WRIF 101 Meltdown - Interview with Billy Howerdel

https://wrif.com/episodes/radio-chatter-perfect-circles-billy-howerdel/

Transcript of GN'R parts:

Interviewer: But now, it's a long time since the last Perfect Circle record and so much has changed. And I just hung out with Bumblefoot last last month and we're talking about the Chinese Democracy record and how long that took to put out and it's almost the same type of thing here, like so much has changed only in the world of our technology. Talk about the different things, maybe even yourself, personally, things have changed for you and all this time.

Billy Howerdel: I mean, I can kind of speak to that because the Chinese Democracy record I worked on for 2 1/2 years and they, you know, worked on that record for a long time. We've not been working on this record anywhere near that. So I'd say the concentrated effort of working on this song as a record has started in... we're coming up on a year right now. You know, we're probably approaching like 11 months of the time when I started this record with Maynard. Yeah, I mean a lot of times passed in between, but there's things that have happened. I've put out Ashes Divide, which is my solo project, Maynard has Puscifer, you know, he's also obviously has Tool, his winery, has scored, doing some film scoring. I've got, you know, family and you know things are all in between that so. But all those things, all those experiences kind of bring us to where we are as people and as musicians today. And it'll be a different musical conversation.

Interviewer: I forgot that you did do some stuff with that Chinese Democracy, which for me is one of the most underrated albums I've ever heard. It's one of my favorites. I love that record.

BH: Oh, cool. I don't know that I've heard it. I'm embarrassed to say I haven't heard the whole record yet.

I: So what were you actually working on with that?

BH: You'd call me a 'ProTools engineer' or 'tools engineer'. I came in to start making sounds for Robin Finck, who I knew from Nine Inch Nails. He called me and said, "I've," you know, "just got this offer to come down and play some guitar or get some sounds with with Guns N' Roses. They want interesting sounds. Can you help me program?" And that kind of turned into this 2 1/2 year gig with the band and, you know, I became close with Axl. And, you know, I felt connected and passionate about the project and wanted to see it through but it was just it was taking too much time for me, because I had an a window of opportunity with Perfect Circle that was just catching and, you know, I kind of resigned in September of '99 and then we just took off in APC world.

Excerpts from Blabbermouth:
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One little-known fact about guitarist Billy Howerdel is that before forming A Perfect Circle with Tool singer Maynard James Keenan in 2000, he spent a couple of years working on the Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy". Howerdel told Meltdown of the WRIF radio station what he contributed to the record. "I was… you'd call me 'Pro Tools engineer,' basically," he said. "I came in, to start, making sounds for Robin Finck, who I knew from Nine Inch Nails. He called me and said, 'I just got this offer to come down and play some guitar or get some sounds with Guns N' Roses. They want interesting sounds. Can you help me program?' And that kind of turned into this two-and-a-half-year gig with the band. And I became close with Axl and I felt connected and passionate about the project and wanted to see it through. But it was just… it was taking too much time for me, because I had a window of opportunity with A Perfect Circle that was just catching. And I kind of… I resigned in September of '99 and then we just took off in APC world."

https://blabbermouth.net/news/a-perfect-circle-guitarist-says-he-became-close-with-axl-rose-during-making-of-chinese-democracy

Did this.