Emerging Artist:

ASHES dIVIDE

Published April 2, 2008

Billy Howerdel is perhaps best known for his work with alt-rock giants A Perfect Circle, but his new project, ASHES dIVIDE, is sure to garner critical attention and a popular fan base. On his new release, Billy is the primary songwriter, musician, producer, and vocalist. His dark and chewy guitar work mixed with a bit of early 80s-style modern rock will have instant appeal to a broad range of fans.

Billy Howerdel has something to say.

Billy works on intuition and emotion, an inspiration he discovered after learning as much of the technical aspect as he felt necessary. "I had to stop thinking about patterns and scales, and work from emotion. 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 music is certainly personally felt, and Howerdel's growth as an artist is reflected in the growth of his work. "It's funny, I didn't want to tinker too much," he says. "Sometimes I'd get something in three takes and keep it. Other times, in the spirit of moving forward, I'd try to record something that I wouldn't normally do. It was a good exercise, making me break away from patterns, and do something uncomfortable."

The cover of the new ASHES dIVIDE CD.

The new release, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright, will be in stores April 8. And in the spring, ASHES dIVIDE will go on the road with a fresh lineup to explore the songs and take new directions. "I want to find out where these songs are going. It's funny, for this project, I was everything from the writer to the janitor, and whatever comes in-between. It's a weird concept, for a control freak like me, to finally be able to let these songs go and let them live."