CIRCLE(n)

Their debut album sold over 188,000 copies in the first week of release in the US alone. It went into the Billboard Top 200, making it the highest chart entry ever by a rock band's first album. They are professional, if not famous, musicians who have all received accolades for their previous work. They were asked to tour with music genius Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). They want to make music they believe in, that they like themselves. And instead of forcing it to the big crowd, they want an audience that chooses to listen to their music. They're a band from LA that might be the best new thing in music this year.

60°

the orbit of a celestial body

A Perfect Circle was formed in 1996 by guitarist, songwriter and producer Billy Howerdel. He initially started A Perfect Circle with the intent to make film soundtracks, with songs reaching up to a half hour in length. Then he decided that accompanying lyrics might add more to the music. He first insisted on having a female vocalist, but when Maynard James Keenan (Tool) heard the songs, he convinced Billy to have him as the singer.

Billy and Maynard met bass and violin player Paz Lenchantin through Adam Jones, Tool's guitarist. When the two of them went to one of Paz's shows, Billy and Paz became musically connected. Paz became part of A Perfect Circle.

"We became very good friends and his music really inspired me in so many different ways. He taught me things that I would never really explore before. I was kind of closed-minded in playing with a pick. He went: 'No, you have to, it's a different sound that is needed. ' He just taught me to explore, which was quite an inspiration and quite a challenge," explained Paz. "He opened my mind to the possibility of other things."

A Perfect Circle was completed and ready for live shows when drummer Josh Freese and guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen joined the band. Josh, from Guns 'n' Roses, was known as an excellent studio drummer. He's been on many recordings with different artists and played with Devo. "I'm always proud to show him off," said Billy about Josh.

Troy was the last physical member to join the band. He was playing with Failure when he met Billy. "He's just the greatest guitar player," said Billy. "I can ask him to play something that fits with what I've written and he just does it. He's so creative and such a great live player." Troy joined the band just in time to actually record two songs on the album ("Sleeping Beauty" and "Thinking of You").

120°

a balcony or tier of seats in a theater

When the band was finally complete, Billy decided that it was time to do live shows. The band didn't even have a name yet. They kept thinking of names, but didn't seem to find anything suitable until one night Billy thought of a line from one of the songs, "Orestes." He called Maynard and suggested A Perfect Circle. The symbolic meaning of the name fit right in with the ideas the band had. They played their first show at the Viper Room in LA while the songs weren't even completely finished. Maynard had to sing part of the songs from paper, but they wanted to make their mark.

"The response from the audience has been great," said Paz. "Right from the beginning, people were really enthusiastic. We're still a new band and it's amazing how people react. It still amazes me when I see people singing along. To see that people are really reacting to what we're doing. We give our heart when we play, and the audience sends that back to us."

A Perfect Circle tries to make music that's very personal. It's music that they, themselves, really want to make, without having other people telling them what they have to do. "We're very lucky that we can do that. Our record label is very supportive to us," said Paz. "We're just opening ourselves up and hopefully you will want to listen to it and if you don't, you'll move on. It's just music for people who would like to listen to it, without it being forced out."

A Perfect Circle has been touring for four months now. "We've been going on, no breaks, just touring. This is my first big tour like that," said Paz. The first part of the tour was opening up for Nine Inch Nails on their "Fragility v2.0" Tour.

"It was great touring with Nine Inch Nails," said Paz. "We're very different, but that's good. The audience responded really well. It's nice for them too, to have some variation. Not just always exactly the same. Nine Inch Nails' new album is great. It's very intense. In that way the bands are very similar." After the tour with Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle immediately went on to Australia and Europe, where they received great feedback as well.

"I'm a very fortunate musician to be touring around with my best friends. It's been a pleasure doing this incredible long tour with them," said Paz. "I think they are the only people I could spend every day with for so long. They all have great girlfriends, too. I really enjoy it when they come by, since I'm the only female in the band. I'm really happy to connect with them and to be able to talk about girl stuff for a while.

180°

area of action or influence

Being a classically trained musician, Paz is said to bring a lot of structure to the band. "I don't think that's really true. They're all amazing musicians and they all put a lot into this band. I don't think you can say that I bring more structure than anyone else does. I learn a lot from the others, too. Josh, for instance, is an amazing drummer. I have learned so much about playing bass from him."

Paz was born into an extremely musical family. Both her parents were concert pianists and her mom is a composer. "I was raised, musically, by my mom and my father who were both classical pianists. My mother is also an amazing composer. She's doing an event right now that's called Camerata Tango with my sister who is a cellist."

"My brother is a viola player," she continued, "who also played in '3 Libras' [a song on the album]. He and my sister have come down a few times to play '3 Libras' live, which is a great joy for me to be sharing it not only with my good friends, but with my family. This next California tour, Tango's string section -- as well as my brother -- are coming out to play on '3 Libras. ' I'm really looking forward to that. I choose to play music with people that I connect with. I play with people I have a passion for, because I'm so passionate about playing music. It definitely helps."

Before Paz joined A Perfect Circle, she was a piano teacher. "That wasn't my last job, though. After that I was a sound composer for the Sci-Fi Channel. I designed sounds with animations -- like making a frog croak, things like that. It was a lot of fun to do. I really enjoyed that."

Paz's first bass was actually an acoustic guitar. "I picked up a guitar and sat by my piano, playing notes and trying to make the guitar sound like the piano. I took two strings off, tuned it way down and started playing with that." She got her first bass from her first boyfriend. "He handed me my first bass when I was about 15. I was always fascinated by the bass. When I first heard Jane's Addiction -- Eric Avery -- he really turned me on to bass lines and a different approach of playing with notes. I think he was my big inspiration to play bass, although my inspiration mostly comes from guitar players. One of the things that I enjoy most is finding a recording of a guitar player, just him playing guitar or her playing guitar. Then I'll play bass to that and come up with things that I think would go with that. I always loved creating a bass line for the guitar player."

240°

a group of persons sharing a common interest or revolving about a common center

A Perfect Circle's first album, Mer de Noms, was recorded for the most part in Billy's garage. In there, A Perfect Circle could totally experiment with the sound they wanted. There were no boundaries set, no restrictions and no one looking over their shoulders. "We could do or try whatever we wanted to. So in that sense it was a relaxing environment," said Billy.

"It was pretty interesting recording in his garage. We had to keep stopping while planes went overhead. Not exactly the way I'm used to recording. It's amazing to me that the album sounds as good as anything I've ever heard, considering it was recorded in a stinky garage," added Maynard.

The album was actually written for the most part in different countries on the road. While Billy was the guitar tech for different bands -- such as Tools, Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins -- he wrote music too. "Songwriting for me comes pretty naturally, but it's also almost an obsession. It comes all the time. I have to have an outlet for my writing or I would go crazy," explained Billy.

The vocal writing that Maynard did was very different from how he usually works. "It was different because Billy had a lot of the music done already, so I came up with vocal melodies and words for what he had already written. I really enjoyed it. I was always thinking, 'What do I bring to the table to make this complete?'"

Many of the songs on the album are about the stages of forgiveness and healing. While some of those are pretty aggressive and direct, others seem really intimate and personal. A big part of the song titles are names (the album title means 'sea of names'). The names happen to have mythological meanings, but are also real people.

"The names change constantly for me," said Paz. "The actual names have meaning to the person [Maynard] who wrote them. I put different names in there. It keeps evolving and the names keep changing. I hope our fans can put their own names to the songs, too."

The band name, A Perfect Circle, also has more than one meaning. "It's the whole idea of a group of people that have come together and completed each other in some meaningful way," explained Maynard.

"The band is like family to me," said Paz. "It's A Perfect Circle in many different ways. With my family and the band. It all just matches perfectly."

300°

to describe or extend in a circle

Another mystery with A Perfect Circle is the text on the album. A big part of the texts on there are written in Nordic runes. There is no translation given on the album. "It has to do with people really wanting to hear what we say," explained Paz. "People will have to really listen and search for the true meanings. They have to keep trying and looking, before they'll find out what it's all about." The text on the vinyl is different from the CD. On the CD, only part of the lyrics are shown, but the credits and song titles are in normal, Latin, script. On the vinyl version, the lyrics are completely transcribed in runes. Even the song titles and names of band members are in runes on there. "Because of that, people can keep searching. They can find out a little more in different places. They have to keep looking and will be rewarded for it," continued Paz.

The translation of the Nordic Runes into the normal alphabet, and even the complete lyrics are available on several fan pages on the Internet by now. "I don't mind that, though," said Paz. "People still have to keep looking. Going back and forward, clicking, finding a new link, looking where it came from. They still have to do a lot of work to find out all those little secrets that are hidden. It'll still be fun when they do find out."

360°

to move or revolve around

While they're on the road, A Perfect Circle is already writing a lot of new material. "When we're done with this tour, Maynard has to work with Tool first -- finish their album -- but we've already got a couple of new songs. We'll have new material for our tour next year. We will be going on tour again then, but there won't be a new album yet," said Paz.

While they're on the road, they're also working on new singles. "3 Libras" is going to be the new single in the US, while a special project with "The Hollow" will be released in Britain.

"Since we all have different views on the music, Billy had all of us remix 'The Hollow' from our own view," said Paz. "All those different versions will be the single that we release in the UK. It won't be available in the US, at least not yet. Maybe we'll release it here later -- or it'll be available here as an import. We don't know yet. We've got to release '3 Libras' first."

In their explanation about their band, A Perfect Circle explains that they're not a side project or just a hobby band. They're serious musicians that want to give an outlet to many extraordinary musical ideas. Operating outside all the lines. Restricted by no boundaries, real or imagined. They say Mer de Noms is about all of us. But A Perfect Circle is not for everybody. They want people to really be interested in the music, but not forced in their direction. They want people to follow on their own, and they're succeeding. With amazing musicians, who really care about what they're doing and a sublime debut album, there's nothing that can stop A Perfect Circle from hitting it big, if they haven't done that already.

A Perfect Circle is appearing September 1 with Sunna at The Fillmore.