Maynard James Keenan photo credit: Lauryn Schaffner for AlternativeNation.net
Maynard James Keenan’s A Perfect Circle bandmate Billy Howerdel discussed Alice In Chains’ Dirt in a new Music Radar interview.
“This is another big, ballsy rock record. I think they may have been the catalyst for me tuning my guitar down to C# – I was trying to figure out their some of their songs, ended up liking how it sounded and I’ve been there ever since… stuck in this C# tuning!
“Dirt was perfect, every song on that record raised the bar for me, as an artist or musician. Looking at the energy they had, I really do think Mer De Noms was my best effort to get back to the feeling I had when I heard Dirt for the first time. It had heaviness but intimacy to it as well. Jerry Cantrell is amazing… he was and still is.”
He also discussed The Cult’s Sonic Temple.
“Love was such a massive record. I thought it was so cool when I first heard it because the music bridged that gap between my love for harder-edged music with post-punk stuff.
“But I think Sonic Temple would be the one from a strictly guitar hero standpoint, because Billy Duffy is exactly that: a hero. This record is confident, big, boisterous and braggy, in a very cool way. That’s what I love about it.”
A Perfect Circle are currently on tour promoting their new album Eat the Elephant. Maynard James Keenan will release a new album with Tool in 2019.
