Billy Howerdel is nostalgic. Not in the “remember Tamagotchis?” way, but in the deep, existentially reflective, what-happened-to-our-souls kind of way. He’s made a career out of scoring the beauty in darkness—first as co-founder of A Perfect Circle, then as Ashes Divide. Now, with his solo record What Normal Was, he’s doing something even scarier: using his own name. Cue the fog machine.
“This record for me was like tapping into being a young teen listener,” Howerdel tells me. “That moment when your lane of music genre desires are defined.” For him, that meant seventh grade, a hormonal soup of Dead Kennedys, Pornography-era Cure, and, inexplicably, New Jersey wrestling practice. “If I showed up like that goth photo to actual wrestling practice,” he laughs, “I'd be gone. 1,500 push-ups while people spit on me.”
Howerdel says he made What Normal Was as a sort of musical time capsule, “sending a time machine back to show my young teen self a record that I was probably trying to find.” It’s not quite a concept album, but it is a conversation with ghosts—of adolescence, of FM radio, of the days when weird was mainstream. “I typically set out with two benchmark records,” he says. For Mer de Noms, it was OK Computer and Fiona Apple’s Tidal. For this one, it's The Cars’ first two albums and the B-52s. “Records you couldn’t turn up loud enough,” he grins.
The album’s title, What Normal Was, drips with loss. “It's that feeling of your first love in musical terms,” he says. “When music hits you and it’s yours.” It’s also a swipe at the modern music ecosystem, where getting noticed often means drinking ketchup on TikTok. “You either shoot heroin in your eyeball or chug a gallon of Heinz and then you’re a star,” he deadpans. “It’s just different vehicles now.”
And speaking of different vehicles, he’s been remixing too—Puscifer, Our Lady Peace, and yes, even A Perfect Circle. “I don’t know if it’s a remix or a reimagining,” he shrugs. “I just try not to make it suck.”
Despite the nostalgia-soaked concept, What Normal Was lands firmly in the now. “You’ll never find what you seek in these selfish hearts,” he sings on opener “Selfish Hearts.” There’s socio-political venom under the surface too—see “Bring Honor Back Home,” which skewers disinformation and mob mentality with a poet’s flair and a protestor’s fist. “They set blaze to the temple of reason,” he sings. No wonder Howerdel admits, “I’m not trying to be the old guy yelling at clouds… but I do think we had too much good music around.”
For all the shadow, though, Howerdel insists this is one of his happier records. “I mean, compared to A Perfect Circle record, which is kind of emotionally apocalyptic,” he laughs. “There’s some uplift here.”
So what’s next? More remixes? A cooking show? (Yes, really—“Put me in an industrial kitchen and I’ll cook you something,” he boasts.) Whatever it is, don’t expect Billy Howerdel to go quietly into that algorithm. He’s too busy making soup out of synths, heartbreak, and teen angst—and serving it at full volume.
Listen to the interview above and then check out the videos below.
