It is the band’s first piece of new material since 2018
A Perfect Circle are back with a brand new song “Starless.” The first track from Billy Howerdel and Maynard James Keenan since 2018’s Eat the Elephant signals a new dawn for the band, arriving days before they launch their first European/UK tour in eight years. Stream the official visualizer below.
“Absolutely chuffed to debut this new track on stage in the U.K.,” Keenan shares. “Of course I’m excited to release the recordings but our songs always take on an expanded personality once we start playing them live.”
Unmistakably A Perfect Circle, “Starless” moves between muscular, guitar-driven intensity and delicate, intricate passages, with the precision that has long defined the band’s work.
Recorded at Howerdel’s Lankershim Ranch Studio in Studio City, California, “Starless” was written earlier this year, produced by Howerdel and mixed by Matty Green (U2, Florence + the Machine, TV on the Radio) and features longtime collaborator Josh Freese on drums.
“Some songs get kicked around and massaged for years,” Howerdel says. “But once in a while, one takes shape quickly, as if it had been there all along.”
On March 29, 2024, A Perfect Circle released the Sessanta E.P.P.P. alongside Puscifer and Primus. Released through Puscifer Entertainment, the three-song EP featured one new song from each of the bands, with all three tracks co-written by Maynard.
Last year, A Perfect Circle celebrated the 25th anniversary of their seminal debut album Mer de Noms (“Sea of Names”). The record arrived on May 23, 2000, as a fully formed aesthetic from guitarist-producer Billy Howerdel and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Written largely from Howerdel’s stockpile of meticulously arranged demos and elevated by Keenan’s melodic, brooding vocal lines, the record was tracked across three Los Angeles–area studios—The Chop Shop (Hollywood), Sound City (Van Nuys), and Extasy (North Hollywood).
Howerdel produced, engineered, and handled much of the instrumentation himself; Alan Moulder assisted on mixing, bringing the gloss and punch that let the album’s dynamics breathe. The lineup captured on the record features Josh Freese on drums (with Primus’s Tim Alexander appearing on the studio version of opener “The Hollow”), Paz Lenchantin on bass and violin, and Troy Van Leeuwen adding lead-guitar color on select tracks—an ensemble that translated Howerdel’s layered arrangements into something both heavy and textural. The material’s recurring first-name song titles (“Judith,” “Breña,” “Thomas,” “Orestes”) underscore the album’s intimate, character-driven perspective.
Commercially, Mer de Noms made an emphatic entrance. It debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200—the highest-charting debut ever for a rock band’s first album—on first-week sales exceeding 188,000 copies. The album remained on the chart for 51 consecutive weeks and earned RIAA platinum certification later that year (Oct. 31, 2000). Internationally, it landed at No. 2 in both Australia and New Zealand and hit No. 5 in Canada, extending the project’s impact well beyond U.S. rock radio.
The singles campaign balanced visceral and vulnerable. Lead single “Judith”—a blast of serrated guitars and tightly coiled drums—rose to No. 4 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock and No. 5 on Alternative Airplay, while also brushing the pop sphere at No. 5 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100. Follow-up “3 Libras,” with its acoustic guitar and violin filigree, peaked at No. 12 on both Alternative Airplay and Mainstream Rock. Third single “The Hollow” returned to a taut, metallic groove, reaching No. 17 on Alternative Airplay and No. 14 on Mainstream Rock. Together, the three tracks established A Perfect Circle as rare crossover auteurs who could move from combustible riffing to chamber-rock delicacy without losing momentum.
A Perfect Circle released their acclaimed fourth album Eat the Elephant in 2018. It marked the band’s first release since 2004’s eMOTIVe. Featuring the hit lead single, “The Doomed,” the record peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and topped Billboard’s Rock and Alternative charts.