Matt McJunkins | |
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Background information | |
Born | March 19, 1983 |
Genres | Alternative rock |
Occupation(s) | Musician, photographer |
Instrument(s) | Bass guitar, keyboards, guitar, vocals |
Years active | 2005–present |
Matt McJunkins (born March 19, 1983) is an American musician and photographer best known for touring and recording with the American rock band A Perfect Circle. He is a former touring bassist for Eagles of Death Metal. He is one of the founding members of The Beta Machine, a rock band formed with Jeff Friedl. McJunkins has also worked with Thirty Seconds to Mars, Ashes Divide, Puscifer, Poppy and Socadia. [1]
Matt McJunkins was raised in Palm Springs, California, where he started playing bass guitar at the age of 13. After high school, McJunkins moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career. He attended the Musicians Institute and honed in on his craft while writing music and playing in several rock bands. [2]
In 2008, Billy Howerdel from A Perfect Circle asked McJunkins to join his side project Ashes Divide, with Jeff Friedl, Andy Gerold and Adam Monroe completing the line-up. [3] [4] The band toured extensively in support of their debut album Keep Telling Myself It's Alright (2008), opening concerts for Seether, Stone Temple Pilots, and Filter, and also performed at the Projekt Revolution festival. McJunkins later toured with Puscifer, sharing bass guitar with Rani Sharone. [2] [5]
In September 2010, A Perfect Circle announced that they would reform and McJunkins was asked to join on bass alongside co-founders Billy Howerdel and Maynard James Keenan with Jeff Friedl and James Iha. [6] In the following years, McJunkins formed The Beta Machine with Jeff Friedl and toured with Thirty Seconds to Mars in 2011. [7] In January 2020, he announced he was touring with singer Poppy in support of her album I Disagree . [8]
McJunkins was on stage with Eagles of Death Metal during the November 2015 Paris attacks, and escaped the Bataclan with the rest of the band. He managed to make it out of the venue.
A Perfect Circle is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan. A Perfect Circle released three of their four studio albums in the early 2000s: their debut Mer de Noms in 2000, a follow-up, Thirteenth Step in 2003; and an album of radically re-worked cover songs, Emotive, in 2004. Shortly after Emotive's release, the band went on hiatus; Keenan returned to Tool and started up solo work under the band name Puscifer, while Howerdel released a solo album, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright, under the moniker Ashes Divide. Band activity was sporadic in the following years; the band reformed in 2010, and played live shows on and off between 2010 and 2013, but fell into inactivity after the release of their greatest hits album, Three Sixty, and a live album box set, A Perfect Circle Live: Featuring Stone and Echo in late 2013. The band reformed in 2017 to record a fourth album, Eat the Elephant, which was released in 2018.
William L. Howerdel is an American musician, best known as a founding member, guitarist, backing vocalist, songwriter, and producer for the band A Perfect Circle, as well as for his former solo project, Ashes Divide. Howerdel has recorded six studio albums across his career: four with A Perfect Circle, one under the moniker Ashes Divide, and one under his own name.
Maynard James Keenan is an American singer, songwriter, philanthropist, record producer, and winemaker. He is best known as the singer and primary lyricist of the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer.
Paz Lenchantin is an Argentine-American musician, best known as the current bass guitarist and backing vocalist of the alternative rock band Pixies. Lenchantin joined the band in 2014, following the departure of founding member Kim Deal, and has recorded three studio albums with the band to date.
Daniel Patrick Lohner, frequently known as Renholdër, is an American musician and record producer best known for his work with Nine Inch Nails and A Perfect Circle. In 2020, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Nine Inch Nails.
Puscifer is an American rock group formed in Los Angeles by Maynard James Keenan, known as the lead singer of the bands Tool and A Perfect Circle. Initially, Keenan was the only permanent member, and as such he considered the project to be his "creative subconscious". Later, frequent collaborators Mat Mitchell and Carina Round became permanent members.
Keep Telling Myself It's Alright is the debut studio album by American rock band Ashes Divide, the solo-project by A Perfect Circle guitarist Billy Howerdel. While efforts towards a Howerdel solo album were started even back in his time in A Perfect Circle during touring in support of their 2003 album Thirteenth Step, commitments to A Perfect Circle and other projects, along with some difficult recording sessions, pushed the album's US release out to April 8, 2008. It was released in Australia on April 19. Its first single, "The Stone", entered radio circulation in January of that year.
Andy Gerold is a professional multi-instrumentalist and is best known as a former bassist of Marilyn Manson. Currently playing guitar for "Rock of Ages" at The Crown Theater, located in The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Conditions of My Parole is the second studio album by Puscifer. The album was produced by Maynard James Keenan, Mat Mitchell and Josh Eustis. Contributing musicians for the album include the aforementioned Keenan, Mitchell, and Eustis as well as Carina Round, Juliette Commagere, Matt McJunkins, Jeff Friedl, Gil Sharone and Rani Sharone, Jonny Polonsky, Tim Alexander, Devo Keenan, Alessandro Cortini, Tanya O'Callaghan, Sarah Jones, and Jon Theodore. The video for "Conditions of My Parole" featured Maynard and Laura Milligan from Mr. Show as their characters Billy D. and Hildy Berger, who also appear in character on the album cover.
Donkey Punch the Night is the third EP by American alternative rock act Puscifer. It was released on February 19, 2013, via Puscifer Entertainment.
"By and Down" is a single by alternative rock band A Perfect Circle in 2013. The track represented the first studio material from the band in almost a decade's time. The studio version appears on the band's greatest hits album, Three Sixty, while a live version appears on their live box-set A Perfect Circle Live: Featuring Stone and Echo, both released in 2013. The song peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. An alternate version of the song, titled "By and Down the River", was later released on the band's fourth studio album, Eat the Elephant.
A Perfect Circle Live: Featuring Stone and Echo is a live box set by American rock supergroup, A Perfect Circle. It was released via the band's own label, A Perfect Circle Entertainment, on November 26, 2013, a week after the release of the band's greatest hits album, Three Sixty.
Three Sixty is a greatest hits compilation released by American rock band A Perfect Circle on November 19, 2013. The set compiles songs from previous albums by the band and includes one new song, "By and Down". The album was also released in a deluxe edition which includes additional studio songs from the band's back catalog and live tracks from 2011 featured on the limited edition box set A Perfect Circle Live: Featuring Stone and Echo.
Eat the Elephant is the fourth studio album by American rock band A Perfect Circle. It is their first album release in fourteen years since 2004's Emotive. While early work on new material traces back to as early as 2008, years of slow progress would ensue due to conflict between the band's chief music writers, frontman Maynard James Keenan and guitarist Billy Howerdel, largely stemming from their commitments to other projects and inability to come to an agreement on the direction to take the band. Renewed focus, alongside assistance from music producer Dave Sardy, helped propel the band into much more productive sessions across 2017, with the album being completed in early 2018. Thematically, the album covers a variety of Keenan's views on modern societal, religious, and political issues, focusing on his perceived lack of accountability in humanity. Musically, the album was viewed as an extension and maturation of their rock sound, adding more piano and electronic elements into songs for a more mellow sound than prior albums.
Jeff Friedl is an American drummer as well as a co-founder of The Beta Machine, currently based in Los Angeles, California. Friedl has recorded, performed, and toured with musical acts such as Ashes Divide, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, Devo, Filter, Eagles of Death Metal and Carina Round.
"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" is a song by American rock band A Perfect Circle. It was released on April 15, 2018, as their fourth single off their album Eat the Elephant. The song's title is taken from the Douglas Adams book So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, the fourth book in his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, which in turn comes from a quote from the first book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
"The Contrarian" is a song by American rock band A Perfect Circle. It is off of the band's fourth studio album, Eat the Elephant.
"Poison Flowers" is a song by American rock musician Billy Howerdel. It is the debut single from his solo album What Normal Was. The song is the first new solo music from Howerdel's since Keep Telling Myself Its Alright, released under the moniker Ashes Divide, in 2008.
What Normal Was is a solo studio album by Billy Howerdel, guitarist of A Perfect Circle. The album is his first to be directly released under his own name, and his second solo album overall, after releasing his prior album, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright (2008), under the pseudonym Ashes Divide 14 years prior.