Perfect Paz
By Beth Winegarner

For some musicians, it might be difficult to stand out when you're in a band with Maynard James Keenan, the charismatic frontman for Tool. But while Keenan has been working the media alongside songwriter Billy Howerdel, pushing A Perfect Circle, a quiet storm has been building. Her name is Paz Lenchantin.

Bassist and violinist Lenchantin makes up a full 72 degrees of A Perfect Circle's 360 - - a geometry which includes Keenan on vocals, Howerdel on guitar and vocals, Troy Van Leeuwen (ex-Failure, Enemy) on guitar and John Freese (Vandals, Guns N' Roses) on drums. Although Howerdel began creating music for the band more than five years ago while working as a guitar tech for Tool, Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumpkins, the group released its debut, "Mer de Noms," in May of this year and has been sailing the seas of success ever since.

Lenchantin was born in Argentina; both of her parents were professional concert pianists. Her siblings, a brother and sister, play a variety of stringed instruments. "We were raised classically," Lenchantin recalls. "We came to the States when was I six, but we weren't really allowed to listen to anything but classical, which is crazy when there's so much amazing stuff out there."

She began learning to play the piano at the age of five. "I would watch my parents all the time, and was dying to play like they played. My mom put my hands over her hands, so I could see what it felt like," she says. By age eight Lenchantin was also playing violin, and by 12 she'd started experimenting with guitar.

"Hearing Jane's Addiction for the first time, I fell in love with the bass line. [Jane's Addiction bassist] Eric Avery inspired me to play bass," Lenchantin explains. She removed the top two strings from her guitar to fashion a makeshift bass, and bought her first real bass guitar when she was 15.

Her new passion was something she hid from her parents for fear they might reject her musical choices. "I remember that day I decided to walk down and look [my mom] in the eyes and tell her that I really, really wanted to do this. My heart was pounding," she says. "They spent all this time and money and energy into making me this classical prodigy and I'm just going take this other road. I understood it could be difficult to hear."

Fortunately, Lenchantin's parents were supportive. "They learned a lot from that experience," she says with a laugh. She practiced constantly and made the difficult decision to forego classical music while she built her rock and roll chops. "I didn't take any lessons. I learned just by watching amazing people. I'm fortunate to constantly be around the greatest musicians and just watching, watching, watching."

Meanwhile, she studied method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Los Angeles, even though she didn't have any aspirations to become a professional actor. The intensely psychological approach to drama has been used by actors as diverse as Robert DeNiro and Terri Garr, but Lenchantin says it doesn't have to be restricted to the stage.

"I wasn't interested in being an actress, but it's an amazing study and you can apply it to anything you do, whether you're a writer, a musician, a director, anything. I learned a lot from it," she says.

Lenchantin soon began to play in rock bands. In one of those, called Cherry Llama, she sang and played guitar, bass and piano; most recently, she played bass in the Martinis with Joe Santiago, formerly of the Pixies. She continued to broaden her inspirational base, drawing from Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante, Jimi Hendrix, and Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck.

It was by way of another guitarist that she met Howerdel and eventually joined forces with him in A Perfect Circle. "I met [Tool guitarist] Adam Jones about four years ago, and Billy was his guitar tech at the time. I met Maynard through him as well," she says. They saw her perform with a banned called Sony Panic and asked her to join A Perfect Circle. "Ever since then we've been playing and becoming better friends every day."

Although Howerdel had already developed many of the musical ideas that became the songs on "Mer de Noms," Lenchantin said the process of writing the album -- for which she composed and played string arrangements as well as playing bass -- was truly a group effort.

"We were all very creative in the band. Not one person is ostracized at all. The energy is really strong. It's Billy's music; he comes in and says I've got this song' and then we work in making it a band. I think that's what makes it really strong," Lenchantin says, adding that the creative impetus is born from how close the five bandmates are. "Playing with your friends is wordless. Music is wordless, but doing it with friends is undescribable."

"Mer de Noms" was released in May, and was met with glowing critical reviews. Although some naysayers dismissed A Perfect Circle as a "side project" for Keenan and accused APC of sounding too much like Tool, much of the media pounced on the band's accessible mix of hard rock and alternative sounds. APC was heralded as the band which could bring rock and roll back to life, and lauded for its willingness to blend crunching guitar rock with gentler elements like strings.

"I had to say goodbye to classical for a while," Lenchantin says. "It's not until now that I am inspired to listen to it more and play it more. Classical is classical, rock is rock. When you combine them, [the music] will become another form of its own."

Lenchantin's gear includes a Fender Precision Deluxe bass, a Mesa Boogie 400 plus head, an Ampeg bass cabinet and a Lexicon pedalboard. Her violin is a Zeta Educator Modern Violin, which she plays with a Zeta Classic CodaBow.

Howerdel's history with Nine Inch Nails helped A Perfect Circle land an opening slot on NIN's "Fragility" tour this spring, and by summer the band was headlining its own tour of Europe, Australia, and Japan. Being on the road has been an educational experience, Lenchantin says. "Every day I'm learning so much. I'm fortunate to be here right now. I get a little homesick once in a while. And the fans -- they're beautiful, they're very supportive."

Touring with someone as well-known as Keenan can be a unique experience, but Lenchantin doesn't associate the singer with his fame. "I don't view him as a famous person, I view him as a talented person. The outcome in what he does is a separate issue. He is a musician and a part of this is just like everyone else," she says.

When she's not playing music, Lenchantin likes to indulge other aspects of her creativity, mainly through writing and painting. "The thing about [those things] that I love so much is it's not my profession, so I don't feel obligated to be good. I don't know any rules or anything, so it's free and so without judgment. Whereas when I'm writing music I become more critical. But that's great as well, to be so meticulous and detailed in making it perfect," she says.

In addition, she's a book addict -- "I usually read like four different books at a time, depending on what I feel like going to bed to," she says. She recently finished "Letters to a Young Poet" by Ranier Maria Rilke and "The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream" by Paulo Coelho.

Although success has been sweet so far, Lenchantin says she never planned for things to work out so well. "I try not to expect anything," she says, "but I hope when you give good energy, good energy will come back."

This article was originally published in ROCKRGRL.