'An Ever-Evolving Ball Of Chaos': Puscifer May Have Struggled With Identity, But 'Normal Isn't' Their Vibe

As Puscifer prepare to touch down on Australian shores with A Perfect Circle, longtime members Mat Mitchell and Carina Round reflect on identity, live antics, and new album 'Normal Isn't'.

Puscifer Profile

For as long as Puscifer has existed, the group has operated in a bizarre manner, not content with adhering to the norms of standard industry practices or even identity.

Those who were paying attention back in late 1995 would have first gotten wind of the band's name when Tool's Maynard James Keenan and Adam Jones appeared on the revelatory sketch comedy series Mr. Show, presenting as members of this then-fictitious band.

In fact, it wouldn't be until 2003 that Puscifer were actually brought into existence, when the band would debut with a song on the soundtrack to Underworld with Maynard collaborating with former A Perfect Circle bandmate Danny Lohner.

Though – for all intents and purposes – a solo project of Keenan, the project would soon begin to evolve in the studio.

2007's debut album, the stellar "V" Is For Vagina, featured Mat Mitchell as a studio member, and by 2009, things had expanded further, welcoming Carina Round into the fold for the live debut of Puscifer.

Since then, the touring membership of Puscifer has ebbed and flowed (having included members of bands such as Primus, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Telefon Tel Aviv, Failure, Ministry, and more), though Keenan, Mitchell, and Round have continuously served as the core trio at the heart of Puscifer.

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Together, they've overseen a number of albums, including 2011's Conditions Of My Parole, 2015's Money Shot, and 2020's Existential Reckoning.

Though EPs, remix records, and live albums have been a constant presence in the band's discography, this year ended a six-year gap between studio releases when Normal Isn't arrived in February.

To put it simply, why did we have to wait so long?

"Well Maynard has two other bands, and people are waiting, champing at the bit to hear those records too," Mitchell tells The Music via Zoom.

Indeed, since the release of Existential Reckoning, Tool have been hard at work touring (most recently visiting Australia for Good Things in December 2025), and so too have A Perfect Circle found themselves reactivated – with plans to touch down on Aussie shores once more next month.

Recently, A Perfect Circle's Billy Howerdel told The Music that the end of the band's latest hiatus came about in April of 2024 when Keenan's 60th birthday saw him put on a touring celebration.

Dubbed Sessanta (for those playing at home, that’s Italian for ‘sixty’), the tour also featured Puscifer and Primus (with the bands also collaborating on a three-song EP), and ultimately helped kickstart the latest era of A Perfect Circle.

"That was a year-and-a-half that was dedicated to the birthday celebration tour," Mitchell recalls. "Then when we started getting close to being done with the record, it's when the label gets involved and is trying to set up all the backend side of things."

"I feel like the actual making of the record from the moment of like, 'We're going to put out a record,' was the shortest [yet]," adds Round.

"It was the quickest," agrees Mitchell. "Usually we release a record, we tour for a year or two years, and then inevitably he'll have to do something else. But the Sessanta thing definitely added a year-and-a-half to the space between records."

However, the necessity to head out on the road to celebrate Keenan's birthday wasn't necessarily a major blow to the consistency of Puscifer's output.

After all, with so much time together, and little to do except play shows and write music, they tended to focus on the latter. "We just kind of took advantage of it," Mitchell notes.

Much like his other bands, Keenan's role as vocalist often sees the spotlight shone upon him more than his bandmates.

For Puscifer, few would disagree that it effectively began as 'Maynard's band', but equally, most would be reluctant to overlook the contributions of Mitchell and Round as members of the group.

In fact, the impetus for any record is the input of each individual member's musical contributions.

"The beginnings are usually us working individually, putting songs into a folder, and then reacting to each other's ideas," Mitchell explains. "Then we find the ones that excite us, and then those get more developed.

"That's when we start doing FaceTime, being in the same room with each other working on ideas."

Keenan's other passion – aside from music – is wine, thus when Mitchell and Round find themselves on-ground with him, it's usually while he's at his vineyard in Arizona.

"July through September, when Maynard's got a chain around his ankle because he's in harvest, that's a good opportunity for us to get his attention and work on music," Mitchell says. "That is kind of like clockwork.

"From the beginning we've always kind of worked on songs when we're on the road. We're not afraid to just have a little mobile rig that we carry with us and work in hotels or days off in studios. We've done that since the beginning, so that's kind of how we've always written.

"It's not ever really been like a normal band where you just get together and say, 'So I have this idea. Let's write a song in the room together,'" Round adds. "We're just our own little islands, really."

Indeed, Puscifer might not be a 'normal' band in the traditional sense, but it goes without saying they'd be an entirely different band if they attempted to alter the formula.

Likewise, Puscifer itself was an entirely different project in those early days, with both Mitchell and Round being well-positioned to see the growth and evolution of the project as it has gone from being a somewhat formless entity, to establishing a personality that fans have come to know and love.

"I think the first record was the most difficult, just because we didn't have any way to know what Puscifer was," remembers Mitchell.

In October 2007, Puscifer's debut commercial release emerged by way of the tongue-in-cheek Cuntry Boner single, which sees Maynard comically listing all the country icons he had allegedly fornicated with.

A week later, the Don't Shoot The Messenger EP arrived, with mixes of the songs Trekka, Rev 22:20, and The Undertaker undoubtedly serving as a sonic and lyrical shift to what had arrived days earlier.

At the end of the same month, "V" Is For Vagina arrived, with this truly remarkable debut collecting tracks which traversed the comical with the serious, blending trip hop and indie with just about every genre possible.

It's understandable that the very identity of the group was put into question, with a 2013 live album fittingly dubbed What Is….

"That was part of the joke; 'What is Puscifer?'" Mitchell continues. "That [first] record was probably more challenging just because we didn't know what we were doing, and there wasn't a voice of what Puscifer was.

"There wasn't any sort of consistency with people who played in it, on the songs, and we went along for the ride," he adds. "It really wasn't until the first EP that it started to kinda develop as what this collection of people sounds like."

"I think it's just like an ever-evolving ball of chaos, really," Round adds succinctly.

By their own admission, it was likely around the release of 2015's Money Shot that Puscifer appeared to have finally found more of an identity as to what it was exactly.

Sure, another decade of evolution would follow, and genre excursions aren't exactly off the table, but the records released since have undeniably felt somewhat more consistent in terms of the sound presented.

It was just a couple of years before that record that Puscifer made their live debut on Australian shores.

While Maynard had been booked to bring A Perfect Circle to Australia for the first time in almost a decade for the 2013 edition of the now-defunct Soundwave festival, he also used that opportunity to give Puscifer their Australian debut.

Alongside a handful of headline dates around the country, Maynard pulled double duty at the Sydney and Adelaide legs of the festival, bringing the group's unique live show to a somewhat virginal crowd.

For those who are yet to witness Puscifer live, there's no easy way to describe it. A dazzling mix of music and theatre, blended with comedic elements and an almost surreal lean, it's an experience that needs to be seen to be believed.

In regard to those who might have come in blind back at the Soundwave festival, Mitchell admits that the element of dazzling the newcomers is all part of the process.

"It was definitely more of a challenge early on because the fans didn't know what to expect," he explains.

"Also, it was just absolute chaos at first," offers Round. "It was like three completely different shows, one of which was a country show. It was made to confuse."

"You would see people that were clearly there to see a different band, and their arms are crossed and they're like, 'This isn't the thing I want to see'," remembers Mitchell.

"They'd just get up and leave," adds Round.

"I think that we've weeded those people out, and now the people that come are a little more open-minded and a little more up for anything," Mitchell notes. "What we hear a lot is, 'What did I just experience?'"

Part of the notion behind the live show is to expect the unexpected. Even the live recordings don't do justice to the visual aspect of the experience.

After all, as this writer can attest to after seeing the band twice back in 2013, no live record will ever throw a bag of airline peanuts at you.

"I think it's not until after people leave that they process what happened," Round muses. "It's not like we're doing anything crazy, but it's just very different.

"And also, there's no phones allowed in the show. So if you're seen with a phone, you'll be escorted out of the building. So it's like an intense experience of being totally present with whatever is happening, which people just haven't experienced for the last 20 years."

Like many of his contemporaries, Maynard is known for his disdain towards phones at gigs.

While Tool have long employed an approach in which fans are asked not to utilise their phones throughout a show before that ban is lifted for their final song, ejections for those found filming or taking pictures at an A Perfect Circle gig were threatened and occasionally acted upon.

Though Billy Howerdel recently told The Music that it's ultimately about experiencing the live show, one might not want to try pulling their phones out at any of their upcoming live shows.

"I've heard of more and more artists doing it," Mitchell notes. "It seems like we get a lot less pushback these days than we used to. It used to be that it was like taking someone's child away from them."

"It takes away from the experience so much," Round adds. "And just not having that as an option, all of a sudden you're not absolutely desperate to capture anything in case you miss it.

"You're just there, present in the moment. And it just makes a much more intense and connected experience."

Next month, A Perfect Circle will be returning to Australian shores for the first time since those Soundwave dates back in 2013. Joining them for the ride will be Puscifer, who will be visiting for the first time since 2017.

While Mitchell and Round chuckle over the notion it must have been a rather easy line-up for them to get on, they agree that it can occasionally be a strange pairing, especially given the more traditional rock show that A Perfect Circle provides, and the chaotic, occasionally tongue-in-cheek presentation that Puscifer offers.

However, there's an understandable crossover between the two acts, and one which provides vastly different audiences for each to perform to at times.

"After all of these years, there's a huge crossover," Round admits, "and there's generally just less of a vindictive feeling from fans of Maynard's other bands toward Puscifer for taking time and effort. I think there really is just this feeling of love."

"Also the challenge of playing to the people that don't necessarily know who you are, it's fun," Mitchell adds. "Well, playing to either the haters or just the people [for whom] you've haven't been on their radar – I like that challenge.

"It was like that with Sessanta where we're playing to Primus and APC fans and making new fans."

"When you go out there and see all the Puscifer shirts and everyone's just so down – even people that don't understand at the beginning or are confused as to what's going on, but by the end of the first or second song are just sold – it's a great feeling," Round muses.

"I do think now that the fans are really open-minded and ready. They just want it all. They wanna be a part of the big thing, whatever it is."

As the years have gone on, the question of 'What is Puscifer?' has undeniably been asked, answered, and altered in every discernible way.

For a long time though, the answer to that question was likely just 'subversion'. Mitchell and Round admit that in their early days as a live band, A Perfect Circle fans weren't innately going to enjoy Puscifer simply due to the presence of Maynard.

In fact, the vocalist would almost go extreme lengths to ensure they didn't.

"In the early days, people didn't understand, and at the same time Maynard was intentionally antagonising them by doing things," Mitchell remembers. "There were nights where we would play country interpretations of our songs. So you may come to the show and see a country show.

"Or you walk into the venue and you see a theatre and there's literally nothing on the stage, and then a movie's playing for 20 minutes. And you're like, 'Are we just watching a movie?'"

"He was just challenging people," adds Round. "I think people know now to expect those kinds of things, where back then they didn't, and we'd probably get shit if there wasn't something like that these days."

Puscifer support A Perfect Circle across Australia and New Zealand this December, with tickets on sale now.