By Historically when I do phone interviews with artists, the end of the conversation is the end of my interview—a simple “thanks so much for your time” and then the click of a phone line being disconnected. I’d wager this is how most people close out their interviews. But when my time was wrapping up with Everclear frontman Art Alexakis, I had to try and contextualize, for myself, why talking to him meant a lot to me…
Because it’s not just that I’d say SPARKLE AND FADE is one of the best rock albums of the ‘90s, even if it absolutely is. Nor is it that I think they’re among the better cover bands of that stretch, although anyone who has heard their “Speed Racer” cover would probably agree. And it’s certainly not that I believe his early material, both in and out of Everclear, feels particularly prescient to a modern crop of cow punk noise rock artists now that I love, but that’s true as well. Some of these musings I said to him before we hung up, and some of them I kept to myself—even if I think they’re overlooked in conversations about the best rock acts of the era, Everclear are just that band to me. Art’s voice has been omnipresent in so many ways, both personally and universally. For him, it was the first day off in a long time—one interview of many he likely had lined up that day for this fall tour. But for me, I was talking to a voice that’s been in the background of my whole life, from burning my dad’s copy of TEN YEARS GONE onto my iPod Video to picking “Santa Monica” for the mother-son dance at my wedding last year.
They’re not slowing down any time soon, so catch some modern alternative rock legends while you can. Below we chatted about their current reissue of SONGS FROM AN AMERICAN MOVIE VOL. ONE, their intense touring schedule, looking back on Everclear over the years, and more.
Looking at your travel routing, I think I’m talking to you on your first day off after playing six shows in a row?
Art Alexakis: Actually, if you go back to all the shows that we’ve been doing fly dates with hardly any dates off, I counted it last night and we did 15 shows in 19 days, and two of those days were rehearsal days. So yeah, yesterday was my first day—real day—off in a while and my voice could use it for sure. But we’re ready to get back at it today.
There are bands where members are a third of your age and wouldn’t even attempt to do six days in a row.
AA: Yeah, they’re—they’re peasants! They couldn’t do it if they tried. *Laughs* All joking aside, we love to play. Like you say, we’re in our fifties and sixties and we’re still playing music, we’re still out there doing large clubs, small theaters, and we love our job. The travel kind of sucks a lot of the time, but right now we’re just—we’re just on a roll. I’m just grateful to still be here doing it.
What is touring like for you now at this present stage versus what it was obviously like, you know, 20 or 30 years ago. We interviewed Exene from X not that long ago and she was talking about how they’re still in vans, still staying in Holiday Inns—they’re still trying to make it as affordable as they can. Like, not much has changed for them.
AA: Man, she’s a better man than me to be in a van out there—and I’m a huge X fan. If my management came to me and said, you know, we can’t really afford to be in the bus anymore, I’d be like, “Well, it was a hell of a run, man, thanks—I’ll go write my memoir, see you guys.”
How has it changed? Well, when we’re doing actual tours, like right now, we’re in a bus, but the business has changed. There’s so many fly away dates now—where it used to be, you know, 20 years ago, it was four or five a year, now we just did 63 fly dates this year and we’ve got another 12 after the tour and we got 35 during the tour. I mean, do the math, that’s a lot of shows in one year. And on top of it, I did 15 acoustic dates in Australia in February. I’m kind of a glutton for punishment right now. But I think the main way it’s changed is there’s a lot more naps now than there used to be. *Laughs*
Is there a routine there, other than frequent napping, that’s changed over the years, especially with the MS diagnosis?
AA: I was always clean and sober, so it was never the drugs and the alcohol for me. But before it was, you know, girls, working, hanging out with friends. Now I get into a routine—I’ve already done one workout today, I’ll do my stretches. I’m 62. And yeah, the main thing that’s changed for me has been the fact that I have multiple sclerosis. I was diagnosed about eight years ago and that makes things different for me because one of the factors, one of the symptoms, aside from balance and pain, is fatigue. So if I’m gonna get the best performance I can, I have to save my voice in the afternoon, I have to not do interviews in the afternoon. Whereas, man, in the past people would be like, “Hey, do you wanna play an in-store and then a show and then do a live radio thing in the morning?” We’d be, like, “Yeah, do it, let’s do it.” You know, now it’s—we’re not a young band with big hits on the radio, we’re an older band with hits that still get played on classic radio. We turned into a classic rock band at some point down the line—wasn’t sure when that happened. But… that’s good, right?
For sure! Somewhat to that point, is the modern interest in Everclear on the rise at this exact moment where you’re having to play more load management with your touring than you probably ever have just from a physical perspective? How much has the live appetite and fandom and demand around Everclear changed in recent years, because it feels like we’re at a point where ‘90s culture in a broad sense is very en vogue—you’re seeing it in fashion and music and film, with people taking a lot of the aesthetics of that era.
AA: We do have a lot of younger fans coming out, and I think it was from COVID and people being online—and there are younger people frustrated with where music’s at today. So yeah, that revival, or whatever the hell you wanna call it, I think has helped us. But one thing I’ve seen is that it’s not just fueled by the hits anymore. Like, back in the day we’d have an active hit on the radio and it would respond in sales and it would react on tour dates—if you had a current hit, you’re selling a lot of tickets and a lot of records. These days, we’re selling more tickets than we have in decades, and the money is higher than it’s ever been, and the demand has been there like you’re saying. And emphatically, yes, we have to be smarter about how we use our time and delegate where we go. But at the same time, I’m just not a guy that really plays that game. I’ve always done what I kinda want to do. We’re celebrating 25 years of our fourth record (SONGS FROM AN AMERICAN MOVIE VOL ONE. LEARNING HOW TO SMILE), which is a successful record, but you know a lot of the fans, especially older fans, they wanna hear all the hits, and the fan favorites. So we give them that because I believe in that and I’m frustrated with bands that don’t play their hits. So we play, we do all that, but we put a few deep cuts off that album as well and it seems to be a good balance.
I was at the Los Angeles show and, like you say, you guys kind of do a very deft blend of deep cuts and hits, and you guys have so many hits that it’s not hard for you drop these big, you know, fan service moments of the show where all of a sudden people go—
AA: “Oh Shit, that was them??” *laughs* No, we’re very blessed to have been able to have that kind of success that we can throw a flat out hit every three or four songs. That’s a luxury a lot of bands don’t have and that keeps excitement up. I think most people, if you’ve got a good song that they’re not really familiar with, as long as you’re not playing 20 of them in a row or 10 of them in a row, they’re interested in hearing that. And I think I tried to do that blend. So thank you for saying that I really, I really work hard on the setlist.
You mentioned this is 25 years of SONGS FROM AN AMERICAN MOVIE VOL ONE. And I know a big part of the narrative around this has been the fact that Capital never did a vinyl release of that record.
AA: They refused!
Are you gonna do SONGS FROM AN AMERICAN MOVIE VOL. TWO, which would be 25 next year?
AA: No, no, I don’t think so. I gotta be honest with you, that record I originally wanted to do as a double album. I had a bunch of songs, I wanted to do a double record. My manager at the time talked me out of it, and he gave me all these reasons that, you know, really stroked my ego. But the main one for him was that if I turned in a double album, it would have left us still own the label. If we did do two records they would have had to renegotiate—and that’s more money than with advances. And that’s how managers, you know, especially back in the day, look at things—I gotta get paid now, you know? I might not be around in five or ten years. Why am I developing this career? Not all managers think that way—the great managers don’t—but the fly by night managers do and I bought into it. It’s all on me. I bought into it and I think there’s some good songs on that second album, but I think it sounds tired. I think it would have made one really great 18 to 20 track album instead of 24 to 25 or whatever it was across two albums. I thought it would have been a better thing, especially career wise. But, you know, I didn’t do it. And so that’s on me. So can I answer your question? There’s not gonna be a reissue of VOL. TWO.
You started to touch on it a little bit there, but I’m curious about your experience looking backwards on the history of Everclear. You jokingly referenced a memoir earlier, which would be great, but you’re now reissuing albums that came out decades years ago—you just had the 30th anniversary reissue of WORLD OF NOISE which, I would argue outside of “Fire Maple Song” introduced that music to a very big audience for the very first time. Especially for those younger fans we referenced, that was kind of the first time ever hearing that record. Has it been a fun process looking backwards in that way, and seeing what made the early aspects of Everclear kind of tick? Because even hearing you talk about VOL. TWO just now, it feels like the revelation of someone who’s had a lot of time to ruminate on their own career over time.
AA: Well, I have. I’m 62 years old, right? You know, part of the thing is I’ve been making a living from music since I was 30, basically. I mean, how cool is that? You know, for 32 years—the majority of my adult life—I’ve made a living from playing rock and roll, and that’s all I ever wanted to do since I saw the Beatles play on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW when I was four years old. I’ve never wanted to do anything else. I went to film school to appease my mom—which didn’t really appease her because she wanted me to, you know, take business or something, God bless her. But the point is I’ve been able to do that. And with that you, hopefully, can get to a place where you look back and go “Ah, I wish I hadn’t done that.” Everyone would like to be able to say they have no regrets, but I think that’s arrogant and full of shit. I think everybody has some regrets—like, man, I wish I had done that double album, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But, I’m also a practical realist, and am able to say, well, I didn’t and this is where I’m at and, I could be in a lot worse place than I’m at right now. I’m blessed to be where I’m at. I take it all with a grain of grain of sand to be honest with you.
One thing regarding looking back I wanted to ask you about, because it’s just something that I feel like there is not a lot of information about on the internet despite my trying to track it down, was about the NEVERCLEAR bootleg cassette. It’s a source of conversation on the Everclear subreddit and on various ancient internet forums—I think it had that seven song demo from The Shakin’ Brave from, like, the late ‘80s, and that “Dead Flowers” cover you did with Colorfinger. And I guess I’m just curious, like there’s so much of that early material of yours, be it that bootleg or stuff from Colorfinger or The Easy Hoes. Now that WORLD OF NOISE has been reissued is there any chance that some of that stuff will trickle out as time goes on?
AA: Okay well, for one thing, NEVERCLEAR—not a real thing.
What do you mean when you say that? Lots of those uber fans online like to talk about it like it’s the holy grail.
AA: I know, I know, I know.
Fair enough. Very, mysterious.
AA: It’s something that people have put together and they’ll say these songs are on it, but I never did anything—it’s, it’s Prince’s BLACK ALBUM, right? Except that was a real thing. This is not a real thing. This is just wishful thinking by Everclear fans, which is really flattering that people make up stuff and spend time on stuff like that. But there, there, there’s, there’s no such thing.
Well, that’s good to know. That’s good clarity for the internet.
AA: You know, I know it’s hard to believe but people sometimes don’t tell the truth on the internet—I know, it’s shocking, it’s hard to accept, especially in the political climate. *Laughs*.
Well, that would be a totally different conversation entirely *laughs*. It’s funny, so much of the information about it—about all the older material that you put out outside of Everclear—is from these ancient websites that have not been updated since, you know, the early 2000s. This stuff has been archived and preserved in these like, very specific kinds of ways from twenty years ago. It’s kind of amazing—who knows where this person is now, like, a massive Everclear fan that created a fan page or posted in a forum in like 2002. Like White Lightning or Hungry & Hollow.
AA: Well, the guy that started White Lightning died.
Oh wow, did he really?
AA: There’s a lot of people online that could tell you exactly what was going on. But I’m still in contact with a lot of these uber fans because they’ve all grown up, and they’ve got kids and even a couple of them have got grandkids—these kids that were with braces and following us around, back in the early-to-mid ‘90s, you know, they’re like family, I love the hardcore fans. And I’m just tickled by it because I was always very paternal and protective of them.
Even if the bootleg tape of it isn’t real, is there anything to reissuing some of the material from Colorfinger or The Easy Hoes?
AA: When we were celebrating the 30th anniversary of WORLD OF NOISE, I found a box. This is a true story—I found this big box in the back of my storage and I thought it belonged to my mother-in-law because it had her name on it for some reason. And I looked in it and it’s all my old tapes. I thought these were gone, dude, I thought they were gone. And they were just kinda thrown in there loose and, you know, I’m like, “Oh shit!” So I started going through them really slowly, and I put on those cloth gloves and me and Freddy (Herrera) started going through them to figure out what we had. And we had all the original WORLD OF NOISE tapes—which I still own, I never sold that to Capital. And I got all the Colorfinger and the Easy Hoes stuff. So I don’t know if the Easy Hoes is gonna hit the light of day, because there’s not a whole lot of me on that. That’s probably not gonna happen. But I am gonna re-release Color Finger with a lot of B-Sides on it too, and viny somewhere down the line. I’m in the middle of doing a lot of stuff. We’ve got the 30th anniversary of SPARKLE AND FADE next year. But then the year after that would be a good time to do that because we don’t have an anniversary till ‘27 which would be the 30th anniversary of SO MUCH FOR THE AFTERGLOW. And that’ll be a big deal. Right now we’re talking to the people at Universal, they’re interested in doing a re-master (of AFTERGLOW) and, you know, letting me into the archives and find out what we actually got in there. You know, that’ll be great
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