Back in the early 1990’s, when a young Art Alexakis was putting the band Everclear together, the idea that the band would be touring the country, performing live in front of sold-out crowds from New York to Los Angeles, thirty years later, wasn’t even remotely on his radar. But here they are, more than 31 years after the release of their first album World of Noise, doing exactly that. Art and the rest of the band (Davey French on guitar, Freddy Herrera on bass, and Brian Nolan on drums) will be playing Denver’s Gothic Theatre on Thursday, September 28.
The last time we saw Everclear was on June 12 of last year, when they played the Ogden as part of their 30th Anniversary Tour. Since then they’ve continued to tour extensively (including a 17-date tour of Australia this past February), have released two new singles, and just released a live recording from the 30th Anniversary Tour, recorded at the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles in December of last year. Their current 27-date tour, which started on September 6, is scheduled to run through October 15.
I caught up with Art earlier this week, from his tour bus heading to a gig in Raleigh, NC. We talked about the longevity of the band, his teenage daughter’s involvement with the band’s most recent single, the inspiration that helped him overcome so many obstacles in his life, and autographing cats and babies. Read on…
Rick: Thanks for joining me this morning, Art. I understand you’re on the tour bus, heading to a gig in Raleigh. How’s the tour going so far?
Art: The tour’s going great. So far, the shows have been well attended and enthusiastic. People are really responding to the new song we’re playing, “Sing Away”. For the last four shows, and for the next four shows foreseeably, the Ataris aren’t going to be on those shows, because their singer has COVID. But hopefully, by the time we get to Denver, it’ll be all better.
Rick: Art, when you were putting this band together more than three decades ago, did you in your wildest imagination think that 30 plus years later, you’d still be riding that tour bus? That you’d still be bringing your music to fans all over the country?
Art: Absolutely, unequivocally not. Bands just didn’t have that kind of longevity. Man, think about that. When we started in 1994, it would have been like a band that was from 1964. Like, going to see the Beatles… now. There wasn’t that kind of mindset about it. It’s really wonderful. And it’s just great to see the generational combination. When you come to our shows, you see young kids, teens, 20s, late 20s, early 30s. Some of them weren’t even born when these records came out. And that’s just amazing to me. And then you also have the old school people that are there and it’s a nice blend. Our shows are not rowdy, they’re big. Most people are just dancing and jumping up and down.
Rick: Congratulations on the new live album, that just dropped a couple of weeks ago. I’ve had a chance to listen to it, and it’s a great set. It’s interesting that you mentioned the song “Sing Away” because I specifically wanted to ask you about it. I’m familiar with the song from the original recording you did for the album Sun Songs. I thought it was a terrific song then, but I think the heavier version recorded with the band is just that much more powerful. I know about the inspiration of the song originally, but tell me about the inspiration to re-record it with the band and to include it as part of your current setlist as well as part of the new live album.
Art: Yeah, when I recorded it for Sun Songs, the music had been around for a while. Like the chord changes, and stuff like that. It’s something we tried to make an Everclear song out of, but it just never worked. So I just put it in my back pocket for like, five, six years.
But then, when I was working on songs for the Sun Songs record, I broke up that guitar part, and started playing it, and came up with a new melody. I had words written that were kind of a poem, and it just came together, like in one day. But even when I recorded it, I’m was like, man, it just feels like an Everclear song. When I eventually played it for Freddy and Davey they were like, ‘Wow, it feels like an Everclear song’.
And so when we needed another song for the record I just thought this would be a really great compliment, and different from the other recorded track that was more political, that came out last year, called “Year of the Tiger”. I wanted that dichotomy. That was a pop song, punky, and pretty nasty, lyrically.
So I wanted to have a dichotomy and have it not be like that. I like songs that start low and build up and kind of smoke, you know, kind of just build up slowly. And the chorus with the big guitars and the drums is really anthemic. When we were recording, I was looking at the guys and they were just smiling and it was like, this feels great. You know what I mean? When you’re locked in as a band and it just feels right, there’s nothing like it.
Rick: The other thing I think is really cool about the new version of the song is that your daughter, Arizona, is in the video for it. Tell me a little bit about how that came to be.
Art: Well, that was my wife. She’s my partner. Everything I do I get her feedback on. And she was like, ‘This is so great… I’m crying just reading it’. She asked me if we had casted everything yet, and I told her no, we had the boy, and I think the dad, and that was it. And she said, ‘What about Arizona’? I had considered that, but, you know, we’d talked about it and tried to not have our daughter in the spotlight, you know, publicly. When she’s old enough to make that decision for herself then fine. And I go, okay, if you’re cool with it, I’m cool with it… let’s talk to Arizona.
And I talked to her, and she’s like, YES!!!… I get to miss school? (Big laughter) That’s a teenager.
Rick: That’s great. It must be really cool to have her involved in your music that way.
Art: Absolutely. She’d tell you, if you asked her, that Everclear’s her favorite band. But really, I think it’s probably Rage Against The Machine, which is still pretty cool.
Rick: A few minutes ago you were talking about working on new songs, so have we got a new studio album to look forward to at some point down the road?
Art: Nope. Not gonna happen. I don’t want to say no, unequivocally, but pretty much nope. It’s just a lot of work. I like doing a new song or two a year, I see me doing that, like two new songs. Maybe a cover song or two, maybe a live track no one’s heard. Put out an EP, you know. I think that would be really cool every year to do something like that. But to do an album, that’s not on the horizon.
Rick: Well, I guess what we’ll do then is look for a couple new songs a year, and then a few years down the road, maybe the record company will decide to put them together in a package or something.
Art: Well, that’ll be me because I’m on my own label now. So yeah, that’s definitely possible, now that I’ve thought about it. Just putting them together. And call it the Album That Never Was. (More big laughter.)
Rick: Shifting gears a bit… Art, you’ve had to deal with a lot of really, really tough stuff in your life, which you’ve been very open about. Your father leaving, physical and sexual abuse, drugs, death, and your MS diagnosis from a few years ago. How in the world have you found the strength to fight your way through all of that?
Art: I don’t know. I get it from my mom, I think. My mom was the most tenacious person I ever met. For her to miss a day of work? To be honest with you, for my whole life I can probably only remember maybe once or twice… she went to work every day. That was the mentality, man. She was born in ’27, she grew up in the depression. Those people were just tough as nails.
But I get it from my mom, man, and I just have this sense of drive.
Rick: You’re about halfway through the current tour, which wraps up the middle of October. What are you doing after that?
Art: Well, we’ve got a few more flyaway dates. We do a lot of those a year. We’ve done probably more than 60 of those. We did an Australian tour in February of this year, and I’m gonna go there in February of next year on a solo tour and take a couple of friends from different bands with me. And then after that, more shows.
I got some offers to do a memoir, and I just hooked up with the literary agent. That’s gonna be the main thing I’m working on next year, when not playing shows.
Rick: I promised your publicist I wouldn’t keep you long, so I’m going to wrap up by telling you how excited Denver is to have Everclear back in town next week. I’ll be there covering for Denver Entertainment Hub, and will be there for the VIP meet and greet, to hopefully grab some autographs on a couple of prints from shots I took when I covered your show last year.
Art: Yeah, absolutely. If you come to the meet and greet, man, we sign just about anything that’s not organic. That’s not breathing.
Rick (laughing): I suspect you’ve probably been asked to autograph some interesting things in your career.
Art: Oh, yeah. Babies, literally babies. And a cat. They shaved the cat.
But you know what? I’ve never signed a breast in my life. Not one time. I refuse to do it. And I refuse for my guys to do it. But I’ve signed backs and legs and even bellies.
I just I won’t sign breasts. Or babies.
Many thanks to Art Alexakis for spending time on the phone with me. While I’m a fan of his music, I’m an even bigger fan of the man, who has beaten the odds time and time again, and who just keeps on delivering the gift of his art – his music – to fans all over the world. It was truly an honor to get to spend some one-on-one time with him.
If you haven’t gotten your tickets for Everclear at the Gothic next week, I would recommend getting that taken care of quickly. I can’t imagine that show not selling out. Get your tickets here… https://www.axs.com/events/484886/everclear.
Story by Rick Witt www.rickwittphotography.com
