Make no mistake, Everclear frontman Art Alexakis is excited about the 20th anniversary of the band’s celebrated album So Much for the Afterglow, but his excitement isn’t limited to his own accomplishments.
A proud father, he beams when he talks about his kids, especially his eldest’s scholastic honors. “My (eldest) daughter is the first one out of any Alexakis to get a college degree. Pretty impressive. I’m bragging here. Then she went to Oxford, became a Rhodes Scholar.”
A scholar in his own right, Alexakis is an admitted history buff, both musically, with The Art Alexakis Show — his Sunday night radio program on SiriusXM Lithium where he dives deep in to ‘90s alternative music history — and with his taste in books and films, as he’s currently deep into the Ken Burns documentary series The Roosevelts.
Myspace caught up with Alexakis to discuss some of his personal history, including the 20th anniversary of So Much for the Afterglow — for which the band will be touring in celebration of this spring — and some of the memorable moments from the wild ride Everclear went on as they became Top 40 radio superstars.
You’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of So Much for the Afterglow. Why do you feel this particular album has experienced so much staying power?
I think it’s a thing when you’re a teenager, or in your early 20s, when you discover something and it just feels like yours, and it just encapsulates a time in your life where that’s really really important.
As you get older, as you get into your 30s and 40s and 50s, you get excited about stuff, but it’s not really making that imprint into you that it would've maybe 20 years earlier.
I appreciate it, and I’m respectful, and I’m grateful for it, but it’s kind of weird when people start talking about me, and my band, like I talked about Aerosmith and Zeppelin. There’s a disconnect there for me. I’m like, oh no, that’s Led Zeppelin.
To this generation, Nirvana and Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and Everclear — bands like that (are their legendary bands), because that was their coming of age. I get it.
But you asked why this has staying power … I don’t know, man. I think it was a really good record. I worked my ass of on this record. I was coming from a lot of places where a lot of people were saying “Sophomore slump,” “One hit wonder,” and all this shit.
Part of my attitude that’s kinda gotten me through life is being able to say fuck you to people, even if they don’t know it. “Oh really? How about fuck you?” That works. If you back me into a corner, I start swinging.
Success is a really good fuck you.
Success is the ultimate fuck you.
All the people who wanna talk shit, all the haters who wanna hate … hate, go ahead motherfucker. I love that Taylor Swift song. [Laughs]
I got a 9-year-old and she wants to hear it all the time. I’ll be driving her to school, just boppin, “Haters gonna hate hate hate.” I’m sure all the crunchy punk rockers, if they saw me doing that they’d talk some serious shit, but you know what, fuck you to them, too. How about that? [Laughs]
I can openly admit there have been plenty of stoplights where I’ve been caught singing along to Taylor Swift.
They’re good fuckin’ pop songs. There’s no getting away from it, those are good songs. I’m sure she’s paying the songwriters well. I don’t know, but I’m sure she’s got access to the best. A lot of those people do.
People wonder why those artists keep coming up with great songs, it’s because they have access to the best songwriters. [They can] get 20 writers on a song, or 15 producers.
It’s funny, when I turned in the last Everclear record someone at the label came back and said, “You know, you gotta fill this out.” I’m like, “I did fill it out.”
“No, there’s only one producer on it.”
“Yeah, me.”
“No, there’s a space for all the producers. Like, who did the drums?”
I go, “I don’t know what language you’re talking. You’re not making any sense here. I produced the record. I actually co-produced the record, but that’s it, me and those two guys, we produced the record.”
It’s a different time.
Even though So Much for the Afterglow was your third album, it was the album that really launched you into the spotlight. What aspects of being TRL and Top 40 superstars were you completely unprepared for, and maybe overwhelmed you?
I just laughed a lot. It was really funny. If you see me on TRL, and all these kids are going AAAAH! Here’s NSYNC. AAAAAH! Here’s Everclear. AAAAH! Then they’re like, “Who? Is that my dad?” No, that’s the singer in the band. “Are you sure, cuz it kind of looks like my dad with blonde hair and a lot of tattoos.”
I just kept a sense of humor about it.
Someone asked me the other day, would I change anything on the record? Not on this record. There’s some stuff that’s a little out of key, out of tune, some weird stuff here and there, but I gotta say, there are some records where I’d change some stuff, but not this record. Being a little fucked up is part of its charm.
Imperfections aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Some of our favorite voices in music history are really terrible voices. Bob Dylan’s voice was awful.
Awful. Thank you for saying that. I was playing his greatest hits for my daughter, and I was like, who told this guy he could sing? But he did, and he changed popular music as we know it, at that period. He really had a huge impact on it, with that fuckin’ voice, because it wasn’t just the sound of his voice, it was what he was saying, and how he was saying it, and when he was saying it, and where those people were when they heard it. It was the whole thing. So I think that’s a really great analogy, and I agree.
You know, I don’t have a great voice. I’m not a great guitar player. I’m a decent songwriter, and when you put it all together, there’s a thing. I got a thing, and you either like that thing, or you don’t, but it’s a thing.
When I work with people I’m like, man, develop your thing. Develop your voice, not just your physical voice, but the voice of what you’re saying, how you’re saying it, all that stuff. Make it unique.
Nothing is 100% unique, because we’re all taking from history, we’re taking from our influences, but if you have the ability to put it all together and make it sound like you, then you got a thing.
You mentioned that you kept blinders on during the TRL and Top 40 radio years, but do you have a photo, or a piece of memorabilia, from that time that you feel captures the essence of how great it was?
Yes. There’s a few of them.
There’s a picture of me at RFK Stadium playing the WHFS Festival in ’96, and I’m on stage, and my hair is all long, and I’m wearing stupid shorts with my bony legs, and I got a nasty t-shirt on, I’m playing my Les Paul, but you can see the whole stadium is sold out, and you can see the people in the crowd have this crazy look on their face, and I’m just like, holy fuck, that’s me, doing that!
I remember that was one of the first shows where I started “Santa Monica” and the crowd just made this kind of roar. I looked at my bass player, and he looked scared. I was just like, holy fuck, this is like shooting dope, man. The rush I’m getting in my body is like dope, and orgasms, and everything all at the same time.
87,000 people all started singing my song, and I was just like oooook, OK, I get it.
I’ve seen it happen to other to people. I’ve seen it on the small level when I play the clubs, or the theaters, for 2,000, or 3,000 people, but 87,000 people all singing “Santa Monica” was just like holy fuck. Wow.
I hope you have that picture framed somewhere.
I don’t. I probably should.
There’s another picture from when we got our platinum records for Sparkle and Fade, and for Afterglow. Someone at Capitol put the two pictures side by side, and the best thing about it is we’re there with all the label guys, and blah blah blah blah blah, but next to me in both pictures is this little older women with this bewildered smile on her face. That’s my mom.
She flew down first class for it, and we went to this fancy restaurant, and we had a limousine that picked her and my sister up, and there were all these paparazzi taking pictures on a red carpet.
By this time, I wasn’t jaded to it, but I had experienced it. She was like “God damn, boy, is this all for you?” I was like, “Yeah, pretty much, me and the guys.” She goes, “Well, I gotta tell ya, I never thought you’d do anything with that guitar, but I’m glad I bought you that guitar for 40 bucks from that pawn shop.” I’m like, “I am, too. I am, too.”
She died probably 10 years ago, 11 years ago, but she got to see her boy, one of her children, have some success, and I got to take care of her last 10 years of her life pretty well, and that was pretty cool.
That’s very cool. Finally, I know you’re very politically active. It seems as though everyone is at each other’s throats right now. If you could give one piece of advice to people regarding surviving in this environment, what would it be?
I don’t fuckin’ know, man. I don’t know that there’s gonna be any easy way out of it. I know that’s not the happy answer you want, but I just don’t know.
Everybody’s entrenched. No one’s listening to the moderate voices. No one’s listening to [people like] John Huntsman or Joe Biden or these other people who want to get shit done, and realize we have to work.
If the Republicans are in power, OK, it’s gonna skew a little bit right, but it’s gonna be center-right, because most people are in the middle, they’re either left of center or right of center. But now you have this fringe, especially on the right, this alt-right, where they’re trying to make it look OK to be racist. No, motherfucker, it’s not OK. There, we’re entrenched. I put my back to the wall and I’m like, “Fuck you,” and they’re like, “Well, fuck you.” Where do you go from there? I’m interested in hearing ideas.
To be honest with you, I have a lot of faith in America, and the dream of America, and the ideal of America. I think we’re gonna be OK, but how we’re gonna get there, I’m not really sure.
I’m no longer sure if this form of government works.
It seemed like it worked there for a while, but even in the 1800s, after the Civil War, the rich 1% were pulling the same shit, driving us into recessions and depressions.
I was taught to see both sides of the argument, and try to find middle ground. I remember this old guy, when I first got in the music business, an old timer, famous record guy, he was like, every dollar splits in half, every dime splits in half.
I get the point. It’s like, hey man, I want this, you want this. Fuck it, let’s go somewhere in the middle.
He was the one who told me no one is happy with compromise, but you move things forward with compromise. I get that.
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