Everclear Interview

A month before the release of 'Welcome to the Drama Club', I had the oppurtunity to catch up with one of my favorite song writers from the 90's. Art Alexis is one of the best writers of real life experiences. Be sure to pick up 'Welcome to the Drama Club.'

The Gauntlet: What's new?

Art: Pretty good, lot of craziness right now in my personal life as I am getting ready to move.

The Gauntlet: You seem to attract the crazy drama.

Art: Me? I know, I always have some sort of drama. Consciously I don't like it, but I create chaos in my life, it's true. I am looking forward to the record coming out, getting on the road and playing some shows. I am getting hungry again, I want to get out there.

The Gauntlet: Did you start losing the drive?

Art: Yeah man, I was really not into it. I wasn't happy in my life. I didn't have a good relationship. Not to the fault of anyone else, but the bad choice of relationships. I wasn't a husband. I didn't like the guys I was playing with in the band and they didn't like me. I didn't have the balls to make decisions. Finally when I did have the balls, it was hard. I am now in a place right now where I wake up in the morning and I feel good, I feel really good. Things are starting to fall into place.

The Gauntlet: It seems like after the release of 'Slow Motion Daydream' your life became quite chaotic.

Art: yeah, right in the time. 2003 was the beginning, 2004 and 2005 were definitely transitional.

The Gauntlet: During this time, was Everclear ever over?

Art: No, Everclear has never really been anything but my thing. The guys have known that. I had Everclear before Craig was in the band. I had a lot of the songs that ended up being on the first record. Some bands are Democracies. The best bands are Atocracies or 2 guys are the leaders of the band. Everclear was a three piece, but was my thing. I wrote the songs, arranged them, produced them, got the guys to play what I thought was cool. They would come up with some things. Now I got some guys that are a little older, they have kids except the drummer which is cool. We are having a lot of fun with it, just like kids again.

The Gauntlet: maybe the upcoming tour will help the drummer out with a kid or two.

Art: Ahhh man, that's the last thing that guy needs. He needs a woman who will be good to him.

The Gauntlet: What was the deal with Capitol Records? How did that end?

Art: Actually our contract wasn't up. They dropped us. I had asked to be dropped. I asked to be let go and they dropped us. It was a mutual thing. We still had another record.

The Gauntlet: Is that why the greatest hits album was released?

Art: No, they build greatest hits releases into every major label contract and they don't count as an album. I don't know what they wanted to do. After I was gone, they asked me to come back and do the artwork and put it together. I wasn't going to make anything off it, but it would help give me some closure. I wanted it to be a little deeper than a best of. I think it came out great. I tried to get it a little deeper than just songs played on the radio. We had some fan favorites, some b-sides, and singles. It just goes a little deeper into our catalogue.

The Gauntlet: During this period, things were rough on your personally. You had no label, a couple band members left, you were going through a divorce, and then filed bankruptcy. Being a recovering alcoholic and drug user, were you tempted to return to that dark place?

Art: I was tempted to drink. I never did. It was pretty hard though. I ended up buying a bottle of scotch and ended up throwing it into a drainage ditch. I told my therapist about it thinking he'd be really proud of me. He was like 'Why the hell didn't you give it to me?' It was a $100 bottle of scotch.

The Gauntlet: The new album, 'Welcome to the Drama Club' is out Sept 12. The album seems to get back to the earlier days of the band.

Art: Lyrically I think this record is the most autobiographical record we have ever done.

The Gauntlet: I thought 'Sparkle and Fade' really dove into your life.

Art: That's a misnomer. I have said it then and I'll say it now. A lot of elements in it are, but a lot is also pure fiction. There are a lot of songs I can relate to that came from fears and desires I had but weren't totally autobiographical. But looking back on it the sexual life was definitely autobiographical. At the time I would never have thought it, but looking back, totally. Maybe you are right maybe I just wasn't very conscious and not very present. Heroin Girl and Santa Monica were songs I made by taking things I never would have thought about and putting them into different characters. I don't know a girl named Ester. I still have people come up to me and they get really raw and say 'I know Ester and I know her family. They are furious about that song and still thinking of filing a lawsuit.' Esther was basically a combination of an ex-girlfriend, my brother, me and the drug itself. Heroin when you do it is like pure sex. It is like cumming for 15-20 minutes, it's really cool. Then you go under. I'm glad I got off it. I sure thought about it though in 2004. That was the hardest year.

The Gauntlet: Was that the year it all came crashing down?

Art: I went bankrupt on Jan 4, 2005. In 2004 we got dropped, I got divorced, I found out a bunch of stuff that was going on that made me rearrange friendships. It was a hard time.

The Gauntlet: What bands have influenced you over the years? I hear a lot of blues on this record.

Art: I'd say the Beatles and The Stones. Then you got Husker Du and the Pixies. But there is absolutely blues on the songs. I grew up with a lot of old country music and old blues music. I think a lot of old country music is there. I wanted this record to have acoustic guitars and still have that gritty aggressive sound. We recorded this album very differently than 'Slow Motion Daydream.' We recorded with everybody in the room and then we overdubbed on that. We didn't do a lot of takes. We would record when we were in the zone so we had very few takes. As long as we were feeling that vibe, then it was a take.

The Gauntlet: I don't think you would have been able to make this same record if you were on a major label. They often tend to over produce the songs which cause them to loose their sense of warmth.

Art: I would have made it, I don't think they would have put it out. I just make music. It is under produced, but so was 'Sparkle and Fade'. It depends on what I want to do. I am trying to be Brian Wilson. I quadrupled every guitar and vocals. It was a lot of work without pro-tools. I spent years making the records and we spent about three months recording this. I would mix it for a couple hours each day. We took time with it, I put my heart into this. Usually when I make a record, I am crazy, people don't want to be around me. This time I wasn't like that. I have grown up a lot. I have gotten to a place where I know how to focus my energy and focus what's inside of me. I don't have to push it out on everybody around me. I don't have to create drama and havoc. My ex's, people who have worked with me or for me are still creating drama. I just don't want anything to do with it. I want to live life, put all that into my work and walk away from it. Back when I was making all kinds of money, people thought I was living the life. I had a beautiful young trophy wife, vintage cars, great big house; I was miserable, I was fucking miserable. Now I don't have that and I couldn't be happier. I am the happiest I have been ever in my life. There is no bullshit.

The Gauntlet: Are you guys picking up a lot of new fans?

Art: The Myspace thing is great. We have a ton of fans or friends on there right now. It's word of mouth and the new material is starting to be played on the radio. I hate the word as it sounds like a hippy, but it's really organic. Half of them are people that used to be huge fans and the rest have heard of us and start checking out our old stuff. I run the Myspace page so I talk to all the people daily. If they message me, I answer it.


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Tags:  Everclear, Art Alexis , Art Alexis - Vocals, interviews

Jason Fisher    August 07, 2006