VWMusic

All images courtesy of Press Here Publicity

By Andrew Daly
andrew@vinylwriter.com

Looking back on 90s alt-rock heroes, Everclear, it’s easy to remember the hits such as “Santa Monica,” “Father of Mine,” “So Much for the Afterglow,” “I Will Buy You A New Life,” and “Wonderful.” But if you dig deeper, the origins of the band are rooted in all things punk rock and working-class noise.

By 1992, founder and frontman Art Alexakis was at a crossroads, or perhaps even a dead-end. After years of cutting his teeth amongst the punk rock, and alternative scenes, at thirty years of age, Alexakis had been unable to make his various projects stick.

With the knowledge that it would be his last attempt at success via music, Alexakis threw up a hail mary and formed Everclear, and after a bit of moving and shaking, the self-willed rocker recorded what would be the band’s debut record, World of Noise.

At the time, Alexakis and his cohorts had no way of envisioning the platinum-level success that was just a few short years away. Listening back to World of Noise, while its sonic aesthetic is completely different from what was to come, one can see where Alexakis was headed, and it was that same vision that ruddered Everclear toward the top of the proverbial mountain.

While Everclear’s days as chart-toppers might have come and gone, Alexakis has soldiered on despite an ever-shifting lineup. As we look ahead, Everclear’s vision, which is steadfastly guided by its amiable frontman, remains intact and stronger than ever.

While on tour, Alexakis caught up with me via phone to discuss the long-awaited thirtieth-anniversary reissue of World of Noise, the trials and tribulations faced in the recording studio, and origins of “Loser Makes Good,” and what’s next for Everclear as we move forward.

Andrew:
World of Noise is turning thirty, Art. Going back, what are your recollections of making that record?

Art:
Anger, frustration, and just feeling like a fish out of water. I felt like my back was up against the wall. I knew that if this didn’t work out, it was gonna be my last band. I was thirty. I had just had a baby. None of that had been part of the plan for world domination, I’ll admit that. Laughs]. I was born in California, and I had read the Bible about how to have a pretty good life. I met a girl, and I loved that woman like I had never loved anyone before. Still, I was separated, but not divorced yet from my first wife, when we got together she got pregnant, and so I moved to Portland to raise the baby. Now, I had been living in San Franciso for a long time by that point, and I loved everything I had in San Francisco. Once she got pregnant though, I was on welfare, because we didn’t have any money. It just wasn’t a good situation.

So, I was writing songs and trying to find people for a band, and I found two guys, and they were awesome. The issue was they lived in Seattle, and I was gonna move to Portland. We tried to do the record a couple of times, but none of us could afford to do it. We had started recording, but couldn’t finish it, and honestly, I didn’t even know what I had. So, just by chance, or maybe it was just me being in the right place at the right time, I met a guy that had a “studio” in a basement, and that’s how we recorded World of Noise. It cost all of four hundred dollars to record, and it was done in that basement. I remember listening to it for the first time, and that’s when I realized, “Wow. There’s something here. It’s got some juice, and power to it. It’s noisy as fuck.” [Laughs]. After that, I remember South by Southwest accepted us immediately and gave us two showcases. So, we went down there, did that, and about a month later, I got a call, well, my girlfriend back in San Francisco got the call, and she said, “Someone wants to talk to Everclear.” After that, we signed with Capitol Records in May of ’93, began opening for a lot of people, played a ton of shows, and built a following.

Andrew:
Given its importance, why didn’t you reissue the record sooner?

Art:
You know, Capitol put it out early on, but by the late 90s, I owned the masters, and at that time I was in the middle of these big platinum records. I didn’t have the time to deal with World of Noise, and I didn’t want to reissue it unless it was done right. Then ten years later, digital platforms started to kick in, and I didn’t know if anyone would even want a physical reissue at that point. I knew that I wanted to put it out for people, but I didn’t feel like it was the right time. Also, by that point, I didn’t know where the original tapes were. But all of that changed in January of 2022, when I went through a bunch of boxes in storage, just looking to clean it out, and I found the boxes that I stored the original masters in. So, I just listened to them, and I looked at them again. Hearing them like that for the first time in years, man, it was night and day, it sounded so much better. So, I knew it was thirtieth anniversary and decided that I’d like to put it out. It was nice because no one was asking me to do it this time. Instead, I was just doing it for fun, which makes it that much better.

Andrew:
Listening back to that record, it certainly has a more punk rock vibe to it. What in your history lent itself to that sound and aesthetic going in?

Art:
Well, as you probably know, I’m a punk guy at heart. I guess that’s what all my stuff sounded like beforehand. I was in a band prior that which was more cowpunk, so that was in me too, and added to the elements we hear on World of Noise, I think. Growing up, I listened to a lot of punk, and one of my favorite bands in the world is X. I think their first four albums are some of the best ever recorded. At the same time, I discovered The Ramones, The Clash, and all that stuff, so I’ve always had a punk head, so to speak. I’m also drawn to hardcore, a little bit of Mozart, all sorts of aggressive, melodic music, and anything with loud guitars.

Andrew:
You’ve produced all of Everclear’s records. To that end, starting with World of Noise, what sort of challenges did you face going in?

Art:
Well, I learned early on that producing my own records works best for me, so I’ve always done it that way. I usually have an engineer there, but it’s tough because they may not get it like I do. Again, I learned a long time ago that if I let other people produce my stuff that it wasn’t going to come out right. They just could never get what was in my head, and couldn’t produce the sounds I was envisioning. You know, maybe it was me. Maybe I just didn’t know how to communicate things well enough, but either way, it’s what works best for me. I avoid those challenges by producing the records myself. If you go back, you’ll see that on every Everclear record, we always work with an engineer, but never a producer.

Andrew:
The gear you used to record World of Noise is the stuff of legend. Take me through the setup you had to work with back in those days.

Art:
Oh, man. That’s really one of the coolest stories. So, I had an old Guild Bluebird and Fender Super Twin Amp where all the tubes were completely blown out, and needed to be replaced. I couldn’t replicate that sound if I wanted to. [Laughs]. The Guild was a semi-hollow body, and was so beaten up, and nearly impossible to keep in tune. There was such an insane amount of feedback that it was basically completely uncontrollable. With the amp, it was actually really dangerous, but I couldn’t afford a new one. [Laughs]. It was so bad that it literally blew sparks that were shooting out of the amp. When it got bad enough, we’d have to turn it off in the middle of a take, and go fill bags with ice, wrap them in towels, and put them on top of the amp just to cool it off. Looking back on this, that was a horrible idea, because if the water had seeped down, man, that would have been bad. [Laughs]. I guess we were pretty good about not letting that happen. [Laughs]. Anyway, once it had cooled off, I would turn it on, and basically, if it didn’t start squealing immediately, I’d launch back into it, and try and get the take done. There were a few times where I pushed it way past what I thought was the point of no return for that amp, just to get the take done. The sparks were insane, and I’m shocked we didn’t burn the place down. [Laughs].

Andrew:
One of my favorite tracks off the record is “Loser Makes Good.” What’s the backstory there?

Art:
I wrote that in the middle of my transition from San Francisco to Portland. It was one of the earliest songs I had when I was starting to write songs for Everclear. I had never done one like it before, so it was a totally unique song. Basically, it was about this guy, this friend of mine, whose name was Phil Bury, and he was in a band called Buck Naked and the Barebottom Boys back in San Francisco. They were sort of like a rockabilly band, and he didn’t wear any clothes, and only wore a plunger and sunglasses. They recorded an album for my little label called Shindig Records, and if you ever want to hear it, it’s on YouTube, and I produced it. It’s called Mr. Buck Naked, and it’s a great record. So, anyway, Phil was parked out in front of Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco, and there was a homeless guy down there. This was the era where thousands of people ended up homeless in the mid to late 80s because [Ronald] Reagan had cut all the funding to 90% of the mental and mental health institutions.

So, the park was full of homeless people, and the city would give them tickets, which they couldn’t pay, and they were really irrate, and sometimes mentally unstable. From what I know, Phil was parked there, and then got out of his car to walk his dog, and he came upon this insane homeless man, they had an altercation, and the homeless man shot the dog, shot Phil, and then shot himself, I believe. So, “Loser Makes” good is about going insane, and it’s basically about the man’s state of mind, or his state of defiance, you know, basically knowing that you’re losing touch, and your grasp on reality. But at the same time, you’ve got nowhere to go, and nothing you can do about it. I have to say, good question because that’s the most I’ve ever talked about “Loser Makes Good.” It was a painful thing for me, and people don’t seem to ask about that one too often.

Andrew:
Moving forward to the late 90s, you had huge, platinum-level success at that time with songs like “Santa Monica,” and ‘Wonderful.” When you look back on those songs, how do you compare them to the songs that were on World of Noise? Did they come from the same internal place within you?

Art:
Good question. I would say that my songwriting process evolved over time because of what was going on around me. I think that it would be disingenuous to try to write songs that didn’t reflect where I was at that time in my life. At the same time, I wasn’t trying to write about the same thing over and over again, you know? For me, a good songwriter is someone who can write from an autobiographical point of view, which I have on say “Father of Mine,” or from a place where you take different things in your life, and make them sort of a composite character. And then there are songs that I wrote where I created a character from nothing, it was just from an idea. I’ve done a lot of songs like that as well, and if I can do that, and you can’t tell the difference, then I’m doing my job. I think they all come from the same place, it’s just a different person and a different time. If you fast forward to the last record that we made in 2014, Black Is the New Black, that’s something totally different. Sure, there’s anger there, but it’s not the anger of a thirty-year-old, now it’s the anger of a guy in his fifties. It comes from the same place, but it just
manifests itself differently.

Andrew:
You’re currently on tour celebrating thirty years as a band. What more can you tell us about it?

Art:
Well, the turnout has been great, and man, we’re having a great time. The band and the fans are all having fun, and are sharing the love. We’re getting along famously with Fastball and The Nixons and we’ve been having great shows all over. Last year, the places were more empty, but now I’m witnessing a bit of a phenomenon. You know, last summer, because of COVID, the turnout out was mild because people were afraid. Now, it seems that the whole touring industry has experienced this phenomenon that has never happened before. There are so many more people showing up. There’s thousands of new faces every day for the last month, and that’s been amazing. We’re still being careful though, and we have protocols in place. We want to be safe, and protect both the bands and the fans, you know? Some bands are dropping like flies on the road, man. We don’t want to do that, so we are super happy with the turnout, but we aren’t letting our guard down.

Andrew:
You mentioned your last record was in 2014. That’s eight years. Is Everclear working on new material?

Art:
We’ve got a brand new song that’s gonna come out in the fall, and it’s called “Year of the Tiger.” You know, 2022 is the Chinese year of the tiger, and I was born fifty years ago in 1962 as well, so it felt right. It’s about a lot of the post-COVID political stuff that’s going on, and it’ll be out soon. We’re excited for people to hear it. We will probably keep writing and working on the next album after that.

Andrew:
In your eyes, Art, what is your greatest achievement, and what are you most proud of after thirty years with Everclear?

Art;
I think my greatest achievement with Everclear is that I have been able to keep my vision, keep clear-headed, and have been able to remain tight and focused through all the changes, different personnel, and living in different places. I’ve been through bankruptcy and divorces, and I’ve still been able to do that. The other thing is that I’ve kept my sobriety through all of it, and it hasn’t been easy. It really hasn’t been easy at some points, but I did it, and I’m in the best place that I’ve ever been. I just hit thirty-three years sober, and the fact that I am still sober, clean, and stronger in my fellowship and my program, that means the world to me, and it’s what I’m most proud of. I still have a sense of humor, and I’m still that smart-ass guy. [Laughs]. I can be a lot – I am a lot – and as my wife says, “You’re a better version of yourself now than ever.” So, I gotta make sure that meet that guy each and every day.

– Andrew Daly (@vwmusicrocks) is the Editor-in-Chief for www.vwmusicrocks.com and may be reached at andrew@vinylwriter.com