INTERVIEW/ARTICLE/REVIEW: This is a cool article/interview thing. I liked it, some of the questions they asked Art were very interesting
Everclear new entry a happy, summery record
By MIKE ROSS -- Edmonton Sun
Art imitates life. Art's life imitates the movies.
There you have it in a nutshell, the "concept" behind Everclear's new album, in stores today: Songs From An American Movie, Volume One: Learning How To Smile.
It's a happy, summery record, bristling with Everclear's distinctive melodic flair (some may call it formulaic; you can even hear it on a version of Brown Eyed Girl) and vivid memories told from the point of view of someone in the "Blank Generation." Those are the people in their late 30s who didn't get a media buzzword and thus fall in the crack between Baby Boomers and Generation X.
It's a generation that includes 39-year-old singer-songwriter Art Alexakis, as this sample lyric attests: "I remember 1977. I started going to concerts. And I saw the Led Zeppelin play. I got a guitar on Christmas day. I dreamed that Jimmy Page would come to Santa Monica and teach me to play."
Volume Two - Good Time For a Bad Attitude - will be out in the fall and have more of a "horror movie" feel.
Art explains, "I think anyone's life resembles a movie. It's like a story. Some chapters in your life will make you laugh, cry and so on. You think about the things you've done you wish you hadn't done. I tried to capture all of that in these records, not just for me, but just a character loosely based on me. Of course it's going to come a lot from what I know about."
In case fans don't already know from every article about Everclear ever written, Alexakis dragged himself from the gutter of drug addiction to lead one of America's most successful rock trios. You may remember the band from such hits as Santa Monica, more widely known for the lyric, "Watch the world die."
In a recent non-exclusive interview, Art touches on several subjects:
ON BEING ANGRY: "Even though things are going well in my life, I'm still a really angry guy and I'm trying to figure out why. I've always been angry and I think that's something that's driven me and driven our music."
ON THE WISDOM OF RELEASING TWO CDS WITHIN FOUR MONTHS: "You ever get sick of the way music is now when bands take two, three years to put out an album? That bothers me. It used to be, man, great bands were putting out albums every year ... It's like it's not about the music anymore. It's about marketing."
ON THE 'THREAT' OF BUBBLEGUM: "It's music for eight- to 12-years-olds. Who gives a (hoot)? I don't feel threatened by that music. Why should anyone else?"
ON CHRISTINA AGUILERA (Art's eight-year-old daughter's current favourite): "Good voice. She's very soulful for a little white girl."
ON HAVING A MID-LIFE CRISIS: "I've got a pretty young girlfriend and a sports car. Does that mean I'm going through a mid-life crisis? I don't think so. I think I went through most of my crises already."
ON BEING A ROLE MODEL TO FANS: "It just seems bizarre to me, if you look back 15 years and thought that I would be anybody's role model. I'm comfortable being a role model for my daughter. That's my job. I try to show her as few bad things as possible ... I live my life. I got a divorce and that made some of my fans very upset. But my wife wanted a divorce as much if not more than I did. But I have to live my life and do the things I feel drawn to do regardless of what my fans think. I don't let the fact that the popularity of my band's music has made certain aspects of my life public, I don't let that affect the way I live my life."
Which, as has been mentioned, is the stuff movies are made of. Speaking of which, Everclear appears in the upcoming feature film, Loser, in theatres July 21 .
