Everclear

by Su Chon

Everclear has been touring across the country, and RAD got the chance to speak with the entire band. They are going to open for Filter on their fall tour so catch them if you can. They have been described as being a grunge band, but they mix musical styles that create interesting songs. I really like their first single, "Heroin Girl," off of their new album, "Sparkle to Fade." It's a very sad song, and I find it beautiful. The band is really beginning to hit it big.

We spoke with all three band members: Art (vocals and guitar), Greg (drums), and Craig (bass). These guys have a lot of fun together. They're always ribbing each other, quoting movie lines, and joking around. I went into the interview expecting a grunge band with the same old answers, and was definitely surprised by their vitality and depth.

RAD: Why don't you tell us a little how Everclear started?
Art: Well, I like tacos, '73 Cabernet, and the color magenta. All that information is in the bio basically. We've been a band for three years, Greg's been in the band for about a year. We started in Portland. We're all from other places. We put together a demo called "World of Noise" which became our first indie record which became our first Capitol record. Two months ago we put out our first major label record called "Sparkle and Fade." We've been getting a lot of radio play and MTV play for our song "Heroin Girl." And we've been touring nonstop for the past year pretty much.
RAD: So are you on a tour right now?
Greg: We just did a little West Coast tour about 10 days, then went home for a couple of days, then we picked up a couple of radio shows that we're doing. Saturday we'll be in Seattle, Sunday in Portland.
Art: That will be a big homecoming for us. We're off for about a week, then we start a Midwest tour, Midwest and a little bit of the East Coast.
RAD: So is your biggest fan base in Portland and Seattle?
Greg: Oh yeah.
Art: Yeah, we have a big following here in...where the hell are we?...Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit. We've got places where we've done really well on the radio. L.A.'s starting to pick up, San Francisco.
RAD: I'm really intrigued by the songs you write, and I know you said in the bio that you write stuff from the gut. Are you suddenly inspired to write something or what?
Art: I think about ideas and I think about them for awhile and keep them in my subconscious and every now and then I'll put down notes, but not really. I'm a weird songwriter. I usually wait till the last minute to write them all out. I'll get a notebook right before we'll do a record and I'll just start, put the title of the song on, and I'll just start writing ideas down on pages and that will come into lyrics. Then I'll have like, maybe a little bit of a first chorus or this or this or here, like a skeleton. Then I'll go in front of the mic and basically brush it all out. I'm a person that I have to pull it from my subconscious, it just bakes there.
RAD: I just think that your range of songs are so interesting from like the AIDS song. It's kind of like a theme that people are interested in but they're really afraid of so they won't address it.
Art: Sure. Well, that's the whole thing about "Invisible." People don't want to see what they don't like. Everyone wants to see a pretty picture. No one wants to see an ugly picture. If you have something evocative on a wall, people will see it. If you just have a picture of a horse, chances are you won't see it. If this is a psychological interview and were talking to me about something else and ask me what is on the wall, there's a naked woman on the wall or a picture of a dollar bill or something really vibrant, I'd remember. That's how it works. What this has to do with our song, I have no idea.
RAD: So do all you guys help write the songs?
Art: I write the music and a couple of times on some of the songs (not so much the last record, we're doing it more), and he'll come up with a riff, and I'll refine it a little bit, fuck around with it a little bit, take it home and make it into a song. Or we'll have a riff and incorporate it into a song we already have. Very cool. Me and Craig from the beginning, he's really helped me a lot. I used to come up with the basis of the song, but since Greg's come into the band, it really became more of a band thing. Every album is closer to it.
RAD: What are your influences? One at a time.
Craig: Everything.
Art: Yeah, everything. Musically, me, Hank Williams, Sr., Neil Young, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Husker Du, um, Beatles.
Greg: Adam Ant. Oh, I thought we were already to my turn.
RAD: Not the new one.
Greg: No the old stuff
RAD: Kings of the Wild Frontier...I liked "Desperate but not Serious."
Greg: That was getting a little out there.
Craig: Oh admit it, you liked it.
Art: He likes the song, "Wonderful."
RAD: He likes "Wonderful?"
Greg: I like that song.
RAD: I like the song "Wonderful," but the rest of the album I didn't like.
Art: You're fired.
Greg: It's an alright song. He cries in the video, that's a real tear. He's not acting. GOD!
RAD: Well you know that he wrote in the liner notes that this album was a love letter to a relationship that ended a year ago.
Art: Some guy we don't want to know about.
RAD: No it was dedicated to Heather...
Art: I'm not buying that.
RAD: So do you have any other faves?
Greg: No.
RAD: Ok, so you don't want to say anything more. We'll turn to Craig.
Art: [to Greg] How embarrassing. You've shamed me.
Craig: Everything. I don't even know how to start. You just go through phases of like certain types of music you get into, you know, and then you go on to something else. I first started listening to shit like KISS, Cheap Trick and stuff. And I kind of moved on to heavy metal...
Art: ...Slayer...
Craig: ...stuff like Iron Maiden and stuff like that and then I moved on to other stuff like...
Art: ...Stryper...
Craig: ...Metallica, Stryper yeah,...
Art: ...Soundgarden...
Craig: ...yeah, that was a big influence, Soundgarden. You know every body goes through lots of phases. There's so much different music out there.
RAD: Yeah, but it's rare to find a lot of bands that like music outside of their niche or genre.
Art: We love They Might Be Giants...
Craig: Yeah, everything. Frank Sinatra...Eagles....
Art: ...Joni Mitchell, Frank Sinatra.
Craig: We can't find any ELO, but we would have it.
RAD: Oh, I have a cd, it's called ELO Classics with "Evil Woman" on there...
Craig: [sings] Eeeeeevil woman.
RAD: I love ELO.
Greg: I want to get Xanadu on cd.
RAD: If there are any readers listening, he wants the soundtrack to Xanadu on cd. Well, it's great that you have such a broad range because most bands...
Art: Listen to what they play. We're not ignorant because we're out there so much but there's a lot of bands out there that are really hip and happening that I don't ever hear or don't care for. One band that I've been wanting to hear and I finally heard the other day, I actually like. It's Guided by Voices.
RAD: Do you have any philosophies you live by or do you sit around having philosophical discussions? ALL All the time.
Craig: Let anyone do what they want.
Art: No, we have no motto. We're a rock and roll band. We're not preachers. I try to write songs that mean a lot to me and hopefully will mean a lot to other people. I take my lyrics very seriously, but on stage, live, we don't take ourselves very seriously. We just try to rock, get as sweaty as possible and have as much fun. And we try to watch "Dumb and Dumber" on Spectravision as much as possible. I think we're up to 142.
Craig: Yeah, pretty close.
Art: We can recite the whole movie. "Hi, is that an accent I hear?" "Where are you from? 'Austria.' 'Ah, put another shrimp on the barbie.'"
RAD: Is there any person in the world you would like to meet?
Art: Buddy? [meaning Greg]
Craig: You've already met Adam Ant. Anyone else?
Art: He is such a star, star...if he slept with them, he would be a star fucker, but that hasn't happened. He reads People Magazine, Premiere, World News Tonight.
Greg: It's not true.
Art: It's totally true. He gets Rolling Stone, and he doesn't even read the news. He goes straight to the next page to see what all the rock stars and their girlfriends are doing.
Craig: Probably Courtney Cox.
Greg: NO, no, Jennifer Aniston.
RAD: You like the girl from Friends.
Art: I think she needs a haircut.
Greg: I'd just like to take her out for a slice of pizza and conversation.
Greg: Craig?
Craig: I met Kim Thayre from Soundgarden. That was a big deal for me. He totally just spit on me basically. I felt like I was 11 years old, "Hey, how're you doing? I'm a big fan, here's a t-shirt." He's like, "Do you have it in a different size? If you have a different size, I'll wear it." You'll need this size with that big ass ego of yours.
Art: He needs an XL.
Craig: It's kind of cool. As our band's progressing more, and the album is selling more, and we're getting more attention, we're playing with bands that we're...
Art: ...freaked out by it.
Craig: Yeah, we're playing with the Ramones, They Might Be Giants, Bush, Howard Jones,
Art: [sings] What is loooooooove anyway? I think he's doing one of his rare acoustic sets.
RAD: Yeah, he's doing that tonight with some girl named Carol.
Art: HoJo.
RAD: Is he who you want to meet?
Art: No. I do not want to meet HoJo. I will thrash HoJo within an inch of his life.
RAD: Is he too happy for you?
Art: He's too English. [in a British accent] He's too fucking English. Who would I like to meet? I would like to meet, shit, I don't know. I'd like to meet Bill Clinton. I'd like to meet the President of the United States. He's the only president that I've ever voted for that I like.
RAD: You guys watch a lot of films. What's your favorite film?
Greg: Roman Holiday's mine.
Art: Yeah, you still got my copy of Roman Holiday. I have the box, you have the tape. Yeah, I gave it to you and you were supposed to give me Breakfast at Tiffany's. It was an Audrey swap.
Greg: No there was something else that came with it.
Art: No. No. NO. I bought you Breakfast at Tiffany's...
Greg: For Christmas, I know.
Art: Who bought it?
Greg: You did.
Art: Who bought it?
Greg: You did.
Art: Roman Holiday is at your house.
RAD: That's cool. You know that's the only Audrey movie I haven't seen.
Art: What?
RAD: Roman Holiday. I've seen everything else.
Art: It's the best. Gregory Peck is a babe.
Greg: Yeah, he's hot.
RAD: But I really did like Charade.
Art: That's a good one, but that's a later one. We're talking the younger ones.
RAD: Do you have a favorite movie?
Art: Oh shit, I have like four or five. I love old movies. I have to say my favorite movie of all time....God there's like five. I'll name you a few. There's this old movie, "Holiday Inn" it's an old Bing Crosby.
Craig: I don't have any favorites.