Sunday, March 22, 2009
Quick, A+E, Music, Q&A

Art Alexakis

The Quick Q&A

Art Alexakis is the frontman for alternative rock band Everclear.

Tell us a bit about the thinking behind your new tour.

It’s called the Drama Club. Basically it’s me coming out and doing some monologues, just telling stories and singing songs. That’s what I’ve always done in my solo shows. This is more multi-media, with images going on behind me illustrating what I’m talking about. We’ve got a little lull before the next Everclear record—we’ll go into the studio in May and June and record that. And throughout the month of March, the Hard Rock Café’s “March on Stage” series—basically, every Hard Rock in March, every dollar that’s paid to see anyone, including me, all the proceeds go to Musicians on Call. So it all just kind of worked out as a perfect storm.

What is Musicians on Call?

Musicians on Call provides music for people who are either institutionalized or bedridden; they’re in a place where they can’t get music, as a rule, and it brings them live music or recorded music. The belief is that it helps heal, not just physically, but it helps heal the soul. These are tough times, and I think, looking at it, at first you might not think providing music for shut-ins is important, but it is. I think it just makes happier people and better people.

Did preparing for this tour, telling stories about your life, dredge up any emotional reactions you weren’t expecting?

There’s pictures of my mom during the show, and she passed away a couple of years ago. I’m sitting there on stage last night, talking about my mom, and all sudden I hear all the women go “awww,” and there’s a picture of me as a baby being held by my mom [behind me]. It still hits me to the bone that my mom’s gone. And there’s one story I tell where I’m talking about choices and options, and I remember when I was like 20, going up to Oregon with my family, and I got off the train and I met this girl and it was just like love at first sight. That had never happened to me before. I had to get back on that train, and it was like “Sliding Doors,” you know? What would have happened if I hadn’t had to get back on that train? Who knows? I have a good life with Everclear. But maybe I would’ve been happy in Oregon, running a guitar shop and having 22 kids. So doing this has kind of brought up some emotions I hadn’t seen coming.

You mentioned a new record. What’s on the horizon with that?

We’re going to record it soon and we hope to go out on the road this summer. I’ve been trying to get a package tour together with other bands from the ’90s. I’ve got a friend, Kevin Cronin, who’s in REO Speedwagon, and he goes out with Styx every year. And I think that’s cool.

I just shared the stage with him and John Waite for this show, “Lyrics and Legends,” that’s going to be on PBS, and it’s a trip standing there with him and suddenly he breaks into “Riding the Storm Out,” and then John comes out with “Missing You” or some other great song from the ’80s. I don’t get the whole “legend” thing [applied to] me, but I’ll take it and say thank you.

So I’ve been trying to put that together with some cool bands, and we hope we can get it done this year. We did something similar last year and it was really successful. We’ll tour through the summer, then the album will come out, then hopefully do some more touring.

What else have you got going on?

I’ve written a couple of movies that I’ve been trying to get made, and I’ve done some script doctoring. I went to film school, and I’m still trying to get into that. But music is my day job, and it’s an awesome day job. Other than that, I’ve got a 16-month-old baby, a 16-year-old daughter, and I’m just living the dream, trying not to fall down, just like everybody else. One foot in front of the other and have a good time. SP