Interview: Rock royalty Everclear to warm wintry Buffalo

Preview by Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

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I’m not saying Everclear frontman Art Alexakis is a liar but, for someone who famously sings he’s “Lonely and dreaming of the West Coast,” that “I just wanna see some palm trees” and “We can live beside the ocean/Leave the fire behind/Swim out past the breaker/Watch the world die,” it sure is odd he’d want to be in a place like bitter-cold Buffalo in March.

So, what’s the deal?

“I've played Buffalo in the dead of winter, and I played during the summertime. I just love Buffalo. I really do,” Alexakis said in a phone interview ahead of Everclear’s March 11 concert at Electric City. “It's a working-class town. I like your football team – not as much as I like my football team, the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks!

“All joking aside, I love Buffalo” because, as people in other cities and towns might say, “ ‘Oh no, are we going to go out? It's 10 degrees and snowing?’ you’re like, ‘No, that means it's Tuesday in February’ (laughs). Yeah, we're going to go out.’ ”

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OK, OK, but was Alexakis fibbing a few years ago when he shared this story?

“I get a call from this guy, Tim Devine, who used to be an A&R guy at Capitol. Not my A&R guy, but a pretty big A&R guy; signed a bunch of bands at Capitol and at A&M and Sony, as well, in his career. He called me and said he was the head of A&R for a new label called Sunset Blvd. Records, and ‘Would I like to do an original album?’ ” Alexakis told this writer in 2023. “I'm like, ‘Absolutely not. End of conversation. Thanks for calling, dude; gotta go.’ And he's like, ‘Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Why?’ I go, ‘Because I made 10 records, 11 records, nine records – whatever you want to call it. I'm done. I just don't want to work that hard.’ ”

And now, Alexakis drops in casually, “I'm working on new songs” – like, for a new album.

Say what?!?

“Things changed in our world, and I started writing – whether I wanted to or not,” Alexakis said. “There's a lot going on in this world of ours, especially this country of ours. I've been writing a lot.

“It's going to be an intense record, musically and lyrically, but it’s just coming out of me, man. I gotta write about it, what's coming out of me.

“But yeah, two years ago, people were asking me to do another record. I go, ‘Absolutely not. No way. I don't want to work that hard.’

“Yeah, well, I was wrong. …

“Anyone who knows me, they'll tell you it’s the not the first time I was wrong!”

Art Alexakis, center, and Everclear (Photo credit: Ashley Osborn // provided by Lappen Enterprises)

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No, Alexakis isn’t a liar. He’s just keenly aware of the fact that, for starters, “We get to play rock ’n’ roll for a living! (laughs) We're guys in our 60s and our drummer’s in his late-50s. We still get to play rock ’n’ roll. What a blessing that is” – even on a March East Coast swing.

“I mean, that's like living the dream of just about every teenage boy, right? When you're an adolescent, you want to play guitar in a rock band. We're still doing it despite the fact I'm going to be 64 in April, and I had been diagnosed with MS over the last 10 years – and when I got diagnosed, they thought I'd had it at least 20 years.

“Is it harder? Yeah, it’s harder. Is it just as sweet to go out and play to the crowd singing your own songs back with you? Absolutely – and probably sweeter because, not just are we getting the old-school fans, we're getting kids, friggin’ teenagers and people in their 20s who weren’t even born when these songs were on the radio. And they don't know just the hits, they know all the songs, all the lyrics of all the songs. It's pretty awesome.”

And that’s why Alexakis and Everclear will make the trek to Buffalo.

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Now, as for the new music … well, Alexakis knows he has a platform to speak to others.

Though “I don't write to tell people how to do things better, or how things are going to be better for them. I just tell stories,” he knows “they get (things) from the stories.”

“That's a blessing,” he said. “That's wonderful. Because I love being of service to people. I'm 36 years clean and sober, so being of service to people is a large part of my life. A large part of my sobriety.

“I'm not the kind of guy that can sit down with someone and say, ‘OK, let's write a song.’ I write songs when I have something to write about, and when something hits me in my heart, and hits me in my head, and then I write the song. Simple as that. It's very emotional.

“Right now, with all the things that are going on in our country, it was a lot of grist for the mill.”

Everclear is known for “Santa Monica,” “Father of Mine,” “I Will Buy You A New Life,” “Wonderful” and “Everything To Everyone.” When the band comes to town, expect “an old-school rock show, man,” Alexakis said. “We play without a net. We go out there, old-school guitars, loud, a ‘blazing, and we play all our hits, all our fan favorites. If people want to request songs, they can go on social media and hit us up, and if we know the song and we’ve got room for it on the set, we’ll play it.”

“Everclear fans – if we’re playing, they’re going to come out,” Alexakis said. “I am very grateful for that.”

Everclear performs Wednesday, March 11, at Electric City, 433 Pearl St., Buffalo. Click HERE for tickets or more information. The band is online at https://www.everclearmusic.com.

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