For more than three decades, Art Alexakis has been writing the soundtrack to other people’s lives. From the explosive emotional honesty of Everclear’s 1995 breakthrough album Sparkle and Fade to the radio-dominating success of So Much for the Afterglow, Alexakis has built a career out of songs that connect deeply with listeners. Alexakis formed Everclear in 1992 in Portland, Oregon and has remained the only constant member. Now at 63, the Everclear frontman is still touring, still writing, and still standing in front of thousands of fans every night who know every word.
When Alexakis joins the interview from his garage in California, it’s clear he’s in a reflective mood. The weather might feel cold by California standards, but the conversation quickly warms up with memories of touring, Buffalo shows, and the strange realization that music he wrote decades ago continues to resonate with entirely new generations.
“I love Buffalo,” Alexakis says with a laugh. “It’s a working-class town. I always have fun there.”
The band is set to return to Buffalo on March 11 (at Electric City), a city Alexakis remembers fondly from previous tours, including a stop during the Summerland Tour in 2015 alongside Fuel, American Hi-Fi, and the Toadies.
“That was a fun tour,” he recalls. “I remember the promoter took us out to this really cool Italian restaurant after the show. I always have great memories when we play there.”
Those memories stretch back decades now. Time, Alexakis admits, moves faster than most musicians realize. Especially when landmark albums suddenly start celebrating milestone anniversaries.
Last year, Everclear spent much of the year celebrating the 30th anniversary of their major-label debut Sparkle and Fade, the record that introduced the world to the band’s biggest breakthrough hit, “Santa Monica.”
“It’s amazing how much time flies with stuff like Sparkle and Fade,” Alexakis says. “Thirty years. That’s crazy.”
The anniversary tour took the band across the globe, including stops in New Zealand, Australia, and dozens of U.S. cities.
“We went to New Zealand in January and then we did 42 shows in the fall across the U.S., then we went to Australia about three weeks later,” he says. “It was a busy year.”
But Everclear shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the next milestone is already approaching. Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the band’s platinum-selling 1997 album So Much for the Afterglow, and Alexakis plans to celebrate it the same way Everclear always has: by taking the music directly to the fans.
“We’re going to go back to Australia and New Zealand,” he explains. “Maybe even South America. We’ll do a big tour and put out a 30th anniversary version of Afterglow as well.”
And while the band celebrates its past, Alexakis is still firmly focused on the future. Everclear is currently working on what will become their 11th studio album.
“We’re still working on demos right now,” he says. “We’ll start recording in April, take a break, then record more in May. I’m not killing myself going into the studio for three months at a time like we used to.”
Instead, Alexakis is taking a slower and more deliberate approach.
“We’ll record four or five songs, mix them, add stuff, tweak them, then do another four or five,” he explains. “Then we’ll just figure out what the best record is.”
If all goes according to plan, fans can expect the album sometime next year. Alexakis is also taking an independent route with the project.
“I’ve got three labels that offered me money,” he says. “But I’m going to pay for it myself and then shop it around.”
It’s a level of artistic control that many musicians never experience during their peak years. But after three decades in the business, Alexakis has earned the freedom to do things his way.
Perhaps the most surprising part of Everclear’s current resurgence is the audience. While longtime fans from the ‘90s still fill venues, Alexakis says a growing portion of the crowd consists of teenagers and young adults who discovered the band through streaming platforms.
“We’re getting kids, Joel—like 17, 18, 19 years old—that know every lyric to every song,” he says. “And some of them are there because their parents were fans. But a lot of them just discovered ‘90s rock on Spotify.”
Those new listeners are discovering Everclear’s catalog the same way many fans discovered classic rock bands decades earlier: digging through playlists and artist pages until something resonates.
“They go through bands from the ‘90s and see what they like,” Alexakis explains. “And some of them just glom onto Everclear.”
For Alexakis, it’s one of the most rewarding aspects of still performing.
“There’s nothing like hearing people sing your songs back to you,” he says. “Whether it’s a thousand people or ten thousand people.”
The experience becomes even more surreal when he remembers moments like Everclear’s performance at Woodstock ’99.
“When we played Woodstock in ’99 and 300,000 people were singing the song back to me,” he says, shaking his head slightly. “You can’t buy that. You can’t fake that. That’s real.”
Still, touring in his sixties is not the same as it was during Everclear’s peak. Alexakis revealed publicly in 2019 that he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis three years earlier.
“I was diagnosed in 2016,” he explains. “MS affects everyone differently, but one thing that’s pretty universal is fatigue.”
The condition forces Alexakis to carefully manage his energy while touring.
“I can just suddenly feel like someone’s standing on top of me,” he says. “Like I need to lay down right away.”
To compensate, he’s developed a strict routine.
“I make sure I rest before shows, take naps if I can, go to my bunk on the bus,” he says. “I work on my voice, eat right, exercise.”
Despite the challenges, Alexakis remains determined to keep performing for as long as possible.
“I’m not walking with a cane yet,” he says. “I probably will someday. Maybe in a few years. But not now.”
And as long as he can still walk on stage, he plans to keep doing exactly that.
“I love what I do,” he says simply. “I love my family. I love my life. I’m living the dream.”
That dream includes balancing music with family life. Alexakis is currently preparing to visit colleges with his youngest daughter, who is nearing graduation from high school.
“We’re about to spend three weeks traveling around looking at schools,” he says. “My older daughter already went through that process years ago, but now it’s time again.”
The experience, he admits, reminds him just how quickly life passes.
“There’s fifteen years between my daughters,” he says. “It’s crazy how fast it all goes.”
When he’s not touring or writing songs, Alexakis prefers a quieter life at home.
“My biggest hobbies are following my sports teams,” he says. “The LA Dodgers just won the World Series, so I’m pretty happy about that.”
He’s also a longtime fan of the Seattle Seahawks. But beyond sports, Alexakis says his focus remains largely on music and family.
“Mostly just family stuff,” he says.
Even during downtime, he often finds himself writing new songs. In fact, he had been working on new material shortly before this interview began.
“I was writing songs right before we started talking,” he admits.
That creative drive has fueled Everclear for more than 30 years—and it shows no signs of slowing. Still, Alexakis acknowledges that certain aspects of touring have become more difficult with age and illness. One of those is meeting fans after shows.
“We used to go to the merch booth and talk to fans for an hour or two,” he says. “I just don’t have the energy for that anymore.”
Instead, the band now offers VIP meet-and-greet opportunities before shows, allowing fans to interact with the band in a more manageable setting.
“I still try to talk to people from the stage after the show,” Alexakis says. “I just physically can’t do the same things I used to.”
For fans who have followed Everclear since the mid-1990s, that honesty is part of what makes Alexakis such a compelling figure. He’s never pretended to be anything other than what he is: a songwriter telling the truth about his life. Three decades later, that authenticity still resonates. And as long as crowds continue to sing along, Alexakis says he’ll keep stepping onto the stage.
“The moment the lights go down and the crowd starts making noise,” he says, “there’s nothing like it.”
The current lineup of Everclear also includes Davey French on guitar, Freddy Herrera on bass, and Brian Nolan on drums.
To see Everclear in Buffalo at Electric City on March 11 click here.
For more information and other tour dates for Everclear visit https://www.everclearmusic.com/
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