US alt-rock icons Everclear return to Australia this month for a national tour celebrating 30 years of their platinum-selling major label debut, 'Sparkle And Fade'.
'Sparkle And Fade' is the album that gave us some of Everclear's most well-known and loved songs: 'Heroin Girl', 'Summerland', and of course, 'Santa Monica'. It's the album that catapulted Everclear from Portland, Oregon, to the forefront of the burgeoning grunge scene of the '90s.
However, it's not just the songs that make 'Sparkle And Fade' such a significant record for frontman Art Alexakis, three decades on from its release. "I had made indie records for 400 bucks, I had made records for previous bands for a couple grand here and there, which at the time was a lot of money," Art explains.
"This was the first time I had a budget and a real studio and a real label behind it, and I had a contract that said I was my own producer and had creative control over everything; having that freedom was just exhilarating."
So, how did Art manage to wrest complete creative control from a major label? "You wanna hear the story," he asks. "In 1994, labels had been paying attention to us for a good year, since 1993.
"We broke out and became a bigger band in Portland and started touring, but they're like vultures, just perched there waiting. Finally, one label gave us an offer and back then there was no internet.
"So, what management would do is take the offer that was faxed over and fax it to the other A&R guys that were interested, so to like 27 people; and they all fax back offers as well, not knowing what the other guys were doing, and that's what we used to call a bidding war."
As the bidding war kicked off, Art says he became nervous, having seen other bands fall prey to the insidious corporate music machine and knowing full well how major labels operate.
"Finally, I send a fax. It pissed off my management because I'm like: 'This is how much money I want, this is how many firm records I want. I want marketing money. . . I want tour support, I want you to buy me a van, I want this, I want that. When we get to a certain point, you're going to give us enough tour support so we can get a bus, blah, blah, blah.'
"All these concessions; and they're like: 'Hey this kid knows his stuff, he's been around.' And I did. I grew up in LA, and I saw all my friends and other people fail because they didn't understand the way the game worked.
"I sent that out to people and they're all like: 'This is great, we can set up a meeting.'" But Art wasn't finished yet. "Then I sent out another letter: 'I want total creative control on EVERYTHING!' – in big letters – 'and I produce my own records.' And poof! Two thirds of the labels are gone," he laughs.
"There's 7 or 8 left after like 27 or 30, something like that. So, I'm like: 'Ok, I can negotiate with these people.' I thinned out the herd and saw who really wanted to put some skin into the game."
That skin came from Perry Watts-Russell, a senior VP at Capitol Records who has since become a lifelong friend of Art's. With a label onboard and his demands met, Art set about converting a rented house into a makeshift studio to create 'Sparkle And Fade'.
"I wrote songs at night out on the patio, which I enclosed because I didn't want to wake up my two year old who was going to bed," Art recalls. "Out on that patio is where I wrote 'Santa Monica', that's where I wrote 'Summerland'. That's where I wrote a lot of the songs on that record.
"Then the next day, the band would come over during the day, my wife would go to work with the baby, because she worked at a daycare where [daughter] Arizona went to school. If you look at the back of our record, it says 'Welcome Everclear' from the kids. That was at the preschool she went to, true story."
Everclear 2025 Tour Dates
Fri 21 Nov - Bar On The Hill (Newcastle)Sat 22 Nov - Manning Bar (Sydney)
Sun 23 Nov - Caringbah Hotel (Sydney)
Mon 24 Nov - Drifters Wharf (Central Coast)
Thu 27 Nov - The Baso (Canberra)
Fri 28 Nov - Chelsea Heights Hotel (Melbourne)
Sat 29 Nov - Prince Bandroom (Melbourne)
Sun 30 Nov - Barwon Heads Hotel (Geelong)
Tue 2 Dec - The Warehouse (Townsville)
Thu 4 Dec - Kings Beach Tavern (Sunshine Coast)
Fri 5 Dec - The Back Room (Brisbane)
Sat 6 Dec - Miami Marketta (Gold Coast)
Wed 10 Dec - Freo.Social (Fremantle)
Thu 11 Dec - The Carine (Perth)
Fri 12 Dec - Magnet House (Perth)
Sat 13 Dec - The Gov (Adelaide)
