On Friday night Everclear, with openers Flipp and The Mayfield Four, rocked out in Rockefeller gym in what can best be described as a loud, raucous assault on the ears and a sweet, shirt-drenched sweat fest where the floors shook like they haven’t in a long, long time. The concert was a blast, but the sound, well, sucked. Of course, not all can be blamed on the bands, or at least on their music. Our gym is not the greatest place to have a concert, and sound ricocheted off every surface and sounded fuzzy and was, for sure, damn loud. The lead singer of The Mayfield Four mentioned that every technical problem that could have gone wrong did, but that still it was one hell of a show. I had the opportunity to sit down with the bands, and the interviews are below. Only Art Alexakis, the lead singer for Everclear, was available for a chat, and Chia Karaoke, “the worst guitar player in West Virginia,” was the only one I spoke to from Flipp. Still the same, all three were really informative and a helluva lot of fun, and my notes are below.

Art Alexakis

Alexakis seemed really normal and just a cool person to talk to, proclaiming to be anti-rock star. He’s married, with a daughter, and writes many of his songs on the hardships of growing up without a father and in a tough city (Los Angeles). This inner tranquility and peacefulness, however, didn’t stop him from asking one of the girls at the concert to go back to the hotel with him, minus her friends. All the same, he was an interesting person to talk with and answered my questions cordially, wholeheartedly, and, something that struck me, remembered my name after the interview.

Pharos: So how do you like West Virginia so far?” I asked as we snaked our way past speakers, ducked under wires then headed out into the cold cement hallway steps of Rockefeller gymnasium. The lead singer of Everclear, Art Alexakis, seemed relaxed and, more importantly, incredibly down-to-earth, and as we continued on our way outside to escape the noise of the sound checks, he answered a few questions. “I like what I’ve seen so far,” Alexakis said of West Virginia, “I almost ended up here 15 years ago.
P: Really. For what?
A: I got accepted to the film school here, but I didn’t come out.
P: Oh up at WVU?
A: No, here at this school.
P: Really. I didn’t even know we had a film school.
We stepped outside and wandered between the buses, eventually settling on a concrete slab out back where the Alladin employees smoke.
P: How do you handle the popularity of being a rock star? The Beatles once said they felt trapped by their own popularity - is it hard to be a prisoner of your own fame?
A: First off, you can’t compare us to The Beatles. We’re not at that level nor will we ever be. I get recognized a lot of places I go, and some of the other guys are getting recognized more also. But we’re not at that level.
P: Do you ever find it hard to not be able to focus wholly on the music? Or has that never been a problem?
A: No, it’s all about the music. When we’re on the road it’s the only thing that keeps us going. Everything else - the adulation, the attention, the media, all that crap, we do it in spite of that stuff. The autographs, some people look forward to that stuff; we see it as a necessary evil and a necessary part of what we do. I don’t want to say, you know, I mean, we get a lot of attention. When people start singing “Father of Mine” as I walk down the hall, I just kind of ignore that. But if people come up to me and say, “Hey, are you Art? Are you in Everclear?” Then I’m like, “yeah.” Nine times out of ten I’ll sign an autograph or take a picture with somebody. I don’t understand it, I’ve never asked anyone for that, but it really seems to matter to a lot of people, you know?
P: What’s up with Flipp and The Mayfield Four?
A: Mayfield Four is a great band, we’ve known them for a long time. They’ve got a really amazing new album coming out that I think is going to make them HUGE. Myles, their singer, and Craig, our bass player - that band is from Spokane - Myles and Craig grew up together. And Flipp is just a band that came to our attention that we’re just crazy about their cd. They’re an indy band. They’re like a cross between Kiss, Sex Pistols, and Cheap Trick - all three positive bands. They kick serious ass.
P: Do you guys still get nervous when you perform?
A: Oh yeah. I get nervous every show. If I’m not nervous it’s usually because I’m too wound up about something else, like something else that’s going on, like a video or my wife couldn’t get backstage, or someone was an asshole to my family. You know, something’s got me distracted, or else usually I’m nervous. But once I walk on stage and feel the crowd, it turns to excitement.
P: What do you think about Napster in terms of smaller bands like Flipp and Mayfield Four - will it be hard for them?
A: No, no because there’s other situations coming up right now. I think that if a band wants to have a record shared for a certain amount of time then they should be able to do that, it should be something that’s cool…Napster is, is ya know, just an innovator. Innovators rarely reap the benefits of the things they create. They [Napster] didn’t make it ligit. They didn’t pay the artists and the label. If they’d of done that, there wouldn’t be a big hoopla about it, it wouldn’t be as big as it is, and it would still be around, still making a lot of money for them and for the label. I think file sharing is inevitable, whether I like it or not. So I’ve accepted it. The fact that there will be people who want two or three Everclear songs - that’s fine, buy ‘em. You don’t go to the store to buy a slice of bread, you buy the whole loaf. Same thing with hamburger buns.
P: But they always sell the hotdog buns with less buns than there are dogs.
A: Why is that? It’s not fair.

The Mayfield Four

Camped out in their locker room-converted dressing room, The Mayfield Four, from Spokane, Washington, were more than willing to sit down and chat about music, life on the road, and gay humor - not necessarily in that order. Three of the four, Myles Kennedy (vocals/guitar), Marty Meisner (bass), and Zia Uddin (drums), grew up together in Spokane, where they knew each other since elementary school. Joining the original three is Allessandro, from Italy, who plays guitar. With their laid-back attitudes and the kind of personalities that would fit in wherever decency, politeness, and sincerity were required, these fellows might just go far on personality alone. With endorsements from Everclear and an Epic record label (and a new album coming out this summer, Second Skin), The Four are poised to leap up to grandeur status. Excerpts of their funny, witty responses to my queries are below.

Pharos: So on your website it says The Mayfield Four but there’s only three of you. Now there’s four.
Myles: Allessandro is the newest addition, he’s from Italy.
P: As a band that’s on the rise, how do you feel about Napster in terms of artists’ rights and money?
Myles: It’s a really complicated issue. In a lot of ways, it exposes a lot of bands that would otherwise not have been heard of.
Zia: I think that the main problem that happened with Napster is that the music industry was too slow to catch on to the technology; it was too slow to realize that this could be something that could really explode in our faces if we don’t set up some kind of provisions so that artists are, are getting their royalties from whatever’s taken from Napster and that kind of thing. So I think the main issue’s we were too slow to realize that hey, technology is at the forefront right now. Napster will need to set up some provisions and guidelines so that artists can their royalties. I don’t have - I don’t think anyone has - an issue with Napster so long as, as it’s fair to the artist.
Myles: I’d agree with that. To a point it is copyright infringement. I mean, it takes a while for someone to create it, and then other people are gonna get it for free. A lot of people don’t realize that songs, when you get those royalties, unless you’re like, Led Zeppelin or something, touring is not that much money. So those royalties are actually pretty important.
P: Have you played in West Virginia before?
Myles: Yeah I know we’ve played here before, not here, but…
Zia: It was outdoors somewhere.
P: At WVU?
Myles: I don’t recall. I don’t recall. I mean, after a while they all kind of blend in. The places that stick out are where there’s enthusiasm…like tonight. There was a lot of pent up enthusiasm here, God.
Zia: Yeah (laughs).
Myles: I mean it’s great. I mean, it makes our job that much easier.
Zia: How often do bands come?
P: Every spring.
Myles: Oh every spring.
Zia: So this is it here, obviously.
P: Yeah.
Myles: It’s like having sex once a year.
Zia: It was great, great energy.
Myles: It was unreal.
Zia: It’s cool, it was a blast. Lot of energy, and it’s a beautiful area.
P: How long have you guys been on the road?
Zia: Uh, tonight is like officially our first night being back out on the road. We took a long break to write and record, so this is really our first tour, our first national tour back.
P: Does it feel good to be back on tour?
Myles: Oh yeah.
Zia: It was amazing, yeah, it was a blast. We had all kinds of technical difficulties on stage and despite that it was f**king blast.
Myles: Like everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. Everything. Guitars were breaking, all my stuff totally fell down and broke.