SFist Interviews: The Eels' Mark Oliver Everett (aka E)

SFist: Good morning, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

E: Thanks for taking time for talking to me.

SFist: Where are you this morning?

E: In Glasgow, Scotland and it’s evening.

SFist: Glasgow in the evening sounds beautiful.

E: No, it’s rainy.

SFist: Oh. Well should of guessed it being Scotland.

E: Yeah.

SFist: I’m wondering who this "Spectacular Girl" is. It seems like a lot of times you have proper names for the women in your songs like Jeanie, Susan, Elizabeth, Did you have anybody in mind…

E: They’re often not their real names.

SFist: They’re pseudonyms?

E: Well actually all the examples you just gave were real names. But a lot of times they aren’t.

SFist: So how about this song?

E: I stopped naming names now.

SFist: Oh yeah? Any reason?

E: It’s nobody’s business.

SFist: So the official answer for this one is it’s nobody’s business. (Laughing)

E: Yep.

SFist: Birds are a favorite theme of yours and one of the first tracks on your album is “I’m a Hummingbird”. How would you describe your connection to birds? Do you think you might have been a bird in a past life, or would you just like to fly somewhere?

E: I don’t know. Part of it might be because I write a lot of my songs in my studio and it overlooks my backyard which is very forested and full of wildlife.

SFist: Yeah you know you inspire a lot of people with the birds. I was at an Eels show at the Fillmore and there was a woman running around with a homemade hat. She had sewn fake birds onto it and attached a sign that said “I Like Birds”. So I think the bird thing is working well.

Going back to past lives for a moment, are you a religious person at all?

E: No. Not at all.

SFist: Interesting, because the song “Looking Up” sounds like you might have attended a Sunday Service once or twice in your life.

E: Well I’m just doing kind of what Ray Charles used to do in terms of taking the Lords music and putting it in the devils hands. Although it’s not exactly the same thing because it’s not about a woman so much as it is about being grateful and enjoying the nice things in your life.

SFist: Yeah that track is very uplifting and I think it has a lot to do with that gospel choir feel that it has to it.

E: Yeah that’s my favorite I think. It was just the most fun I’ve ever had in the recording studio.

SFist: How did you do that? I mean obviously you got some people to come in and sing, but how was that set up?

E: Well I can’t give away all my trade secrets.

SFist: (Laughs)

E: That wouldn’t be right.

SFist: I can’t blame you.

E: It was an awful lot of fun.

SFist: Too bad the rest of my questions are all about your trade secrets.

E: (Laughs)

SFist: A lot of your albums start of in a very soft and sad way, then song by song they become more optimistic and upbeat. Usually by the last song it reaches some sort of bittersweet conclusion. Is this really a reflection of your day to day life or is it something just outside that sphere?

E: No it’s really what’s going on with me at this point and it’s nice because I’m pretty happy these days. Go figure.

SFist: Yeah, I mean you do sound on this album, a lot, I don’t even want to say mature, but you seem like you kind of figured something out here. Lyrically.

E: Yeah. It kind of feels like that. It’s strange. I wish someone could have told me when I was younger that I would have ended up here. It’s a nice place to be.

SFist: We’ll that’s good to hear. I’m very happy for you. So switching gears a little bit, your career started right on the precipice of the digital music boom. Do you think the proliferation of file sharing and computer culture has helped or harmed you as a musician?

E: Um, I would say it’s some of both. There’s definitely a lot of positive things about it. Well I don’t know about file sharing per se. But just the internet in general. There’s a lot of positives and a lot of negatives. I don’t really know what the answer is about the file sharing thing, it’s hard to say.

SFist: Right. On the one hand it does get you out there a little more than possibly before, but on the other hand nobody’s paying for it.

E: Right.

SFist: So do you do a lot of home recording?

E: Most of our records are made in my basement studio with some exceptions here and there. Occasionally you have to go outside to a more traditional recording studio if you want to do something like record a live orchestra or something. I could fit a 24 piece orchestra in my basement if I piled them all on top of each other, but it’s hard to bow your violin like that.

SFist: Where are you based out of?

E: Los Angeles.

SFist: Oh, okay. So you probably have a little more space than we do here in San Francisco, I can fit a computer and a bass and a guitar in my home recording studio. Which is also the baby’s room, the dining room, and the home office.

E: (Laughs)

SFist: So maybe this falls under trade secrets again but what’s your songwriting process like? Is it lyrics first, music first? Can you hear a song before you write it? Do you have some sort of grand thematic thing in mind when you first start out writing an album?

E: All the things you just said are things that happen. There’s not any real recipe or rule or set way that any of that happens. It’s kind of case by case, always different. Which is what’s fun about it.

SFist: So this being your 9th studio album do you approach the process of recording any differently now than when you were recording some of your earlier work? Have you got it down to a science?

E: No, no. that’s what’s fun about it. It’s always different, I just like to immerse myself into different musical worlds each time. It keeps it interesting.

SFist: I agree. It does. My last question to you is, in the spirit of the song "What I Have to Offer” what do you think Tomorrow Morning has to offer someone who’s maybe never heard the Eels before?

E: Um. (Pause) Well, I think it’s an album for the whole family and everyone can enjoy it, It will make you feel good. And when I say it’s an album for the whole family, I mean every member of the family should own their own copy. You don’t want to fight over it.

SFist: Absolutely not.

E: That’s just how good it is.

SFist: I agree. It’s been great talking to you and we look forward to seeing you when you come out to San Francisco. Have a great tour and thanks for you time. I really appreciate it.

E: Thanks a lot, man.