Everclear Biography

Everclear is a rock band formed in Portland, Oregon, USA, in 1992. For most of its existence, Everclear consisted of Art Alexakis (b. 12 April 1962, Los Angeles, California, USA; vocals, guitar), Craig Montoya (b. 14 September 1970; bass, vocals) and Greg Eklund (b. 18 April 1970; drums). Eklund replaced original drummer Scott Cuthbert in 1994. Montoya and Eklund departed the band in 2003, but Alexakis has continued performing as Everclear with a new lineup.

Art Alexakis suffered through a troubled youth, beginning with his father walking out when Alexakis was a child. Financial hardships pushed his family into the slums of Los Angeles, where Alexakis fell to the lure of heavy drug use. During his teenage years, Alexakis was shuttled around the country between various family members (including a brief period in Houston living with his father's new family), but the drug addiction persisted. Eventually, Alexakis suffered a near-fatal cocaine overdose, which finally pushed him to clean up.

In the late 1980s, Alexakis played in a short-lived rock band in Los Angeles called Shakin' Brave, where he began to hone his songwriting skills. Frustrated by the inattention of the L.A. music scene, Art relocated to San Francisco, where he fell into the then-burgeoning cow-punk scene.

Art founded a label called Shindig Records, which attempted to document the SF cow-punk scene. He began recording material of his own for a solo album, but it eventually evolved into a group project called Colorfinger. While involved with Colorfinger, Art wrote several songs which would later become Everclear classics, including "The Twistinside", "Heartspark Dollarsign", and "Why I Don't Believe in God".

In a single month in 1992, Shindig failed (when its distributor went bankrupt), Colorfinger broke up, and Art learned that his girlfriend was pregnant. Seeking a change of location, Art and his girlfriend moved to her hometown, Portland, Oregon. There, he placed an ad in local music weekly The Rocket, which earned two responses: bass player Craig Montoya and drummer Scott Cuthbert.

The new band began recording in a friend's basement, essentially bartering for recording time with musical gear and whatever limited funds they could scrounge up. The sessions culminated in two releases: the Nervous & Weird EP and the band's first full-length release World of Noise, both released by Portland's Tim/Kerr Records in 1993. Frustrated by Tim/Kerr's limited resources, Alexakis hired independent promoters to help push the album. Eventually, it became obvious that Everclear needed to find a bigger player to help them reach their audience.

After leaving Everclear, Craig Montoya formed a new band Tri-Polar with Sweaty Nipples members Scotty Heard and Brian Lehfeldt. After completing the recording of their debut album, Scotty Heard left the band for personal reasons. Heard was then replaced by former Red Sector guitarist Kevin Hahn. The band's self-titled debut album was released on May 27, 2005. The band spent several months on hiatus in late 2005 and early 2006, but recently reformed, including former guitarist Scotty Heard. Montoya has decided to pass bass guitar duties and focus on singing. The band has dates set for the West Coast starting in June 2006.

During the last couple of years in Everclear, Greg Eklund quietly recorded demos of his own material in his garage. In 2004, Eklund formed The Oohlas with his brother Mark and female vocalist Ollie Tamale. After self-releasing an EP of their first seven demos, the band entered the studio in late 2005 to record their debut album. The completed album, Best Stop Pop, will be released on September 26, 2006, on Stolen Transmission, an imprint of Island Records.

After a solo tour in the fall of 2003, Alexakis decided to continue with Everclear, organizing a new band that made its debut in March of 2004. The new lineup consisted of bass player Sam Hudson, guitarist Dave French, and drummer Eric Bretl. In the summer of 2004, the band added keyboard player Josh Crawley, and swapped Bretl for former Everclear drum tech Brett Snyder. The new lineup released its first recording, a cover of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land", that summer. A self-released EP of performances recorded for XM Satellite Radio called Closure was given out at shows in the fall of 2004.

Free of a major label, Alexakis spent the ensuing year and a half slowly recording material for a new Everclear release. He admitted that the time after the breakup of the original lineup served as a "wake up call", during which he suffered his third divorce and filed for bankruptcy. The new band is currently signed to Eleven Seven Music. Everclear released their latest album on September 12, 2006, titled Welcome to the Drama Club. The album's first single "Hater" is currently streaming on the band's MySpace page [1], with an accompanying video available on iFilm [2].