Eels

Wed 11th Aug, 2010 in Features

In the words of the band’s leader Mark Oliver Everett, Eels is a group of “28 transitory members and one deeply troubled permanent member”. However, nine albums into the Eels career, the “deeply troubled” Everett seems to have settled into the role of blues storyteller, albeit one with a collection of tunes filled with birds, bearded loners and bittersweet observations.

Perhaps he’s just reflecting his own listening tastes – as he explains “I’m an old guy that just listens to the classics these days and the stuff if grew up on. I’m not that tuned into what’s going on.” Like so many blues songs loss and desperation feature at the core of many of the songs on the trilogy of albums released by Eels since June 2009 – Hombre Lobo, End Times and the newest record Tomorrow Morning – but Everett matter of fact lyrics never hint at self pity or cry for sympathy.

It’s an approach that’s also at work in his incredibly open and direct memoir Things the Grandchildren Should Know – marketed with the tag line “Rock music! Death! Crazy people! Love!” – which chronicles Everett’s life from the tragic (the suicide of his older sister, the death of his mother, the loss of an aunt in the September 11th attacks) to the more prosaic (the inevitable struggles with record labels)

Everett details so much of his story in Grandchildren that at times it seems as though the book was written to avoid having to answer the questions in interviews – everything has been declared and (despite his Unabomber appearance) Everett’s not trying to sneak any additional baggage past customs.

After spending recent years devoted to publishing his biography, releasing retrospective compilations and working on a documentary about his father – Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives – Everett is in fine sprits and looking forward with more conviction than most political leaders. As the lyrics of Looking Up (one of the many highlights on Tomorrow Morning ) attest Everett’s in fine sprits: “Used to be kind of bitter/but I’m feeling much fitter/now I’m pretty sweet/back on my feet/it’s looking up”

Why with the release of Tomorrow Morning are you suddenly declaring that is the final part of a trilogy?
I knew before Hombe Lobo came out that it was a trilogy but I learned early on never to talk about stuff before it’s gonna come out for sure because I don’t like to paint myself into a corner. If I’d said at the beginning ‘Here’s the first instalment of a trilogy’ then everyone would expect it – which also takes a lot of the fun out of it – but also I knew that it was going to take long enough for me to put out these three albums and that I might change my mind along the way and decide there was only going to be two or it needs to be four or whatever.

At what point when you were writing did it become clear that you were writing a trilogy and not just a new album?
Each album was made individually and I immersed myself in each one while I was doing it and they were made in distinct periods of their own and designed to hopefully stand up on their own so that it didn’t matter if they were part of a trilogy.

With any collection of albums that are grouped as a trilogy there’s a temptation to find the narrative or a common thread to tie them together. At the risk of oversimplifying the albums it seems that each one loosely covers a different theme – Hombre: lust; End Times: loss; Tomorrow Morning: love. How did you intend for the albums to work as a trilogy?
You’ve said it perfectly. That’s exactly what each of them is about. That was the idea: the trilogy is just human emotions that we’ve all experienced. Desire; romantic loss; and renewal.

The lust of Hombre Lobo feels less autobiographical than the other two records…
That’s what I was hoping. I felt a little too embarrassed about writing too many songs about desire that would be thought of as coming from my personal life so I couched it in this character

In your memoir there’s a section where you write the same scene in three ways. Rewriting it poetically, then overly flowery and finally more directly. Is that a process that you go through when you write a song?
Sometime; it’s very different with songwriting you can get away with being flowerly and poetic at times. I’m just not a fan of pretence in general or in anything pretentious anything that feels like too much when you can get away with being very raw. That’s my favourite kind of songwriting; the songwriting that’s very succinct and to the point. And that’s the hardest kind; it’s hard to tell a story in just a few lines.

Eels live shows have often involved costumes – like the orange jumpsuits on the _Souljacker tour; or the bowler hat, walking stick and cigar on the Blinking Lights tour. Do they help you become ‘E the performer’?
I guess so. If you think about it you’re literally in some cases putting on another hat and you become another person under the hat to some degree. It’s not like I become another person… like you said I become ‘E the performer’ but it’s still me it’s not like I’m putting on Kiss make up and become the character from a comic book or something. It’s still me it just makes it a little easier if you’re a shy person by nature to perform. Its just the kind of show I enjoy, that’s really why I do it I like to see someone like Tom Waits who understands that it’s not just about playing a song – it’s about a show.

Last year you said that you “don’t want to disrespect the audience by doing something I’m not fully invested in right now… I just don’t feel like [touring] at this moment”. What has changed since you made that comment?
During the last couple of years and last couple of albums. I just didn’t feel like doing it I was burnt out on it and I was just really enjoying writing a recording. Everyone just assumes ‘OK there’s a new album; you’re going to go on tour’ because that’s what everyone does. That’s what you’re supposed to do to promote the album and all that. I just felt like that wasn’t a good enough reason because I genuinely didn’t feel like doing it and I didn’t think it was fair to an audience for me to go out there and do something I wasn’t really into.

Now I’ve spent enough time away from it I got to the point where it’s come back around and the idea really appeals to me as I haven’t done it for so long. I’ve been in the studio for so long making three albums that I’m dying to get out there and play to a room full of people.

Will the setlists on the tour be mostly based on the songs from the trilogy?
I don’t know. It’s going to fun and exciting as none of these songs have been played live before but one of my favourite things to do is to play old songs in a way that suits what I’m in the mood for this year, so there will probably be some of those… You may or may not hear one of your favourite songs, the other thing is that you may hear one of your favourite songs and not even realise it was your favourite song because we did it so differently from the last time you heard it on the radio.

Are there any songs in particular that you’re looking forward to playing?
Yeah def there’s several of them, particularly some of the Hombre Loco songs because I feel that they were just made to be played live.

Is the gospel track Looking Up from the new album likely to be part of the show?
I hope so because that’s my favourite track on this album; it might be the favourite track I’ve ever done. It was the most fun I ever had in the recording studio I hope we can do that one.

Did you have a full choir in the studio with you?
No, the ‘girls’ singing on that are actually me. That’ll be tricky in a live setting but we’ll figure it out.

Why did you choose to sing the backing vocals yourself?
Just because I can! You get away with what you can get away with and I can sing in that kind of high falsetto and it sounded good to me so there was no need to get real women in there.

So the most fun you’ve ever had in the studio was singing girl voices?
[laughs] No, no the funnest part for me is the screaming stuff there’s just nothing more fun than screaming. I mean just really losing yourself. Total abandon. It’s hard to do – you need to be comfortable with the people you’re around to get to that point.

Your Australian shows are club dates, but there are quite a few festivals on your tour schedule. Are you comfortable playing festivals?
We’ve been doing festivals since the start. It’s something we’ve done quite a bit of but there’s some years we don’t do it because were doing something musically that just wouldn’t suit the festival. I don’t think we did any festivals with the string quartet shows – it ‘s not the right setting you need to be in a nice theatre for that kind of thing but you have to sort of put on your festival hat and your festival shoes perhaps.

Does playing for a festival audience that’s less familiar with your songs affect the setlist?
I don’t let that colour anything. I remember playing the Reading festival in England before the Souljacker album came out and we did almost all songs from Souljacker – no one had ever heard it. It was like a sea of 8000 people scratching their heads, but I still think we put on a good show and I was happy with it so whatever. I’m just always trying to put on the best show that I can put on that day.

So after concept albums, double albums, trilogies, and side projects – what’s next?
The beautiful part about where I’m at now after getting these three albums out is that I’m finally at the point where I don’t have any idea what happens next. I had a long term plan and now it’s almost over. I think at the end of this tour I’ll take a year long nap and maybe during the nap I’ll have a dream that’ll tell me where I’m going next.

FasterLouder presents Eels tour:
Friday 13th August – The Tivoli, Brisbane
Saturday 14th August – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Sunday 15th August – Palace Theatre, Melbourne