Formed in 1991, Everclear are currently engaged in the 30th anniversary tour of the band’s sophomore album, Sparkle & Fade. We caught up with founder and lead singer/songwriter Art Alexakis and guitarist Freddy Herrera backstage before their recent performance at Welcome to Rockville in Florida.
What began as a regular interview evolved into a conversation between Art and the AU’s Dan Slater about their shared experiences of having Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
I know you guys love Australia, because you always tell us so when you’re there.
Art:
We’re gonna be there in November and December to show you. We tour there probably every two years.
You’re there for the Sparkle & Fade 30th anniversary, yeah?
Art:
Yeah, we’re gonna do the whole album, and songs from other albums as well.
I think the last time you were there was like, was it a couple of years ago?
Art:
Well, we were there at beginning of 2024 on a solo tour. And Freddy: came with me. Last time Everclear were there was in February of 2023.
Yeah, and before that you did that solo acoustic tour (in 2019).
Art:
That was so much fun.
Do you remember some guy kept shouting “Queen of the Air!”?
Art:
At what show?
At the Crowbar.
Art:
Was that you?
Yep
Art:
Well, come see us this year, because we’ll definitely play it. I might even have said that – “Come to the Sparkle & Fade tour!”
So, I wanted to have a chat about Multiple Sclerosis, which I also have.
Art:
Sure. Oh, you have MS as well? When did you get diagnosed?
2019
Art:
You know it’s funny – Scotty, our promoter over here, got diagnosed in 2020. How old were you when you got diagnosed.
I would have been … 47.
Art:
I was 56. They said they thought I’d had it for 20 years. So, how are you doing?
Yeah, okay. I’m on this Rituximab drug. It’s like a six-monthly infusion so that’s keeping it sort of steady.
Art:
Is it like Ocrevus? Yeah, because that’s the same thing. I have a monthly infusion called Tysabri.
And is that working out?
Art:
It’s working. It’s slowing it. All those drugs do is slow down the process. It’s a progressive disease. It’s gonna progress. And newer medications are getting better at being able to slow down the disease, not stop it. I’m grateful for it. It’s affected the way I eat. I’ve had to change my diet, change my exercising, the physical therapy.
I was going to ask you about the diet, if you’ve tried the vegan diet?
Art:
Yeah, the vegan diet didn’t really work for me. I was on one for nine months. It did nothing good, and everywhere I went I saw pictures of cheeseburgers.
Well I thought, because it’s summer and winter, and you know it’s worse in the heat, I couldn’t follow the diet for just six months because that’s not necessarily the right season, so I had to do it for a year, you know, and then I had to come off it in the different seasons. I worked out in my head that it would take, like, two years to test it properly, but I just couldn’t do it for two years.
Art:
What works best is more like a paleo diet. Meat, but no cheese, no bread. And I cheat on that, but during the week I’m pretty good.
Sounds a lot like me. At the beginning I thought I’d go hardcore on the vegan, which I did for the first six months, but it didn’t seem to make that much difference, so I stArt:ed slipping. Now I’m mainly vegetarian. But I should try the paleo.
Art:
There’s a book I want to recommend to you, it’s called The Wahls Diet, W-A-H-L-S, Dr. Terry Wahls. And she has MS, had it really bad to the point that she couldn’t even be in a wheelchair. She was in a bed most of the time. And she was a biologist and she created a diet that works for her and exercise that works for her. And now she runs marathons. So there’s real holistic help out there, but medication also helps as well. I do a blend of both. Some people are just hardcore medicine, some just diet. And to me, it’s the whole effect. You have to do a bit of both.
I’m glad you found something that’s working. You’re relapsing/remitting, right?
Art:
Yes, are you?
No, I’m Primary Progressive, so I don’t have relapses.
Art:
Yeah, I haven’t gotten to that yet. I’m right on the edge of Primary Progressive.
How do you find this heat?
Art:
It’s hard. You look like you’re having a hard time, you look a little tired.
No, that’s because I had no sleep, ha ha. But no, I do get the drop foot, mainly my left.
Art:
I get drop foot on this side (his right). So your lesions are on that side (my right). That’s how it works. I had one in my brain, one in my spine, and then COVID happened, and I got another one in my brain and another one in my spine. And it affected this, all in here (points to leg). You watch me on stage – I don’t move like I used to move. I don’t jump around like I used to jump around, but I’m still up there playing.
There must be a lot of trip hazards on the stage. I trip over all the time, you know. I tripped over getting off the aeroplane to get here. Like, just fell over in the tunnel as I disembarked. It’s just embarrassing. So, I was so embarrassed about the disease that I didn’t even tell my family for like, five years. How long did it take you? Because you announced it to the world.
Art:
You know the thing is, I was diagnosed in 2016. My friends and my band, it hit them really hard. But in 2018 I stArt:ed working on a solo record. I wrote a song about it called The Hot Water Test. I figured if it was going to be out there in the world, I should probably talk about it. So, I wrote a letter and put it out on social media, and it went viral. So, it’s been a thing where I had to process it.
Yeah, so I guess similarly, I didn’t tell anyone but then I did this hike in California, the Sierra Nevada. It was 500 miles. And because I’m really a travel writer, I wrote an Art:icle about it for Outside Magazine. And I knew that then my family would find out and everybody would find out, so I told them ahead of time. But that was my way of kind of like getting over it and coming to terms with it.
Art:
I think that’s proper. I did the same thing. It gives you a little bit of what I need. I need to understand it. I need to understand how it’s going to affect my life, and how I can communicate it. Did you do the Pacific Trail up to Oregon?
Not the whole way. I went from Donner Pass south to Kennedy Meadows. It was 2023 and I don’t know if you remember but it was a high snow year, like the biggest snow year ever. The whole trail for 450 miles. It was so much snow and the meltwater and the river crossings were very dangerous.
Art:
Did you do it by yourself?
Yeah, pretty much. But I expected to meet people, you know, but because it was such a difficult year, nobody went. Anyway, because it was so snowy, this is what I worked out, that’s why I was able to walk better than normal. Because of the cold. The cold helped me a lot. And I had trekking poles.
Freddy:
You actually did the whole 500 miles?
Yeah. And I must have fallen over 500 times.
Freddy:
Wow. How long did it take you?
43 days. I got a tattoo of the route on my back – a sort of souvenir map.
Art:
Yeah, that’s cool.
So, I saw on social media your announcement, I remember, and I wanted to write a comment, “Yeah, me too!” but you know how Facebook works – all my friends might see it, and I didn’t want them to see it.
Art:
These are bracelets (shows his wrists) that people throw on stage that, either they have MS or someone else they know does. There’s ‘MS sucks’, and orange is the colour of MS. So I’ve got like a container at home, next to my bed, of that many (indicates a large amount), and I change them around. I was wearing all of them at one time, but it’s like, man, it’s just driving me nuts, trying to swim and all. You know, as far as exercise is concerned, you can’t be overheating, so swimming is perfect. Unfortunately, my pool was destroyed by the Pasadena fire. My whole outside was. My house was smoke damaged, and water damaged. We were living in a hotel for four months.
So apart from (your solo single) “The Hot Water Test”, how has it come through in your songwriting?
Art:
I don’t know that it has really. I mean, I’m writing for the first time again. After the solo record, I was just like, I’m done making records. I don’t need to do it anymore. But after all the shit that went down, I’m starting to work on songs. I didn’t plan on working on songs. It just sort of come on out. So ask me that question in 2026, after the new album comes out.
In your touring routine, have you had to change things around?
Art:
I have to avoid inflammatory foods, and sugar… I’m a recovering drug addict and alcoholic so I love sugar, but I can’t eat it and so it’s changed the way I eat. One of the things that has happened is the fatigue for me is very bad. I don’t know if that affects you, but before I go on stage I like to have a nap. Today I’m not going to get a nap, but it’s a half hour show so it should be okay.
So, next tour, it looks like you might in the future have the Welcome to the Afterglow 30th anniversary.
Art:
Yeah, that’ll happen. Next year will be the new album, then that.
I think it was the 20th anniversary that I missed in Sydney. I just can’t believe that was the 20th anniversary and now the 30th is right around the corner.
Art:
It goes really quick man.
I was overseas. I was so gutted that I missed it and now it’s like, well, I just had to wait, apparently, for a couple of years and it’s come around again. But yeah, hopefully I’ll be around for it.
Art:
I don’t know if they checked the venue with us, but it’s somewhere in the suburbs.
The Crowbar is where you normally play.
Art:
Oh my God, this one time at the Crowbar, it was so hot. Up in the front where all the people are, it’s so hot and if it’s hot outside because, you know, it’s summertime and they just got this one big, slow ceiling fan (mimes the fan rotating incredibly slowly). That’s why I’m glad we’re coming a little bit earlier this year, it’s gonna be a little bit cooler.
You know when you go onto stage, you just go through the bar, and we knew that there was no backstage, so we sat at the table next to the stage door to see you. You have to walk past people who are eating their chips.
Freddy:
Yeah, it’s right there.
Yeah, so after you guys go in, we rush back around and in and straight to the front. And then I think one of you came out after the gig, to the bar.
Freddy:
That was probably Davey.
Art:
We don’t drink.
No, of course. He drinks for everyone.
Everclear will be touring Australia in late 2025 as part of their 30th anniversary tour for Sparkle & Fade. Tour dates are yet to be announced, but keep checking at https://www.everclearmusic.com/
Photos of Everclear by Lexie Alley, provided by Welcome to Rockville.
