Eels frontman E on the joy of having a son borne out of a ‘mismatched’ marriage
The multi-talented musician, 54, open ups about being a new parent, his relationship with his father and the death of his dog
He's the only son of Hugh Everett III, genius quantum physicist who devised the “many worlds” theory.
Dad had genetics that needed preserving but Eels leader Mark Oliver Everett, known by his stage name
E, believed the Everett line would die with him.
In the final chapter of his 2008 autobiography, Things The Grandchildren Should Know, E made a poignant observation.
The book’s title was ironic, he stated, because he had no children, let alone the prospect of grandchildren.
Hugh died of a heart attack aged 51 in 1981, hardly surprising, E once said, because “he let himself become grossly overweight, smoked three packs a day, drank like a fish and never exercised”.
And, as documented so movingly on the Eels album Electro-Shock Blues, E’s only sibling — his sister Elizabeth — took her own life childless.
Now, much to the 54-year-old singer’s amazement, the unlikely Everett succession has finally been assured with the arrival of a son, Archie.
After 25 years of turning out regular music, including making three albums at once, workaholic E forced himself to take a break after touring the last Eels album, 2014’s The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett.
“I decided to look at the other side of life,” he tells me during a short trip to Britain to promote the comeback Eels album, The Deconstruction. “I treated the time as a bit of a to-do list.
“I got married, briefly. It wasn’t a good match as a marriage but, as a result, I had a son.”
There’s a short, sweet song near the end of the new album called Archie Goodnight, a loving lullaby to the new little Everett.
“Archie is quite an unexpected part of my story,” says E. “To hold my own child is quite incredible and surreal.
“The fact that my book title might make sense now is amazing to me, in that my father Hugh Everett has a grandson. He’s essentially Hugh Everett the 5th.
“I always thought my family name was going to stop with me, so knowing it will keep going is wonderful.”
E’s looking well, and by his standards, reasonably relaxed. The trademark beard that ranges between designer stubble and scary wolf-man is of medium density this time round.
The new dad can’t resist asking me: “How many kids do you have?”
“Three,” I reply. “But the youngest is 20 and the eldest just got married. I started a bit younger than you.”
E cries: “You’re smart! Everyone my age now is becoming an empty-nester and I’m like, ‘Oh s**t! I’ll be running to the grave with this.’”
Becoming a parent represents a major recalibration for E, helping him get perspective on his life in music.
“I’m so lucky that I get to work as much as I do, but it got to the point where I realised how one-sided my life had become.
“It was all work and I was so worn out. I was a mess.
“I knew I needed to pay attention to all the things I was neglecting, which was literally everything that wasn’t work.”
E’s known for being an enigmatic character and rarely has he been so unguarded when he says: “If I hadn’t stopped when I did, I would certainly have had some big breakdown.
“I was just trying to avoid that. It almost was like a breakdown in a way, but not quite full-blown. So I just tried to relax, enjoy not having to work and try to enjoy life.”
E found one good way to relax, as he explains: “I like to put on vinyl and I tend to gravitate towards ridiculous old records.
“I’m going through a phase now where I can’t get enough of Sinatra records that you’re not supposed to like, from the late Sixties and early Seventies.”
“There’s a certain charm in Frank Sinatra trying to act groovy. I also like late-period Elvis.”
E enjoys a good boxset, too, and Mad Men, the classic series set in America’s cut-throat Sixties’ advertising world, is his favourite.
This brings us on to his cameo acting role in Judd Apatow’s Netflix romcom Love.
His first appearance was in an episode directed by John Slattery, who played the louche Roger Sterling in Mad Men.
“I actually met John at an Eels concert several years ago while Mad Men was still on the air. I was off stage between encores and the tour manager said, ‘Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and Roger Sterling are here!’
“I was like, ‘Oh my god’ because I’m a huge Mad Men fan and we’ve become friends since then. I’m currently re-watching all of Mad Men. That’s what I was doing last night.”
And how is E finding acting the role of Brian? “It’s very fun and very challenging,” he says. “
It’s invigorating to do something so different. I’m still doing it and I appear in season three.”
But one sad event interrupted E’s time out of the music limelight, the death last year of his beloved rescue dog, Bobby Jr.
I’ll never forget the happy afternoon I spent in the company of E and the brown and white mutt with wonky front legs in the singer’s home neighbourhood of Los Feliz, Los Angeles.
“That’s right, you met Bobby Jr, so you know that he was the perfect dog,” says E, who dedicated The Deconstruction to the faithful friend that was part of his life for 14 years.
“As a memorial to him, I now have two barky little dogs, named Manson and Bundy because they’re terrors! (Charles Manson and Ted Bundy being mass murderers, of course.)
“They are such s**tty little dogs that they’re constant reminders Bobby Jr was perfect — the ultimate memorial.”
So what breed are they? “I thought they might be Jack Russells,” he replies. “But I did the DNA thing and they are literally a mix of every barkiest breed.
“They can be incredibly annoying but I’m totally in love with them.”
As for Bobby Jr, it’s important to note that you can hear him singing, all right howling, on Last Time We Spoke from 2005’s Blinking Lights album, that he appeared in a couple of Eels videos and that he had his own range of merchandise.
“There’s still Bobby Jr merch,” says E. “I don’t know if Manson and Bundy will become public figures. They don’t have the same voice as Bobby’s.”
As for the album dedicated to “our fallen brother” Bobby, The Deconstruction is a 15-track slice of classic Eels, pervaded by familiar melancholia but accented by shafts of sunlight in the form of twinkling tunes and moments of lyrical positivity.
Perfectionist E has clearly poured his heart and soul into the thought-provoking record — and like each previous opus, it has a singular character.
“When I first took that break, I thought I might be done for good because that’s how worn out I was,” he says.
“I’ve always thought the latest album is potentially the last. Each one takes so much effort that I feel it has to be the best. They kill me.”
E believes time is the best judge of his work. “Ultimately, you don’t know for five or ten years how a record measures up but I do feel this is a pretty good one.”
The title track, with its handsome strings courtesy of the so-called Deconstruction Orchestra & Choir, opens the album and sets the tone for what follows. “I’ll break apart,” he maintains over a feather-light arrangement.
“To me, it’s about tearing down the defences we build,” says E. “We spend most of our lives building walls but what’s underneath, what are we protecting?
“One of the things about having a kid is that you see pure innocence and beauty. You know it’s a s**tshow from there on but how do you protect that sweetness? We’re all so vulnerable. I don’t think anybody is born a ‘bad seed’, it’s what you do after that and a lot of us are dealt a bad hand.”
Like so many albums coming out of America, The Deconstruction can’t help but reflect the country’s social and political landscape since the election of Donald Trump.
Liberal musicians like E, it’s fair to say, aren’t fans of the sandy-haired incumbent.
He gives this insight: “We recorded the song Today Is The Day around the time Trump became president and I was like, ‘Today is NOT the day!’
“But then you must still TRY to make today the day.”
His thinking explains one of the album’s most upbeat numbers, a jaunty, forward-facing three-minute romp.
E says: “I’ve always prided myself at not getting overtly political in my songs because I’ve never been a big fan of that. I always thought John Lennon was much better at singing about his personal struggles than he was at politics.
“But things have got so ridiculous now that even I have to address it, but I do it in a very subtle way.
EELS - The Deconstruction Tracklist
- The Deconstruction
- Bone Dry
- The Quandary
- Premonition
- Rusty Pipes
- The Epiphany
- Today Is The Day
- Sweet Scorched Earth
- Coming Back
- Be Hurt
- You Are The Shining Light
- There I Said It
- Archie Goodnight
- The Unanswerable
- In Our Cathedral
“There’s a song called Sweet Scorched Earth that probably wouldn’t exist if Trump hadn’t become president.”
It’s a love song but will the protagonist and his partner survive a world where “there’s poison in the hearts of cheerless men”?
The album features E’s long-time associates Koool G Murder and P-Boo as well as reuniting Eels with producer Mickey Petralia for the first time since Electro-Shock Blues.
E says: “I tried to keep an experimental vibe to the recording process. There are choral orchestral elements but then it’s all f***ed up. It’s not like Daisies Of The Galaxy, which had very straight orchestral scores in some songs.”
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One track, Bone Dry, has a direct link with the werewolf-inspired Fresh Blood from 2009’s Hombre Lobo.
“I thought it would be interesting if the guy who’s singing Fresh Blood, the hunter, becomes the hunted. I’m taking the opposite role of victim.”
E says he rarely draws on former glories but this is “an overt attempt at taking inspiration from something in the past and turning it on its head”.
Before we call it a day, I ask E about the Eels tour, which includes UK dates in July and has posters modestly describing the band as “the world’s No1 entertainers”.
E’s quite a serious guy but he loves a bit of irony. “There was a comment online, YouTube or somewhere, that said, ‘More like the world’s 10,000th entertainers’.”