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| Name | Art Alexakis |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Arthur Paul Alexakis |
| Born | April 12, 1962 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Genre | Rock, acoustic |
| Instrument | Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Bass, Mandolin, Banjo |
| Label | Eleven Seven Music, Capitol, Tim/Kerr, Shindig |
| Associated acts | Everclear, Colorfinger, The Easy Hoes, Shakin' Brave |
| Url | www.everclearonline.com |
There, he came into direct contact with the area's criminal and drug culture. His brother George died of a heroin overdose when Alexakis was 12. Alexakis's 15-year-old girlfriend committed suicide also when he was 12. Not long after her death, Alexakis attempted suicide by filling his pockets with sand and lead weights, and jumping off the Santa Monica Pier. He claims that the vision and voice of his brother George compelled him to survive.
Over the next eight years, he was shuffled around between various family members all over the country. He spent a brief period in Houston, Texas, living with his father, and a period in Roseburg, Oregon, living with his sister, a born-again Christian, and her husband. Eventually, he returned to LA to live with his mother. He attended journalism school for a time, and worked as a music reviewer for The Evening Outlook, a small newspaper in Santa Monica. Eventually, a near-fatal cocaine overdose pushed him to quit drugs cold turkey.
While living in San Francisco, Alexakis stumbled upon a genre of music known as "cowpunk". The sound meshed together the two prevalent forms of music with which he grew up - which involved the tunefulness of country and the distorted guitars/fast tempo from rock and roll. Inspired, Alexakis established Shindig Records. Much of this period was explicitly detailed in the album, Deep in the Heart of the Beast in the Sun, which was originally intended as a solo album, but gradually developed into a group project under the name Colorfinger.
In 1992, within a single month, Shindig went bankrupt, Colorfinger disbanded, and Alexakis' girlfriend Jenny became pregnant. Seeking a change of scenery, Alexakis moved to Portland, Oregon. There, he married his girlfriend and had a daughter named Annabella Rose Alexakis.
The instability and personal turmoil Alexakis experienced throughout his life would directly inspire his lyrics. "Father of Mine" and "Why I Don't Believe in God" described his difficult youth. "Heroin Girl", "Strawberry", and "Color Pit" touched upon his drug addictions. Everclear's first major album, Sparkle & Fade, deals with the themes of escape and redemption that pervaded his life upon leaving San Francisco.
Alexakis has also dabbled in songwriting with other artists, including co-writing the song "At the End of the Day" released on Marion Raven's 2005 and 2007 albums, Here I Am and Set Me Free, respectively.
In August 2006, Alexakis appeared on The O'Reilly Factor discussing the music video for "Hater", the first single from Everclear's Welcome to the Drama Club.
On October 30, 2007, he announced on MySpace that he is planning on releasing an album of cover songs next year. He also said that he is planning on going on a solo tour. In February 2008, he announced that the album would be released on April 15, 2008, titled The Vegas Years.
In October 2008, Alexakis entered the studio with the Minneapolis-based band Apparently Nothing to produce their debut album, tentatively titled The Middle Coast.
He has also been involved in drug awareness programs, including the taping of Public service announcements for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Along with Everclear, he has performed for U.S. soldiers in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Hawaii. He has also performed for Snowball Express, which provides events for military families who lost loved ones in the war.
On January 4, 2005, Alexakis filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in United States Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California. According to the filing, Alexakis owed a federal tax bill for the years 1999, 2001 and 2002 of $2.75 million, as well as nearly $230,000 to the Oregon Department of Revenue and more than $120,000 in credit card debt spread over several accounts. As a result of the bankruptcy, he sold all his rights to the previous Everclear catalogue in order to pay some off.
During his younger years, Alexakis was an atheist. However, in an August 2000 interview with Spin magazine, Alexakis stated that he is a Christian. Speaking about his then-fiancée Stephanie Greig, he said, "She's a Christian, and I'm a Christian—my ex isn't—and so I was like, it's okay to be a Christian. I'm not like a born-again... Well, I guess I am born-again, in a way. But I don't knock people over the head with it. I just kind of use my spirituality to make my life better."
Alexakis made his religious conversion more widely known in his MySpace blog upon release of the Everclear song "Jesus Was a Democrat." Alexakis stated that he is a "left-wing Christian".
With Colorfinger:
With Everclear:
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