Happily ever after | Music Features | Oklahoma City

Most men and women go on honeymoons, but the founders of the Honeymoon Rock Fest are bringing the honeymoon to by themselves.

The festival’s founder will be wedding day her spouse on March 17, the working day the 3-day celebration kicks off. A who’s who of 90s mainstream rock acts, the competition operates March 18 – 20 at Remington Park.

Art Alexakis, the singer-songwriter and guitarist of the multiplatinum choice rock band Everclear spoke with Oklahoma Gazette from his California home.

Alexakis turns 60 afterwards this month and has been with his wife for extra than two a long time. He shared loads of insights about existence, appreciate and rock ‘n’ roll. Below are some of the highlights.

Oklahoma Gazette: What in the hell kind of male who named his band immediately after the most difficult liquor in the environment, pure grain liquor, wants to converse at 9 in the morning.

Art Alexakis: The sober dude … [Honeymoon Rock Fest] was supposed to be final summer and COVID pushed it again. So it can be us and a entire bunch of alternate bands from the 90s and it is a enthusiasm task for the people today putting it on and I obtain it really intriguing to see how they are gonna pull this off. For me, it really is a likelihood to see close friends I have not witnessed for a though and also a probability to just to go out and participate in rock and roll, which is a blessing. And getting a man who has been clear and sober for just about 33 yrs. I am really considerably current about gratitude and about the very good points that I have in my life correct now. Any chance to engage in new music with my band, and to, to hold out with them and to cling out with other folks and to perform music for people today who like my songs, male, it is really just a acquire-get-win.

OKG: You’ve been undertaking this so lengthy. I’ve constantly puzzled, do people who enjoy music for a residing ever get ill of it? You’ve got been doing this like practically your complete grownup existence.

Alexakis: No. [laughs] You will find moments when, like anything at all, if I am on tour for a although, yeah, I might like to be at home. I went via a time period when I was undertaking a bunch of flyaway dates and my spouse arrived to me and stated, “Man, you know, it appears like you might be phoning it in. It appears like you happen to be just there simply because we require the dollars to stay on and you’re not feeling passionate about it.” And, at initial, I was type of pissy about that, I bought all indignant and stuff but I began pondering about it. And I was. I wasn’t staying current. I’ve claimed this a thousand periods: the form of songs I write that is pretty significantly storytelling, music like “Father of Mine” and “Wonderful,” which definitely emotionally contact men and women, I can’t telephone those tracks in or individuals are not likely to invest in it. I have to link with them. There has to be a amount of enthusiasm and emphasis and intimacy that I have to put out as a singer when I perform those tracks, and for my spouse to convey to me that was really the catalyst, what I desired, to acquire a couple of days and just consider about it and just hook up it. And that was about 10 many years back, and I have not experienced that given that … I’ve talked to other musicians who are absent as a result of this type of expertise, specifically when you might be cleanse and sober. When you’re not clear and sober, it’s easy to not join with your self and be current. It can be tricky to be existing when you are self-medicated, regardless of what that medication is.

OKG: You experienced some very, really popular music early on that now, 30 years afterwards, persons are wanting are gonna want to listen to. As significantly as these songs go, do you ever just go, “Damn, I do not want to perform tune X, Y or Z these days?

Alexakis: Never. And I get seriously pissy with bands that will not play their hits. I assume it’s disrespectful. Dig this — Not just disrespectful to the enthusiasts that want to listen to it, but currently being disrespectful to themselves, due to the fact they wrote that song or they made that tune what it was and next, they are staying disrespectful to the track as an entity. And I am extremely, quite grateful to the tunes and to the skill that I’ve been able to do that due to the fact it can be reworked my lifetime. I grew up in a fucking housing project, man. I was a drug addict. I was fuckin’ shit broke my whole lifetime. I appeared like a musician. I played in bands. But I was not performing it. And when I received thoroughly clean and sober, I obtained concentrated. I was currently damn around 40. And I understood I had to both do this or do anything else. And I’m quite grateful that these songs have purchased me properties and divorces and a different life. I say that on stage, I go, “Here’s the tune that modified my everyday living, introduced me to the earth and, let us be honest, a pair of divorces far too.” Perhaps I’ll go into stand-up, who the fuck is aware of? … Man, stand-up comedians, that is the hardest gig in the earth. It really is just obtained to be the toughest gig in the globe exactly where you can go out and just get rid of just one evening and then the upcoming day, do the same point and just bomb.

OKG: Given your existence experience and obviously a joyful and prosperous relationship for you now, What tips would you give to folks who are just opening that door, maybe for the initially time?

Alexakis: Will not lie. Really don’t do everything that helps make you have to lie. Don’t say, do or act in a way at any time when you happen to be not with your spouse that you would not act if they have been sitting appropriate following to you. Very seriously. And that is hard, but that is how it operates. And I wasn’t ready to do all those in my preceding interactions. And now, not only am I keen, I glimpse ahead to it. It helps make us closer. Adversarial factors that materialize make you more robust soon after you get in excess of it. The a single issue I would say is, if you get into a romantic relationship in which you fall in really like, get into couples treatment then just before the baggage, to decrease the baggage, all the other motives why you’re not with your ex, each simply because of what you’ve performed and what they did. In any case, this is turning into existence coaching, I’m gonna ship you a invoice.