For E's A Jolly Good Fellow

The Eels’ latest record, Blinking Lights And Other Revelations, is unquestionably their most ambitious to date. A sprawling, stylistically diverse double album of extraordinary thematic sweep, it reflects life in it all its bittersweet glory, whilst offering melodies you can whistle in the shower into the bargain. One might say it’s the record Mark Everett, aka E, has been threatening to make his entire career, marrying the percipient lyrical observations of ‘Susan’s House’, ‘Novocaine For The Soul’ etc, with the kind of daring musical experimentation The Eels have specialised in since first making an impact on the US underground scene in 1993.
Taking nothing less than love and loss, life and death – you know, the standard Eels fare – as its subject matter, Blinking Lights has the scope of a truly great novel or book, a fact which, regrettably, prompts the dread phrase “concept album” to creep sneakily into one’s mind. Is it a description E is comfortable or uncomfortable with?
“I dunno, it’s a tricky thing,” considers E, relaxing after a spot of lunch in Jury’s Inn, Christchurch, on the day of The Eels’ recent Dublin show. “When you say ‘concept album’, you immediately think of a Genesis rock opera or something. I mean, to me, all the albums have some sort of concept. Blinking Lights has actually existed in various forms over the years, but I could never quite hit on a format that I was happy with. One version was gonna have more of an obvious, birth-to-death kinda narrative, but I decided I didn’t like that. The key for me was when I hit on the idea that this record was going to be something you feel, much more than something you would think about and really analyse. And that was when I decided to include instrumentals, and to space it out over two discs so that the material would have some breathing space.”
Interestingly, a lot of artists – mostly male, American and broadly operating in the alternative rock genre, it has to be said – seem to reach a certain point in their careers, maybe three or four albums in, where they feel the need to stretch themselves creatively and experiment with the double album format. You can’t help but wonder, whether it be E or Trent Reznor or Billy Corgan, if what double albums ultimately represent are a self-conscious attempt at a masterpiece.
“It’s an interesting question, but speaking purely for myself, I don’t really think so,” replies E. “A double album just felt right to me. I kept making these different versions of the record over several years, but I could never get to the point where I felt happy with it. It’s not the case that I think everything I record is great and I want to put every last song I have out there. In fact, Blinking Lights could have been a four-disc set!
“I spent most of last year on this schedule of recording for two weeks and then not recording for two weeks, and during the two weeks of not recording, what I’d do was listen to what I had so far, and try to edit it and sequence it into the best record it could be at that point. And then by the end of the two weeks of doing that, I would realise, ‘Okay, I don’t need these four or five songs’, and I’d have a clearer idea of what I did need. I was always keeping my eye on the big picture. It’s actually a great way to do it, if you can afford to work on that kind of schedule.”
Listening to Blinking Lights, it actually reminded me most of Robert Altman’s movie Short Cuts, purely because of its brilliance in reflecting the full spectrum of human emotion.
“That was a real breakthrough for me, when I started thinking about it like a movie,” says E excitedly. “I’ve always been a Raymond Carver fan, and I do like those little slices of life. Funnily enough though, I do tend to be influenced a bit more by movies rather than books these days. I was particularly inspired in the making of Blinking Lights by old Ingmar Bergman films, and one film that was really a huge inspiration for me was 2001: A Space Odyssey. That was a film that really confounded people when it came out. It wasn’t following the usual linear storylines; Kubrick designed it to be something you feel. It was something that really perplexed a lot of people, and ironically the first people to embrace this really cerebral film were the stoned hippies! (Laughs) They were the only ones that were able to just let go and feel it.
“So that was a big inspiration to me, in the sense that I should just be brave enough to make something that you might not get on the first listen. If you have to write about this album on a deadline, it’s probably going to be a negative review, I would guess. It’s probably going to say that it’s boring, or that it doesn’t go anywhere or whatever. But like 2001, it’s designed to get under your skin. The first time you listen to it, it might not fully register, but by the third or fourth time, hopefully it’ll take you by surprise and you’ll really start to get into it.”
There are also a few guest appearances on the album, most notably by Tom Waits and the Lovin Spoonful’s John Sebastian. How did the duo come to be involved?
“Well, John is a great songwriter, y’know?” responds E. “He was one of John Lennon’s favourite songwriters.”
I always really loved ‘Summer In The City’.
“Yeah, it’s an amazing song,” nods E. “I was having lunch with him one day, and we were trying to talk but there was a guy with a jackhammer on the sidewalk, so it was difficult for either of us to hear what the other was saying. Then when it was over, he said, ‘That was annoying. But you never know when one of those will come in handy’. And it wasn’t until later I realised that he was referring to ‘Summer In The City’! Cos you know it has that part where all the music stops, and you just hear the jackhammers and all the other urban sound effects.
“In Tom’s case, I had heard rumours over the years from various sources that he’d been listening to The Eels, but my low self-esteem wouldn’t let me believe that was true, because he’s such a hero of mine. Then he nominated our last album, Shootenanny, for the Shortlist Music Prize, which is like America’s version of the Mercury Music Prize, I guess. And I still thought it must be a typo, like, ‘this can’t be true!’ And then eventually I got a phone-call from him.
“And the person who gave my phone number to him later called and said, “I hope it’s okay that I gave your phone number to Tom Waits”. And I said, “Yeah, you know I have that rule: if John Lennon, Bob Dylan or Tom Waits ask for my number it’s okay to give it out!” Even when I was talking to him, I was thinking that this might be an impersonator (laughs). But it was pretty surreal talking to him; he was interested in how I go about songwriting and so forth. And of course I’m really interested in how he approaches things, so it was a great fun and just a really cool experience.”
Also making an appearance on the album is E’s dog, Bobby Jr.
“That’s right,” says E. “A lot of people are actually upset that he hasn’t been able to come out and tour with us. It’s just too much for him. I was lying down on the bus last night thinking, ‘I wish Bobby Jr. was here.’ But he can’t even jump up on a bed. And getting on and off the bus would be way too tall an order for him.”
How did Bobby Jr. get drafted into the recording process?
“He didn’t get drafted as much he demanded to be heard,” recalls E. “We were in the middle of recording, and he just started going (makes howling noise) ‘Aaaawwooooh’. So, y’know, we just miked him up and recorded him. We even put the headphones on him! (laughs).”
Recently, E also had the pleasure of recording a radio session in the company of the Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones, who interviewed E as part of the promotional push for Blinking Lights.
“Yeah, I did that just last week,” says E. “He’s been living in LA for a long time, and he has his own show, Jonesy’s Jukebox. It was really fun, he’s a very entertaining guy. Like, out of his mind! The first thing he did was pull his shirt up, show me his belly and ask me if I thought he was fat. Then he started patting his stomach and saying, (inch perfect Jones impression) ‘That’s E spanking me bum!’ I thought I was only going to be there for fifteen minutes, and do a couple of tunes on the guitar, but I ended staying for about an hour, and we jammed together on six or seven songs. It was really fun. But it’s unbelievable, you know? Sometimes you have these special moments, like you’ve just played a great show or met someone you really admire, and I can’t help think, ‘It’s incredible that I get paid to do this’.”
And long may it continue.

Blinking Lights And Other Revelations is out now on Dreamworks