Mark Oliver Everett’s Biography
From 1963 until now

LIFE in VIRGINIA

McLean, VA. On 10th of April 1963, Nancy Everett, wife of Dr. Hugh Everett III, author of the Many Worlds Theory, gives her son Mark Oliver to birth. Mark, who is called E by his friends to distinguish him from other friends called Mark, is not interested in physics like his father. His passion is music.

At the age of six he begs his parents to buy him toy drums at a garage sale in the neighbourhood. He plays on these drums for years, plays guitar and is playing songs on piano. Neil Young has a big influence on him. On 22nd of October 1978, Mark and his sister Elizabeth attend a Neil Young concert. E is obsessed with writing music. After a period of trouble with the law, being arrested and thrown out of school, E finds his father dead, who had passed away because of a heart attack.

In the 80ies E plays in several bands and produces loads of demo tapes. One of the bands he is in is called “The Toasters” which he forms with Richard Aspinwall (guitar), Granger Helvey (bass), Chris Ivy (guitar) and Mike Kelley (keys). E, or Mark E as he calls himself in this decade, plays drums in “The Toasters”. The band becomes fairly successful in the local area, opening for some national acts and headlining several local venues. Mark inspires very cool arrangements of well known covers like The Monkee’s “I’m a Believer” (long before it was resurrected for the Shrek film). E is also part of the band “ASAP” (named after one of the band members had to go under an “Alcohol & Substance Abuse Prevention Program”). The group consists of Mark (drums), Paul Straw (guitar), Mark Pohlen (bass) and Richard Aspinwall (guitar). Look at the ASAP flyer – E is the one on the far left.

On his MySpace profile Mark Pohlen describes his memories from that time: “The first song ASAP played in public was ‘Revival’ by the Allman Bros. We often finished our gigs with a tune called ‘Waterhole’ by The Outlaws.” The band was very popular on Langley High. “ASAP was our rock band and the “ASAPingtons” were our school rock stars. They played ZZ Top, Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton and I can’t remember what else. It was fun…” tells another friend of Mark.

Friends from this period describe Mark “to be a little cold. If he knew you, he’d open-up and be quite charming, If he didn’t he could be kinda quiet. He was very popular with the females.” Also, people describe him as a “nice guy” who tried to hide his “bad home life” from his friends.

As also mentioned in his autobiography Mark works in several different places including jobs at a print shop and at a gas station (see photo of “CIA Exxon” gas station on the left).

After that Mark moves on to produce his first little record “Bad Dude In Love”, which surfaces 20 years later on ebay (and is eventually quickly bought by the Eels management). The record is a labor of love that his late father had made possible, and the album is appropriately dedicated to him. E gets help from a number of friends in the making of this record, including Bob Read, Granger Helvey, Cheyenne Wilson, Mike Kelly, Mark Pohien, Kevin Cooke, Mike Melchione, Chris Ivy, Jimbo Manion, Richard Aspinwall, Cyndi Krombholz and Sandi Welch; plus Dave Herrling and Jo Ann Weiss (who both created the album cover art). This album is not mentioned in E’s autobiography; and there is some speculation over this fact. Some suggest E might be ashamed of his songwriting on this record. While the album is very enjoyable and an interesting example of the development of his musical abilities, it is definitely a bit cheesy and very 1980s. Friends of that time speculate that the record “was created before his carefully crafted persona came into being”, and therefore E does not want his fans to know about it. Furthermore, notice how “No Thanks to Liz” is printed in the lower right corner on the back of “Bad Dude in Love” (see last Bad Dude scan below). Maybe this is one of the reasons why Mark ignores the album nowadays. Maybe he feels bad for putting such a sentence about his now dead sister on the back of a record.

LIFE in LOS ANGELES

It is not long after Bad Dude that Mark heads out west to his destiny. E leaves Virginia and moves to L.A., where he doesn’t know anybody. E leaves all of his friends behind, as well. The only person from his time in Virginia he is still in touch with is his best friend from high school, Anthony “Ant” Cain aka “Black Angus”. In 1987 he starts working as an engineer, producer and other backstage music jobs for artists like Jim Monroe, Big Punisher, Gameface, Nomad and others. In 1991 E signs a contract to record two albums for Polydor.
After touring as a support act for Tori Amos, his first record A Man Called (E) comes out in early 1992, which includes the alternative-hit single Hello Cruel World. A year later his second album, called Broken Toy Shop comes out. The broken toy tour takes place in 1993 and 1994 with Jonathan “Butch” Norton on drums. After being dropped from Polydor because of bad sales (?), E decides to work under a different name. Together with drummer Butch and bassist Tommy Walter, E founds Eels.

Tommy says about the creation of the band “I met E at an open mic night but Butch wasn’t there. That night I was playing bass with Jon Brion and a drummer named Buddy Judge. One of the songs we played was ‘Not Ready Yet’ that ended up on Beautiful Freak. Jon co-wrote that song. E joined us for a few other songs but I can’t remember what they were. I saw him again at a friend’s apartment and told him that I was looking to work with other musicians. He called me, then later he dropped off a cassette tape of the demos that eventually became Beautiful Freak. I was interested so the next step was to go to Butch’s garage and play with them. Then E just said, “Let’s do this regularly” or something like that. And that was that. And by the way, I named Butch. I’m taking credit for that nickname right here and now. He just seemed like a Butch to me.”

The band, which is one of the first that sign for Spielberg’s Dreamworks Records, records their first album, called Beautiful Freak. The single Novocaine For The Soul (which was actually recorded years before its release) becomes Eels’ biggest hit to date. Apparently, E wrote about 60 tracks for Beautiful Freak.

Just prior to the release of the album E’s sister Elizabeth commits suicide. In her suicide note she writes that she is going to a parallel universe to be with her father. After touring, collecting a Brit Award, presented to E and Butch by Spinal Tap, (Butch soon turned it into a cymbal stand, to illustrate that it was actually worth something), and giving director Wim Wenders, who becomes a good friend of E, the song Bad News for the soundtrack to his film The End of Violence, doctors diagnose lung cancer on E’s mother Nancy.
While she suffers, E writes the record Electro-Shock Blues, where he tries to overcome his depressions which deal with his sister and his mother. Many people assume the album is “depressing”, but E calls it “probably the most positive record I will ever make”. At the end of the record in P.S You Rock My World, E comes to the conclusion that “I was thinking about how everyone is dying, and maybe it’s time to live”. The album includes collaborations with E’s neighbours and friends, Mike Simpson (Dust Brothers), Mickey P., Grant Lee Phillips (Grant Lee Buffalo), Jon Brion (Aimee Mann) and T-Bone Burnett.

Two years later the next album Daisies of the Galaxy is released. It picks up where “Electro-Shock Blues” left off. “The challenge was to figure out where one can go from ‘Electro-Shock Blues’, and I wanted to go up. I wanted to make a record that was fun and in love with life, but reflected life realistically,” says E.

After touring as the Eels Orchestra 2000, E meets John Parish, who had worked for PJ Harvey, on the British TV show Top Of The Pops. Together they write and produce Eels’ next album, Souljacker, which comes out in late 2001 in Europe, and in March 2002 in the States. On the bonus disc of this record the song “Rotten World Blues”can be found, which contains lyrics about E’s wife at the time, Natasha Kovaleva. He had married the Russian dentist a year before. Director Wim Wenders shoots the fantastic video for the single Souljacker Part I.

In the summer of 2002 E scores the film Levity. In November Eels record their fifth album called Shootenanny!, which comes out in June 2003. Old friend Lisa Germano, who had been a member of the Orchestra, plays violin and sings background vocals on that album. Also, E releases an album called I am the messiah! using an alter ego called MC Honky.
In the summer of 2003 Eels tour in about 80 cities all over the world. A year later, in 2004, Eels contribute a song to the soundtrack of the blockbuster Shrek 2, which is called I Need Some Sleep.
Also, Dreamworks Records breaks up, and Eels move to Vagrant Records.

On April 25th, 2005 an epic-33-track-double album, called Blinking Lights And Other Revelations, proclaimed as the “mother of all eels albums, hits the stores worldwide. It is received very very well by both fans and press. An absolutely astonishing record.
Later E goes on tour as EELS with strings. This successful tour confirms E among the world’s greatest artists. The concert in New York’s Town Hall had been filmed and recorded. February 2006 sees the release of both the Live DVD and CD of this wonderful evening.

In 2006 Eels surprisingly announce a tour without any release to promote. The No Strings Attached Tour brings Eels back on stage as a rock-combo. After this wild tour of rock E only makes some rare appearances, such as an evening with Pete Townshend and Rachel Fuller in November 2006. Also in 2007 E rarely appears on stage. He does a gig with Lucinda Williams where he hooks up with Butch again who is the drummer of Lucinda at this time, and also makes an appearance in L.A.’s Largo club.

Contrary to the year before, 2008 sees several releases of the band. Eels release a best-of set (“Meet the Eels Vol.1: Essential Eels”) and a B-sides collection which is named “Useless Trinkets”. Moreover, E releases his highly acclaimed autobiography (“Things The Grandchildren Should Know”) in early 2008. Furthermore, Eels finally go on tour again (“An Evening With Eels”).

Also, 2007 is the year of the 50th anniversary of E’s father’s (Hugh Everett III) most important contribution to science – a controversial theory of quantum mechanics that predicts the existence of parallel universes. It was one of the most fantastic scientific predictions ever to have been conceived. Fittingly, E stars in a documentary produced by BBC 4 called “Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives”, in which E travels across America in order to find out more about his father. E found the making of this film very rewarding: “It was one of the most satisfying projects I’ve ever been involved with, on every level. I thought they [the BBC] did a great job with it, and also really helped me a lot personally.”

In 2009 E releases “Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire” but refuses to tour, as he is not “going to disrespect the audience by going out there and doing something that my heart’s not into”. Only 6 months after the release he publishes the next Eels album, “End Times”, which deals with E’s divorce from Natasha Kovaleva 5 years prior to the album release. Soon after, just one year since the release of “Hombre Lobo”, E releases the final installment of “The Album Trilogy”, the record entitled “Tomorrow Morning”.