It seems that whenever I interview someone for this site, there's always some weird coincidence. When I interviewed Edwin McCain, I woke up hearing one of the American Idol losers singing "I'll Be" on Fox 59 in the morning.

After interviewing E from Eels (real name: Mark Everett), I spent the rest of the day feeling a little unsure about myself. Even after I talked to him, I'm still not sure I understand E or his music any better. I kept thinking of cool questions to ask after I was done and it was too late, or thinking that I shouldn't have asked him some of the questions. I mean, did I really have to mention an Ebow? And did I really have to come back to it at the end? I blame that on Sweaty B and the messageboards.

So, the TV was on, and I heard the opening strains of "Dog-Faced Boy" from the Eels album Souljacker blaring from the TV. The lyrics include "Coming home from the school today/Crying all along the way/ Ain't no way for a boy to be/ Begging ma to shave me please". The culprit was the Fox network again, using the song on Boston Public as some kid got beat up for being gay in a high school locker room. It was weird. Anyway, funny that I heard a song with "shave" in the lyrics as the best ice-breaker question I could think to ask him was:

IMN: First question. Right now, beard or no beard?

E: No beard.

No beard? So, not looking quite like the Unabomber right now?

Maybe I look like what he looks like underneath it all.

Shootenanny is a little more light-hearted than your other albums. Have you found inner peace or God or anything or is it just being happily married?

Is it really that light-hearted? I don't know. Uh, "Restraining Order Blues", "All in a Day's Work"?

Relatively.

I don't think it is anymore light-hearted. I think that's the easy angle to try and put on it. Every time one of my records comes out it's always like that, "Oh this one's more light-hearted and this one's more depressing." It's like I don't look at them that way, so I don't really know.

Where did you come up with the concept for Souljacker? What inspired that?

That one was inspired originally by a meditation retreat I went to. I'm not that much of a New Age kook anymore though. Thus, Shootenanny.

Did you learn anything from all your New Age kookiness?

Yeah, you pick up little things here and there- little helpful things.

Why do you play music? Is it something that just kind of calls to you or is it therapy or- or what?

It just serves me on so many levels, you know? It really is the thing for me. I don't know what I would do without it. You know, on the first night of this tour, like a month ago, I was about 4 songs into the show, I just remember being overwhelmed with the feeling of just being in the right place at the right time, which is really rare for me otherwise, you know.

What is the worst concept album idea that you've ever heard of? Did you ever think of any bad ideas that you thought, "Eh."

Well, I've got to say that I'm quite a fan of the- have you ever seen the video of Styx "Mr. Roboto"?

Yeah.

It's masterful.

What song by someone else do you wish you had written?

Oh, there's so many. Really, that's a tough one. Besides "Mr. Roboto"?

Besides "Mr. Roboto".

Well, let me just try and think of one. You know, it's such a long list I wouldn't know what to- seriously- I mean there's so many amazing songs in the world that I'm jealous that I didn't get to write. Then the resentment grows when you realize not only did I not write it, but it just made it harder that it's already been written. They just upped the bar even further. There's OK great- it's bad enough being alive today in a post-post-post modern world and there's nothing left. It's really making it difficult to do anything fresh now, but it's still possible.

What do you do when you get stumped and you feel like you just really need to do something fresh and things that you're working on just kind of aren't doing it for you? What do you do to kind of inspire you or get the ball rolling?

You just gotta really exercise your imagination. I think a lot of people make the mistake of like- going all over the world, recording their albums in exotic locations- in a cabin on the mountain, or in The Bahamas or Jamaica, or something like that. You know The Beatles made an awful lot of widely varying recordings over the years all in the same white-walled room in England. So, I think that says something about how much it has to come from inside you rather than your outside surroundings.

Did you ever dabble in the idea of going into Studio Two at Abbey Road and trying to record something or have you ever?

No, because I know. You know there's people that will spend millions of dollars on buying the original equipment used by somebody they worshipped. Of course, nothing will come out sounding like them. It's about your imagination. It's about The Beatles' imagination, not so much about where they recorded it.

Right. Tell me about your collaborations with Lisa Germano, because you've been working with her for a couple years now on different things. Do you have anything to say about her? She's kind of one of Indianapolis' little hometown heroes.

She's great. She just brings her Lisa Germano-ness to the project which is just this indescribable something that you can't get anywhere else.

I noticed on your website that you have the "Dear Uncle E" column. So I wanted to ask you a sample question and you could give the advice.

OK.

Dear Uncle E,
My friends are in a band, and while they're nice people, their band sucks. Should I tell them, so that they break up and I'm not obligated to go to anymore shows or should I stick it out and pray that they'll get better?
Signed? K

Dear K,
Uncle E feels your pain. Uncle E's friends have been dropping like flies for years over this kind of thing. The friends who have bands and can only fill the audience by having their friends on the guest list come to their weekly gigs. Uncle E goes to bed at nine o'clock. He doesn't like to go out at night. He can't make more than one token appearance a year at someone's show because he is very uncomfortable staying up that late. And basically, if the friends can't fill the room with someone other than their friends, then it's not going to go anywhere anyway and so the friendship has to end because they're upset that you don't show up to their concert then I guess the friendship wasn't worth much anyway. If they can accept that you don't want to go, and still be friends, then that's a good friendship.

Do you consider yourself an optimist or a pessimist?

Well, some of both, you know. I mean, I think I'm often pegged as being a pessimist, much more than I really am. I think the lady journalist will say, "OK. Here's the new album by the depressed guy" or something by scanning song titles, but if they're really paying attention to what's going on in the music and the songs and at the concerts, they would be calling me the uplifting guy, not the depressing guy.

I think Souljacker's one of the most rockin' albums seriously. I just put it on and I just jam out.

Yeah, come on. That shit rocks!

It's so great! And when I burn my own little mix CDs, I always like to put "Fresh Feeling" back-to-back with "The Shining" by Badly Drawn Boy.

Ahhh…that sounds like a good medley.

They're kind of similar, and they're both kind of uplifting. It's two songs that whenever I put one on, I have to put the other one on next to it, just because they go well together.

Huh. [in a pondering tone]

What's the weirdest thing you've spent any money that you've made on? Anything weird like an Ebow or what?

I have paid for an Ebow. Yes. In fact, just not too long ago.

Anything else that strikes you as weird?

Well, I don't think there's anything weird about buying an Ebow. I have much weirder things than that. We have some pretty- some people think some of our backstage demands are a little unusual, but they all make sense to us.

Do you have something particularly weird on your rider, like a circus monkey or something?

Well, it's not weird. It's all just necessary stuff for us at this point. You gotta have all the comforts of home if you're going to maintain a lifestyle where day after day, month after month, you aren't at home, you know? You need some way to keep your sanity, so yes, we ask for handcuffs and teddy bears and condoms and all the stuff we have at home.

Rock on. Do you have a favorite local band- you're from LA, correct?
Yeah.

Do you have a favorite local band there? Like somebody that might not really be blowing up right now, but you really dig 'em?

Well, until recently it was MC Honky.

Yeah, I've been reading a little bit about that feud.

I'm once again at my wits end with him, but I still believe in his music- the positive message in his music still needs to be heard. However contrary that is to his true personality.

So, are you still gonna let him open up? Is that the word?

I don't know, we'll see what happens tonight.

It just depends?

We just had a- you know our bus broke down in Wyoming yesterday and we had a long day together yesterday and it wasn't particularly helpful to the situation, but we'll see what happens tonight at the show.

Well, I appreciate you talking to me. I'm going to be at the Vogue show photographing it for IndianapolisMusic.net.

Make me look beautiful.

I try. I always kind of like the quirky pictures a little better- things where you catch people and it tells more of a story or something.

Do some of that Photoshop stuff and put my head on a better body with like- one with bigger breasts.

Male breasts? Man breasts?

Yeah, sure. Someone with big man-teats.

I just shot Lollapalooza last week. I can put your head on Chris Cornell's body.

You shot Lollapalooza? You're the one who killed it?

I have lots of good pictures of Dave Navarro or Chris Cornell or maybe one of The Donnas I can put your head on.

Dave Navarro, he's got nice man-teats.

Well, I wouldn't call them teats, they're probably more- pecs.

Oh, no. No, I don't want any of that. Yeah, one of the Donnas. That might be good.

Well, I'm looking forward to the show. I don't know if you heard, but it got moved to a bigger venue since it's been selling so well here.

It seems like some sort of clerical error. It's hard for me to believe because I don't expect anyone's ever heard of us in Indianapolis. We haven't played there in seven years or something.

Do you- I just thought of this while you said that- do you ever feel that "Novocaine for the Soul", being the MTV Buzz Bin, most mainstream hit of yours, do you ever feel like, "Oh God, I'm on tour. I've got to play that damn song for the crowd again."

No, in fact, we usually don't play it. We just started playing it again recently and by the time we get there, we may have stopped again. No, I don't care anyway. I don't think of it that way.

Do you just get there and just play what you want?

No, I'm not some pretentious snobby artiste. I never do things just to confound the audience or something, but at some point you've gotta give it a break. We just didn't play that song for a few years because we'd done so many different versions of it to keep it interesting for us that at a certain point, we just ran out of ideas, but we've shot some new juice into it now.

Well, if you see me with the camera, and you feel like hamming it up, go for it.

OK. Just shout out, "Show me your teats!"

Show me your teats! We scream that a lot around here. That and you may hear, "More Ebow!"

Alright, I'm looking forward to it.