So, mortal ERIC, tell my Greatness how Everything is Good came together.

ERIC : It started as a short demo so I could find a band. I’d always been a drummer but wanted to try being the front-guy. So my brother loaned me a digital 8-track and I started recording. But about five songs in I got this overwhelming urge to keep going and make a full-length album. So for six months I spent all my free time in my basement writing and recording.

Why did you play nearly every instrument on the album?

ERIC: I honestly couldn’t find many musicians who were interested. The good ones have ten people asking them to help with a song at any given time, and I was this guy no one knew with a few crappy-sounding sketches of songs. I’m an okay drummer, but I’d never played guitar or keys. I just started recording, and the miracle of digital editing can make anyone sound competent. But I did find a few great musicians to play the hot parts.

You dare to lie to my Greatness? I find it hard to believe that you had no prior experience on guitar. The album is very clean and musical.

ERIC: Thanks. I…

I did not compliment you mortal!

ERIC: Sorry…I…uh, could strum a guitar and knew four chords and that was it. So I wrote songs on a keyboard because anyone with three fingers can make chords and write on a keyboard, even if you have no musical training.

It seems a big task to do an album at home with very little musical or technical help. Highly unusual for a straight, mortal male. What is your musical training and background?

ERIC: I’ve been a drummer for awhile. In college I played with a band called Ode that eventually got signed, but I can’t read a note of music. My brother is a guitarist so I’d picked up a guitar before. But if you play by ear nothing’s that hard to pick up. Even now I don’t know what a B chord is on guitar but evidently I played them all over the album.

So let me get this straight. You had almost no experience playing guitar or keyboards when you started recording Everything is Good?

ERIC: Last night at rehearsal my bass player watched me try to figure out the bass line to “can we drive it home?” and I was lost. He swore I must have sold my soul and had someone else play the album. I laughed because I sold my soul for a Nolan Ryan rookie card when I was twelve. But yes, I played most of the parts. But I did plenty of cutting and pasting. I’m not a great guitarist or keyboardist, but it’s not that hard to edit parts together and layer your sound so the songs sound full. That’s the cool part – doing a simple guitar progression and then playing a bass part that angles the chords differently throughout the song. Listen closely and the individual parts aren’t that complicated, but I had the different melodic parts angle against each other oddly to hopefully make the songs more moving.

So armed with only a good ear and experience as a drummer, what possessed you to spend six months in your basement doing an album?

ERIC: I’d always wanted to sing and be the guy out front. But all the musicians I met were either not very good, very good but taken, or very good but raging alcoholics. Still, I got to a point where I thought I’d burst if I didn’t try to write and sing. I wrote some crappy stuff about two years ago. In December of ’99 I spent two weeks writing this overwrought, sappy song. The last part I recorded on the demo was a big string sound. When I finished the part, I played around with the string sound and suddenly this lyric popped into my head. Within an hour I wrote Treeracing and I felt I’d finally written something good. The next morning I recorded it and sent it to my brother. He thought it was okay. Then a few weeks later he wrote to say he couldn’t get it out of his head and that it blew away everything his band had been working on for six months. I was so excited and that was when it started. Six months later I was sending Everything is Good off to be duplicated.

Many people site Michael Stipe and Matthew Sweet comparisons in your music.

ERIC: Some people say Michael Penn too. I didn’t try to sound like anyone, and I honestly had no idea my voice sounds like Michael Stipe. Some people roll their eyes when I say that, but I swear to god I don’t even hear it now. But those are good songwriters with cool voices so I won’t complain.

The way you did the vocal on Down reminds me of Roy Orbison. Was that intentional on your part?

ERIC: Actually it was my best Chris Isaak. Halfway through recording the album, my brother urged me to write a few songs that don’t make people want to kill themselves. But at the time upbeat songs didn’t come naturally. So I ripped off the bass line from Think of Tomorrow and tried to write a song like Chris Isaak. The band likes to play that one live, especially since we turn it into “Bust a Move” at the end if the crowd is right.

So who are your musical influences?

ERIC: They Might Be Giants are underrated songwriters and I love them. I also love REM, Yo La Tengo, Matthew Sweet, Chris Isaak, Hooverphonic and Delirium. You don’t want to sound like your influences, but I love how TMBG and Michael Stipe don’t try to write literal lyrics. The songs feel way more natural and are great. Like TMBG’s song “Dead” or REM’s “Find the River.”

I’ve been told you are generally depressed the day after a performance because you are so self-critical. Is this true? Tell me about it.

ERIC: My band will say I’m never happy with a show, or with anything for that matter because they live to annoy me. But my angle is Everything is Good was placed alongside albums by Slim Cessna, United Dope Front and other great live bands by prominent local critics, and it kills me if I don’t think we sound as tight or bring the songs alive like those bands.

If you were asked to pose nude for a gay oriented magazine, but you had to choose the setting and theme for the photo shoot, what and where would you choose?

ERIC: Probably a desert landscape like Four Corners. Maybe they could call the piece “Monument Valley.” Or maybe make it Anasazi-themed and do pictures in the cliff dwellings. Hopefully that hasn’t already been done.

Please describe your anus in the most positive manner you can.

ERIC: (Pauses for a long time)…This is tougher than I thought. I guess I’d say it’s the Cal Ripken of Anuses. Reliable and powerful yet agile.

You mentioned going to Chicago for a radio interview. Please tell me about that.

ERIC: A DJ from the University of Illinois-Chicago likes “Everything is Good” and asked me to do an interview. A couple bandmates and I ended up going to Chicago, and through connections of this extremely nice and helpful DJ, we ended up doing several radio shows. We also got offers to play a few clubs that are supposedly tough to get in. The cool thing was people listened to the album and just opened up to us based on the music. They didn’t care how big a crowd was at our last show.

How did it feel for you to be nominated for a Best of Westword music award?

ERIC: Until Westword wrote (me) I didn’t really believe it, but it was very flattering and I’m grateful. The other nominees have been big fish in Denver for a long time, and a year ago I was in my basement trying to splice together my god-awful first vocal takes or calling my brother long-distance to ask how to re-string a guitar.

Your band has changed significantly since I first saw you. Why?

ERIC: It’s been difficult finding the right people. I think the songs are trickier to play live than they sound, but right now I can’t really afford hired guns.

Why and how did you start working so closely with Rachel and Andy?

ERIC: I met Rachel & Andy at a Colorado Music Association meeting last November on a night they played member songs over the PA. When Rachel & Andy’s song came on everyone in the place fell silent. The song was great and Rachel’s voice had everyone enraptured. We traded albums and liked each other’s music, so we started doing shows together and recording. Andy is a fantastic writer, and you should hear Rachel sing “What Shade.” I haven’t heard anyone in Colorado with a better, more moving voice.

If Everything is Good were to be used as a movie soundtrack, what kind of movie do you think it would be

ERIC: Maybe something like “Magnolia.” Something dark but uplifting. Many critics talk about the album being “pop,” but I think a majority of songs are pretty dark.

You are working on a new album. Tell me everything you dare about it.

ERIC: It’s called Desert Airport Music and it will be out this month. I think it sounds pretty different from Everything is Good. The easiest thing to say is there’s more distortion and it’s both harder and softer.

Most of the songs on Everything is Good are mellow. Are you saying Desert Airport Music shows a noisy, rockin’ side of your musical personality?

ERIC: Yeah, Desert Airport Music is more distorted and messy than Everything is Good. On Everything’I think I wanted to prove to myself that I could write a good song. I’m very proud of songs like Can we drive it home? and Everyone but you. And now it’s great to be more confident and do something bigger and more out there.

If you were undead, what part of a human body would you most likely eat first?

ERIC: Oh, a thigh, no doubt. I’d hunt down Mia Hamm.

Ten years from now, ERIC SHIVELEY is the hottest entertainer in pop. Describe what you would want your life to be like.

ERIC: I love making albums and playing live. Maybe the only things different would be I wouldn’t wait for Blueberry Morning to be on sale and I’d make more time to be with friends, which I want to do right now anyway. Making albums, playing out and doing the promo stuff independently is a lot of work. I quit my day job and I do this about 16 hours a day. But mixing and finishing a new song is awesome and I doubt making a lot of money would make a big difference. I used to make plenty of money in my old software day job, but if I can look back on a few good albums I think I’ll be way happier.

What songs on Everything is Good do you think best describe who you are as a songwriter and performer?

ERIC: Probably How it happened and Treeracing The melodies kinda wrote themselves and I don’t think much is wasted. And people seem moved by them. But then playing “hover” live is cool too because we stretch it out and it builds to a frenzy. Orchestrating and playing stuff like that is one of the coolest parts of performing.

If Ben and Jerry’s was gonna create a flavor based on you what would it be like and what would it be called?

ERIC: Um, something baseball-related. I’m a closet baseball junkie and I’ve always associated ice cream with summer and summer with baseball. Just no freaking nuts, caramel, or fruit.

Do you think Murray would make an acceptable mate for my Greatness?

(Murray Neill, lead singer of local band, Drudgery. See MURRAY page for details)

ERIC: Murray Head? The guy who sang “One Night in Bangkok?”

Do not mock me when you are so close to your end. You know the Murray of which I speak.

ERIC: Close to my end? Do what?

(Maris pauses uncomfortably)

Do you or do you not think Murray would make…

ERIC: Oh great. You’re going to fucking kill me and eat my brain. That was a bunch of crap about you giving up the killing thing.

(Pause)

Do you have such an agreement in writing?

ERIC: You’re going to throw me off the roof, aren’t you? God-dammit. Can I at least finish a demo I started this morning?

(Maris and Eric sit silently for a moment, then Maris lunges at Eric)