Exene Cervenka is loaded with love. So much so, that by Tuesday night, as early as 8AM and within the first chorus of the first track she is ‘Already in Love’, opening her recent release, ‘The Excitement of Maybe’, to a host of possibilities.
Ms. Cervenka is no stranger to excitements. She has plowed 
through decades of delivery, changing the face of rock and carving out a place in music history for Alt Country with 80’s punk legends, X, and The Knitters, both bands still performing and touring.
The Alternate Root (TAR): You work in various forms of art...music, word, paint...how does the medium you use for a project materialize?
Exene Cervenka (EC): Art is the ability to capture the images that you see in your mind. There is a different path for each thing you create. Sometimes you sit down with guitar and a book, you write a line, get a verse structure, pick up the guitar and play it.
TAR: Finding an outlet for the feeling?
EC: Songs on record are emotional landscapes. I look at collages in the same way. Both create images of the discordant elements that are put it together in your mind.
TAR: There is a love theme on ‘The Excitement of Maybe’.
EC: It is a love album. Love songs are super narrative. He and her went on the story of a love, it’s a narrative.
TAR: How did you find a way to channel all these muses when you started creating art?
EC: I got lucky. I came to California in 1976. I worked with a literary organization, Beyond Baroque, that was funded by state money for the arts. I was introduced to a small press library. I met people. Jim Caruso, I met John (Doe) my first night there. It was amazing. I looked at books, took books home from the 50’s and 60’s, I read those books.
TAR: Did that change you as a writer?
EC: It didn’t change my writing but made me a better writer. The experience taught me how to be a writer, as a person. I was twenty, I was young and I soaked it all up.
TAR: Did you think about your art as having such a future at that point?
EC: I was talking to my friend last night, asking if they could imagine 
me at a party at the age of twenty-two, saying that in thirty-five years I would still be playing in X. If I had said that and it was true, I would charge people for my predictions.
TAR: And punk rock, and all it created, has continued?
EC: The real spirit of punk rock was about love, we helped each other. That spirit was also about being artistic, not being corporate. Telling the world to fuck off, we don’t want your shit.
TAR: Successful battle?
EC: We didn’t want to leave radio in their hands.....until today. The Germs, X, Southern CA sound and whatever came after that. It only mattered that every song was fast. There became all guy groups, with girls on sidelines. What is now considered punk is nothing like the original ideas. Rancid has carried on traditions, the rest is more superficial punk. There is also not that drive to right wrongs. Regan destroyed Planned Parenthood, Music needs to get more off the grid, more like off the mental grid, the American Idol grid. What is Charlie Sheen? That is just something brought up to waste time instead of getting out and fighting for our reproductive rights.
TAR: I was in radio, at WBCN in Boston, in the 80’s and from where we were, X was a huge band.
EC: We loved that station. Whenever we got to Boston we would ask if we were going to that radio station that plays us? Being played like that really made it difference in our following. Boston has always been one of our best cities, and it still is today.
TAR: See any difference in the people showing up between now and then?
EC: The people that came out to those show in the 1980’s, they were the truth seekers. Those were the individuals, it was the underground, something waiting to happen. People are always going to be looking for that something. A younger crowd will be looking to older people. What the sixteen year old girl is singing is not really what life is about. Listening to Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits gives a better look. Pop music is not helping kids. Life is confusing and hard, artists give meaning to it.
TAR: Are you seeing any changes in the culture?
EC: Restaurants and stores are going to out of business. There is a lot more homegrown live music. People are getting access to play to other people, It seems that people are saying “God damn it, now I’m getting mad”.
TAR: The world constantly provides reason for getting more pissed off.
EC: People are being forced into anger. For entertainment in the past, you would sit down with new friends, new friends and old friends, and watch a concert. Just because people can’t afford to go out and see bands, doesn’t mean they don’t want to. They sure want to go out, getting a babysitter, parking, gas, travel, put a ticket price on top of that,
TAR: Is change coming?
EC: Everything is in place, like in the civil rights days. Everything went 
on from one day to the next until Rosa Parks. Things now may need a tipping point. Sometimes you need a martyr, sometimes an accident. Lawmakers keep screwing around with women’s reproductive rights, making abortion punishable by death, these states are making it tough. There are actually laws trying to be put in place that will make women prove that their miscarriage was valid, prove that it wasn’t done on purpose. It is super frightening. The thing about punk, and about hippies and beatniks, we didn’t wait to be pushed around.
TAR: The times that had beatniks, punks, hippies, brought about multi-level changes
EC: If it wasn’t for the hippies, we wouldn’t even be eating what is good for us. They said “we are not going to eat Wonder bread” They gave us the food we eat today. They put a lot of change in motion. The times were really restrictive. If you were black you couldn’t vote, being gay was illegal.
TAR: And what about the women in the past that made cultural changes?
EC: Women in country music, Loretta Lynn, Kitty Wells, they were the first, in my opinion, to stand up. Women standing up and saying “we are not whores just because we dress up”. When I do solo shows, I always play “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels”. Women blues artist before the country women, not asking for hand outs, letting people decide for themselves, play everything and let people decide.
TAR: And in your own music, you have stayed the same, the world has caught up.
EC: I was always an americana artist and helped invent Alt Country. I didn’t care if what I was doing sucked or would fail. People don’t trust themselves enough. They have to look at TV and magazines to find out how they feel or want to look.
TAR: And the women performers of today?
EC: I look at Madonna and Britney, I look at Beyonce, Pink, Lady Gaga. I only know Pink and I like her a lot. Though I don’t know her music, I like what Lady Gaga is doing with her influence. She has already spoken out about don’t ask, don’t tell. That is the kind of person you need to count on, push a button and tell a hundred million people. You see other people, who have the same platform and they don’t come through. Come out for a cause, you have all the money need, come out and say you are for gay marriage.
TAR: Where is it all leading?
EC: There is a lesson coming from all this. I hope it is spending more time with your kids in the backyard, not taking that vacation to Disneyland. Instead of all going in different directions you go, “you know what, let’s do that jigsaw puzzle”.
Since speaking with Exene Cervenka, some health issues have come up that are affecting Exene’s immediate future. Here is Exene’s blog entry from April 7, 2011.....“as you probably know by now, i was diagnosed with ms. i have been doing relatively well. i thought i could handle sxsw in austin, and a short solo tour. however, i got sick in austin during sx, it is a hard event even under the best of circumstances. it didn't seem that hot to me, but heat is very bad for those of us with ms. i started feeling bad almost as soon as i started playing on wednesday and by sunday night, i had a terrible headache and couldn't get out of bed. i didn't feel any better by wednesday so i called my neurologist and got a prescription for steroids. i started to improve a little and thought i'd be okay to start my southwest southeast tour on the following friday. in retrospect, i should have called off the tour then and there. but i didn't want to cancel. kevin seconds, who was on the tour with me, met me in austin, and we played our first show. but i wasn't getting better in knoxville tn, a week later, i was fatigued and having a hard time functioning. when i took the stage that night, i was surprised to discover that my right hand and arm were not responding to my commands, and i couldn't play guitar. i apologized to the audience, talked alot, and sang acapella. because i had driven ten hours from new orleans, i hoped it was just fatigue from gripping the steering wheel so long. but i knew the tour was over. the next morning, after i called my booking agent and gave her the news, i sat down with kevin seconds and explained to him that i was too sick to continue, and would only be going as far as memphis. i apologized. my friend flew into memphis and drove me home, where i am now. i wouldn't have made it as far as i did without the help of my friends and the kindness of fans strangers along the way. i am not an invincible road warrior anymore. the easiest part of touring is the hour on stage. the driving and staying with friends and finding hotels and advancing the shows and hauling around merch and guitars is the hard part. i've never cancelled a tour before but it is more important for me to regain my health than continue. i never know when my ms will strike, and this was certainly bad timing for an attack. my apologies to the clubs, the fans, my label, and mr. seconds for this unfortunate event”.
More on Exene Cervenka can be found at exenecervenka.net.
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