And the Welcome everybody to Soda Jerkeron songwriting, episode 183.

This is Simon joined as always by my wingman Brian,

and on the show today is an American singer,

songwriter and musician, best known as the charmingly deadpan

leader and creative linchpin of the band Eels.

They recently released their 13th studio album, Earth to Dora,

recorded at their studio in Las Feliz, California,

and their front man joined us over Zoom for a nice little chinwag about it.

We're delighted to welcome the brilliant Mark Oliver Everett, aka E, to the show.

Mark was born in Virginia in 1963. His dad was the physicist Hugh Everett III, who authored the

Many Worlds Theory and his mother Nancy was a poet and author. However, young Mark was

more interested in his sister Elizabeth's record collection than science or literature.

He got his first drum kit when he was six and later made up his own songs on the family's

upright piano.

Later still he picked up the guitar as a wayward teen and rechristened himself E to avoid confusion

due to having several friends also called Mark.

By the age of 20 our guest was very absept with writing songs which he would dutifully lay down on his second-hand

fore-track and in 1985 assembled some of them into an album called Bad Dude in Love.

Great title there. Two years later he moved west to California where he knew nobody, echoes of our recent guest Dan Crowell there,

where he further pursued a music career while working various day jobs.

His undeniable talent eventually caught the attention of Polydore, who signed in 1991 and he went on to release two albums on the label

1992's a man called E and the following years Broken Toy Shop

...