Everclear released “Santa Monica” to U.S. rock radio on September 19, 1995, following its appearance on their second album, Sparkle and Fade. It became one of the Portland band’s breakthrough songs, although Art Alexakis hadn’t written it when Everclear signed with Capitol.
Alexakis had moved from San Francisco to Portland with his girlfriend as they prepared for the birth of their child. He formed Everclear in 1992 with bassist Craig Montoya and drummer Scott Cuthbert, and their first album, World of Noise, followed through Tim/Kerr Records in 1993. Recorded for $400, that debut attracted attention from major labels. The Capitol deal gave Alexakis the means to rent a better house, where family life and work on the next record would share the same address.
“We didn’t have that song,” Alexakis told SPIN in 2015, recalling how “Santa Monica” came after the signing. His writing routine began once his two year old daughter was asleep. He would head onto the front porch so he could work without waking anyone, then take what he had written into the basement with the band the following day. The songs developed through those sessions, moving from the quiet hours outside his house into arrangements the group could play together.
The combination of big guitars and melody reflected the music Alexakis had grown up loving. He described Everclear as a meeting of hard rock, punk and singer-songwriter music, with an affection for the Beatles alongside bands such as the Descendents. On Sparkle and Fade, he wanted room for characters trying to find their way through difficult circumstances.
Getting a record deal had not made success easy to accept. In a separate 2015 interview with journalist Paul Brannigan, later republished by Louder, Alexakis explained that growing up poor and expecting rejection had left him suspicious of praise. He appreciated the recognition but struggled to enjoy it. “I knew how to fail, but I didn’t know how to win,” he said.
For the recording, Alexakis worked with Michael Wade Douglass at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. Douglass had agreed to the project after hearing a demo of “Santa Monica.” Greg Eklund had taken over on drums, joining Alexakis and Montoya for the album.
Eklund told Willamette Week in its 2015 oral history that Capitol wanted the song to run longer, with another chorus at the end. The band tried recording it again in Los Angeles, but preferred the sound of the original performance. Instead, part of the master tape was copied and spliced back in to repeat the chorus. Eklund said the edit cut through a snare roll, leaving a slight interruption listeners could hear.
The disagreement also produced another song. According to Eklund, Alexakis wrote “You Make Me Feel Like a Whore,” also included on Sparkle and Fade, in response to the pressure to change “Santa Monica.”
