Adam Clair Interview
Adam Clair is the author of the new book Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery, which shines a light on the beloved Athens, Georgia, label associated with bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, The Apples in Stereo, and Olivia Tremor Control. As Adam explains in the interview, it's anything but a straightforward history.
Can you please briefly describe the book?
The book is about the Elephant 6 Recording Company, a music collective that formed in the early ‘90s and eventually amassed a cult following and massive cultural significance. The most notable work the collective produced came from one of its founders, Jeff Mangum, and his band, Neutral Milk Hotel, whose 1998 album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is one of the most beloved and influential indie rock records ever made. What’s especially captivating to people about Jeff is that after releasing that record and touring on it, when it was showing up toward the top of lots of year-end rankings and A&R people from major labels began sniffing around, Jeff dropped out. He stopped performing. He stopped releasing music. He stopped doing interviews. He didn’t even tell his bandmates why he was stopping, or even that he was stopping. Within a year or two, his bandmates all had new bands, and it was growing clear that something was up, though nobody could say what or why.
Since then, that mystery has burned, with Jeff offering no corrections to the growing rumors and myths, and his own friends and collaborators just as confused by his absence. My book answers the questions about his disappearance conclusively. But mystique is a big reason for the passionate following that Jeff and his Elephant 6 colleagues cultivated, so while I think I solved a few mysteries, I also tried to provoke at least as many questions as I answered.