It’s noon in Venice Beach when Jason Aalon Butler rolls up to the boardwalk on his skateboard, tattooed and anxious beneath the California sunshine. The leader of Fever 333 has much on his mind these days, with a new album and an entirely new line-up, a planned move to New Zealand with his wife and kids, and the ongoing weight of the world to inspire him.
He lives nearby now, and he looks pleased to be here, beneath the scattered palm trees, surrounded by a lively milieu of tourists and natives, the rich and down-and-out, skaters and merchants selling crystals and feathered Native American dreamcatchers. On the boardwalk an artist paints an abstract cityscape. Others lounge on the grass with their dogs. There is no such a thing as an outcast here.
