Exploring the inexplicable and existential with X’s Exene Cervenka

There’s really no good reason Exene Cervenka can think of to explain why the band she’s a part of, Los Angeles-based punk outfit X, should still be around after 40 years.

Sure, they had some critically acclaimed albums, but they never went multiplatinum or anything. She’s not even certain they were better than many of their late-’70s and early-’80s contemporaries. Meanwhile, she chalks it up to a mystery of the universe that all four of X’s original members — herself, vocalist/bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer D.J. Bonebrake — should still be around (especially given Zoom’s recent cancer battles) when so many of their old friends and colleagues are gone.

Yet here’s X, with four tumultuous decades in the rearview, but still pushing forward, playing new shows, if not new music.

Perhaps the big-picture, metaphysical, existential “why are they here” is inexplicable. As for the more immediate “why are they here” Friday night at The Complex in Salt Lake City, well that’s simple: They’ve made enough of an impact that fans still aren’t ready to let them go.

“I’m extremely grateful that we’re all four still together and that we’re doing this, ’cause I think that it’s kind of a miracle. We really beat the odds on so many levels — accidents, death, drug overdoses, you know, drunk drivers, everything that took away so many people that aren’t here anymore that we came up with, our peers that aren’t here. Why us? It’s just freaky,” Cervenka told The Salt Lake Tribune in a phone interview. “So it’s kind of a magical, fun thing to be, because it kind of makes you feel somewhat — I don’t know what the word is, I would say, not ‘eternal,’ not ‘invincible’ either, it just kind of makes you feel lucky, I guess. … Let’s just say that we’re very, very lucky to still be here. And so grateful.

“I know everybody is, but I think about it all the time, and it’s not gratuitous in any way — if it wasn’t for people liking us, we couldn’t keep doing this. It’s because people keep coming to see us,” she added.

While New York and London are more quintessentially associated with punk, X became the standard-bearers of the burgeoning if overlooked L.A. scene.

Cervenka said that the more whimsical, humorous approach of West Coast punk bands — plus their environs — inevitably meant their music wasn’t taken as seriously.

“They had this concept that everyone in L.A. had nice cars and houses and had no problems. That was just a ridiculous concept. So I think that’s where it came from — people thought we weren’t legitimate,” she said. “They wanted us to be William Burroughs and they wanted Patti Smith, and they wanted the gritty reality of the streets of New York.”

X couldn’t provide that. What they did give the punk movement, though, was sonic freedom, the ability to deviate from the stereotypical template of three-chord hyperspeed.

They leaned rockabilly. They utilized alt-country and folk. The defining characteristic of X’s music was always the off-kilter, poetic harmonies of Cervenka and Doe.

Soon, critics couldn’t help but notice.

X’s debut album, “Los Angeles,” was named 1980’s Record of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. Their follow-up, “Wild Gift,” earned the same honor in ’81 from not only the L.A. Times, but also The New York Times, Village Voice and Rolling Stone.

It made X big at the time — “We did get all the credit, more than we deserved. We were on David Letterman, we were on ‘American Bandstand,’ we were on all those shows. We toured, we played places to 10,000 people,” Cervenka said — though the band’s legacy has failed to keep pace with punk luminaries such as the Ramones, the Clash and the Sex Pistols.

That said, Cervenka said she’s not one to fixate on what might have been.

“Mostly, I look forward. I’m not reliving my high-school days or my college days or my Army days — I’m not that kind of person,” she said. “It was a great time for sure, and I don’t in any way disrespect it. When I do think about it, I’m always really happy. Some people have a lot of bitterness, ‘Things could’ve been better if this had happened,’ you know? And a lot of people say, ‘You guys should have been more famous!’ Yeah, well, then we should have been more professional. Or … we should have been more commercial. If we wanted to be famous, then why didn’t we make records that the public would’ve wanted to hear? Well, we didn’t — we did what we wanted to do.”

So, as for looking forward, what of making music the public wants to hear? Hardcore fans are keenly aware the band hasn’t issued anything new since 1993’s “Hey Zeus!” And Cervenka acknowledges, “I know that’s the wish of so many people.”

But while she offered that a new live compilation is in the works, she conceded that even she doesn’t know if there will ever be any original material to follow.

“I’m hoping that will lead to, perhaps, ‘Well, let’s write a song,’ you know. So I’m always lobbying for that. But it’s really hard, ’cause not everybody wants to do it,” she said. “I think the thing is, what’s different now, which is hard, is that streaming and that kind of stuff has kind of ruined it for people. How do you find the money to make a record and release it and do everything, and then have Pandora give it away for free? How do you keep people from sharing it on the internet? You can’t. And that’s why everyone tours now, because you cannot make money making a record. Now, we never did before — we’ve been ripped off by pretty much every label we’ve ever been on. We still don’t have any money. But you want to at least make your investment back, you know? So it’s hard. It’s like, ‘Well, you should make new stuff because you like to write songs.’ Well, we’re older, maybe we don’t wanna write songs anymore, maybe we’re tired of writing, maybe we don’t have anything to say. But I think people would love it, and I think if we put our real energy into it, I think it would be a really cool thing. So I’m always lobbying for that, but I understand why it’s hard to get it done, ’cause why the [expletive] should we?”

So for now, the old songs will have to do. And they will.

Because even if their ultimate impact is not as big as some others’, X still made one. Just ask those fans who still keep coming to see them after 40 years.

“When you say ‘X,’ ” Cervenka said, “[people] either say, ‘Who?’ or, ‘Oh, that band changed my life!’ ”