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Mark Everett, known as E, is the creative force behind the rock band Eels. His latest project is a documentary film about the father he barely knew 鈥� the physicist , originator of the . Peter Aldhous asks E what this has taught him about his father and his ideas.

How did the film come about?

The BBC came to me, and I couldn鈥檛 say no. I like to do things that I get something out of. I鈥檝e dealt with a lot of my family issues by making albums about them. The documentary made me feel uncomfortable. I鈥檝e written a lot of songs that make me feel really uncomfortable 鈥� those might be the ones that are really worth it.

You lived with your father for 19 years, yet you say he was a stranger. Can you explain?

My father was always a physical presence, but he was just like a piece of furniture to me. When my sister was younger he might have been a bit more communicative, maybe. But I didn鈥檛 see a lot of interaction with any of us. It was a weird and lonely childhood, because we were left to figure everything out on our own. You never get to feel like a child, and you learn everything the hard way. It was the sink-or-swim theory of child rearing.

Why do you think your father was so withdrawn?

He never faltered in his belief over his many-worlds theory, whereas no one else took it seriously. So he just gave up. That must be such an incredibly lonely feeling.

Yet by many measures your father was successful. He did classified research for the Pentagon and later became wealthy applying mathematical modelling in industry.

It鈥檚 nice that he went on to find other success, but you can鈥檛 help but wonder where he might have gone if he had gotten more encouragement in the world of physics.

Why didn鈥檛 he get that support?

With relativity, Albert Einstein offered the world an appetiser before the main course, and that made it easier to swallow. My father just offered up the main course. It was hard for those on the Mount Rushmore of physics 鈥� Einstein and Niels Bohr 鈥� to say 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to let this kid knock our faces off鈥�. He went to Copenhagen in 1959, naively thinking that he was going to change Bohr鈥檚 mind. To me, that鈥檚 the defining moment of his life. After that he crawled into his shell.

Had he shown any signs of depression before that?

Well, the family has a strain of crazy in it: his mother had mental problems and my sister committed suicide. But the Copenhagen situation could take anyone who didn鈥檛 have any problems and make them depressed.

Before you made the film, you didn鈥檛 know much about your father鈥檚 work. What does his theory mean to you now?

The thing that we all have a problem wrapping our brains around is the part that something else is happening somewhere. Where is 鈥渟omewhere鈥�? What made it easier to understand was learning that my father saw the observer as the whole problem with quantum mechanics. So we are not meant to observe it, right? You鈥檝e just got to let go and believe, because it makes a lot of sense.

Does knowing about his theory help you understand him as a man?

It makes it easier to let him off the hook for any shortcomings he had as a father, because we鈥檙e dealing with someone that鈥檚 way above in terms of how his mind works. Einstein wasn鈥檛 a great family man, either. These guys, I don鈥檛 think they should be held to subscribe to normal rules. I think that about rock stars, too.

His theory suggests that every choice we make spawns a series of parallel realities, which is a difficult idea. Has it affected your own outlook?

No, because I鈥檓 not a genius physicist. I鈥檝e got my hands full with this world and I think in linear terms, as far as that goes. It can mean a lot of bad things are happening in the parallel universes 鈥� but if that鈥檚 the way the world works, that鈥檚 the way the world works.

Are you similar to your father?

I think I am in a lot of ways. I tend to be a very isolated person. I鈥檓 a workaholic, like he was. We鈥檙e both ideas men, in different ways. A lot of the time you鈥檙e so busy sorting out all of these ideas that anything else is a distraction.

You鈥檝e had critical acclaim. Did that make your life turn out differently to your father鈥檚?

Music saved my life. Without it, I鈥檇 have probably done what my sister did 鈥� gone off to meet our father in a parallel universe. The added bonus of getting patted on the back is something that I wish could have happened for my father. It only happened a little bit towards the end of his life.

That recognition began with a meeting to discuss his theory in Austin, Texas, in 1977. Was there a change in him after that?

I actually went on that trip, but I didn鈥檛 really understand why we were going. Apparently my father was very happy about it. And from the tape recordings we found in my basement, you can tell that he sounds happy.

Did you listen to those tapes for the first time with the documentary cameras rolling?

Film-makers love doing stuff like that. It was very nerve-racking. I had no idea what I was going to hear. It was the first time I鈥檇 heard his voice in 25 years. In other parts, you could hear my mom laughing. It鈥檚 hard when all that is gone.

Did your father show any interest in your music? In the film, a colleague says that he鈥檇 have been proud if only he鈥檇 had the emotional vocabulary to express it.

That was very touching. Occasionally, when I was a teenager playing drums, he and my mom would come to a gig. And he鈥檇 let my bands practise in our house. But it鈥檚 hard to say whether that was a show of support or just part of their ridiculous child-rearing strategy.

If you hadn鈥檛 made the documentary, would your father鈥檚 archive still be sealed?

I knew it was coming because people were getting more and more interested. After my father died, my mom started to get phone calls from what I call 鈥減hysics groupies鈥�. It increased as the years went on. But I was dreading having to be the ambassador from Planet Hugh Everett.

So will you draw a veil over the subject now the film has been made?

I don鈥檛 know. I wanted to give my father his day in the sun. I meet some of these physics professors and some of them are literally shaking with excitement. Now I鈥檓 actually interested in physics. But I鈥檓 not going to do any space rock operas. I鈥檒l leave that to David Bowie.