Ep 513 - 311 (feat. Nick Hexum & S.A. Martinez)

Speaker 1 Wow, wow, Wes.

Speaker 1 Hey, welcome to the podcast. Thank you guys so much.
Nick Exham,

Speaker 1 S.A. Martinez.

Speaker 2 Sure.

Speaker 1 Oh, come on, man. Ultramany, that's my name.

Speaker 1 I respond to it. Dude, I'm terrible with names, and it's a pain in my existence.

Speaker 1 Dude, I know you guys, for real, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be weird.

Speaker 3 You can say it.

Speaker 1 You guys fucking rule. You guys got me through the sweatiest period of my life easily.
I would just, me and my friends would just wax up a four by four like post, just skateboard, like

Speaker 1 board slide it and shit. Seventh grade is all head boners.
It was fucking weird.

Speaker 1 But no, you guys fucking rule, dude. Thanks for doing this.
I was like genuinely stoked. I don't get stoked on a lot of stuff.
And I saw that come through my email, and I was like, oh,

Speaker 1 yes, please.

Speaker 2 That's so nice to hear. So, seventh grade, like for context, was that late 90s?

Speaker 1 Yes, yeah, late 90s. Yeah, because my older brothers, they graduated like 96, 98, and I was like four years younger than them.
But yeah, it was like, it was for real.

Speaker 1 Like, I mean, you guys obviously are older than me, but you know, you don't really look it. But

Speaker 1 I'm aging rapidly.

Speaker 1 But yeah, it was like, that shit was crazy, dude. Just to be like bopping around seventh grade, doing your thing, and all of a sudden someone hits you with it.

Speaker 1 I had the blue album, the self-titled album first. And then I was just like, dude, this is crazy.
We were just that one song down. It was allegedly about making out, right?

Speaker 2 Well, he mentions making out.

Speaker 1 So the funniest thing, the lore associated with you guys was so funny. It was like everyone would be like, yeah, dude, they studied music actually at the Juilliard.

Speaker 1 And I'd be like, yeah, obviously, I can tell, dude. They're definitely Juilliard.
I was like in seventh grade. Like, yeah, obviously.
But yeah, we'd all think about making out.

Speaker 1 We'd be like, I can't wait to fucking make out, dude. It's going to be so sick.

Speaker 3 Well, it's so funny because we just play this spot called Interlock In, which is like the Juilliard for high school kids. And

Speaker 3 the... Chick I made out with in a dark hallway.

Speaker 3 I went to Interlock in when we met in summer camp and she was telling me about this other camp and it sounded really prestigious and it was like so we were just there and it was one of those full circle moments.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it was. Yeah.
I did you make out

Speaker 1 this is news to you. That's news to you.

Speaker 3 Well, it was summer camp.

Speaker 3 That was my dark hallway makeout.

Speaker 1 But then you went to the other summer camp. No,

Speaker 3 no, she went. No, yeah, we played there.
3-11 played this. They have an amphitheater.

Speaker 2 And it brought back this story.

Speaker 1 I know, I'm trying to figure out if you made out to make it full circle when you come back there.

Speaker 1 Where was the makeup? The makeup was in Nebraska.

Speaker 3 It was in Lincoln, Nebraska. Dude, that's awesome.
Music camp. And she was a violinist.
What?

Speaker 1 Those were the days.

Speaker 1 Yeah, dude. That was sick.
Making out before you knew about anything else. It was like, does it get better than this?

Speaker 1 And you're like, yeah, it turns out it absolutely destabilizes your life the rest of it.

Speaker 3 That's a good reference point.

Speaker 1 Well, dude, that's fucking awesome, man. So you guys have been touring for what, like 20, 30? How long have you guys been touring for?

Speaker 3 Since 93.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 Yeah. What's the secret to the staying power, dude?

Speaker 1 A lot of bands just completely disintegrate.

Speaker 3 How do you guys do it? We just don't say no to anything.

Speaker 1 The heroin?

Speaker 1 We don't say no.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we just say no to that.

Speaker 2 We don't say no to gigs and we don't break up. Yeah, like, what's the secret to keeping a band together? Don't break up.

Speaker 1 Yeah, true. That's a good point.
How do you bounce?

Speaker 1 What do you think? What's the force? What's like the centrifugal force that just pulls bands apart? Would you say?

Speaker 2 Ego. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, people

Speaker 2 digging in too hard on their positions. I mean, you know,

Speaker 2 we respect democracy and we have five band members. So

Speaker 2 if it ever needs to come down to a vote, it's going to be, you know, two against three. If it was four people and it was two against two, then what do you do?

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 2 So fortunately, we have

Speaker 2 an odd number of band members.

Speaker 2 But most of the time, we just talk things out and it doesn't really even come to a vote. We just, somebody gives in and we just keep talking until there's a consensus.
But if

Speaker 2 there ever needs to be a vote, then we respect that and just

Speaker 2 and also keep an attitude of gratitude, knowing that we're super lucky to get to do this, that we've stumbled on a really special lineup, that

Speaker 2 we're better together than we could do on our own.

Speaker 1 And we just take good care of it. Damn, that's awesome.
Because I feel like that's pretty rare. I mean, you guys must have seen bands come and go and kind of implode and all that stuff.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And so many bands that we started out with have like one or two original members and then just side guys.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's what I saw in your guys' tiny desk concert. That's like, I mean, I don't recommend you guys going through comments.
They're all very nice.

Speaker 1 But it was the big thing was like, I can't believe they're all still together. Usually it's one guy and a couple of studio musicians.

Speaker 1 So it's sick, man.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's awesome. So how do you like

Speaker 1 when you because you guys have come out with almost like an album a year with you know give and take, like, yeah,

Speaker 1 in the beginning, in the beginning.

Speaker 3 In the beginning, it was like that. I mean, you know, it's a mad terror when you think about it.

Speaker 3 And I thought we were on a bender when we did that. And then I looked at REM's discography, and they did like six albums or something like that in their in their launch, like per year.

Speaker 3 And, but it also made sense because they

Speaker 3 reached a status and a level that it's very hard to come by, but unless you put in mad work, man. Yeah.
You know, so we did a lot of legwork, obviously. And

Speaker 3 then, you know, we continued to do it. But

Speaker 3 it's important

Speaker 3 to get back to the not imploding part to like have some space that you carve out, you know?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 So, and now we all have families at this point in time. Gotcha.

Speaker 1 When did the families start? And how was that like balancing that whole thing?

Speaker 3 Well, we thankfully we kind of waited.

Speaker 1 Did you really?

Speaker 3 So, you know, I think maybe it's possible had we started families early that things might have gone,

Speaker 3 you know, awry, perhaps, because

Speaker 3 there's tensions, you know, that can build. And if you don't address them, you know, in a familial setting, that can spill over into your professional, you know, life.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 I know.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 So I think we were a little wiser by the time we started families. And, you know, we've started.

Speaker 1 How old are your your kids, if you don't mind me asking?

Speaker 3 Ours are about the same. I have two guys, three.
Mine is almost, well, 14 and 12. Okay, sweet.

Speaker 1 I got you. So you guys really waited until the time was right.

Speaker 2 Yes, I definitely can not have to wonder if I sowed enough wild oats. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 I was the first one to have a kid, and I was 39, and now there's been 10, 3, 11 kids.

Speaker 2 So it's...

Speaker 1 Damn, it's pretty cool. Yeah.
So you kind of broke the ice and everyone else was like, yeah, I'll do it. The floodgates of

Speaker 1 offspring.

Speaker 1 Hey.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they're tough, man. I have a two and a four-year-old and it's like, and I told her it was stand-up and it's, it can be tough.

Speaker 1 Like kind of like deciding how much do you go away, how much do you not, and you just feel like consumed with guilt and stuff.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's, that's the thing. But fortunately, I, I kind of did the math once, and we're maybe gone like between a quarter and a third of the year.

Speaker 2 It's not like we're gone all year. So then when we're home, like I'm super hands-on, dad,

Speaker 2 you got your kids ready for school and driving them to school and stuff in the morning.

Speaker 1 So yeah, that makes sense. And if you really take, if you put it up against a nine-to-five, it's like you're going eight hours a day almost every single day.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Versus, you know, going away here and there. And I also tell myself, too, if I had to work in an office, I probably would have burned my house down.
So there's that.

Speaker 1 I would have probably like beat my kids. Yeah, you know what I mean? So it's like being able to get like a creative outlet helps me not be like a nightmare to my kids and stuff.

Speaker 2 Yeah. One of my kids said, Dad, I'm glad you're not a mister.
And I was like, what are you talking about? She was like, you know, like, comes home with a briefcase and a suit.

Speaker 2 I'm really glad you're not a mister. Cause, like,

Speaker 1 take a break. Do those exist anymore?

Speaker 1 I saw that on TV once. That must have been nice to be like, fuck, yeah, I'm not a mister.

Speaker 1 You get it. I was very good to.

Speaker 2 And then now when I do something crazy, I'm like, would a mister do that? They're like, no, you're proving a point, dad.

Speaker 1 You're not a mister. That's awesome, man.
Yeah, my kids have got to come Uh, when I do stand-up, like, we've, if I have like an earlier show, like sometimes you do like a 4:30 matinee show,

Speaker 1 and they've got to come do like just hop on stage and like mess with the mics while the staff's setting up. And like, they, I feel like little kids love that.

Speaker 1 Like, if you're telling them, like, I'm playing music, or like they say I'm a funny man, they're like, You're a funny man, you have to go be silly. And I'm like, Yeah, that's pretty much what I do.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's cool. That is tight, man.
So, how so? You guys

Speaker 1 you started in 88, right?

Speaker 2 Um, there was a previous incarnation of 311 called Unity that was 88 and 89.

Speaker 2 3-Eleven started on June 10, 1990.

Speaker 2 And then we were in Omaha for two years putting out locally produced albums that started to do really well. So we used those as demo tapes to get us the record deal.
And then we moved out to L.A.

Speaker 2 in 92,

Speaker 2 put out the record in early 93. And

Speaker 2 we definitely didn't like Rocket because like what you were sharing about, you know, the skateboards, only like the really cool kids knew about us we were not in the midst

Speaker 1 obviously we were not in the mainstream

Speaker 2 so that's why we named our second album grassroots because we're like

Speaker 2 we're not going to be embraced by the mainstream culture mtv was not touching us at that time

Speaker 2 yeah yeah so we're just going to do it through touring and stick to our guns and kind of what essay was mentioned like rem also like you too like they stuck to their own weird sound and waited for culture to come to them.

Speaker 2 So that's what we did too. Like we're just going to keep doing our rap rock with reggae, even though that's not at all what's on the radio.
And then finally with the with down

Speaker 2 that culture came around to us. Yeah.
But we just stuck to our lane.

Speaker 1 And it's cool too, because you already had, like, dude, music might be. an all-time album, dude.
Like, it's still, I'll listen to it still today, and I'm like, God damn, dude, it's so good.

Speaker 3 All the production on that's insane. Like, Eddie Offord was

Speaker 3 the one who touched the knobs there. And, you know, he was this eccentric British guy from Prague Rock World.

Speaker 2 He worked with like Yes and

Speaker 2 Emerson Lake and Palmer. And he'd worked with John Lennon and stuff.
So he had a ton of stories.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 3 And it was just this very sweet English gentleman, prototypical, right? And

Speaker 1 us.

Speaker 1 Yeah, what were you guys like early on? Were you guys like good boys, bad boys? What was going on?

Speaker 1 smoking weed constantly yeah around the clock around the clock that's what's up that's what's up dude respectable kits yeah so that was that was your so you guys were just like smoking weed i'm guessing that kind of like usually gateway to mushrooms lst like what was that was that kind of was it just a weed

Speaker 1 um

Speaker 1 ecstasy there you go ecstasy

Speaker 1 don't forget that

Speaker 1 jack daniels um nice you guys kept it within like a very i always say that is the best like keeping it within the sphere of like weed some alcohol you know obviously some ecstasy and maybe some mushrooms and acid but that's good so you guys were able to keep that did you guys have like I mean obviously maybe private issues but like any public like meltdowns with cocaine any stuff like that or did you guys keep it just kind of tight the whole time well me personally I've decided that I'm better off sober so there you go it works for me a little caffeine is fine but but that's it

Speaker 2 but everybody's in general has kind of matured and and cleaned up their act So there's no problems in that arena anymore.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you get to a certain age. I used to smoke a lot of weed and it just you get to a certain age and you're like, why? What fuck am I? Exactly.

Speaker 1 I'm looking for half this to my kid and I'm bugging out. I'm like, I can't do this right now.

Speaker 2 It does smell like weed in here. So was that

Speaker 1 awesome?

Speaker 1 Awesome.

Speaker 1 No, I'm scared of it now, dude. Like, you know, I sound like an old guy, but you see, like, the fucking weed is like 47%.
Literally, I saw one of the other is 42%.

Speaker 1 I'm like, I don't need that. Well, the weed back in the day was like very seedy, very weedy.
I mean, it was like a joke. I know.

Speaker 1 Snap, crackle, pop. I honestly think I could smoke a whole pound of it.
It wouldn't do anything to me now. But yeah, it's like that's cool.

Speaker 1 So, I mean, I just think it's cool because a lot of, especially in entertainment, there's this whole other thing.

Speaker 1 There's like, you know, there's your core business, which is like touring, selling tickets, albums, all that stuff. And then there's like,

Speaker 1 let's say, forces of like fame, fortune, all of that other stuff. And I really feel like that can have like such a fucking brutal effect on people.

Speaker 1 But it seems like you guys kind of just were like, all right, let's just throw fun shows, let people have fun, keep doing our stuff. And obviously, I notice you're very like, you know, gratitude.

Speaker 1 And I think it, I think it's working. That's fucking awesome, man.
Because you don't see it.

Speaker 1 You only see the stories that become like the ones that get glorified are like, and then they were doing this and it all fell apart and everything turned to shit.

Speaker 1 And it's like, I always wonder, like, why does that happen? I'm always, I'm always curious. When people are making millions of bucks, like,

Speaker 1 where's all the destruction, the seeds of destruction come from?

Speaker 3 Well, I think, and again, like, you know, we didn't have it. I think he was alluding to that at the beginning.

Speaker 3 You know, we, the success didn't, wasn't there initially, you know, so it was uh, it took time. And then, yeah, you, you, you figure out, shit,

Speaker 1 this took a lot of effort to get here, bro. You know, but yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 3 It's not going to, you know, ruin it.

Speaker 1 So, how old are you guys when things started really popping off? You weren't, you guys weren't. Oh, we were young.
Yeah, so you guys weren't old at all.

Speaker 2 No, 25, 26.

Speaker 1 That's that's that's that's better than like 19, 21, But still, that's pretty young, man. Super young.

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So, how was that? What was like the big moment when you were like, holy shit, this is kind of getting out of control? Was it the blue album?

Speaker 3 Well, it was when you were hearing your music coming from other cars like on the street.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And like, yeah.

Speaker 1 I remember. Maybe we should move

Speaker 1 through Silenoma Hall.

Speaker 2 I remember once we were doing a gig at the Whiskey on Sunset's Trip and I heard a car pull up with a ver with grassroots and it wasn't even out yet. Like

Speaker 2 somehow they had gotten an advance copy of it and they were trading it all because there was just so much demand that they were like, damn, you know, stolen our music somehow.

Speaker 1 Yeah, shit, that's kind of nuts. So how did you, so when you when you guys first came out, you're saying you were sending stuff to radios and they were like, nah.

Speaker 1 Like, what was their big because you, you guys said you had like local.

Speaker 3 Well, it was like, we weren't the sound of the time. Like, you know, when we came out, Grunge was like, you know,

Speaker 3 on the radio. That was like alternative rock.
Yeah. And we weren't really grungy at all.
You know, maybe a track here there, but not like a whole album.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 Of a vibe.

Speaker 1 You guys were ahead of your time, though, because then, like, you know, quote-unquote, rap metal became, just like blew up. Like, right after kind of Grunge fell, pretty much rap metal became huge.

Speaker 1 So you guys were right in time. You guys were right in time.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and it's, it's really awesome to see

Speaker 2 next generations of bands that grew up on us, like the guys from 21 Pilots tell me that once

Speaker 2 this drunk chick came up to them after a show and was like, you guys sound like a mixture of 311 and 311.

Speaker 1 And they were like, great, we'll take it. We'll take it.

Speaker 2 And I'm friends with the guys from Turnstyle, and they grew up on us too. So it's really cool to see, you know, passing it on as we were influenced by so many bands, too.

Speaker 2 So it's just all part of a big kind of family tree.

Speaker 1 Yeah, what were your guys' influences, actually? Now, I'm kind of curious about that.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 3 when we met,

Speaker 3 like, he kind of got me into bad brains. Like, I knew of bad brains, but I didn't really listen.
So he was like, we're listening to bad brains.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 We cranked it.

Speaker 3 And then,

Speaker 3 but as a band, you know, Jane's Addiction was a big band for 3-11. You know, I think we all saw them together.
Helmet was another

Speaker 1 Chili Peppers.

Speaker 1 Gotcha.

Speaker 1 And you guys, I'm sure you guys have met all those guys, the Peppers and all that stuff?

Speaker 3 Yeah. We played with them.
Nice. A few times, yeah.

Speaker 2 For the big turn of the millennium, the night of 1999. Yeah, I remember December 31st.

Speaker 1 Everyone was going to lose all their money.

Speaker 1 Did you guys lose all your money back then?

Speaker 1 It took my whole family out.

Speaker 2 We played with the Chili Peppers that night at the forum, so that was like kind of the coolest gig that we could have had. That's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 Yeah, fuck yeah, man. So,

Speaker 1 what's your guys' plan now? What's the plan going forward? Obviously, just staying shredded, staying ripped. Obviously, got the ordering,

Speaker 2 monitoring,

Speaker 2 making sure everything's okay.

Speaker 1 What do you think about all of his monitoring going on? Do you have feelings about it, or what do you think? Take care of himself.

Speaker 1 A lot of people are negative. A lot of people get negative.
They see the ore, they go, come on, man. I don't want to see that stuff.
Do you want, do you want the data?

Speaker 3 Are you against it uh no i mean at home when i run i have you know obviously my phone's in my pocket and i'll i don't i'm not obsessed about tracking you know yeah but yeah i mean it's great there's so much information these days right true so if you can tap into it tap into it if you want true yeah damn you guys are too chill trying to see if you guys will turn on each other dude

Speaker 3 but it becomes it becomes like a thing man when you get older it's like you do have to take the helm on some regard like you said you're running you're doing a bunch of other stuff i'm sure it's like it's tough man you get older it's like it go it gets away from you fast dude oh absolutely man like it's well what we do you have to it's it's it is a it's a sport and it's it's all season long that's true too yeah like you can't go home and just chill hang on the couch oh we're gonna go out in uh a week

Speaker 1 yeah you can't you can't just show up at the super bowl without training like you have to yeah be ready i'm yeah i'm guessing you you guys have a pretty lively live show. So, yeah.

Speaker 1 I didn't even think about that. You can't, if you like, if you just took time and chilled out, you'd be on stage, like, oh, dude, absolutely.
It's crazy.

Speaker 3 Well, that might be another reason why a lot of you know, fans kind of just crumble because of the stress of touring, you know.

Speaker 1 Yeah, how do you guys deal with that, though? Well, working out, yeah, preparing lifestyle, you know.

Speaker 2 Whoa, yeah, eat good. I like to take a nap after sound check, you know, so I'm like, I sleep in.

Speaker 3 Like, I just woke up about 15 minutes before we came here.

Speaker 1 Damn, that's got to be weird. That's got to be crazy.

Speaker 3 We work nights.

Speaker 1 Yeah, dude. And it's hard to get

Speaker 1 after the adrenaline of a show.

Speaker 2 It takes hours to like flush that out and get rid of it.

Speaker 1 That crushes me in doing comedy clubs. You know, you're doing a club, it's packed.
Then you just leave and go back to your room and it's silent. You're just in your hotel room, just kind of like...

Speaker 1 Oh, I love that. I like it.

Speaker 1 Your body's flooded with adrenaline. So do I.
I dude, I get right out. I go right back to my room, but your body's just flooded with adrenaline.

Speaker 1 You're just sitting there just like, I just take melatonin and wait till I feel heavy. And I'm like, no, I saw that.
That's passing. Well, what's crazy is that in the

Speaker 2 wild times of the early 2000s and late 90s, we would party so late,

Speaker 2 go to sleep when the sun is coming up,

Speaker 2 and then wake up at like one,

Speaker 2 smoke weed, and do sound check.

Speaker 4 And like, we were battle.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 What games were you playing back then? Soul Calibur, Mortal Kombat.

Speaker 1 Just the street fighting games, bro. That's so tight.
Hockey.

Speaker 1 So fucking fun.

Speaker 2 Breaking controllers when you lose.

Speaker 1 Dude, waking up, smoking weed and playing video games and then doing a concert party all night.

Speaker 1 You guys have cracked the code.

Speaker 1 You guys have cracked the code, dude.

Speaker 1 It's so fucking tight. I really think you guys have figured it out man you guys seem like you know you have like you have normal fruit

Speaker 1 fruitful lives delete this episode we don't want anyone else to know

Speaker 1 so

Speaker 1 have have you seen um

Speaker 1 in terms of like being around entertainment have you do you have any thoughts on kind of like how people kind of manage like levels of fame and notoriety and like how to like kind of live with it without it kind of i guess throwing you for a loop

Speaker 2 well you know, you mentioned don't read the comments, and that's kind of

Speaker 2 a good thing. Like, don't Google yourself because there's people that are going to be mean, yeah, you know.
Um,

Speaker 2 and I think the fact that we weren't immediately embraced

Speaker 1 made it tough, yeah, yeah, you're right, you guys got it's tough with thick skin already, and we looked inside the circle

Speaker 1 what he said

Speaker 1 That makes sense. You kind of, you got to keep like a tight.
It is true, especially with the internet now. It's like, you know, especially having like families.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, I'm like, I have my life with like my kids. Then there's like me on a fucking computer screen just getting all kinds of whatever.
Like, yeah, great. Fucking this guy sucks.

Speaker 1 He's the worst. Right.
And then like I'll catch myself being almost more concerned about like you know my digital rendering with the comments on the line. And I'll be like with my kids.

Speaker 1 And I'm like, what am I doing, dude? This is sick. This is disgusting.

Speaker 1 You know, it really does need to be like, it's such a hard thing to sever because it's you, but it's also not you, in a sense, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 They know he's not a mister.

Speaker 1 True, true. True that.

Speaker 1 There's a mister thing to worry about. I haven't fucking mister, I think.

Speaker 1 So I guess I'm trying to think of what other questions I have. So you guys,

Speaker 1 you did the, you guys are in it for the long haul. What's the plan? Do you guys have like a, because you have the cruise too, by the way?

Speaker 1 Were you guys the first ones who started doing kind of like the.

Speaker 3 One of them, but not the first one.

Speaker 1 One of them.

Speaker 2 Yeah, like at first they were called like blues cruises. So there was like kind of a thing with blues bands to go.

Speaker 2 And then they contacted us and we were like, we think your band would be perfect for this. And then it turned out to be awesome.
We're doing our seventh one coming this. Eighth.

Speaker 1 Eighth. Eighth.

Speaker 2 There you go. Damn.

Speaker 4 So we rotate one one earlier this year.

Speaker 2 We did 311 Day, which is a big kind of convention in Vegas. And then the next spring, a cruise.
So they're like destinations.

Speaker 2 It wouldn't have worked in the early days of 311 because, you know, they're high school kids that don't have the money to do it.

Speaker 4 True.

Speaker 3 And the fan base isn't really built yet.

Speaker 1 No, that's true. Yeah.
You got to be like, ask your parents. Come on, get it out there.
Yeah, my, so my cousin's husband, I think he's been on it multiple times. Oh, yeah.
Shout out Flick, dude.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's a big fan of you guys, but he swears by the cruise. He said the cruise.

Speaker 3 It is funny.

Speaker 3 Like initially, when we were approached, I'm like, that sounds awful.

Speaker 1 As soon as I heard, I didn't know it existed until years ago, and I heard about it. I'm like, obviously, dude, that sounds like such a good idea.

Speaker 3 And it's turned turned into a shit ton of fun.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I bet. It is so much fun.
So, where do you guys go? Where's what's like the cruise destination usually?

Speaker 2 We're going to Nassau this time and one other destination.

Speaker 1 Yeah, something.

Speaker 2 We keep switching it up. It's always in the Caribbean.

Speaker 1 How many shows do you usually play on the cruise?

Speaker 4 Is it like three?

Speaker 1 Two to three, yeah. Oh, that's nice.
And then they can stop and get off, and they come on, there's like a concert. That's a fucking idea.

Speaker 2 And a bunch of other cool bands.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 Comedians.

Speaker 1 Nice. Yep.

Speaker 4 Well, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 Bring me out to see. Yeah, man.

Speaker 1 Tonight, you guys got the you guys are at the Moody Center.

Speaker 1 Is that what it's called? It's outside. Yeah, yeah.
Wait, outside? Outside. Yeah.
You guys are playing outside tonight? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You guys are going to be fucking sweating your paws off if there's 105 degrees today. Yeah.
It's so joke out there. Nice, man.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, that makes you at the Moody Amphitheater, I think, or whatever it's called. Yep.
Hell yeah, man.

Speaker 1 Well, nice. What else?

Speaker 1 What are the, give me some of the major lessons you guys have gleaned from your years and years and years?

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 2 I was just going to mention that, you know, we have a new album

Speaker 2 that is coming out this fall.

Speaker 1 I was going to ask you that. I saw a single.
I was curious if you had the album.

Speaker 2 So that I think one thing we want to do is...

Speaker 2 put up music a little bit more frequently. But, you know, the pandemic kind of slowed everything down and we were just kind of scrambling to even stay connected with our fans.

Speaker 2 We were doing like live streams from our studio playing music and grassroots and everything in its entirety.

Speaker 2 But we're super excited about this new album. And I would just, you know, encourage younger artists to play out as much as possible because it's like live music is the most important thing.

Speaker 2 It can't be replicated by, you know, a studio artist.

Speaker 2 It's like a tradition that's gone back 100,000 years. You know, rhythmic music goes back that far.
Melodic music, maybe 50,000 years. So

Speaker 2 we're part of that tradition:

Speaker 2 one set of guys plays an instrument, the other, the other people dance. And, you know what I mean? So

Speaker 2 it's just very important to play live a lot. So that's kind of one piece of advice I always just take every gig.
Yeah. You know,

Speaker 1 it was awesome.

Speaker 1 Are you familiar with Harry Nielsen? Yeah. Apparently he never played live.
That was the bane of his existence. He had like a zillion albums, but he could never play live.

Speaker 4 Too nervous.

Speaker 4 Too nervous.

Speaker 3 Yeah, there's a doc on him, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 He was too nervous. He was so good.
He just couldn't play live. It's kind of tragic.

Speaker 2 Yeah, the guy from XTC, too, at one point said, I'm done with live because he had a panic attack.

Speaker 2 And he was like, I am done. And that was a big influence.
That's a really good group.

Speaker 1 Damn.

Speaker 2 And I think I at one point did kind of struggle with a bit of anxiety. And then, you know, I just needed to

Speaker 2 learn tools to deal deal with it. Yeah, you know,

Speaker 2 walk towards the fear. Like, yep, you know, can't walk away from it.

Speaker 1 I have panic attacks on stage doing a stand-up like five times a year, it's nothing. I just eat them, I just sit down.

Speaker 1 I'm like, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna have a heart attack, and I'm like, all right, well, whatever. Bring it on, yeah, here we go.

Speaker 1 I'm gonna forget, that's one of the things it's like, I'm gonna forget everything. That like thought is just an absolute worm, like a brain worm.
I'm like, I'm gonna forget everything.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm staring at you, and you're like, oh, it's happening. I knew this, you know, but you just gotta, Yeah.

Speaker 2 And I think having the mantra of like, stop, I'll know what to do when I get there. Just trusting that you're going to know what to do when you get there.
And then

Speaker 2 it kind of is a way to end that.

Speaker 1 I think you're right.

Speaker 1 It's in you.

Speaker 2 And it's just the questioning of, is it in me, creates that. That feeling of panic.
Just stop. I'll know what to do when I get there.

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Speaker 1 That's a good move. It's a good call.
What do you think about that?

Speaker 3 Well, for me personally, it's just, I just try to stay in the moment at all times. Like,

Speaker 3 you know,

Speaker 3 I kind of grew up performing. I was always in musical

Speaker 3 performances in school, etc. So it was something that, and in my family, too, it's like we all kind of performed.
And uh,

Speaker 3 um,

Speaker 3 but

Speaker 3 I remember our first like big show we did,

Speaker 3 it was in Omaha before we were to embark on our trek out to LA, and we played uh, our biggest show to date. It was in front of like 2,000 fans in Omaha, and I'm like, holy shit.

Speaker 1 How am I gonna do this?

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 3 serious, yeah, this is like, this is next level.

Speaker 3 But yeah, you just, you, you do it. And, and we, we learned it together, essentially.

Speaker 1 You know, that's true.

Speaker 3 It wasn't like, it wasn't like a, yeah, solo axe or whatever and trying to figure it out or getting over these humps, obstacles, et cetera.

Speaker 3 Um, but to, to back to your point, I think you place a lot of those in front of you, you know, like for me, I try not to look at the set list while we're performing because I have on occasion looked at a song and then I'm like, I hardly think,

Speaker 1 how's that? How's that going?

Speaker 3 You know, so it's just kind of there for like a reference point, but I rarely look at it. I do sometimes like, how many fucking songs we have left.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 going on, you know, other than that, but yeah. No, that's

Speaker 1 a

Speaker 1 fun thing to think about because it's like, especially with anxiety, which again, if you're doing any kind of performance, even if you're like going into a meeting at work, there's always anxiety, you know.

Speaker 1 And it's like the way I think about it is, I think a lot of people take a pretty, I think, unhelpful approach to it today where it's like, you know, just like, just silence that part of your brain with a pill, which, you know, some people need whatever.

Speaker 1 But there's a lot of people where it's like, if I were to listen, every time I got like supremely nervous about a thing, if I were to not do it, dude, like,

Speaker 1 I can't imagine what my life would be like. You know what I'm saying? Like, for doing stand-up, my heart was leaping out of my chest when I first started.

Speaker 1 If I had been listening, like, no, you're right. Let me just not.
I'm scared. You can't do that.
Right, right, right. Dude,

Speaker 1 it makes sense because it's literally built into our body to keep us from like genuine physical threats. But when it comes to, like, oh, here, I want to perform, and they're not going to like eat you.

Speaker 1 It's just kind of like, you know, it's kind of amazing to think of like the lives that lay on the other side of like pretty intense personal fear. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I think we're told to kind of be like, yeah, yeah, listen to that, dull yourself, you know, get away from that. Yeah, I think it's the worst advice.

Speaker 2 To have like exposure therapy. Like, let's go in towards that thing that's making us really uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 Last week's version of This American Life has some really cool stories about like a guy that gets a concussion, a woman that gets a concussion, and then everything loud, bright, like for years, and she just kept avoiding those until she met a doctor that was like,

Speaker 2 go towards those most uncomfortable things. And then that broke the hold that it had on her.
So to me, I always just, you know, walk towards the fear or discomfort, whatever it is.

Speaker 2 You got to keep pushing into it or else it's going to rule you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. I went to, um, I studied to be a social worker, like, you know, in between doing stand-up, and like, I went to go.
I was like, yeah, maybe I want to be a therapist.

Speaker 1 I was kind of bouncing back and forth, but I would bring up exposure therapy in my social work school, and they were like, that's abuse. I'm like, no, it's not.

Speaker 1 It's like demonstrated to be like 83% effective, like better than a lot of other forms of therapy for anxiety. And they'd be like, that's kind of rugged.
It's like, well, so is life.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, like, you got to do stuff that is scary. And, you know, you can't always just be like, oh, I feel very comfortable and safe.
It's like, it doesn't work that way, man. Totally.

Speaker 1 It does not work that way today. Oh, man, dude.
Don't get me started. I was in school with a bunch of like 23-year-olds, being like, actually.

Speaker 1 And I was like, you guys have no fucking idea what you're talking about. Literally.

Speaker 1 But that is cool, man. It really pumps me up to see you guys are able to kind of like, again, just be in a space that is, you know, can be very.

Speaker 1 you know, threatening to people's well-being and just stick to the mission of like, you know, we have our, I think you mentioned like our core circle.

Speaker 1 Let's just focus on each other, our families, obviously the 311 babies, and just, you know, keep the blinders on, eye on the prize, and don't get caught up in all the bullshit and the hype and just blast through.

Speaker 1 Let's go, Coach. It's awesome, man.
Yes, I'm singing. Come on.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because that was the thing is basically we had our little gang. So we could just walk into a venue and just, we had each other.
So it just supplemented our confidence a lot.

Speaker 2 Like, I don't know how solo artists do it, but for us, it was, it was just great to have that crew and our road crew there. And it was just like a big family.

Speaker 2 So we'd just go in there with swagger and blow the place up.

Speaker 1 It's awesome.

Speaker 1 Dude,

Speaker 1 I think, I don't know. Is there anything else you guys want to talk about? You got the new album coming out.

Speaker 1 I mean, I think people should also dig into your entire discography because I didn't know how many albums you guys had. I knew you had like a decent amount, but I looked at it like three days ago.

Speaker 1 I was like, what the fuck? These guys are releasing album after album. It's insane.

Speaker 1 Were you conceptualizing the live albums or the albums for live shows more so? Or were you just kind of putting them out for like a listening experience?

Speaker 2 Yeah, like the blue album was meant to be like what are songs that just kick ass live, but then the one after that transistor was just more experimental and studio trickery.

Speaker 1 So, um, you know, but you do kind of

Speaker 1 do

Speaker 3 sometimes in our history, like, yeah, well,

Speaker 3 what are they going to like love to listen to? That type of thing, you know, what's going to get hype? And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you think, do you ever, do you ever have a song where like the crowd's about to go fucking nuts and you play it and they're like,

Speaker 1 last night.

Speaker 1 That's part of the thing, though, man. Like, the same thing with stand-up.
You're like, this joke's about to kill him. Oh, it's going to kill.
It's going to kill, bro.

Speaker 1 And everybody just looks at you like, why did he just disclose that detail about himself? That's not funny. That's disturbing.
You're like,

Speaker 1 moving on. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That is a process, though. You throw it out.
And eventually you're like, okay, wow, this one.

Speaker 1 What was the song that absolutely murdered that? Is there anything that surprised you guys that you were like, damn, I didn't think this thing would be the one? Well,

Speaker 3 Down was a hit before it was a hit. Like when we played it, but it was also just the Zeitgeist of our fandom building, you know, moment where it was just like, the pot's about to blow.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 And that, but that, that was a song that when we played, it was a hit already, you know, and it wasn't even on radio yet. Right.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Was there anything that like on the other way where you're like, this is, you're like, whatever about the song and it turned out to be popular? Have you always had a sense like.

Speaker 2 well with amber we were we were so used to putting out hard singles and worrying about like the male part of our fan base but then that song really was just like a sleeper that oh yeah it's classic as well so you're saying that that was not for that was for the ladies you're saying i mean it's it's more of a romantic song but then we had like these huge meatheads and be like amber is my favorite song it does real dude it's awesome

Speaker 1 it does that song for real does something to you. When you're just sitting there, you're like, God, this is so fucking nice, dude.

Speaker 1 My energy is definitely amber, too.

Speaker 2 It was our first chill single ever. We'd always had rockers before that.

Speaker 1 But Crush, too.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it was like number one for a really long time. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 You did it for the babes. What did the babes say afterwards? The babes like, thank you?

Speaker 2 Amber is the color of the hair.

Speaker 2 But it's having a moment now with like teenage TikTokers. There's a lot of people making videos of them.

Speaker 2 And a lot of times they use the slightly sped up version that makes it a little bit like sound like chipmunks, but whatever.

Speaker 1 Brat, baby.

Speaker 1 They're probably doing it so they can like fit it into like a, you know, I noticed people do that now online where it's like they'll just speed themselves up talking at like three times the speed.

Speaker 1 And you're like,

Speaker 1 it's already bad for me enough. I don't, yeah, I don't need this this fast.
Just more information faster. Right.
Get it in. Well, dudes, thank you so much.
And where can people get tickets?

Speaker 1 You guys are on tour right now. Where can people get tickets for the rest of your guys' time?

Speaker 2 Everything's at 311.com, and we're heading over towards California and up the coast to Seattle. And

Speaker 2 then we've got various flight dates in the fall, and we're going to Australia for the first time in a long time. Oh, nice around Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 Hell yeah, man. That's their summer, too, isn't it?

Speaker 2 It'll just be starting, yeah.

Speaker 1 Nice. Well, dude, thank you guys so much, man.
Yeah, that's fun.

Speaker 3 Appreciate it. Thank you guys.
Thanks for the invite.

Speaker 1 Of course.