HardLore - Nick Hexum: 311, Opening for Fugazi, Bad Brains Influence & Selling 10+ Million Albums

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Happy 311 Day to all who observe... We're joined by 311 co-founder and vocalist Nick Hexum at his home studio, deep in the old Topanga Canyon. We break down his roots growing up punk and listening to funk in Omaha, Nebraska, 311's formation taking place just to open for Fugazi, the whole band moving to Van Nuys to try to get a record deal, the breakout success of "Down" and the whole self-titled record, the even bigger success of "Amber" and the 50 First Dates soundtrack, and thoroughly breakdown how bands like Bad Brains & Helmet influenced them from the beginning. A truly great conversation and we thank Nick for having us, and for joining us. Brought to you by BRAIN DEAD, check out their new collaboration with Cannibal Corpse and to see what's playing at the iconic Brain Dread Studios this month! _______________ 00:00:00 - Start 00:00:54 - Nick Hexum 00:02:19 - Omaha, Nebraska & 311's First Show Opening for Fugazi 00:06:34 - Grew Up Punk, Listening to Funk & The Rumor About Their Name 00:11:39 - The Ed's: Meeting the Rest of 311 00:16:20 - DAMMIT & UNITY... LA to Omaha to Van Nuys, What Have You Records 00:21:42 - MUSIC & GRASSROOTS... SA Joins, "Do You Right," First Radio Play 00:26:49 - Dynamic in 311 Today, the RV Fire 00:31:25 - SELF-TITLED... Ron St. Jermaine (I Against I), Helmet Influence, The Success of "Down" 00:45:43 - Pardon This Interruption... 00:47:02 - Touring On The Self Titled And Europe For the First Time 00:49:01 - TRANSISTOR... "Beautiful Disaster," NOFX Influence, Making An Affordable 2xLP 00:59:45 - SOUNDSYSTEM... "Come Original," Focusing on Heavy Riffs, Hugh Padgham 01:07:18 - Learning to Tune Out Critics 01:09:27 - Opening The Hive 01:11:22 - FROM CHAOS... The Iconic Neve Board, Referencing I & I Survive in "I'll Be Here a While" 01:18:53 - "Amber" 01:23:51 - "Lovesong," Adam Sandler & The 50 First Dates Soundtrack 01:28:25 - EVOLVER & GREATEST HITS... Beatles Influence, Musical Catharsis, Keeping Expectations Low 01:35:06 - DON'T TREAD ON ME... Ska, Doomsday Prepping for the State of Music in 2005 01:38:20 - UPLIFTER, UNIVERSAL PULSE... Bob Rock, Some Kind of Monster, "Sunset in July" 01:43:12 - STEREOLITHIC, MOSAIC, VOYAGER & The Post-Pandemic Boom 01:48:18 - FULL BLOOM, SKP & What Nick is Yet to Achieve 01:52:50 - Nick is So Vascular & Jacked (And Eats Good) 01:58:02 - Top 4 Punk/Hardcore Records ______________  HardLore: A Knotfest Series, Fueled by Monster EnergyEdited by Steven Grise • Title sequence by Nicholas MarzlufJoin the HARDLORE PATREON to watch every single weekly episode early and ad-free, alongside exclusive monthly episodes.Join the HARDLORE DISCORD for community discussions and to participate in our future Q&A episodes.FOLLOW HARDLORE: INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, SPOTIFY, APPLEFOLLOW COLIN: INSTAGRAMFOLLOW BO: INSTAGRAM, TWITTER For sponsorship opportunities, email us! [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'll be here a while. You just sing a bad brains part at the end of the song. It's from I and I survive. I wanted to do an ad lib and nobody's better at ad lipping than HR. This is the connection that people might wonder. I remember a guy on a message board saying, I hate that song I'll be here while because he rips off bad brains. I was like, no, I was giving it props.

If you're a punk rocker, you knew where that came from. It's an homage. It's an homage. Hello, welcome. It's Hardlord time. How you doing, Bo? I'm doing really good. Where are we? Deep in the valley, as we should be, as I always like to be. We're here for a very special reason, a very special occasion on a very special day.

Well said. As it is March 11th or March 12th or whenever you're watching this, we've got an unbelievable guest on this show today, everyone. We've got the highest grossing artist we've ever had on this show. that's a fact. Alternative Rock Pioneer. Genuine household name. Founder and vocalists of one of the first bands that either of us were probably ever

coherently aware of at all. Yep. Founder and did I say founder and vocalists? That's okay. Nick Hexham of 311. A happy 311 day. Yeah, all right. Thank you. Thank you for spending it with us.

Yeah, we really appreciate it. What an honor. This is super cool. How are you? Doing great. It's beautiful. But we're not in the valley. We're in the Santa Monica Mountains preserve. Just disappointed.

I didn't want to docks you. I'm always talking about Topanga. Okay. Topanga to me is an extension of the valley, you know? What's the area? It does go. The road goes through the valley. And they call it Topanga Mall, which is like nowhere near actual Topanga, but whatever.

And maybe it was named after the gal from Boy Meets World. Let's address the elephant on the beach here. that is what a shocking revelation it is every time somebody like I'm sure you experience all the time every time somebody finds out that 3-11 is from Omaha it's probably like a what do you mean type thing and you've been getting it your whole life would have said long beach let's let's walk us back

to young nick in Omaha discovering music how did that sound that attitude that style make its way to you well I liked the beach boys. This the, you know, the West Coast surf culture type of thing. It fascinated me. And I was very lucky that me and my sister got to take a lot of trips with my grandparents all around Caribbean, Hawaii.

So I just loved being at the beach and building sandcastles. And it just kind of drew me out there. And then hearing Bob Marley just elevated me. to a different place in more ways than one, the elevation. And so we all came out here. I came out here first in 88 when I was 17. And then after floundering around the sunset strip for a little bit, we're trying to find some guys to make a band with.

I realized that my homies from Omaha were my best collaborators. and Omaha means if you will yeah went back to to Omaha in 1990 and started 311 then we all came out together in 92

but I have to say we're very proud of our Omaha roots we have both toured we've played Omaha a lot especially being from Chicago that's some that's kind of the first stop

going west after maybe Quad Cities and we have heard stories of like oh yeah when like 311 are around or if 311 crew, they come to the bar. It's like, ah! Like, you know, Lords of the city kind of thing. So I've, once I discovered it, I never forgot it. But it was still shocking, nonetheless, when I did

realize that you guys were true Midwestern familial. Yeah, big time. And Omaha was a great, like, a lot of touring bands tell us, like, Omaha crowds, man, they just give you so much. Like, they're not, they're not, they're not jaded and we've had that where it's a little harder to get L.A. crowds whipped into a frenzy because they've like see so many shows all the time and blah blah blah but in Omaha they give you that energy so we had that launching pad from the start like our first gig was opening for Fugazi

of all people and just the place went buck wild he printed that out let's talk about it check it walk me through it okay see where it It says fish hippos, that was, so what happened was, we were called Unity, me and Tim and Chad had a band. And then we got back to Omaha at different times. Like Chad had been jamming with peanut, and they came up with the name fish hippos. And then he, I... You don't have to hold the fire. Yeah.

I called him and just to say what's up. And he was like, dude, we got a gig opening for Fugazi. And I was like, that sounds awesome. He was like, why don't you come back and sing? And I said, okay, but can we change the name from fish hippos? And so then we talked about it. And Peanut was like, well, I did a talent show under the name 311. And I was like, I love it, just a number.

And then he said, well, it's also the police code for indecent exposure. Read that. I was like, I still love it. Let's do that. But I really liked, it was kind of like that Gen X mystery of just like having a number. Totally. Were you a Fugazi guy or a minor threat guy? Oh, yeah.

Okay. We'll get there. Take me there. You want to go? Let's go back to, tell me that your roots in punk music. How'd you find it? My buddy Joe Brady's older brother, Mark, had a great punk collection. And so this was, I heard the clash from him.

And it just blew my mind. Those are your guys, right? Yeah, that is like my number one. And also like the OG punk from England, but then also the next generation of L.A. punk and, like you said, minor threat and bad brains. But I love heavy music, too. Fast me. I have always just tried to be super eclectic and just follow the muse, as we were talking out before,

wherever it leads. But yeah, definitely punk was huge for me. When I heard, it was the Clash's first album, the self-titled one that was the green album in America and a black album in England. And the first performance I ever did was a school talent show. And when we were called a tribute to the clash,

and we were slated to do two clash songs, police and thieves, which was actually a cover, and then a song called Protex Blue, which I found out later was about condoms. And then we basically kind of had a mutiny that we had our friends start chanting encore, encore, And then we ripped into should I stay or should I go.

Hell yeah. And... Yeah, get the people they want, you know. And then the music teacher ran out and unplugged our amps. So all you could hear was the drums. But that's best case scenario from proto-punk guys, you know? Yeah. You did it.

You started the revolution. That's right. Amazing. So aside from The Clash and Early Punk, I had also read that some big first steps for you were Margaritaville. first song on guitar and rappers delight and i think when you combine those three ideas it's like there there's three 11 wow yeah no kidding kind of crazy oh and the entertainer of course a little ragtime piano you got another time my piano here so i don't play much piano my

my oldest daughter echo is incredible at piano but um yeah i i just like to be all over the place but after the clash then maybe the chili peppers jane's addiction fishbone which you know those were happening in l.A so that was like a big draw to come out and like go to club scream and see jane's addiction and meet the chili peppers at their show in the palace and it was it was very exciting time like to have like funk combined with punk rock energy punk listening to funk there you go i got you i'm with he knows this shit i'm with you so the name was changed indecent exposure was the police code in omaha for it were you aware of the rumor of what three eleven stood for of course no please tell me oh really of course of course you of course you

for that anyone wondering yeah right the k is the 11th letter in the alphabet and the the thought was like oh they're just like but it's the same same thing. Three Ks. Yeah. We were the opposite of the KKKKK. But, and there was my friend's band called the 88. They ran into the same thing because 8 is HH.

Of course. And yeah, it was, it's hard to believe when such a ridiculous rumor comes up. But there's something about something so salacious and controversial that makes people believe it the first time they hear it. So it's actually an interesting, like sociological thing. It really is. That people wouldn't that some people would believe

it before really even looking into it. And that the craziest part is that our high school, me and Tim and Chad went to West Side High in Omaha, and they actually banned 311 shirts

because they believed it. Oh my God. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. And my brother was at that high school at the time, and he was like, I'm not taking my shirt off because this is bullshit. Yeah. And then the story actually made it into Rolling Stone, and that was our first kind of mention of getting really like into the conversation. In that context. Awesome. Yeah, great, yeah. Right. But I guess, you know, they say all.

press is good press. I get it. So let's go back a little bit. So tell me about the Eds, because that was how some of you first met each other, right? Yeah. So me and Tim had a band called the Eds because our drummer was named Ed, and he was just a real character. And so we called ourselves the Eds. Just one of them though. And we were playing the alternative of the time was college rock. It was like Yeah. R.M and the Smiths and The Cure and kind of this like jangle rock. But we we did it with a little bit more energy, a little bit more, some punk in there. And then we started doing originals, and we were like winning these Battle of the bands.

And, you know, we... So from the success of that in high school, I was like, this is doable. You know, if you're able to get a crowd going, that is that's the most important thing and I've I've often said it in a very dated way that like some of the best I've said this forever some of the best musicians in the world are playing at a bar at the holiday end 100% you know what I mean and it's now they don't they don't have music at holiday ends anymore but when I started out they probably did so that's where that expression has been around I mean the best chess players are on the street on Hollywood and Highland

Right. Yeah. Can't beat those guys. So, but the differentiation of being able to work a crowd into really losing their inhibitions. It's like whether it's a metal show or a punk show or a hip-hop show, people moving their bodies together is a continuation of the tribal dance that has been integral to the human experience for about 50,000 years. You know what I mean? Like, they say drums have gone back maybe 100,000 years, and melodic instruments started coming in about 50, and singing.

So it's just, it's like a very important thing. So when I talk to people, people ask me for advice, I'm like, show your instruments some love every day, but take every gig and work on getting people to lose their inhibitions and move their bodies. We say this all the time. Coming from a more punk and hardcore world, we get asked all the time, how do we tour?

How do we start this? You got to show up. You just got to go. Start your thing. And open. And lead by example to lose your inhibitions. Because nobody, like if you're just standing there, like that was always the thing. We probably were pretty sloppy in the early days, but we would just go off.

Rips and going off. So playing isn't performing, you know? Right. Eventually you're performing. No one wants to go to a show and see the record. exactly how it's recorded. They want to see something. How was Fugazi at that show?

Super nice. I mean, like, they are so DIY. First of all, you were not, they never charged more than $5 for a show. $5 tickets, that was literally the price. It's probably on the flyer. They didn't have merch because they didn't believe in it for some reason.

So then people started making it, this is not a Fugazi T-shirt. Great shirt. Which there are beliefs that they made those, but we'll have to confirm or deny with Mr. Ian at some point. But the thing was, they were super nice because they just called ahead like a local punker in Omaha and said, can you get some local bands to open for us? And Peanut somehow got wind of it and got us that gig. So it was super DIY.

We were huge part of years at the time. So we were sitting there drinking 40 ounces. And I didn't realize until after. that that was a pretty big faux paw to be, like, loudly drinking at a Fugazi show because they're straight edge. But they didn't say anything.

Who knows? I don't know that they were still straight-ish by that time, you know? I understand, though. Yeah, yeah, that's kind of you to even think that. Being, coming from two straight-edge guys, ourselves, we understand, but I don't think, I don't think any of them would really care. I think you were fine.

They were super gracious and complimentary, it was awesome and now I would be right at home with that situation but it was you know we were pretty hard part of years back sure that's awesome was there a lot of people yeah it always blows my mind how that band operated that way and was able to draw yeah yeah crazy so you go to L.A. by yourself

you're seeing jane's addiction red hot chili peppers you go home reunite with the boys 311 is formerly born What's next? The Dammit record, is that that's first? Yeah, so I took a student loan to fund our first record, which was probably illegal. FAFSA records. Yeah. And we made a cassette out of that and started selling at the shows.

And then our second record, and I called the later, I was basically like, the one employee of the label. It was called What Have You Records, which is part of that you know, what have you means like whatever. It's just that Gen X kind of humor. Then we made a CD which was like a huge deal

in 1991 to actually get a CD because there was no CD burners or anything. So it was like, we've got a CD. And that was called Unity. You still play some of these songs. Yeah, a lot of those songs kind of got revamped to

make it onto our major label debut, which was music. And then we made another tape, which was more of an EP called Hydroponic. And then, like, we just, we played these new music Mondays at the Ranch Bowl, which was all-ages shows, and we sold it out. I mean, it would be just crazy, moshing, stage-diving, clothes off, like, just a wild, scene and and then we were selling lots of tapes and CDs to the extent that Homer's Records was the like the main cool record store downtown and the guy told us like you're our number one selling album right now I was like do you mean

like local he's like no it's ahead of you two and Madonna and Michael Jackson which were you know big in 91 and so I was able to take that and send it to some labels and I did a lot of bullshitting a lot of like you know fluff the numbers a little bit yeah or or be like I'd read a name in Rolling Stone like this guy loved it yeah so-and-so from Capitol record I'm in talks with Doug Doug Morris at Capitol like just complete bullshit but you know what I mean it was kind of Machiavellian like I just kind of felt like I knew we had something good to offer and so started getting a tiny bit of label interest, but then we're like, we got, we got to go out to L.A. and, and I don't know if it was necessary. The truth is, is that we flew, they, once we got a

label interested, they wanted to see us live and I were like, well, we need, you need to see us in front of the Omaha crowd because we hadn't had a big, you know, following, and no following in L.A. at that time. So we flew back to do like a showcase and they were like, this is the real deal. and so we got signed to Capricorn Records. Part of that was Eddie offered the legendary Prague rock producer who had done like Emerson Lake and Palmer. Yes. And yes.

And he had worked with John Lennon. And so he was just like this classic English studio guy, kind of a gentleman, kind of a wild man, part like Ozzy, was born and part like this mad scientist and so he kind of took us under his wing and part of the the deal was like well if Eddie produces your your album then like all systems go let's let's go and so we did he have much influence on like the time signatures and more progressive things you were doing um I mean I think he helped I know remember that he helped me see where I was rushing because a lot of punk rock energy is pushing the beat and it was like you're ahead you're ahead

your head like slow down and like listen to the drummer and so there was some things about performance but a lot of it was he was just a very like a big engineer like he would brought in all this gear with effects and and he actually really taught chat especially about micing and EQing and compression and so we just like it was like a crash course. Perfect. And yeah, and then

music came out and we went on the road and then our RV burned up. Feel free to ask me to elaborate. But the whole band, you said the whole band moved to L.A. The whole band specifically moved to Van Nuys, right? Yes. Do you remember the cross streets?

It was Bessemer. It was basically sunny slope and Bessemer. It was like near. of Woodman and kind of near the college there.

Valley College? Yeah. Yeah. I voted there. Wow. Okay. So the whole band's in Van Nuys. Yes. Music. Let's talk about music. Do you consider Dammit and Unity

like super canon to the 311 discography? They're not on streaming really, right? No. So what we did is, it's It's not on streaming, but we did make a CD called Omaha Sessions, which was kind of like the best of those first three independent albums. I see. So, but kind of need to be put on streaming. Can't hurt.

Hey, 311's just around the corner. Pardon me. Oh, beautiful. It's the elevation. So music is probably most people's first exposed. I would say to 311. Well, the thing is, is that because we did the weird thing of naming our third album, 311, people assumed, and that was the record that really blew up with Down. So, a lot of people's like, your first album is amazing.

I'm like, do you mean, they're like, you know, the blue one, 311? No, that's actually our third album. You mean? Go ahead. But we were building up a pretty good grassroots following, and that was. That's why we named the second album now because it was like that was all about our philosophy. Like we knew that what we were doing with the rap rock and the reggae and there was no radio format that would even consider that at the time. But do you write did get some MTV airplay for the first time?

Like on the show 120 minutes. Like it played like twice. Okay. It wasn't like a. And it got some airplay on K rock. I remember we were sitting by the little pool in our little house in Van Nuys, and it came on K-Rock, and they were like, believe it or not, this band is from Nebraska.

We need to move to Nebraska. This is how I'm using, so it was like this really cool. That's awesome. Interesting. The big radio station in Chicago for alternative stuff was Q101, which was a K-Rock, you know, satellite station or whatever. 311 was inexcapable. In my memory of my childhood, I was born in 87.

So especially by mid-90s, that was inescapable, especially these first three records from music onward. As of 1992, when SA joined the band, spooky apparition, right? He's had a few. At one point, he was like, I'm scribing.

annihilator. Whoa. Was that your favorite? A spooky apparition. But the truth was is that when I had moved out here and I worked and I was a waiter and in the kitchens there were all the cooks were all say, what's up S.A. And so

and being that he's Hispanic, I was like, what's up S.A.? And I just stuck. Wow. Fascinating. That's some hard lore. Yeah. When did you guys, you two specific? An essay just means man. Yeah.

Yeah. When did you to figure a lot of bands, Allison Chains, who's another harmony type band? Kenny and Pete. Kenny and Peter from Typo. Have a specific type of harmony, like a specific relative,

I don't know what it is on the piano. When did you guys figure out that you had this harmony that became so like a signature style? Yeah. I mean, I have more of a baritone. on range. I always like to sing along with like Jim Morrison or Sinatra, you know, like lower vocals. And so I knew I, like I needed somebody to sing a little higher. And, and then essay had just first, like I think he was doing guest spots with us from our very first gig. Like

we'd, right about now we'd like to bring out essay to come out and do. Oh, he was already essay. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And then as time went on, we had him start singing harmonies. And it just kind of evolved that, like I said, Beach Boys, I've always loved harmonies, the Beatles. So it's just like the third above. Yeah. But sometimes we'll like cross. And do you right, there's like we'll actually cross, like, I'll go a little higher and he'll go lower just to create. just to create that

interesting thing that you're used to it staying in parallel but then when it crosses it sounds cool so early on you knew you had that in the repertoire yeah that's great Tim and Chad are both good singers too but are too focused on their playing

so yeah sure two dedicated vocalists just worked out you've been the same unit of people since 1992 which that doesn't happen damn near impossible what is the dynamic like with than 3-11 today what's the secret yeah yeah please get off me don't touch me a lot of touching no um i think that's you have to be ready to not get your way to be flexible to respect democracy

um you know you might have to be go down to rock paper scissors but most of the time it never even comes to a vote that's that's a kind of a bit of a failure of discussion when you can't just talk it out. I agree. And I think for me, it's about not putting unnecessary skin in the game. If it's like not something I'm passionate about, just like, yeah, whatever you guys want to do is cool.

And there are certain things that are important to me that like if it's a song that is a little weird, but I really love it, then the guys will, okay, obviously Nick really wants to do this. Is there one that comes to mind that you were like, Please guys, just trust me, I'm going to fight for this, and then ended up being a banger? Well, I mean, I really like, when I wrote Amber,

it was just like, oh yeah, I got this song too, but I don't know if it's right for us. And then our producer, Ron St. Germain was like, bro, the hook. He was like, the hook, the hook. You got to put out Amber. And I was like, well, I kind of like it. But it was very out of step with everything we had done up to that point. It's much softer and mellower.

So when there was a song on Mosaic called Places that the Mind Goes, that I was like, I really love this song, can we please do it? And everyone was cool. But I think that I like the Morrissey lyric, fame, Fatal Fame. It can play hideous tricks on the brain. But then he goes on to say, but still, I'd rather be famous than righteous or holy any day. But it just, the tricks on the brain. The tricks on the brain, like it can mess. A lot of artists will think that maybe that they're the reason. You have to value your collaborators and really know that you're better together than you could be separately and I mean I just honestly believe that we stumbled on to something really special and that it was it it wasn't like a studio creation of any like producer like here you and this guy get together it was just very natural through friendship or it's just like friendship first and then the fun of making music and then it

it turns into a business, but the friendship needs to be at the core of it. And of course, where we are in this timeline, too, just the fun and thrill of success and like, hey, this is working, like, we're doing it. I'm sure. And then also all the hard times that are going to come with that, too, be what it is, like your RV burning up before this all happened, those are bonding moments that kind of cauterize everything and will make those relationships because it's like, hey, man, at least our RV isn't burning. Yeah. You know, you can always kind of fall back to that memory.

No, it's true. Like, after all our stuff burned up, I remember seeing the guys, all we need is the songs in our head and each other, and none of this stuff really matters. And we borrowed equipment and played a gig the very next night. That's what I'm talking about. Even though my hair was burned up. I literally jumped through flames to escape with.

my life like it was this sheet of flames and i was like there was only one door so i jumped through it and then i put my hand in my head it was just ash and it just all broke and fell all over the place so the hair's looking great yeah hey i made it fire be damn did it i had burns on my arm oh my god and and then we were standing there in the burning hot missouri sun and in july with burns on us but yeah we just we just kept we borrowed equipment and just kept so there was no like the RVs fucked the band's done not even for a second love it love that love it yeah so here we go 311 self-titled breakthrough phenomenon over three million copies sold produced by a man named ronser jimrain as you brought up earlier

who was at some point the front of house guy at CBGB's, and also the producer of Bad Brains, Eye Against Eye, and Quickness. Yeah, two very, very important albums. And he worked with Tool and Fishbone and Living Color. So it was this really important music to me. And he had been the house guy at Electric Ladyland, so he had a lot of stories. crazy stories about like he was in the broadway production of hair which he said was just like a

basically like a big long orgy because it was all this like free love like you know hippie vibes on stage and backstage um so he had a lot of really interesting stories and um it was super high energy guy like always wore leather pants and was like jumping off the jumping around the control room of like with excitement so which is very affirming as the people making the yeah yeah and that's like i think around that album is when i started dropping mention of being excitable because i didn't i didn't like being i didn't like the jadedness of like people like they're they're too cool like i'm like if you're it's being honest and just saying what you what you like is very important because there was a bit of a thing in the 90s of people saying like everything sucks and like I'm like that's that's a you problem you know what I mean so um

yeah that's a you problem Seattle right yeah and it was it was actually a very prosperous time like there's no more Soviet Union and we're not going to get bombed you know what I mean because I grew up in Omaha um of them saying like well because we're here here by SAC Air Force Base, if there's a nuclear war, don't worry, we'll be completely obliterated. So we won't have to deal. And I'm like, oh, don't worry. And then, but so in the 90s, there was no, you know, it was a peaceful and prosperous time. So we were trying to be a bit of an antidote

to sort of some of the downerism that was going on. But I believe in being fully saying every part of your experience. And if you're in pain, it's definitely good to put that in your music. But it also became something that people would kind of hide behind in a way. And just kind of feedback, feedback. Yeah, sure. I got you. I was at Tower Records with my mom.

Yeah, no. I was a great day. I was having a great time. Great day. You reached me. Yeah, you got that. Was, were I against eye and quickness? Are those things you go, oh, he did these?

Let's go with this guy. Yeah. I was like, these are the best produced albums that I've heard, like, at the time. So can we please get him? And when he was, like, excited to work with us, or like, it was a match made in heaven. And we had really, by that time, put in our 10,000 hours of gig after gig after gig. Like we, on grassroots, we moved out of our little Van Nuys house and lived on the road. We didn't have a home.

We had a little storage unit with our meager possessions, but mostly, you know, we just lived on the road and lived on the bus and would go out for months at a time. So that's when we really honed our chops. And then when we went to go make the... So we were very ready for itself. already and right in terms of writing it was that uh how how involved was ron how much was written before the session actually began um so we've worked with some producers that are really get like with bob rock he'll he'll get a guitar and be like okay now what's this court all right now how about how about it try a different chord and and maybe on the bridge you you do this lift here

where you do it go to the major too like rolling stones like do you want to try that and And that's a different type of producer that we hadn't been used to before Bob Rock was a very cool learning experience. The previous producers we had were a little more focused on engineering and just... Okay. But Ron was, he was like, here's how you're going to capture the energy. Get in a room and do it like you do at a gig. So the blue album was played live in the studio. Everybody played at the same time.

And then we went back and overdubbed vocals and guitar solos. And we were also just starting to get really into the studio trickery with scratches and samples. You got eight and eights and stuff. You got toys. You got toys in there. There's a couple toys I'm excited to bring up later that I want to know about. Was this digital or tape? Tape.

Yeah. We stayed on tape longer than most. It was with Bob Rock on the Uplifter album. in 07 or something that we he was like you can get a good analog sound onto Pro Tools and before that we'd stayed on tape kind of longer than most bands so we're of the belief that everything musically comes from somewhere and I've always been so curious about like the heavy elements of 311 I saw you mention helmet as an influence yeah I can see that

Are there any other kind of, like the stuff like, gang, gang, gag, da, what, where is that coming from? Yes, Helmet was, and also the riffs in, you know, the opening to quickness. It's so badass. So badass. So that was something like,

the single note riffs that was it was just really happening at the time and and other like kind of lesser known artists like 24-7 spies was doing it um and you know the living color the cult of personality riff like riffers yeah the single note riffs were were very happening in the early 90s And then we kind of did our own spin on it. And then on our first album, the song Hydroponic was like, it was Chad's writing that it was like taking heaviness. Like his background was more on the metal side with like Kiss. Like Kiss changed his life when he was a little kid.

And so like those big open, spacious riffs like that. And then, you know, we had some Grateful Dead influence from Tim and Peanut-like, like, you know, Iron Maiden and more like that traditional metal. And so it was a big harmonized leads and shit. And one of the best bass players in the middle ever, Steve Harris. Yeah. Yeah. Unreal. We used to check in under assumed.

names you can't do that anymore and I think peanut use Steve Harris. That's awesome. That's awesome. That's great. So is this a kind of thing where you finished tracking this record? You listen to the masterback for the first time and you know what you've got? Yeah, I felt like Down was super exciting. Although the label at the time was pushing us more towards a song that had singing throughout. Like, don't stay home. All mixed up. which did pretty well which did pretty well but down

so it went don't stay home first which did okay got on MTV a little bit and then all mixed up did a little better and then down which was number one yeah yeah and it was a buzz clip which was a big deal on MTV buzz clip means this is the song that everyone's buzzing about

and they played it once an hour so it was everything took off super fast at that time. And I remember people saying, like, now that you guys got this buzz clip, there's all these kids at your show. And I'm like, good. There's something special about when you're that age, what a band can mean to you. You're not just the plasticity of your brain and so forth. You'll never be affected like you are to the music that you're into in your teen years. There's something inherently punk rock about that attitude, too.

Because that's not elitist. No, and it's a young person's thing. And I was that kid. And we were all, yeah. I will never forget the down video and I will never forget the first 150 Pokemon. And that's a fact. It's true. So is the down video entering the stratosphere kind of the I made it, we made it moment?

Yeah, there was a few I made it moments was going on David Letterman. Like, because I used to stay up, like, David Letterman used to be on really late after Johnny Carson. And so I'd stay up late. And he was just like so sarcastic and snarky and stuff. He got softer as he went along. But so I was a huge David Letterman fan. So to be on that. Yeah.

You can throw one if you want like David. Oh, right. And then you got to make a breaking sound. Yeah. Okay. Ready, Stephen? Thanks, Stephen. Yeah.

And then opening for Kiss, which was somewhat terrifying because they're like known to have some of the most, you know. We did get booed a little bit, but they said we got booed a lot less than some of the other bands that they had opened. They'd have an army. Them and Slayer. They have an army and a Navy. You know what I mean? So it's tough. What are 311 heads?

What are 311 guys? All right. What are 311 heads called? We got excitables or the 311 nation. 311 nation is pretty good. It's good. Excitables. The hive is kind of another.

That has a couple meanings for you guys, right? Yeah. And then it became our studio. But it just came out of a, there was in the, in like 94, there was some rap lyrics about, this is the go for self era. And then after that, I was like, no, this is 95. We go for the hive. like we don't. And then it became a lyric in that song.

Sure. It became the name of our studio. I like it. I love it. Do you think the down video is the first music video that you remember? Madonna. Madonna for sure. Madonna.

Then down? Okay. And then down, yeah. I was so young that that. He's a little younger than me. I'm 38. He's a bit younger. The lyric, hearing you said, or essay says, a dream of juice.

I was young enough where that meant something. me. You know? I'm like me too, man. He gets me. I can't wait to have my juice in the morning. There we go. Turn it up.

Juicy juice, you know? Yeah. This was a big... I remember thinking you were the same guy when I was young. It was the same person singing, both parts, you know? Big moment for the spooky apparition.

Oh, he's pretty... He's the verse. Pretty crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, his... he's a better rapper so like giving him the verses in and down um and like i just but i knew that hook that yeah you that the chorus was like super strong um and a lot of and the the the riffs which i i do have to

credit like the helmet influence you can with the harmonic thing yeah absolutely wow And there's some sound garden influence in there, you know. But with Chad's beats, with more of a hip-hop sensibility, it created something. And the tightest picolos there. Yeah. Yeah. I actually, I was like, he's kind of lowered it. I was like, maybe crank it back up a little bit like the old days.

Yeah, it's in the tiny desk. I feel like he cranked that sucker. Are you still keeping track of like other than helmet and, you know, bad brains? Are you keeping track of like contemporary punk and hardcore at this time? During that era? Yeah, in mid-90s? Well, we went on the Warp Tour, so getting to see, you know, H-2O and blink before Travis, Pennywise, No Effects.

You're a big No-Effects guy, right? Yeah, yeah. Like the way they had a higher music. account like the harmonies on punk and drublick was like okay this is they came original right here you know what are gonna do they sure it is i thought you're asking me and i was like yeah yeah like like does hate breed come across your desk at some point you're like yeah this is hard uh no i had too far yeah yeah i mean i'm i probably like it i think you i i just certain things just get lobbed over my friend sure i love lamb of god that's like five b maybe workout five b that's right

Pardon this interruption. We hate to get you all mixed up while listening to this incredible episode, but we got to tell you about one quick thing. Who do we got, Colin? This episode is brought to you by Brain Dead. It is safe to say there is no brand more directly aligned with both the identity of this show and that comes original more than Brain Dead. That's right. We've done multiple live events there. We did the Green Room interview and comment.

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a beautiful disaster. And, you know, maybe we'll see you there. Back to the episode. So touring on the self-title, your world changes now. Yeah. The RVs are no more, certainly. time like going when does 311 go to europe for the first time what's that like oh yeah we played i think we we played glastonbury big one yeah on maybe it was 94 so on the grassroots tour wow yeah but they were not ready for us it was not you didn't a year later though they were tied-eyed out dancing but i don't know honestly i have a bit of regret that we didn't spend enough time overseas, you know, connecting with those people. We became a little bit spoiled by how good things were in the States. But we've been putting in, you know,

we went to Europe last year and we just got back from South America and Central America. I bet that was lit. It was insane. The crowds were, it was like a truly 90s vibe of like the energy that was coming back. I love that. Makes me really happy to hear you. You really do got to come to Brazil. It also, I want you to know as people who have toured Europe many times and struggled in Europe and many times, it makes me feel good to know that 311 to 2, you know, that was like, yeah, they weren't really ready for us.

Yeah. Okay. And I remember as we were hitting, really hitting our kind of second wind around Amber, We still were on Sony at the time, and our manager played the video for Amber to a meeting of the label in Europe. And they were like, it's very California. I do not guess it's... I cannot relate to this. It's quite laid back.

Yeah, I can see that. So now you have the impossible task of following up this massive success, and you do that by putting out a... 21 song 68 minute would be double LP transistor what happened there great like bold

an awesome decision but an interesting one and I whenever we talk about transistor I kind of want to remind people that there was there was a significant backlash of people saying

311 sucks now because we weren't doing an album full of riff rock like they were used to to on the blue album. So it was, the label was definitely disappointed by how transistor was received and it was a pretty big, we just felt like we don't want to just keep repeating our, you know, we want to make sure that we're challenging ourselves and our fans to make sure we're putting creativity

first and there was a lot of new influences coming in of like dub reggae and trip hop from England and dance hall reggae and like just kind of all over the place and you know Tim with his you know jam band cool licks and stuff like that so we where the blue album was like let's just make a killer album that's for that every song is going to be great live energy energy and this album was like we're not let's not even worry about how it's going to be live let's just like go with the trippiness

the psychedelia the you know studio filigree and just it's title almost you know like it makes sense and then we're going to okay you know yeah but that being said beautiful disaster yeah well it's

That is, I'm losing my mind on the way here, listen to that song. And that was first song written for the album? Yeah, and I'd been listening to a lot of no effects. Punk and Drublich, yeah. So it really, and then we'd also been touring with The Urge from St. Louis, and they would have these really cool intros, these horn, like three-part horn intros. And I was like, we could do you.

that on guitar and then it came out you know that sort of like thin lizzie like you know harmonizing guitar thing that was like influenced by that kind of like scobans that had these like horn intros and stuff like that i love that you did that instead of bringing in horn that's so cool and as the only credited writer on this song does that feel good you're proud particularly proud of this one yeah um my mom loves the song beautiful disaster it really just Look at us. It just, it really paints a picture, I guess, and then, because I didn't want it to just be, like, negative. Like, I can't care.

I do. I don't, whatever. Like, I don't, you know, that you're torn of, like, somebody that, you know, is not, like, really good for you. But, you know, you're attracted to the carefree attitude. And, you know. It's beautiful. Yeah. And.

I have a couple questions about this song. The very first note that's Paul muted on this song, there's an undertone. And I notice you do it live too. Because you intro this song live, right? Like you start the song off. Yeah. And it's like, gung, gung, gung, gung, gung, gung, gung. And then it goes single string.

What is that? So I wanted to have some feedback. So I actually had a, um, it was a, split the signal and had an extra rack mount amp that had a rock tron one twelve inch in a cabinet that I would point at the guitar to make it feedback that would just make the give the riffs more energy so and I would just hit the guitar boom mhm and then also during the sort of the vamp, the kind of outro that happened after the chorus going, do-do-do-do-do-d-d-d-d-d.

And when you have a speaker pointed at the guitar at the time, it makes those harmonics really, really ring out. But that first note is like... I'm talking about the actual first note. It sounds like you're barring two-and-two, let's say, because is it 202? Yeah, it's a little sloppy. That's all it is? But you do it live, which I, like, I appreciate you're doing the thing.

You know what I mean? Yeah, I try and just have... of the same approach. Awesome. Like, I love that. You also do a thing in this, and I would kind of want to find the first time a band did this.

You do what we call, there's a band called Marauder that we love, do the Marauder chord, but there's, it's like when you would play a power cord on the A, D. The fully barred power. But then you also match the root to the E string.

And you go, dun, dun, dun, d. you do that big fat bar chord yeah so that we knew that lower frequencies made it more heavy so what a lot of people don't know that the october pedal is all over all those albums and we still it's still a big part of what we do today but we didn't really want to be like another seven string guitar band so we would do a lot of inversions that made it so you know when you If you're playing like a C chord, you're also playing the G below it to give it that real dense kind of inverted fifth that made it heavy to us without having, we're still just all standard tuning. Just east standard?

Yeah. Sometimes it sounds like G sharp, you know? Yeah, it was just by finding those overtones of the inversions. Crazy. And lastly, you play the second guitar. in this, like, with the lead part and the intro part. Had you done that prior, or was this kind of your first, like, well, for this song, I need to play the guitar to duel?

Yeah, I think that was the first dual lead thing. And growing up in Omaha, we heard so many bands do that kind of thing. And, like, Kansas and, you know, all these, like, classic rock kind of, kind of. bands that had a lot of like the dual lead kind of thing but um nobody else was doing it an alternative that that i remember so that was kind of a bit of a breakthrough and that we've we've kept with us ever since beautiful disaster with 21 tracks some things are bound to get lost somewhere is there even though the record did go platinum so you know success XMexpress. Is there a song you wish was a single or got more love from transistor?

Well, I just one thing about the approach of it is that the same way that the clash did a triple album of San Dinaista and then they they put on there that it was only supposed to cost like 899 to force So you were giving tons of bang for your buck was we we had that same approach to say we're just gonna be restrained by how much the CD will hold. Yeah, the literal data. Fill it up and the label was like, you cannot fit another song on here. So we actually wrote 30 songs for that album and cut nine of them to be on that. And we were just like, anything goes, just say yes to everything. And I think the other guys were really coming into their stride as writers at the time, you know, with essay writing music for the first

the instrument side of things for the first time and Peanut and Tim and before that had been more me and Chad and but what was your question anything like a song in particular that you kind of wish

got more praise I know the closer stealing happy hours is just a really nice like we play it live a fair amount there's kind of sleepers mixed in there kind of throughout

and then but there was I don't know only a couple bangers like what was I thinking and beautiful disaster oh and like galaxy but definitely was had the most percentage of like clean guitar

and softer songs but than any of our albums so at this point is every 311 show just a C of people by this time yeah and so what constitutes a good show and a bad show well let's see on the transist tour we called it ah ah we had incubus and sugar ray boy does that And then we moved into arenas and amphitheaters kind of the first time as as a headliner. And yeah, I remember a lot of good shows, but I also kind of started to feel a feeling of pressure.

and that's when I would get in and out of phases of like doing too many drugs and then cleaning up my act and back and forth until like finally getting cleaned up. But it was it was an exciting time, but I do remember a feeling of pressure. Before that we had just been like hungry. Like we're going to make our mark in the world. Like we're going to make people pay attention and we're just going to. And then, oh, now everyone's actually paying attention. Now what? It was like a shift.

Yeah. Sound system. Recorded in 1999, was Y2K at all a concern to 311? So we took, we were really burned out after the transistor, and we took 98 off, except for the first month we did the Australian Warp tour. But February through December was off. that we really needed a break because we had been at it and so we all like got houses and settled down we all lived in like Laurel Canyon within a mile of each other what hobby did you get into um sure you got into i did some surfing for the first time i got dogs um decorating a house and

you know learning to be a grown up was that was your year to learn yeah we'll get there yeah and then um And then, yeah, then we got into the studio for sound system. And then we were like, all right, we're kind of ready to rock a little harder again after there. I love that transistor is, you know, embraced now. But like I said, there was a bit of a backlash of people seeing 311s gone soft. They suck now. So we kind of, then the pendulum was swinging back towards like the heavy riffs and the palm muting opening of like freeze time

and and then I remember we were like Hugh Pajum like he's this is a super successful producer with like the police and XTC and Phil Collins and then when he got there he was kind of like

I just want you to know I really don't work on the songs I'm just going to like record them really good for you and I was like oh I thought you're going to help me with like every breath you take part two yeah yeah right but um i you know it was a cool which is kind of what you were used to with with ron in a way right other than the yeah no exactly it was it was another of more of an engineer focus producer so it was cool um but i but i did i always wanted help and you know um input from so that's why like i said working with with Bob Rock was really cool because he like the biggest bag of tricks of there's a song on one of the

bob rock records i can't wait to talk about but before then we have got to come original oh my god dude this fucking banger tell me about writing come original so part of um the writing of that was me and essay and our buddy brian link going down to jamaica in in 98 um to infiltrate like the dance hall scene and like we went because Native Wayne who you hear his voice going come original

on the he was like he is kind of the world's leading reggae impresario I just saw him about a month ago to do a benefit song for Jamaica just got worked over in the hurricane last year but

so he had us come down and stay at his condo and told us like where to go in Montego Bay and St. Ann's and Ocho Rios. And like he was like, okay, so like the real reggae places are down here. And like you can go if you want. I think you'll be fine. And we went down and we were like the only white people there and like these massive walls of speakers just. and we were just like grooving and dancing and mixing with the locals and buying people red stripes

and so came back from that and like that dance hall was really in us like the clubs the cool clubs at the time were playing like you know Beanie Man and Chakadimus and Plyers and like these this really cool dance hall music and then but to do like rock riff combined with the dance. hall rhythm that we were into from the club scene and the dance hall that was that was a unique blend and then I had heard peanut do this like sick bass line I was like we can do that for the rap sections of you know we'll have a dance hall yeah he's slapping that laughing that thing really he's beating that thing so yeah he he he he co-wrote that with me and but it's almost like a it's like a it's like a

off time with that that that yeah yeah the guitar's playing the reggaeton beat but the drums are just four four four it's awesome yeah and regga tone was actually not even a term and regga tone came after that when Hispanic people started getting into the dance hall rhythms but yeah that's now bad bunny at the super bowl yeah that's basically going back to that same um the roots of of jamaica but And then No Effects and Black Eyed Peas got a shout out in the song. Yeah, and Ronnie sighs, because the early drum and bass was a thing. I was like, this is like EDM with more, and EDM was not a term back then. I was like, this is like techno, but it rocks with this.

Yeah. So that was an influence. Yeah, we're just talking about originality and just creative freedom. That song's what that song is. So your message was, all you entertainers, you got to do something original. Like this. Yeah. That was basically.

Where did the term come from? Is that something you overheard in Jamaica? Maybe. Yeah. I would, I mean, I heard it and I was like, he's right. He's right. I do. Who, this is, who played the?

He's going to do it. It's going to kill me. And I'm sorry. Who played the boy? Boing on come original. Boing. You get the best boingest in the world now? Yeah, that would have been the dance hall sample CD that I had

that I put into my rack-mount Akai sampler that was made by Sly and Robbie, who I think one of them just passed away and yeah and that they had a sample CD with all those same reggae dance hall sounds from like murder she wrote and like those hits so I was like it's all over just dropped in

we kind of put it low in the mix because we wanted the real instruments to be first but wow luckily not too low so there were there because I've been born for years Well, because also, we didn't talk about it, but there's... Never stopped boeing. Thank you. There's a triangle in Beautiful Disaster also. Yeah.

And it's kind of... It's kind of regga tone in itself, because of where it is in the placement. Is that sample, too, or was somebody playing... That's actually from that same CD. Fascinating. So I would just assign all these different sounds to different keys and then just be like... Wow. Cool.

That's awesome. Very cool. So I think music journalism has... grown in general, but I think it's become more and more retrospectively kind to 311. And I'm learning a lot. I learned a lot through just researching for this episode how unkind it could be at times. And I'm wondering when that was something that you learned to tune out. I think that we didn't have a lot of expectations to be immediately embraced.

Like, here's the next big thing. you know, we just, I just didn't feel like, you know, coming out of Omaha that that was likely. So we just kind of presumed that it wasn't going to be like an easy be. But you're selling out amphitheaters. You're selling millions of records. So it's like, are you just seeing that peripheral and being like, that doesn't matter because this is, this is all working. And we had these other examples of like them, they said Led Zeppelin sucked too. So. like they don't know shit so we're just keep making music straight for the fans and also taking um uh sort of a business model from jam bands of being like the most important thing is to do a great

live show and the CDs and everything came secondary which fortunate was fortunate for us because then the CD business completely collapsed which was I remember during sound system when we sound system came out online like a week before it actually came out and our manager was like, it's here and I can't get them to take it down because it's just a bunch of fucking kids and they're telling me enough of you

and delete and kick me off the message board. So we were like, okay, well, you know, we're a live band first anyway. We're going to tour every summer. And so we had kind of luckily preempted the whole collapse of the recorded music business. You were kind of, you were preppers, inadvertently preppers.

Do you stay prepping, yeah, totally. You got your beans and rice and oats. So now, now it's time to open the hive. What inspires you guys to make your own studio in the Valley? I mean, we just knew that, like, it was $1,000 a day to get, like, a nice studio, so why do that? And that's 90s money, too. That's like a half a million dollars. Yes.

a month yeah so I just did some digging and to see that there was like this great studio that had had you know Stevie Wonder in it and stuff that was available for rent

so the first hive there's two hives yeah the first hive was for only for sound system that we rented and then we put our own gear in there and we had like we didn't buy tape machines at that point.

I think that we went and recorded drums at a regular studio, but it was only like a couple. No, no, no, we recorded drums there too. Maybe we did bring in a tape machine, but anyway. And then I was like, well, why are we renting this? Because there's this other studio over here for sale, and it has a, you know, our current hive, which has had a really nice remodel lately.

It was like this kind of hot spot for New Wave in the 80s. You know, they had like Super Tramp and Devo and missing persons and all this like cool New Wave had been recorded there. But when we bought it, we bought it from the Sherry Lewis and Lambchop estate. Like she had filmed her puppet shows there, the TV show in the 80s. And then she passed away. I'm not exactly sure when, but, and then we bought it, we bought it from her estate. And then that's been the permanent hive since the From Chaos album.

Let's talk about it. So, yeah, I guess that's like 26 years in. We've had it. Wow. Did you, when you acquired it, did you remodel it and make it your own? Or did you kind of, was it kind of pre-furnished and ready to rock? Yeah. When we first got it, we recorded there for a couple albums with it as is, and it had that like real 70s like ski lodge look of like all this like just bare wood everywhere.

And but that gave us like the amber drum sound and stuff. But then it started to kind of fall apart. So we did a remodel there before the Uplifter album. And then now we just did another one. How fun is it to build out a studio when you have the means to do kind of? and whatever you want. That has to be the coolest thing in the world. It is.

And then because Ron St. Germain is such a gearhead, he was telling us he was like, he doesn't care for SSL. He doesn't like those boards. He's a Neve guy, the warm analog sound. And he was like, the very best board in the world

is the Amec 9098 I. And it has the, it's made by Rupert Neve. It has the Neve sound. but the full recallability of a more modern board, but the classic sound. And he was like, they only made 10 of them.

There's one in Chicago at R. Kelly's studio. He's selling it. I wonder why. And it was around the time of his first canceling. Shocked. But he kind of recovered from that one. But anyway, he sold us his mixing board. Did you sage it?

Yes, we sage did. We had it blessed and disinfected. Very good. And that is, and now there's only, there's only five of them in the entire world in operation, and only one in California. It's ours. Some engineers say it's the best mixing board that there is. Wow.

I believe Will Yip has one of them. I believe Contra Hocken. That's unbelievable. Pennsylvania has another one. So it's from chaos, from chaos, first record in the hive. Yeah. A couple of bangers on this one. We got to talk about one.

Oh, yeah. I'll be here a while. Beautiful song. Love the fact that it's double time and not halftime. You know what I mean? Because if it was, I'll be here, totally different. Just be another ballad.

Another ballad, but it's got energy. You can literally, like, moon-stomp to it. Like, you can dance to it. The radio stations do this thing that drives me insane where they kind of fade out the end of a song and start talking over it and do their bullshit. And it drives me nuts. I knew this fact once, but I forgot about it.

You just sing a bad brain's part at the end of the song. It's from I and I survive. Absolutely, which is a rock for light song, which is my favorite record by them. This is relatively late, not late, but relatively into your career as a band. This is something you would almost expect early, you know. Now it's safe.

Yeah. Yeah. And but you're doing it. And you're wearing an influence on your sleeve, which is something we greatly appreciate as people who love to know the stories and just blah, blah. I just, I realized when we were doing this research that the key is the same and it's kind of a two-cord song, you know, and it's the same as I survive. So I'm just wondering how it happened. It just like, it just needed to be said. And I was like, I wanted to do an ad lib, ad lib, and no.

Nobody's better at ad-living than HR. You know what I mean? Wow! You could have screeched it. Yeah, and he, just the way he plays with melody and that really, his vocal influence comes from me. And you hear a lot of Horace Andy, who's like the great dub reggae singer from the King Tubby Days. And then he was in in Massive Attack for a while and has that really strong vibrato that you can hear HR. And so there's just like a family tree going that I,

heard it from HR and I was like oh he got that from Morris Andy but the funny thing about that song is that I've had so many people go 311 aren't you that ska band I'm like yeah on one song on I'll be here a while we're kind of a ska band but like but no horns no horn it's all I mean that's it's all it's okay to be a the one-time scoban if it's like a perfect ska song which this is and then the bad brains toss in at the end you're fine All the credibility in the world. So again, like I told you, when we do stuff like this, when we fly out, we deep dive, you know, and we just listen to everything. And I was at the airport on my way here the other day.

And this one came on and let it play through because I had a layover, you know, and it wasn't, there wasn't some disc jockey talking over it. And I, like, I had like that moment, you know, where I just, I was like, oh, here it is. Yeah. This is the connection that people might wonder. Fugazi for a show. Fugazi for a show. Bad Brains riff on the. Doing the same noises.

And I'm glad you guys have a positive look on that because I dropped a little lyric. I remember a guy on a message board saying, I hate that song I'll be here while because he rips off bad brains. I was like, no, I was giving it props. If you're a punk rocker, you knew where that came from. It's an homage. And the same thing in the song Hive,

I drop a classic lyric from the song It Takes 2 by Rob Bass and DJ Easy Rock, and Rolling Stone was like, that's appropriation. I was like, no, it's a quote. It's like, I'm giving props to the old school lyric, just like, but whatever. Everything comes from somewhere. Yeah, we're standing on the shoulders of giants.

And you're being told by people who don't make music that it's bad. And that's the ultimate, like, fuck, I don't care what you have to say. Because nine times out of ten, you talk to the original creator of some song that got covered and was made different or made their own. They love it. They all love it. Yeah, but you really have to, artists are sensitive and developing some kind of a bit of a thick

skin is like a skill that you have to develop in order to not go too crazy. Like, as Turnstile was coming up, I was talking to Brendan a lot. And I know that them coming from such a hardcore scene that there's purists that would get mad that hey you've got keyboards in now what's going on and he had just such a great attitude not like man opinions are going to just vary so widely that you just have to like roll with it and let it go because

it is possible that you take it to heart and then you drive yourself crazy and I've heard stories that people like Googling themselves over and over to see what people are saying about themselves and that's like... I'll do it. That's like anxiety,

mental institution causing if you let your need for approval take you to that kind of place. And at the end of the day, you guys, turnstile, they'll be here a while.

Yeah, sure. Very good. Very good. Another little song on this record called Amber. Turned out to be the biggest one, huh? The one. And like you said earlier,

he was like, yeah, I got this other one. I guess. Which is like, that's LaGrange, Zizi Top. You know, that's like, what's the Peter Chris song? The ballad. Oh, Beth. It's the Beth.

You know, and it's like, yeah, I have this one. And it ends up being one of the biggest songs, you know. I would imagine presenting this as a, I also have this. You were surprised? Yeah, I think it was, I mean, I think the true family tree that song came from Tim making the song Champagne first, which had that T-W-W-W-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-A-T-W-T-W. And Tim was actually here today recording some T-Wa. And then, so then when I came up with the Amber thing, it was basically like the son of Champagne. Did you come up with that riff? Yeah.

Wow. Does he resound me? I actually, I played it on keyboard. Oh, okay. Does he resent you for having to play that every night? Because that's not, that's one of those chili pepper riffs where you can't, it's clean. Yeah. And it's kind of, or police, it's kind of a message in a bottle where it's like, oh.

There's no gain that can save you. You can't hide behind it, you know. Yeah. No, I, I think, we all enjoy playing the classics just because we know what they mean to people now. Do they take you into that time, too? Yeah. we're there to be of service. So it's not only about our enjoyment.

We're there to facilitate this, the collective experience, the live show. And when I go to a show, I want to hear classics that have meant a ton to me. But you don't want to only do the classics either. So that's why we make a fresh set list every night to be like throwing little bones. Fascinating.

Now watch the video of your Warped Tour set last year. year and it's banger, banger, banger, bang, bang, bang, deep cut. Banger, bang, bang, bang, that's how you do it. Reward the real ones, you know. Are you asking the rainstorm to take you away from the north? Or like as a... You've got the lyrics all wrong. Okay, please.

It's brainstorm. Brainstorm. Take me away from the norm. Please, brain, take me into a new place. Oh, now I get it. So I'm asking... You were looking at it from a very... I'm asking the muse to lead me.

I'm a very nautical. You were Tolkien. I'm nautical in my senses, you know? So I'm... Let's the rain take you from the car. I'm at sea, you know, what can I say? That's fascinating. Wow.

Layers. So, yeah. Amber, number one song. I guess I got this one. It's a very weird, um, um, um, roadmap of a song because it goes like,

it starts with riff and then vamp and then like 16 bars of adlebing. And then a chorus. and then a verse and then a chorus and then like a dub breakdown and then a guitar solo and then another solo and then a bridge

and then another verse structural madness yeah it's it was completely outside of the box so that's why I don't know it it was a very slow burn

like it took a long time to get going and then it was it really hit its peak like a couple years I think our are our ticket sales like as far as attendance really like around 05 through 07 was oh 4 through 07 was that's when besides amber was playing a lot and then love song came in and the whole 51st state soundtrack so it was just Adam Sandler just like letting things happen um music video as well for amber was i remember seeing it often often often yeah it was by the moly brothers who were like surfer guys are like super surfer guys i think they managed jack johnson or something

and they they were like we love this song we're just going to do our thing with from you making surf videos in hawai but we did it down on a this like and those those shacks on the beach basically there was this really weird little surf community that had been there forever but the city had finally evicted them and so it was just about to be demolished when we shot that music video so it's immortalized yeah you got it wow so you mentioned love song let's get into it we talk about is this a cover you record for the sake of recording a cover or is this just not at all it was because adam sandler loved the song amber and then he said for my movie set in Hawaii with Drew Barrymore, 51st dates.

I want to do have the whole album, the whole movie have the sound of Amber, but I want to do covers of romantic 80s, classic alternative songs done in a reggae style. Genius. So, yeah, it was like this cool vision that I have to give him all the credit for. And like I said, me and Tim's band played, we played like seven or eight Cure songs. but it was the earlier stuff. You know, the like in between days and earlier. Portography, so?

Yeah. Head on the door. And then, but this was deconstruction. I actually wasn't that familiar with Love Song. Disintegration. Disintegration. Yes. And so, but he suggests he was like,

you could do a great cover of Love Song. And I was like, okay. And I just, at that point, I had, let's see, we were on tour with Incubus again. And I decided to get my own bus so I could bring my dogs with me and also have a recording studio. Now, at the time. Yeah. It's the life. Like, this is how I want to spend my money.

It's spring for my own bus. And I took out the bunks. And at that time, to have a decent record. studio you you still need a lot of gear rack mounts of you know big big Mac now you just need universal audio console exactly exactly but at the time so I modified a bus so I was like and we were on tour when I got the call about love song and um I was like let me see what I can do and I just and then we we did that what we did we made the whole love song that you hear it was all done on tour we recorded the drums at a sound check in a club I think it was the

electric factory in Philly whoa yeah many times and then and did all the overdubs in the bus and and then he also I was like I love this idea how about lips like sugar the echo in the bunnyman song how about stop the world to melt with you and he was like great great great great and And so I ended up producing four more songs for that soundtrack and getting seal to sing Lips Like Sugar and Jason Mraz to sing Stop the World and Melt With You and Dredden from Ant Farm to sing Friday I'm in love. And so it was like, and that all happened on this like long tour that we were on. Productive tour. Wow. Yes. Wow.

So it was like that was the most time that I've been. ever been part of like the music machine because like going to the premiere and like they 3-11 was all over that movie like not just those two songs that I mentioned but like rub-a-dub off of from off of transistor was was in the movie and different you know so it was it was a pretty cool time to be in the zeit guys was that your first interaction with Adam's salmon yeah yeah again that guy Brian Ling who we went to Brian Ling had made a lot of cool connections. He was friends with Adam Sandler, and he was also friends with Shaq,

which got Shaq to be in our video. And then Shaq came and performed a song with us at the weeny roast right after the Lakers won the championship. What song did? We did a song that we did with him. He was doing a rap record, and he was like, I want to do a rock song. And Ling was like 311, those, you know, is your boys.

So we made this song called Psycho, which is like a rock song. And so we, we played it live at the weene rows. The place went absolutely apeshit. It was nuts. I want to play Psycho. That's amazing. Evolver would be next up. What comes to mind from that era for you?

Really getting into deep diving on the Beatles, learning tons of Beatles songs, reading books about the Beatles, exploring Abbey Road and Revolver. And just, you know, I only dumb people try and compare themselves to the Beatles, but I was trying to absorb the masters as much as possible during that time. So you'll hear a lot of the harmonies getting, bigger. Also, the ELO kind of, you know, harmonies with like singing the very highest falsetto that you can possibly do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Doing songs like same mistake twice and that had that kind of more crazy vocal production in there.

And then the song Creatures for a while off of Evolver. To me, that was like a big, To have a song that rocks that hard that isn't one of your super oldies, that was like a big kind of accomplishment. And that's still like one of the closers that we use. Oh, nice. Yeah, because you mentioned Beatles' ELO and all these advanced new techniques you're learning later in your career. But this song is like heavy. Dang to Dan to Dan to Dan to Dan.

Heavy chorus. These little key changes, these modulations that to me sounded a little beat. but combined with like a it's the same tempo as down because down was probably the song that made people go the most nuts so instead of darn na na na na and that i was like jernong jung jung jong jang jong jang jong it's that it's the intention here is the energy is yeah the energy a little bit yeah yeah i see how do your songwriting goals change and evolve 10 years later setting out to make are you setting out to make you know, a couple more songs that you're psyched to play live, or is it just, hey, let's write another killer record? Well, I keep my expectations low because I know that it's just something that I enjoy so much to make music. And, you know, whether it becomes as important as our other music, I don't know. And you keep your expectations low because you know we've been we're coming on our 36 year anniversary so it's you know some artists just

it's not even worth it people aren't even checking out our new stuff but I know that it's something that I enjoy so much and that the band enjoys and then also to get into you know exploring like really you know this kind of Americana stuff that I did last year that was just like going into really the dark caves of my psyche to talk about stuff that I didn't really want to talk about, but I knew that it was cathartic for me and also other people had been through similar stuff, whether it was, you know, my brother passing away or, you know, addiction and, you know, different things that I felt like I hadn't talked about yet. So it was a lot of fun for me to to make that music and even if it doesn't really, you know, catch on a lot.

Doesn't matter. That's what Rick Ruben's book says is like, you've got to have courage to keep doing frequent releases and not, you know, live and die by how they're received, you know, a writer writes. And so, but we always, we're also performers too. So it's like, you know, a lot of artists at our phase of career might just become, I'm a song and dance man, you know what I mean? I just, I go out and play the oldies and that's a big part of what we do.

But then also to keep that creativity going is, you know, I still can get really excited about other people's new music as well as my own and my collaborators in the band. it's all still there. We, I mean, we listen to stuff that comes out all the time, whether it's from underground music or more mainstream music or whatever, we're constantly checking out of new music. And going back, or revisiting a band and revisiting or seeing their new record, I should say, and finding a song that connects with you, it's the best.

Feels so good. So there's no reason to ever stop. The newest Allison Chain's record is unbelievable. Like, you like, you're still got it. You never know. Yeah, Jerry's so talented. I just listened to nothing shocking in its entirety today, and that just brought me back.

I was like, this is so weird and so cool. There was nothing like this before Jane's Addiction, you know. Beautiful. You did a greatest hits record after this, which pre-streaming is like a huge deal. Like that, this hit number seven on the Billboard 200, and you can just check that out with playlist now. Everybody's got a greatest hits playlist.

But, yeah, what's the approach like for that? How involved are you in that? And is this something you care about at the time? Yeah. I mean, we definitely had input on which songs to include. Like, the song Beyond the Grey Sky wasn't a hit, but in our world it was. Sure. Because it was very important moment for us to play live to, you know,

to talk about, you know, people who we've lost and talk about getting through depression and the story about losing a friend to suicide. And so, like, that's on the greatest hits, but it wasn't a greatest hit at all. But so, yeah, we definitely had input on there. And then, you know, we did the obligatory two new songs to include. And we worked with David Kahn,

who, you know, he had done like Sublime and Sugar Ray and Paul McCartney and some cool people. So I actually learned a ton from him on those. So don't tread on me would be next. Opening song, title track. Is this a live staple now? It should be.

Yeah, it hadn't been, but last year we started playing it pretty often. The decision to do that kind of like, you talked about this earlier with you and essays, harmonies, how sometimes it's just there, but then you cross that bridge, there's like that dissonant harmony

that you go into the... where it's like the brain doesn't expect you to go there when you're listening to this song. Was that a deliberate thing? I just felt right. It just came out naturally. Wow. We were talking in the car.

Like, no, they... There's a reason, man. What a crazy choice. They had to do it this way. Yeah. I remember that... we actually had a big fight with our label at that point that led to us parting ways with them because they were like you don't have a single on this you know you guys need to go back into the studio and I was like I think this is this album is as good as it's gonna get and I think there are some really good songs on there I understand that it's a little not formulaic and maybe not what you want.

And then that song came out and it actually tied for number one with a nine-inch nails song. So I kind of had the last laugh. Yeah. They were so mad. I don't understand. That we didn't want to shelve it. We were like, we want to get this out in time for summer tour. We think it's a good album.

I don't know. Maybe they were right that the record as a whole could have been stronger, but there's some cool songs on there. Yeah, 100%. The state of music by 2005 now, you're living through the Napster fiasco, Torrance. How hard does that hit 311? Is that something that you and your peers in the industry are all worried about and talking about? I think the sketchy time was a little, yeah, 06, 07. I was definitely downloading stuff by 2005. 2005 I was on long-wide. I mean, the problem was they had overcharged so much for music. Like when you're charging $18 for a CD, and then kids like,

or I can just have a 50 cent blank CD and download these songs. Like, you know, I think people that didn't usually steal were like, it's too expensive. I'm just going to. I need my music. I need my music. and also, you know, thinking, well, these guys are rock stars, you know, they don't need the money. I need this, you know.

So I, which I understood. And like I said, we had more just focused on the touring world more anyway. And then, yeah, and then we made uplifter with Bob Rock. and that was just like a really cool learning experience. And had you heard St. Anger when you hired Bob Rock for Ufflifter? Or seen some kind of monster? Yeah, definitely saw some kind of monster and had been into Metallica Black Album.

You as an artist and as somebody who worked with Bob Rock, or was about to work with Bob Rock, how did some kind of monster resonate with you? We've never been able to ask that before. It is like one of the most... egos, pieces of art ever made, I would say? Yeah, no, I mean, it was really revealing to, for them to, it was pretty triggering for me to, to see the,

the tension in those band meetings. And for them to put that all out there was pretty damn courageous. And then Bob would share a lot of the sort of psychological tools that he learned, if I would say, that's kind of boring part. He was like, that's a very triggering word for you to call somebody's work boring. You know what I mean? Wow. Or if I would say, well, this part right here gets a little boring.

He was like, let's try a different word from that. So he helped us with our interpersonal kind of thing. He learned a lot from, what's the therapist's name? I forget his name. Yeah, the guy. From that guy. Yeah, sweaters. 40,000 won.

He plays... There's something that's crazy about that documentary. Obviously, we won't talk about it that long, but they had Hawaiian shirt day in the studio. Never mentioned in the documentary. So you'll have these fights and they're all just wearing Hawaiian gear. No reason.

And it's just never once mentioned. That's kind of the craziest part. Do you guys have Hawaiian Shirt Day on Uplifter, Universal Poll? No, that came up over the past decade on Fridays on tour. Oh, really? Oh, fun. Good.

Hawaiian shirts. There's a song on Universal Pulse called Sunset in July. He can't believe this. I cannot believe this song. And to me, so you mentioned Morrissey earlier. Why don't you find out for yourself? Say, this day's on man.

Sunset in July. Was that subconscious or is that a conscious? Are you just discovering this now? No, I can acknowledge. sing. And yeah, he's just got a way with melodies.

He's unfortunately the greatest ball time. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately. Yes. It is what it is. We just talked about it. Maybe not the best guy. Maybe the worst guy. No less than 1,000 bangers. Yeah. Yeah. So these

records with Bob Rock, he is not a sit-back and engineer type producer, right? So did you enjoy that process? Yeah, like, he was a sixth band member. Like, we all had our little stations, and he had his station with his pedals and his amp and his guitar, and he would be in there with us. And we definitely welcomed it.

And he brought so much gear with him, like these weird pedals and had Tim, you know, getting into the whammy pedal, which, you know, like Tom Morello and some others abused. and Tim used on that album. And then we would have keyboard days where he and I spent like three days at the end of the album. We would just go through each song and just add some pads or a shaker

or some different. Boing? Pardon me? Boing? Yeah, boing's. You got a boing. Well, that was the boing. You got out of boing.

Yeah, we're going analog boing now. We got Bob Rock on the helm. That's true. Was this song? pre-written before you started working with Bob Rock? Which one? Sunset and July. Well, no, because Uplifter was the first record with Bob Rock,

and then Universal Pulse was our second, and that was on there. So, yeah, we had already worked with him. But then... What I'm wondering is if that big G was Bob Rock's... C, right? You know, his chord progression sensibility, or if it was something you had already had. I don't remember.

Because this guy, he can't believe a G major. I love a G major. But I think that was a C. No. No. No. Is it G? It's a G.

Yeah, we did. We'll talk about it. C would be too high. Stereolithic and Mosaic. I mean, the song's in F. I... Well, F.

Stereolithic and Mosaic. Walk me through him. This is... We're all the hive. has has been ground zero since 2000 well that's a crazy

sentence the hive has not been ground zero since 2001 the hive has been the home of the recording since 2001 now how does the process change here bob's out of the picture here

yeah and then we're back with scotch who did transistor and has been our live sound guy for a long time that's cool yeah wow

And we met him on our very first LA recording experience when we started as being Eddie Offord's assistant. So he's like, you know, our same age. We've known him for 35 years. And, you know, I think that Universal Pulse has only eight songs. And we kind of started to, there was a little. little bit of lack of cohesion as far as like where we should be going so after that we we kind of took a bit of a break and then we got back into like whatever like the attitude that we had on transistor which was like just just throw and go and see what happens and so I think there is a bit

of an attitude similarity between transistor and stereolithic is getting more into the weirdness and and then following that up with mosaic where then I felt like that was kind of like our sound system period where we're starting to get a little bit more momentum and have some breakthroughs of doing these kind of epic songs that were like long songs where getting into like the classical having some classical chord changes in there and I started working with a a couple different guitar teachers and really filling in my knowledge of technique and scales and modes and how Bach made his chord changes and stuff like that.

So, I don't know, that's some stuff that come to mind, but I'm jumping ahead. Just growth, keep and grown, grown, grown, that's what's all about. Voyager, you would put out and then COVID happened. Yeah. What was that experience like and then how did you use? that time off. We're sitting there. Yeah, I guess we are. Yeah. Built a studio.

And the, you know, we really like we have a fairly busy touring schedule, but then like so now what are we going to do? So I have to give real props to our road crew because they figure out how to do live streaming. And then

we had live from the hive sessions. And we did a 311 March 311 day show where we played transistor in its entirety on on March 11th and then like once a month

stream different albums so as a way to stay connected to our fans and let our you know the fans have their own party in front of the couch and dancing around. People needed it very resourceful as a band that

doomsday prepped for streaming ironically doomsday puts you in a position where it's like uh-oh we can't play yeah all right we'll figure it out yeah technology because if that happened in the 90s well i guess records will be good uh just can't win so in with in hardcore and punk after covid there was this enormous boom and like we're still seeing it to an extent like turn style just won two grimmies you know was did you notice it the same in in 311 world Was there a big boom in sales and tennis numbers? When we're out of lockdown, I got to see 3.11. Yeah, what I know is that there was pent-up desire for touring,

but every band was doing it. So we had to, like, are the normal buses that we use were not available. So we were in like these broke-down buses that had like shit that was not working because there was such a crazy demand. And like every roadie was busy. And fortunately, we've got a really loyal crew. But it was different for a while. Better?

No, not better. There was still just a lot of tension over just in the air with the country, with people upset about lockdown. and masks and different things like that. So it was still going. The residual energy is still flown, hatefully. Full bloom would be your most recent record.

Released by your own company, SKP, which is very cool. I would love to talk about SKP. Explain that to the world, what you've done here. So, so much of what a label used to do has changed.

You got to think about the barrier to entry of when we first started. A, you had to have a recording studio, and then you, most people, you'd hire a producer, there's tape, there's getting that duplicated, and then physically getting those to stores, and then there's brick and mortar stores. All that is completely different now. You've got, you know, like Billy Eilish, never set foot in a regular recording studio until she was already like you know everywhere so the traditional what a label does has totally changed and so having like a portal where you can get your distribution but then also to see the different metrics of what's working and what's not working and kind of self-service your own

music is just we saw an opportunity there and helping people become major label SKPs, SKP. It's escaping. Wow. You just essay it all over me. Unbelievable. Wow. That's good. God damn. My wife came up with it.

Genius. She's good. You should marry. You should build hers, dude. Is there anything, Nick, now, however many years. You said 36 years into three-level. into 3-11. Is there anything you feel you haven't achieved yet

artistically that you would like to? Yeah, like I always find new things that make me curious. That's the best thing our artists can do is just follow their curiosity. Absolutely. Last year I was into very personal kind of Americana

and, you know, did a side project. I do have this demo of a song that goes through a lot of different sections. Like I'm taking that whole journey through different movements thing kind of further and that excites me. And I'm also kind of fascinated with jazz from the 40s of when, you know, there was jazz had like hit songs before rock and roll, there was a kind of a glory era that I've been getting really into.

And, you know, Chet Baker and Billy Holiday and Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughn and stuff like that. That interests me right now. But then I also, at the same time, like energetic music to, like, when I exercise, I have different playlists for different activities. like a house tempo is good for jumping rope or being on the elliptical and then I have like a 150 BPM playlist that is good for when I'm running. So I've kind of been kicking around the idea of like what if I make music specifically for it? Because people moving their body in rhythm, it releases oxytocin. And that's why you get a high from a great concert.

It's not just because the music is good. It's because of this shared energy field that's going with people. It's the same reason why they have at boot camp you march is because of this, the bonding that you get. People feel a real high from rhythmic moving, whether it's like dance is the number one best thing that you can do to. improve your to like fight depression like it's clinically proven to be better than any prescription medication or anything like that so um i know like getting all over the place no no no great no i i see the vision i see what you're saying my next note here is you're so vascular and jacked what is your physical retin that you just mentioned how important movement is for

what you do, what you preach, everything. What's your physical regimen like at home and on tour? So I just finished a really good book called Dopamine Nation. And she talks about how the avoidance of pain will cause you more pain. Like you need to experience some discomfort because the homeostasis of the pain and pleasure thing. So what I try and do is start my day with hard things, which include a vigorous workout, both cardio and strength and then maybe like a cold plunge because like after that I don't have any aches and pains and then I feel like alive and ready to attack the day so seven days week um pretty much

wow how long what's the playlist for not super long so that's the thing is like people you've you've got your goals and stuff you want to do during the day and if you like I've found ways that I can get it down to like 25, 30 minutes and to get that, okay, now I'm ready for my day and get that done between 815 and 845 right after the case. Damn, okay. Wow. What's the, do you have like a good 65 BPM heavy weightlifting playlist? A lot of crowbar.

A lot of crowbar in there? Yeah, I definitely put on Pantara when I'm ready to like, Another band that loves Helmet. True. Yeah, true. Wow. The other thing that obviously very importantly goes along with that is diet. I was just going to ask, yeah.

What's that, what diet needs to be done to be that vascular? It's more about the frequency of revving my engine every day. I had, you know, I was known as the keto guy for a while. You too. Yeah, us too. Yeah. And then, but I... 2018, I wouldn't look at a carb.

Yeah, no, I went for like a year without having sugar and or bread and but I find I have more energy now when I eat full spectrum and I was needing. I know they say you're supposed to get into like fat adapted and stuff and then have lots of energy but it didn't really work for me and I was vegan for a little while but I was just eating so much even though it was like I couldn't get full so now I'm kind of just back to just a traditional diet of a little bit of everything and try and stay away from the bad stuff but it's more about frequently revving your engine love it now when you partake in the bad stuff tell me what do you like when you get a bad brain so it's i love a five guys burger with every last thing that they have on there um i make my own homemade pizza that is like this just combo with and i make it like thin and crispy, but piled with stuff, but like a really good crust to it. You know, and it's Girl Scout cookie season. Oh my God. Have you tried the Explore Moors?

I just had them for the first time last night. Don't tell me what this is. Dude, it's like Rocky Road in a cookie form. Yes. They are incredible. Revolution. I've been needing to explore last. You can order them online.

Like from them and they'll deliver it. I actually tweet, I think it was on threads that I put a leak to my daughters. If you need some, get them through my daughter's Girl Scout. That's embezzles. How dare you? It's for a good call. They do good deeds. They're cleaning

up the beach and doing stuff like that. But those are incredible. I can't wait to go home and get some more. I need no further information on what they are. You just went five guys. Your instinct was five guys there. Yeah. I like it better than In and Out.

Really? Or Shake Shack. I mean, it's obviously better than Shickshack. I like Shake Shack. I like it too, but it's too modern, dude. It's very modern. It's like a club. Yeah, come on, man.

Wow, five guys over in and out. Now, what about back in the day, 311 in that R, that doomed RV? Where are you guys stopping? I mean, I would always make sure there was, like, cereal to go with us on the radio. One of the fattest things in Man Can Eat is a bowl of cereal. It's crazy. But what about any fast food? that like the band collectively was like oh they have that all over all over we got to go i think it was

just a little bit of everything we were kind of early to get really like into good sushi like when i had dried sushi for the first time straight out of omaha in 1990 1980 and they showed me like and now you do the ginger between the bites and you mix the wasabi like it was salt so new i was like this is incredible most exotic thing yeah totally it gets me every time to stay i'm fired up i can't wait to eat some later. Yeah, which now we're going to do. I want that. Yeah, okay.

I want that. We have one final question for you. The people have all been dying to know. I've been dying to know. We've dropped some Easter eggs throughout the episode. But we want to know your four favorite punk-slash-hardcore records of all time. Well, I really do love Fugazi 13 songs with waiting room on there. I would say that the Clashes London Calling was for me, like when the musicality and the punk rock energy, you know, was just hit this like apex.

There's a deep cut on there that I'll wake up with, death of glory, the chorus. I'll wake up with that in my head and it's a week before it goes away. I can't believe that song. Yeah. And then either of those Bad Brain's albums of Quickness or Eye Against Eye were super important. I would say that Quickness

actually has better production because the, I don't know, there's a little too much. Mackey from the Cromaggs on drums on that one too. That's right, that's right. He's a quickness guy. I like him both. I know, but I like doing this.

He's more of a quickness. He hates. against I. I'm more than I against I. I think I against I is better. He loves quickness. He never shuts up. Great answer, great answer.

Good answer. Okay, so that's three. And then... Fourth one is always the hardest. It is. More of a deeper cut would be, like, the descendants, like Milo goes to college,

something from back then that was like, this is, like, really cool. like the songwriting it's just it's good songwriting even but it's like

super punk and I don't know if that that's a great answer absolutely it's a common one yeah is it yeah yeah it is Nick Hexon we did it

this is fantastic what an incredible chat thank you so much for joining us today I told so many stories that I had never told before I never even thought of perfect all for 311 days That's what we want. Happy 311 day to all. Happy 311 day to us for getting to share this beautiful experience. Nick, we cannot thank you enough.

This was fun. It really was. If you have any parting words to leave the people with, I'm sure they'd love to hear it. We love our fans. We're so grateful to get to do this for yet another year as we're about to turn 36. Many people don't get to be 36, you know, let alone many bands. Okay. So that's a beautiful thing. Thank you so much. Thank you all for watching. We love you so much. See you next week.

Bye. This episode is brought to you by Mad Vintage.