Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast - Ep 513 - 311 (feat. Nick Hexum & S.A. Martinez)

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

Support the D.A.W.G.Z. @ patreon.com/MSsecretpod Support S.A. , Nick , and the band - Go See Them Live @ https://311.com/ Go See Matt Live @ mattmccusker.com/dates Go See Shane Live @ shanemgillis.com Get Merch @ mssecretpodcast.com/merch Surprise!! We have a little bonus cast for you guys this week. Matt sat down with the guys from 311. They discussed the early days, touring, never breaking up the band, family life, and much more. Shout out to S.A. and Nick two solid bros. Please enjoy. God Bless. 

Hey, welcome to the podcast. Thank you guys so much Nick Exum here sa Martinez sure welcome all men. I'll show me that's my name Yes, I respond to it dude. I'm terrible with names and it's a bane of my existence Dude, I know you guys for real. I don't want to you know I don't want to be you can say it you guys fucking rule you guys got me through the sweatiest period of my life easily I would just me and my friends would just wax up a four by four like post just skateboard like Boardslide it and shit seventh grade is all head boners. It was fucking weird But no you guys fucking roll do thanks for doing this I was like genuinely stoked I don't get

Stoked on a lot of stuff and I saw that come through my email. I was like oh Yes, please I don't get stoked on a lot of stuff. And I saw that come through my email and I was like, oh, yes please. That's so nice to hear. So seventh grade, like for context, was that late nineties? Yes, yeah. Late nineties, yeah. Cause my older brothers, they graduated like 96, 98. And I was like four years younger than them.

But yeah, it was like, it was for real. Like, I didn't mean you guys obviously are older than me, but you know, you don't really look it, but I'm aging rapidly But yeah, it was like That shit was crazy, dude Just be like bopping around seventh grade doing your thing and all of a sudden someone hits you with I had the blue album the Self-titled album first and then I was just like dude. This is crazy. We were just that one song down It was allegedly about making out right?

Well he mentions making out so the thing, the lore associated with you guys was so funny, it was like everyone would be like, yeah dude, they studied music actually at the Juilliard. And I'd be like, yeah, obviously I can tell, dude. They're definitely Juilliard. I was like, it's seventh grade? Like, yeah, obviously. But yeah, we'd all think about making out.

We'd be like, I can't wait to fucking make out, dude. It's gonna be so sick. Well, it's so funny because we just played this spot called Interlaken, which is like the Juilliard for high school kids. And the chick I made out within a dark hallway I went to Interlochen when we met in summer camp and she was telling me about this other camp

and it sounded really prestigious and it was like, so we were just there and it was one of those full circle moments. Yeah, it was. Yeah. I did you make out that this is news. That's that's news to you. Well, the summer camp I was my those my dark hallway make out. But then you went to the other summer camp. No, she went. No. Yeah. We we played there. 311 played an amphitheater and it brought back the story. I know I'm trying to figure out if you made out to make

You full circle yeah Where was the makeup? The makeup was in Nebraska is in Lincoln, Nebraska. That's all music camp and And she was a violinist what those were the days Yeah, that was sick making out before you knew about anything else like doesn't get better than this You know yeah, yeah turns out it absolutely Stabilizes your life the rest of it Reference point well dude. That's fucking awesome man. So you got you guys have been torn for what like?

23rd how long you guys been torn for since 93 what? Yeah, what's the secret to the staying power do a lot of a lot of like bands just completely disintegrate How do you guys do it? We just don't say no with anything Heroin we we don't say We don't say no to gigs and we don't break up yeah, like what's the secret to keeping a band together don't break up Yeah, true. That's a good point. How do you bounce? Oh, what do you think? What's the force? What's like the the centrifugal force that just pulls. How do you balance? What do you think, what's the force? What's like the centrifugal force that just pulls bands apart, would you say? Ego.

Yeah. You know, people digging in too hard on their positions. I mean, you know, we respect democracy and we have five band members. So if it ever needs to come down to a vote, it's gonna be, you gonna be two against three. If it was four people and it was two against two, then what do you do?

So unfortunately we have an odd number of band members, but most of the time we just talk things out and it doesn't really even come to a vote. We just, somebody gives in and we just keep talking till there's a consensus, but if there ever needs to be a vote, then we respect that. And just, and also keep an attitude of gratitude

knowing that we're super lucky to get to do this, that we've stumbled on a really special lineup that we're better together than we could do on our own. And we just take good care of it. Damn, that's awesome. Because I feel like that's pretty rare. I mean, you guys must have seen bands come and go and kind of implode and all that stuff.

Yeah, and so many bands that we started out with have like one or two original members and then just side guys. Yeah, that's what I saw in your guys' tiny desk concert. That's like, I mean, I don't recommend you guys going through comments. They're all very nice. But it was the big thing was like,

I can't believe they're all still together. Usually it's one guy and a couple of studio musicians and it's, you know, so it's sick, man. Yeah. It's awesome. So how do you like, when you, cause you guys have come out with almost like an album a year with, you know, give and take like a couple years

here and there. In the beginning. In the beginning it was like that. I mean, you know, it's a mad terror when you think about it. I and I thought we were on on a bender when we did that. And then I looked at REM discography. And they did like six albums or something like that in their in their launch like per year. And but it also made sense because they reached a status in a level that is very hard to come by, but

unless you put in mad work, man. Yeah. You know, so we did a lot of legwork, obviously, and then, you know, we continue to do it. But it's important to get back to the not imploding part to like have some space that you carve out, you know? Yeah. So, and now we all have families at this point in time. Gotcha.

When did the family start and how was that like balancing that whole thing? Well, we thankfully we kind of waited. Did you really? Yeah. So, you know, I think maybe it's possible had we started families early that things might've gone a rye perhaps

because there's tensions that can build and if you don't address them in a familial setting that can spill over into your professional lives. Oh yeah, I know. Yeah, I have two of these. So I think we're a little wiser by the time we started families and you know. How old are your kids? You don't mind me asking. We're ours are about the same. I have two guys three mine is almost well 14 and 12.

Okay sweet I got you. So you guys really waited till the time was right. Yes I definitely can not have to wonder if I sowed enough wild oats you know what I mean like yeah yeah I was the first one to have a kid and I was 39 and now there's been 10 311 kids So it's damn that's pretty cool. Yeah, so you kind of broke the ice and everyone else was like Yeah, they're tough man, I have a two and a four year old nerd It's like and I tore a stand up and it's, it can be tough. It can be like kind of like deciding how much do you go away, how much do you not? And you just feel like consumed with guilt and stuff.

Yeah, that's, that's a thing. But fortunately I kind of did the math once and we're maybe gone like between a quarter and a third of the year. It's not like we're gone all year. So then when we're home, like I'm super hands on dad. Got you, got you. Get the kids ready for school and driving them to school and stuff in the morning, so. Yeah, that makes sense. And if you really take, if you put it up against a nine to

five, it's like you're going eight hours a day, almost every single day. Yeah. Versus, you know, going away here and there. And I also tell myself too, if I had to work in an office, I probably would have burned my house down, so. There's that. What are my kids? I would have probably like beat my kid.

You know what I mean? So it's like being able to get like a creative outlet helps me not be like a nightmare to my kids and stuff. Yeah. One of my kids said, "'Dad, I'm glad you're not a mister.'" And I was like, "'What are you talking about?'

She was like, you know, like comes home with a briefcase and a suit. I'm really glad you're not a mister. Cause like, take a beach. Do those exist anymore? Mister. I saw that on TV once. That must have been nice to be like, fuck yeah, I'm not a mister.

You get it. I was very good to... And then now when I do something crazy, I'm like, would a mister do that? They're like, no, you're proving our point. Yeah, you're not a mister. That's awesome, man. Yeah, my kids have got to come, when I do stand up, like we've, if I have like an earlier show,

like sometimes you do like a 430 matinee show, and they've got to come do like, just hop on stage and like mess with the mics while the staff's setting up. And like, I feel like little kids love that. Like if you're telling them like I'm playing music, or like they say I'm a funny man, they're like, you're a funny man, you have to go be silly. And I'm like, yeah, that's pretty much what I do. That's cool. Well, that is tight, man

So how should you guys? You started in 88, right? There was a previous incarnation of 311 called unity that was 88 in 89 Got you 311 started on June 10th 1990. Okay, so and then we were in Omaha for two years, putting out locally produced albums that started to do really well. So we use those as demo tapes to get us the record deal. And then we moved out to LA in 92, put out the record in early 93.

And we definitely didn't like rock it because like what you were sharing about, you know The skateboards only like the really cool kids knew about us. We were not obviously So that's why we named our second album grassroots because we're like We're not going to be embraced by the mainstream culture. MTV was not touching us at that time we're not going to be embraced by the mainstream culture. MTV was not touching us at that time. So we're just going to do it through touring and stick to our guns. And kind of what SA was mentioned, like REM, also like U2,

like they stuck to their own weird sound and waited for culture to come to them. So that's what we did too. Like we're just going to keep doing our rap rock with reggae, even though that's not at all what's on the radio. And then finally with Down, that culture came around to us. But we just stuck to our lane. And it's cool too, because you already got like, dude, music might be an all time album, dude.

Like I still, I'll listen to it still today. And I'm like, God damn, dude, it's so good. All of the production on that's insane. Like Eddie Offord was the one who touched the knobs there and he was this eccentric British guy from Prague Rock World. Do you? He worked with like, yes. Oh, okay.

And he was in Lake and Palmer and he'd worked with John Lennon and stuff. So he had a ton of stories. Yeah, that's pretty cool. And it was just this very sweet English gentleman, prototypical, right? And us. That's kind of funny.

Yeah, what were you guys like early on? Were you guys like good boys, bad boys? What was going on? Smoking weed constantly. Yeah, around the clock. That's what's up. That's what's up, dude. Respectable kids.

Yeah, so that was was your so you guys are just like smoking weed. I'm guessing that kind of like usually gateway to mushrooms. LSD like what was that? Was that kind of was just a weed. Ecstasy. Don't forget that.

Jack Daniels. Nice. You guys kept it within like a very I always say that is the best like keeping it within the sphere of like weed Some alcohol, you know, obviously some ecstasy and maybe some mushrooms and acid, but that's good So you guys were able to keep that do you guys have like I mean obviously maybe private issues But like any public like meltdowns with cocaine any stuff like that or did you guys keep it just kind of tight the whole time? Well me personally I've decided that I'm better off sober. So there you go.

It works for me. A little caffeine is fine, but, but that's it. Um, but everybody's in general has kind of. Matured and cleaned up their acts. So there's no problems in that arena anymore. Yeah. You get to a certain age. I just smoke a lot of weed and it just, you get to a certain age and you're like,

why am I exactly? I have to say lot of weed and it's just you get to a certain age and you're like Why fucking my exactly? I'm bugging out. I'm like I can't do this right now. It does smell like weed in here, so was that No, I'm scared of it now dude like you know I sound like an old guy But you see like the fucking weed is like 47% literally so any other is 42% You see like the fucking weed is like 47% literally. I saw one of those 42% My I don't need that well the weed back in the day was like very seedy very we I mean it was it was like a joke Snap crackle pop I honestly think I could smoke a whole pound of it I wouldn't do anything to me now, but yeah, it's like that's cool So I mean I just think it's cool because a lot of especially in entertainment. There's this whole other thing

There's like you know there's your core business Which is like touring selling tickets albums all that stuff, and then there's like Let's say Forces of like fame fortune all of that other stuff And I really feel like that can have like such a fucking brutal effect on people But it seems like you guys kind of just were like alright. Let's just throw fun shows Let people have fun keep doing our stuff and obviously I notice you're very like you know gratitude Oh, and I think it I think it's working

That's fucking awesome man because you don't see it you only see you only see these stories that become like The ones that get like glorified are like and then they were doing this and it all fell apart and everything turned to shit It's like I always wonder like why does that happen? I'm always I'm always curious why we're making millions of bucks like Where's where's all the destruction destruction seeds of destruction come from well? I think and again like you know we didn't have it. I think he was alluding to that At the beginning you know we the success didn't wasn't there initially you know so it was it took time And then yeah, you you figure out shit

This took a lot of effort to get here, bro. you know, like yeah, I'm not gonna ruin it So how old are you guys when things started really popping off? You weren't you guys weren't we were young? Yeah, I'm saying you guys weren't old at all. No 25 26. That's That's let's better than like 1921 but still that's pretty young man. Super young. Yeah. Yeah, so how was that? What was like the big moment when you're like, holy shit, this is kind of getting out of control? Was it the Blue Album or?

Well, it was when you were hearing your music coming from other cars, like on the street, you know? Yeah. And like, Yeah. I remember, Maybe we should move. You're still in Omaha.

I remember once we were doing a gig at the Whiskey on Sunset's trip and I heard a car pull up with grassroots and it wasn't even out yet. Somehow they had gotten an advance copy of it and they were trading it all because there was just so much demand that they were like, damn, you know, stolen our music somehow. Yeah, shit, that's kind of nuts. So when you guys first came out, you were saying you're sending stuff to radios and they're like, nah Like what was there big because you guys said you had like well It was like we weren't the sound of the time like, you know, we came out grunge was like, you know

Yeah on the radio that was like alternative rock. Yeah, and we weren't really grungy at all You know, maybe a track here there, but not a whole album of a vibe. You guys were ahead of your time, though, because then, quote unquote, rap metal just blew up. Right after grunge fell, pretty much rap metal became huge. So you guys were right in time. You guys were right in time. Yeah, and it's really awesome to see next generations of bands

that grew up on us, like the guys from 21 Pilots tell me that once this drunk chick came up to them after a show and was like, you guys sound like a mixture of 311 and 311. And they were like, great, we'll take it. We'll take it. And I'm friends with the guys from Turnstyle. And they grew up great. We'll take it But and I'm friends with the guys from turnstile and you know, they grew up on us, too So it's it's really cool to see you know Passing it on as we you know, we're influenced by

So many bands too. So it's just our all part of a big kind of family tree. Yeah What were you guys's influences actually now? I'm kind of curious about that Well when we met, like he kind of got me into Bad Brains. Like I knew a Bad Brains, but I didn't really listen. So he was like, we're listening to Bad Brains. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we cranked it.

And then, but as like as a band, Jane's Addiction was a big band for 311. I think we all saw them together. Helmet was another great band. Fishbone, Chili Peppers. Gotcha. And you guys, I'm sure you guys have met all those guys, Peppers and all that stuff.

Yeah. We played with them a few times, yeah. For the big turn of the millennium, the night of 1999. Yeah, I remember. December 31st. Everyone was gonna lose all their money Yeah, lose all your money back It took my whole family

We played with that really hells that night at the forum So that was like kind of how nice gig that we we could have had that's pretty cool. Yeah, fuck. Yeah, man, so What's your guys's plan now? What's the plan going forward? Obviously, just staying shredded, staying ripped. Obviously, got the ordering. Monitoring, all of it, making sure everything's okay. What do you think about all this monitoring going on? Do you have feelings about it or what do you think? Take care of himself.

A lot of people are negative. A lot of people get negative. They see the order, they go, come on, man. I don't wanna see that stuff. Do you want the data or are you against the data? No, I mean, at home, when I run, I have, you know, obviously my phone's in my pocket and all. I'm not obsessed about tracking, you know. Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, it's great. There's so much information these days, right? True. So if you can tap into it, tap into it if you want. True. Damn, you guys are too chill. I'm trying to see if you guys will turn on each other. But it becomes like a thing, man. When you get older, it's like you do have to take the helm on some regard. Like you said, you're running,

you're doing a bunch of other stuff, I'm sure. It's like, it's tough, man. You get older, it's like it gets away from you fast, dude. Oh, absolutely, man. Like it's... Well, what we do, you have to... It's a sport and it's, it's all season long. That's true too, yeah.

Like you can't go home and just chill, hang on the couch. Oh, we're going to go out in a week. Yeah. You can't, you can't just show up at the Super Bowl without training. Like you have to be ready. Yeah. I'm guessing you guys have a pretty lively live show. So yeah, you, I didn't think about that. So you can't, if you like, if you were like took time and. Yeah, I'm guessing you guys have a pretty lively live show So yeah, you I didn't think about that

You can't if you like if you really took time and chilled out you'd be on stage like oh Absolutely, that's great. You know you're yeah I won't that might be another reason why a lot of you know bands kind of just Crumbled because of the stress of touring you know yeah, how do you guys deal with that though? Well, working out, preparing. Lifestyle, you know. Whoa. Yeah, eat good. I like taking a nap after sound check, you know.

I sleep in, like I just woke up about 15 minutes before we came here. Damn, that's gotta be crazy. It's where we work nights. Yeah, true. And it's hard to get after the adrenaline of a show It takes hours to like flush that out and get yeah that crushes me and doing comedy clubs You know you're doing a club is packed then you just leave and go back to your room and it's silent

You're just in your hotel room. Just kind of like yeah So why I do I get right out I go right back to my room But your body's flooded with adrenaline, so do I. I get right out, I go right back to my room, but your body's just flooded with adrenaline, you're just sitting there just like, I just take my ultron and wait till I feel heavy, and I'm like, nice, I pass out. Well, what's crazy is that in the wild times of the early 2000s and late 90s,

we would party so late, go to sleep when the sun is coming up and then wake up at like one smoke weed and do sound shit I'm like we battle yeah Just the street fighting games bro That's so tight Hockey Hockey my man So fucking fun Breaking controllers when you lose Dude waking up smoking weed and playing video games And then doing a concert and party all night You guys have cracked the code You guys have cracked the code dude

Yeah That's so fucking tight I really think you guys have figured it out man You guys seem like you know you have like you have normal Delete this episode Have you seen In terms of like being around entertainment Have you give any thoughts on kind of like how people?

Kind of manage like levels of fame and notoriety and like how to like kind of live with it without it kind of like how people kind of manage like levels of fame and notoriety and like how to like kind of live with it without it kind of, I guess, throwing you for a loop? Well you know, you mentioned don't read the comments and that's kind of a good thing. Like don't Google yourself because there's people that are going to be mean. Yeah. You know? And I think the fact that we weren't immediately embraced made it tough. Yeah, yeah, right. You guys made it tough.

You're thick skinned already. And we looked inside the circle. You can't hurt my feelings. What he said. That makes sense. You kind of, you gotta keep like it tight a tight because it is true especially with the internet now It's like especially having like families like I you know I'm like I have my life with like my kids Then there's like me on a fucking computer screen just getting all kinds of whatever like yeah great fucking this guy sucks

He's the worst right and then like I'll catch myself being almost more concerned about like you know my digital rendering With the comments on the line I'll be like with my kids like what do I do and do this is sick This is the Scott you know it really does need to be like it It's such a hard thing to sever because it gets you, but it's also not you in a sense if that makes sense Yeah, they know he's not a mister There's a mister thing to worry about. I'm a fucking Mr. I think. So I guess I'm trying to think

what other questions I have. So you guys, you did you guys are in it for the long haul. What's the plan? Do you guys have like a you have the cruise too by the way. Were you guys the first ones who started doing kind of like the

one of them but not one of them. Yeah. Like at first they were called like blues cruises. It was like kind of a thing with blues bands to go and and then they they contacted us and we like we think your band would be perfect for this and then it turned out to be awesome we're doing our seventh one coming this eighth eighth eighth there you go so we rotate one one earlier this year we did 311 day which is a big kind of convention in Vegas. And then the next spring accrues.

So they're like destination wouldn't have worked in the early days of 311 because, you know, they're high school kids that don't have the money to show. And the fan base isn't really built yet. No, that's true. Yeah. You got to ask your parents. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. My so my cousin's husband, I think he's been on it multiple times Oh, yeah, shout out flick dude. Yeah, he's a mega fan You guys he swears by the cruise. He said the cruise it is funny you would like initially when we're approached

I'm like that sounds awful. You know, it's as soon as I heard I didn't know it existed until years ago I heard about it. I'm like obviously dude. That sounds like such a good idea and it's turned into a Shit ton of fun. Yeah, I bet. It is so much fun. So where do you guys go? Where's, what's like the cruise destination usually? We're going to Nassau this time

and one other destination. Yeah, something. They keep switching it up. It's always in the Caribbean. How many shows do you usually play on the cruise? Is it like? Like three. Two to three, yeah.

Oh, that's nice. And then they can stop and get off and then come on. There's like a concert. That's a fucking, that's a cool idea. And a bunch of other cool bands. Other acts, yeah. Yeah, that's nice. And they can stop and get off and come on. There's like a concert It's fucking as a good idea a bunch of other cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome Comedians nice. Yep. Well, it's pretty cool Bring me out to see Tonight you guys got the you guys are at the Moody Center Is that what it's called outside? Yeah. Yeah waves outside outside. Yeah, it's playing outside in that yeah

Nice man, yeah, oh that makes you're the movie moody amphitheater. I think or whatever. It's gone. Yeah, hell. Yeah, man Well nice. What else uh? What are they give me some of the major lessons you guys have gleaned from your years and years and years? What are the, give me some of the major lessons you guys have gleaned from your years and years and years. Well, I was just gonna mention that, you know, we have a new album. Right on. That is coming out this fall.

I was gonna ask you that, I saw the single, I was curious if you had the album. So that, I think one thing we wanna do is put up music a little bit more frequently, but you know, the pandemic kind of slowed everything down and we were just kind of scrambling to even stay connected with our fans. We were doing like live streams from our studio,

playing music and grassroots and everything in its entirety. But we're super excited about this new album. And I would just, you know, encourage younger artists to play out as much as possible because it's like live music is the most important thing. It can't be replicated by, you know, a studio artist. It's like a tradition that's gone back 100,000 years, you know, rhythmic music goes back that far, melodic music maybe 50,000 years. So we're part of that tradition of one set of guys plays an instrument, the other people dance

and you know what I mean? So it's just very important to play live a lot. So that's kind of one piece of advice. I always just take every gig. Yeah. You know. It was awesome. Play.

Are you familiar with Harry Nielsen? Yeah, apparently he never played live. That was the bane of his existence. He had like a zillion albums, but he could never play live. Too nervous. Too nervous. Yeah, there's a doc on him, right? Yeah. He was too nervous. He was so good. He just couldn't play live. It's kind of tragic. Yeah, the guy from XTC too, at one point said I'm done with life because he had a panic attack.

And he was like, I am done. And that was a big influence. That's a really good group. But. Damn. And I think I at one point did kinda struggle with a bit of anxiety. And then I just needed to learn tools to deal with it.

Yeah. You know, walk towards the fear. Yep. You know. Can't walk deal with it. Yeah. Walk towards the fear. Yep. Can't walk away from it. I have panic attacks on stage. You don't stand up five times a year. It's nothing.

I just eat them. I just sit there. I'm like, I'm going to die. I'm going to have a heart attack. And I'm like, all right. Whatever. Bring it on. Yeah, here we go.

I'm going to forget. That's the one thing. It's like, I'm going to forget everything. That thought is just an absolute worm, like a brain worm. I'm gonna forget that's the one thing. It's like I'm gonna forget everything that that like thought is just an absolute worm Like a brain worm like i'm gonna forget everything Yeah, i'm staring at you and you're like, oh it's happening. I knew you know, but you just gotta Yeah, and I think having the mantra of like Stop, i'll know what to do when I get there just trusting that you're gonna know what to do with good when you get there and then

It kind of is a way to end that. I think you're right. It's in you and it's just the questioning of, is it in me creates that feeling of panic. Just to stop, I'll know what to do when I get there. That's a good move. That's a good call. What do you think about that?

Well, for me personally, I just try to stay in the moment at all times. I kind of grew up performing. I was always in musical performances in school, et cetera. So it was something that in my family, too, it's like we all kind of performed. And but I remember our first like big show we did, it was in Omaha before we were to embark on our trek out to LA and we played our biggest show to date. It was in front of like 2,000 fans in Omaha and I'm like, holy shit, how am I going to do this?

You know? This is serious. Yeah. This is like, this is next level. shit, how am I gonna do this? You know? And then, yeah, this is like, this is next level. But yeah, you just, you do it. And we learned it together, essentially. Yeah, that's true. It wasn't like a solo acts or whatever and trying to figure it out

or getting over these humps, obstacles, et cetera. But to back to your point, I think you place a lot of those in front of you. You know, like for me, I try not to look at the set list while we're performing because I have on occasion looked at a song and then I'm like, wait, how's that, how's that go again? You know, so it's just kind of there for like a reference point, but I rarely look at it.

I do sometimes like how many fucking songs we have left. Yeah, yeah. I'm done. Other than that, but yeah. No, that is a fun thing to think about because it's like, especially with anxiety, which again, if you're doing any kind of performance, even if you're like going into a meeting at work There's always anxiety, you know, and it's like the way I think about it is I think a lot of people take a pretty I think unhelpful approach to it today where it's like, you know

Just like just silence that part of your brain with a pill But you know some people need whatever but there's a lot of people where it's like if I were to Listen every time I got like supremely nervous about a thing if I were to not do it Dude, like I don't I can't imagine what my life would be like, you know what I'm saying? Like it like for doing stand-up. My heart was leaping out of my chest when I first started Yeah, if I had been listening like no, you're right. Let me just not I'm not here that right right, right, dude I would and it makes sense because it's literally built in our body to keep us from like genuine physical threats But when it comes to like well here I want to perform and they're not gonna like eat

you it's just kind of like you know it's kind of amazing to think of like their lives that lay on the other side of like pretty intense personal fear yeah I think we're told to kind of be like yeah yeah listen to that dull yourself you know get away from that yeah I think it's the worst advice. To have like exposure therapy like let's go in towards that thing that's making us really uncomfortable. Last week's version of This American Life has some really cool stories about like, a guy that gets a concussion,

a woman that gets a concussion, and then everything loud, bright, like for years, and she just kept avoiding those until she met a doctor that was like, go towards those most uncomfortable things, and then that broke the hold that it had on her. So to me, I always just, you know, walk towards the fear or discomfort, whatever it is, you gotta keep pushing into it or else it's going to rule you. Yeah, exactly.

I went to, um, I studied to be a social worker, like, you know, in between doing standup and I, I went to go, I I was like yeah, maybe I want to be a therapist I was kind of bouncing back and forth But I would bring up exposure therapy in my social work school, and they're like that's abuse. What's not it's like demonstrated to be like 83 percent effective like better than a lot of other forms of therapy for anxiety And they'd like that's kind of rugged. It's like well So is life like you know you got to do stuff that is scary And you know I can't always just be like,

oh, I feel very comfortable and safe. It doesn't work that way, man. Totally. It does not work that way. Kids today. Oh man, dude. Don't get me started. I was in school with a bunch of like 22 year olds

and they're like, actually, and I was like, you guys have no fucking idea what you're talking about. Literally. Yeah. But that is cool, man. It really pumps me up to see you guys are able to kind of like, again, just be in a space that is you know can be very you know

Threatening to people's well-being and just just stick to the mission of like you know we have our I think you mentioned like our core Circle let's just focus on each other our families obviously the 311 babies and Just you know keep the blinders on eye on the prize and don't get caught up in all the bullshit and the hype and just Blast through Let's go, Coach. It's awesome, man. Yes, I'm saying, come on. Yeah, because that was the thing is basically we had our little gang.

So we could just walk into a venue and just, we had each other. So it just supplemented our confidence a lot. I don't know how solo artists do it, but for us it was just great to have that crew and our road crew there. And it was just great to have that crew and our road crew there And it was just like a big family. So we just go in there with swagger and blow the place up. It's awesome Dude, I think I think I don't know. Is there anything else you guys want to talk about?

You got you got the new album coming out I mean, I think people should also dig into your entire discography discography because it's I didn't know how many albums you guys had I knew you had like a decent amount but I like looked at it like three days ago. I was like, what the fuck? These guys are releasing album after album. It's insane. Were you were you like conceptualizing the live albums or the albums for live shows more so? Or you just kind of like putting them out for like a listening.

It varies. Like the blue album was meant to be like, what are songs that just kick ass live? But then the one after that transistor was just more experimental and studio trickery. So, um, you know, you do kind of, you do sometimes in our history, like, yeah, well, what are they going to like, love to listen to that type of thing? You know, what's going to get hype and, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Yeah. You think you ever, you ever have a song you're like the crowds about to go fucking nuts and you play it they're like yeah that's part of the thing though man like the same thing with stand-up you're like this jokes about the murder it's gonna kill bro ever just looks at you like why did he just disclose that detail about himself it's's not funny, that's disturbing. You're like, moving on. Yeah.

That is a process though. You throw it out and eventually you're like, okay, wow, this one. What was the song that like absolutely murdered that? Is there anything that surprised you guys that you were like, damn, I didn't think this thing would be the one. Well,

Down was a hit before it was a hit. Like when we played it, but it was also just the zeitgeist of our fan-dumb building moment where it was just like the pot's about to blow. You know? And that, but that was a song that when we played, it was a hit already.

You know, and it wasn't even on radio yet. Right. Yeah. Was there anything that like, on the other way, where you're like, this is, you're like whatever other song and it turned out to be popular, or have you always had a sense like?

Well, with Amber, we were so used to putting out hard singles and worrying about like the male part of our fan base, but then that song really was just like a sleeper that. Oh. Yeah. It's classic as well. So you're saying that that was not,

that was what the ladies were saying? I it's it's more of a romantic song But then we have like these huge meatheads would be like amber's my favorite Song for real does something to you when you're like just sitting there like this is so fucking nice It was our first chill single ever we We'd always had rockers before that. My crush too, I almost... Yeah, it was like number one for a really long time. That's awesome. You did it for the babes.

What did the babes say afterwards? The babes like, thank you or? Amber is the color. But it's having a moment now with like teenage TikTokers, a lot of people making videos of them. And a lot of times they use the slightly sped up version that makes it a little bit like sound like chipmunks, but whatever. Sprat, baby.

They're probably doing it so they can like fit it into like, you know, I've noticed people do that now online where it's like they'll just speed themselves up talking at like three times the speed. You're like, yeah, sorry, bad for me enough. I don't, yeah, I don't need this this fast more information faster right get it in well dude thank you so much and where's uh where can people get tickets you guys are on tour right now working people get tickets for the rest of your guys everything's at 311 comm and we're heading over towards

California and up the coast to Seattle and and then we've got various flight dates in the fall and we're going to Australia for the first time in a long time. Oh nice. Around Thanksgiving. Hell yeah man. That's their summer too, isn't it?

You'll just be starting. Yeah. Nice. Well dude, thank you guys so much, man. Yeah, man. This is fun. Appreciate it. Thank you guys.

Thanks for the invite. Of course.