A Conversation with 311’s Nick Hexum – HuffPost 7.13.11

Mike Ragogna: Nick, 311’s new album Universal Pulse is all set for release with “Sunset In July” its premier single.

Nick Hexum: Yes it is. We’re super excited about it. It’s kind of like the ultimate Summer jam, and about the experience of touring. If it’s July, we’re always on tour. Sometimes, the tour is June/July, sometimes the tour is July/August. But July is our time to go out and play the shows. We play the amphitheaters every Summer, and we love it.

MR: So, the cast of characters is still P-Nut on bass, Tim Mahoney on guitar, Martinez on vocals and DJ-ing, and Chad Sexton on drums?

NH: Yep, same line-up for twenty years. Same guys.

MR: And this record, like Uplifter, was produced by Bob Rock?

NH: Yes.

MR: How did you guys originally get together?

NH: We just took a bunch of meetings and we really clicked with him. He was a really wide-ranging producer, some producers are more like engineers. We’ve worked with guys before that have said, “Just so you know, I’m really just going to record you guys the best I can, but I don’t really get in there and work on the songs.” That’s not what we wanted. We really wanted someone who was going to help us with all the different things we wanted, which was arrangements, performances, the tones, and everything. We’ve really developed a good groove with Bob.

MR: For the longest time, groups went the engineer as producer route thinking, “Oh, he must be great because he’s also an engineer.” But in a lot of cases, it’s almost like you want that other objective ear in the mix, someone who brings an additional, sometimes more musical skill set.

NH: Yeah, you do. When you’re on your tenth album, you need someone who’s going to get in there and help you shake things up. He’s known for heavy music–he’s kind of a pop guy–but he takes it and makes it a little bit more simple and enjoyable for the masses. That’s the way he describes what he did for Metallica, and I guess that’s what I hope he’ll do for us. We’ve always liked catchy kind of stuff, but he helps us bring the best of what we do out.

MR: There is a very big difference between someone helping out with the music end of it as opposed to just helping with the sonics. Now, this album was done at your studio, right?

NH: We’ve had our own studio for a little over ten years. This is the first time that everything, from beginning to end, was recorded at our own studio. In the past, we’d done overdubs, but we didn’t really feel like we could get good drum sounds, and Bob helped us get great drum sounds at our own studio, and then even did the mix at our own studio. So, that was kind of a cool and empowering thing, that we realized we don’t ever need to block out a studio for a day, ever.

MR: And this is also where you guys create, so it’s sort of like your clubhouse.

NH: Yeah. It’s like you do everything there. We go out and have barbecues, work on our instruments, do side projects, we have a little work out room…it’s pretty cool to have a clubhouse.

MR: What’s the creative process like when you guys gather?

NH: Well, sometimes, it’ll be barely developed ideas, though I try to make my demos fairly “album sounding.” Sometimes, it’ll be just a sliver, where we’ll have to sit down and hash it out together. We’ll jam on parts just to see what evolves, and other times, the demo is so complete that we’ll just play it as is, and then everyone will just add their own stamp because each person has such a distinct flavor of how their hands are going to do it. It’s really a cool process, to start something kind of at home, then bring it to the band, hear it be recorded, hear the fan’s reaction to it when it’s released, and then to play it on stage. You see the gestation process, from just a little seed to a full production.

MR: So, by the time Bob comes into the mix, you already have your creative vision. What is his process of guidance?

NH: He’ll get in there and set up a little guitar stand, and make suggestions like, “Let’s repeat this part” or “Cut this part down.” He’ll come up with little guitar arrangement ideas and play along with us. It’s really cool–we’ve never had somebody in the room with us that was actually a player. He has really wide ranging ideas that we would have never thought about. Usually, it’s just a little key idea like, “Why don’t you take the little verse vocal and reprise it for this outro section?” Then, he helps us get really good tones, but then he actually leaves during the recording because we’ve developed such a trust and rapport with him on the previous album that we just did. So, he can just leave us to do overdubs on our own, while he goes back and works with another band in Hawaii at his place. Then, he’ll come back a few weeks later and listen.

MR: Plus, after all these years, you guys have your own solid hooks by this point.

NH: Yeah, I always gravitated towards catchy stuff, and to me, if it wasn’t stuck in my head, then I’d just let it go on the cutting room floor. He’ll definitely comment on that kind of thing and be like, “Wow, this one’s been kind of stuck in my head since we worked on it yesterday.” There’s one particular song called, “Weightless,” on the new record that Bob really reacted to strongly. We ended up going with “Sunset In July” as the first single because we feel that it’s perfect for Summer, but “Weightless” was another strong contender that he really reacted to.

MR: I want to go through a little bit of your history. You’ve had a number of studio and live albums plus a couple EPs, and you “broke” in ’95 with the album 311, which went triple platinum. I guess it was on the strength of some of your singles, “Down” in particular. That was your first number one record?

NH: It was, yeah.

MR: That was during your Capricorn years, and after 311, you have Transistor andSoundsystem, all of which were platinum or gold, then you moved over to Volcano, where you released the From Chaos album. The music video for “You Wouldn’t Believe” featured Shaquille O’Neal. How did you score that?

NH: Oh man, we had a mutual friend–he had been doing the kind of fun rap career, so we made kind of a metal track from him to rap over on this song called, “Psycho.” Then, he returned the favor by appearing in our video. Also, Weenie Roast is the big alt-rock show out here, and he came and performed with us right after the Lakers had won one of their titles, so the place just went crazy. That was a cool milestone in our career, to work with Shaq a little bit.

MR: Then, you move from Volcano to ATO for Uplifter that also releases Universal Pulse. What is the reason for the all the label switches?

NH: Well, actually, we have only been in one record contract ever, and it kind of got passed around. We say we’re kind of like label sluts because they sold our contract and different companies have merged together, but we’ve been with everybody. It started with Warner Brothers, then it was Mercury, then Universal, then Jive–I mean, we were passed around a lot. We were signed to Capricorn, but then Capricorn was sold to different people. We did extend the contract with Jive one record, and that was Uplifter. So, this is actually our first record on our second contract that we’ve signed, and it’s just a one record deal. It’s actually 311 Records/ATO, where we’re in on a lot of the shots and deciding how to promote our band ourselves. We’re doing a bunch of videos–YouTube is such a big tool for promotion. We’re doing remixes and we’re kind of deciding how to promote our band in a way that we feel comfortable with. It’s nice to finally have that control and it’s been a lot of fun playing it all out.

MR: Since we’re talking about the band’s history, how did you guys get together?

NH: You know, we’re kind of a garage band in our roots. The very early roots were that I had a cover band back in high school, in the ’80s, and we would cover bands’ songs from some of our favorite bands of that time. Then, we started doing some originals. But the 311 sound was kind of born right after high school, when we linked up with Chad and discovered the combination of punk, funk, and hip-hop in a band called Unity that we had for a couple of years. I was playing bass at the time, but I wanted to focus on singing more, so we hooked up with P-Nut, who was maybe fourteen at the time. Then, we started gigging around Omaha as 311 in about ’91. So, we just had our twenty-one year anniversary of our first show. The rest is history–we added S.A. as a second vocalist and it just keeps going. We really feel like we’ve settled on the perfect mix of guys, and if any one was changed, it would really kind of ruin the special chemistry that we have. So, we take good care of the bond that we have.

MR: Nice. And you only had one switch-out this whole time, a guitar player from way back.

NH: Right, but he was only with us for a really short time, so it really feels like this is the original lineup.

MR: Nice. When did you first start touring?

NH: The first tour was back in ’93, right after Music came out. We were touring first by van, and then by RV, then we had an RV fire and everything burned up including all of our instruments. So, we borrowed instruments and money to buy another RV, this one a little more fire safe than the previous one. You know, we had some really lean times, when we didn’t have any money and just barely scraped through, but it was totally worth it.

MR: Nice. So, what is your advice for new artists?

NH: I tell people that you really have to focus on your craft. Practice your instrument, and don’t expect anything to come to you with any shortcuts. There’s the book that says that ten-thousand hours is what you need to be great at any field, whether it’s music, sports, science, or whatever–it all comes from hard work. I think that’s what sets our band apart. We just focus on working on our craft, whether it’s preparing for live shows or rehearsing for a new album. I just tell people to be prepared to do a lot of work.

MR: Smart. By the way, having originally started out in Omaha, did your paths ever cross with Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes?

NH: No, I think he was a little younger than us, but I’m glad that Omaha is getting some recognition.

MR: Alright. Nick, all the best with the new album. It was terrific that you had some time to talk with me today. Where is the tour taking you this year?

NH: For the Summer tour, we always go around the country and play all the major markets. We’ll be in all the amphitheatres, and we didn’t leave any major cities out this time. We’ve got Sublime With Rome as our opener, and it’s just going to be an awesome way to spend a Summer evening.

MR: Well, all the best, and thanks for giving me some of your time.

NH: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Transcribed by Ryan Gaffney