311 shows have a reputation for generating enough energy under one roof to put most nuclear reactors to shame. You can see it in the faces of rabid fans running amok to grooves and melodies drawn from the various sounds of hip-hop, rap, punk and reggae. What you might not immediately read from the crowd or the band, however, is a philosophy that strongly diverges from the destructive rock 'n roll cliché commonly associated with rock bands past and present.
In three albums, each more musically successful than the last, 311 has managed to solidify a fan base loyal enough to support near-constant touring. To make it this far, however, they've had to surmount tremendous hardship, near-impossible obstacles and just plain bad attitudes. The memorial wall of bands that couldn't take it bears the names of thousands of acts who dropped out of the business for whatever reason, but 311 is one band that wouldn't bail out for any reason. With a down-to-earth set of values that relies on peaceful coexistence and overcoming adversity, 311 has persevered through asperity to emerge as one of today's most promising acts.
I recently had an opportunity to speak with drummer/composer Chad Sexton about the band's most recent album and tour. With a maturity borne of experience in the business, Chad very much reflects the values of 311 and shows us why the music game not only takes talent, but is often a question of the last band standing.
311 sounds like a real group affair; everyone seems to contribute equally, and I know you're constantly on tour. Does spending so much time together put a strain on things?
No, not really. I would think that someone being the leader would put a strain on things. We're just very fair and very unified in what we want to do, which is create different types of music and music that we love playing, basically.
So everything's pretty diplomatic?
Yeah, everything's diplomatic. I mean, on every issue, from who takes a shower first to who gets this T-shirt, or whatever. Certain people are involved in more of the financial stuff, some people are involved in more of the touring stuff... It just works out really well. We all have different types of energy, so we cover all of the areas when all of us get together. It winds up being a really fair, democratic thing.
Do you ever need to take a break from each other at the end of a tour, or even in mid-tour, just to keep your sanity?
Well, you have days off; if you need to be by yourself, you can go be by yourself. There's no drastic need to be without these guys. We grew up as friends in the first place. I guess it gets a little taxing, or wears on you a little to be around the same 10 guys all the time, but you just have to look at it like, what else would you rather be doing, really? Definitely playing music and traveling the country. If you're feeling one way, there's always ways to look at it to make you have a more positive attitude about it, definitely.
How did your sound develop? Did you have to make a concerted effort to plot the sound, or was it a natural evolution? It seems like you guys have... not necessarily disparate interests, but each member has his own separate "specialty interests" maybe.
Right. First of all, our music developed when we naturally came together and started playing what we wanted to play. We didn't really have a focus to bring rap together with Rock. We listened to Public Enemy and Ice Cube, and we also listened to 24-7 Spyz and Bad Brains. We love singing, rap music, hard rock and jazz. Like you said, everybody probably has his specialty, and that just makes us a more well-rounded musical group. We have all these different influences, instead of everybody loving rock music and being a generic rock band. I think it makes us stronger, also. It's harder to see in the public eye, because there are no rewards for the most innovative rock music, or the most creative attempt to put different styles of music together. There's no real reward to get from that, so we have to be very proud of it on our own. I just think of it as more of a natural thing. We never really said, hey, let's do this, but after we started doing it, we realized, wow, we're bringing rock, rap and reggae together.
You just threw it all together and it came out naturally?
Yeah, and after it comes out naturally, you start to realize what you're doing, and maybe then it becomes a more focused thing. Right now, we're just trying to write as naturally as possible, without worrying about what other people think of it -- just trying to be really creative in our own way.
You mentioned that there is no reward for being the most creative band. Does it bother you when you see other acts that are just dredging up a 20-year-old sound making it big on MTV?
That doesn't bug me, because if that's the type of career somebody wants to have, that's fine. If they do what you say they're doing, if they're just borrowing and making their own version of an older song, I just think those type of groups are going to be around for three to four years, tops; whereas we'll be together for hopefully 15-20 years. It does get a little frustrating, I guess. Like I said, there's no real reward, except for your personal gratification at what you've accomplished, and also all of the fans who notice that this is what we've done. That's another big grateful thing we get from putting all these different styles of music together. I guess in the early days, I might have gotten frustrated, but now I realize we're just better off being happy with what we're doing: trying to create and be innovative. That's much more rewarding than putting some pop song together and making a lot of money off it.
Is that kind of integrity difficult to maintain after so many years on the road? I'd guess you're not staying at four-star hotels and getting catered meals every day.
No, we're not; but I don't know if we'll ever be like that, because we're smart business people, also. We don't see any reason for everybody to stay at a four-star hotel. We're different from most bands in the way we operate. I would say we're a little more business-smart. The frustration doesn't really bother me any more; it's not anybody's fault. The only body's fault it is, really, is all of the public. It's not anybody's fault that the general public is at an eighth-grade listening level. That's what people like; they like simple shit that's put in your face. You can't get upset at that, because it's just the way things are. If people had a little bit more knowledge about music, maybe they would start to realize, "Oh wow, that group sounds a lot like this group, and this group sounds a lot like that other group." It's just that a lot of alternative bands sound the same. Even if I had a successful hit, it would bum me out more than anything to sound like 20 different other bands who had a hit that sounded like mine. Anybody can do that. I wouldn't say I could do that, because I just hate that fucking style of music, so I wouldn't ever try to write a piece of shit like that. Maybe I do get a little frustrated...
It's a different frustration than I was driving at before. It sounds like you get frustrated with what looks to you like a vanilla mentality, or pea-brain mentality of the general public. As a result, you must have a greater respect for your audience, which is perhaps more enlightened by innovative creativity. I'm guessing your audience is very enthusiastic.
Definitely, man. We have happy, fuckin', partying fans. Across the country, all the promoters say, "Man, we see all kinds of bands that draw really angry fans. Most of the ones that you guys draw are the happiest people. They're just ready to have a great time." We respect our fans, definitely, because each one of our fans is a very big fan. They're not just like, "oh, I'm a fan."
You clearly respect your fans a lot, but you've had some people at your shows who've done things you haven't agreed with. You've had at least a couple of instances of violence at shows, and I know that one of the guiding principles of the band is harmony and coexistence with all types of people, as well as general non-violence. Do you ever feel like some segments of your audience just don't get it?
Definitely. There's going to be a few people who don't understand that we're up on the stage rocking out as hard as we can, and might sound harder than shit, but actually, the message is really positive. So, if people aren't reading into the lyrics, they could just be watching us, taking the hard music and making up their own translation of what it might mean to them. You're always going to have people who get drunk and get mad because they got moshed too hard, and that starts a fight. That's always going to happen. But definitely there are people out there who've asked if we're with the KKK and shit like that, just because of 311. It's amazing that nobody would read the lyrics or even look to see that we have a half-Hispanic guy in the band, to know that we're not associated with any type of bullshit like that. Yeah, there's always people who are going to ignore what the message is, and go, "yeah, I like that music;" not even really concentrate. But that's expected.
Were there any specific experiences that people in the group had, that gave birth to the non-violent philosophy?
Just logic, really. Even if you win a fight, physically, everybody I'm friends with feels like shit after it happens. We learned that a long time ago. The best way is communication, and we just don't agree with violence.
Was anybody involved in gangs in their youth?
Nope. No gangs. Just your normal high school and college fights. Violence isn't fun. It brings everybody down, and that's not a good thing.
Your lyrics contain various drug references, mostly against cocaine. That's why I thought there might have been some background of violence, and then maybe somebody saw the light and turned around. I get the feeling that someone in the band had that kind of experience with drugs.
Yeah, I guess I can say that some... I'll just say "some of us"... did go through a little bitty cocaine phase, and we learned from that. We all agree that with cocaine and crystal meth and all that shit, you start using it over a long period of time, and then you start lying, and your personality starts to change. We all learned that a long time ago, so we're trying to pass on the information to people who maybe haven't learned it. We really think there are bad drugs and good drugs. Cocaine would definitely be among the bad ones.
What do you classify as, say, "good drugs"? I notice some psychedelic references in your lyrics. Are the "creative drugs" considered acceptable?
Basically, the two drugs we agree with that are illegal are marijuana and mushrooms. Those are what we call the "good drugs" that are illegal.
Is there any particular reason for that?
Just because heroin will fuck your shit up, and cocaine will fuck your shit up. We're into what's best for us, and we just kind of tell it on record. We're not saying, "Hey, nobody should go out there and do cocaine," and we're not saying, "Hey, everybody should go out there and do mushrooms and smoke pot." We're saying... we're just that way. We find that way works best for us. We're not going to preach or put anybody down who's doing as much heroin as they want; it's their life. But we're stating our experiences, and stating how we feel about certain issues. It's just our opinion, basically.
Do you have any plans to use a certain type of producer in the future? I know you guys are really happy with Ron St. Germaine.
Yeah, we're really happy, because he is a kick-ass producer. However, we might want to do this next album on our own. We've done three albums with different producers, and worked with all different people. Now, on this fourth one, I think it's time for us and our sound engineer, Scott Ralston, to dothe album. It will be pretty much self-produced, with the help of Scott, who's worked on all three albums, and who does our live sound during the tour. He's always with us. He already has a grasp on our sound.
Scott is integral to the sound?
Definitely, man. He is the shit. He had so much to do with the recording of the last album; great, great ideas. Not only did he help with mixing and EQ'ing of sounds, but he came up with actual parts that should be in the music. He's a sixth member of the band; I would go so far as to say that, because he makes our sound so tight. I would be scared to hear somebody else do our sound at this point, because it takes at least two months to just get it really tight and understand what we're about. He's a great asset, so it will probably be just us and him on the next album.
So, to lose him would be like amputating a limb, practically.
311: It would crush me. Yeah, we could recover. There's always another great sound man. I guess it's just building up the relationship and building up the sound. There may be so many sound men that don't think like you do on various things. We're just lucky that Scott is right along our lines, in terms of living and music.
A large portion of your audience is comprised of the skate/snowboarder crowd, which tends to gravitate toward music from the Long Beach/Orange County area. I know you guys came from Omaha, which is a long way from the digs of Sublime and No Doubt. It seems kind of odd that you managed to develop a sound like yours independently, unlike bands in certain regions, who tend to influence each other. Were there other bands like you out there in Omaha, or was it you guys forging it all on your own?
We definitely forged it on our own, without a doubt. The thing is, different styles of music exist everywhere. We could buy the same kind of albums that they could buy in LA and New York, give or take a few really hard-to-find imports and reggae albums. Omaha has MTV and radio stations, of course, so we were just influenced by the music; not really by live bands, but by record albums. I know Nick and myself have always been interested in music. My parents are musicians, so music has always been there for me. I guess, in one way, it shouldn't freak people out that we come from Omaha, because music is such a universal thing. You get influenced by the same record albums and MTV everywhere. But, I agree with you -- there's not really any bands coming out of Omaha or hardly anywhere else, except for, I guess, Seattle, Athens, L.A., New York... It's a big surprise to people -- I know that -- because it seems like we came out of a farm place, but Omaha is actually a big city of maybe about 700,000 people. We just love music as well as anyone else does. We were just like, "why can't we do this?". It's amazing to have so many people try to tell us, "No, you can't do that," and a lot of people doubting us.
What kinds of people doubted you?
Just lots of people. We had our fair share of backstabbing and people just saying shit about us all the time. That's pretty much in the past now, or I hope it is, but it's amazing. I think it's somewhat natural for people to be jealous, or maybe a bit bugged, that you're doing something that you're happy doing. I don't really have an answer as to why some people were so against us doing it. I don't know why people wouldn't say, "Yeah, go for it, man," instead of saying, "Oh, really," shit like that. But we came from Omaha, and all I have to say is we, fuckin', just kept believing it, put everybody to the side that said we wouldn't do it. In actuality, maybe all those people gave us more power to prove our point -- that we knew we were as good musicians as 750f the bands out there. We were willing to fuckin' risk our lives and fuckin' drop out of college and fuckin' just pick up and leave. It was pretty brave, man, and people still don't really respect it. You just can't please everybody. You pick up and move to L.A., and some of the Omaha people will say, "Oh, they sold out." It's as lame as that. We have a lot of people on our side, also. I guess it is just a little bit more difficult coming out of Omaha than out of L.A. or New York or whatever. But we did it, and we're stoked that we did it.
It's kind of hard for me to believe that you wouldn't get virtually everyone supporting an idea like that.
Yeah, I know. It's just that everybody doesn't really believe in positive mental attitudes. It's a proven fact that if you just keep thinking positive about things, better things are going to happen in your life. If you're always doubting yourself, you're going to end up with not as good a career. We believe there's always a force you can't see -- your attitude affects your life. You control your life. If you want to be happy, you just think about the good things in your life and try to improve upon them. Luckily, it's worked out. Our philosophy is proven to us, because we've had that philosophy since 1988. We know there's another force out there that you can't see, that really does make a difference; it really does change, depending on your attitude toward life.
Do certain members of the band have any religious convictions?
Nope.
It sounded kind of spiritual, the way you were going off there for a minute.
We're not religious. Nobody goes to church. I know nobody in our organization believes in organized religion. But we're not bad people. We're fair people. We have the same morals as some of the organized religions, but on the whole, we just like to do what's best for us; apply those rules to us; offer those rules to other people, because we're so fucking happy right now.
Is it pretty much the positive attitude that got you through those rough times, or were you prepared ahead of time by your musician parents?
Now that I think back on it, we had a lot of rough times. We had a producer who went psycho on us. We had all of our equipment burn up. We've had a lot of obstacles to really get over, and I'm amazed at how many we've gone through, actually. But it always goes back to your attitude after these things happen. We saw our shit burn to the ground. What I had on was a pair of shoes and a pair of shorts, and that's all I came out with. I didn't have anything. We lost everything, and we all just talked. We knew that we'd be OK, because everything we had created, even the instruments that we had gotten, we had gotten by thinking about it and creating music. We knew that even though we lost everything, we had everything that we'd need to make it again inside our bodies, and inside our brains. If we wanted to, we hadn't lost that yet. A lot of positive thinking did go into us succeeding; I couldn't stress that enough to people. You just might not believe it until it happens to you. Positive thinking helps you get through everything, If you can just find that little niche to turn it around from bad to good, whatever it may be.
Do you have a fatalistic attitude, where everything that happens is for the best, so if our truck burns down, that's what was meant to be?
I don't know if it goes so far that we think, "Oh, this was meant to be." I don't think we get that analytical about it, but whatever happens, we have to make the best of it anyway. Positive thinking is power.
You're very much survivors, it sounds like.
Yes. We've been through some shit, but we're very happy now. It's really great. We grow at a pretty slow pace, but it's the pace that's right for us. Who knows, in a couple of years maybe we'll be one of the biggest-selling bands around. All we want to do is see how far we can take it with our positive thinking and our hard work. You can't just sit around and think positive things and expect them to come to you. You have to think positive things, and go out and get it -- go out and work for it. You also have to know the road map -- how to get to your goal. That's our basic philosophy. When's the last time you guys had some time off the road?
Not too long ago. We had December and January off, and then at the end of January we went on this tour, which has been six weeks. Before December last year, we were on the road for about five months straight. This tour ends in about a week; we're almost to the end of it, and we're going to be taking a couple of months off. Then, we're going to go back on the road with our own headlining tour, and just have a great summer tour -- just celebrate that we're happy and that summer is here. We've seen cold-ass weather, so we're ready to get back to summer. Any experience that's happened since your last interview that you want to get out?
Not really -- I think I've gotten most of it out. I was just thinking, there's Grammy awards and there's Billboard awards... there's all these different type of awards... I was thinking, what is my band successful at? Innovating and bringing different kinds of music together. I have a faith that we will win in the end, even though we don't have the big radio hit or the gold album. We have wonderful music that a lot of fans really love. I guess the biggest thing I've learned on this tour is that our music touches people in ways I didn't expect. It goes on a deeper level. It goes so personal that we've had people thank us for making this music, just because it changed their life around or it opened them up to positivity, or... I actually had a guy who said, "Your music has saved my life. I'm not bullshitting you." Just to have that force of music and of energy that you can't grasp with your hands; your ears can only pick up the sound waves, and your body can only feel the energy when you're on stage, but it's such a deep force. It goes so personal to so many people that I was thinking, if I was born all over again and somebody said what do you want to do, I would want to reach people in that same deep, mysterious type of way that you can't touch, or is not tangible. It's creative. I'm really happy that that's how my life is right now -- that I can touch so many people in that very abstract way. In a powerful way.
In a very powerful way. Not only that, it's a positive way. We're not telling 13-year-olds to go smoke dope. We're just kind of stating that we do it. There's no real negative message coming off our music.
You mentioned that you can see the band going on for 10, 15, 20 years, maybe, and having more longevity than a novelty band. It seems also that you really reached a point of satisfaction with this last album, which is self-titled. What do you see ahead? Do you see 311 trying to evolve into a brand new direction, or trying to refine the sound more and make it better, or do you have plans to just let it run and see what happens?
The first two albums were very creative, and no-holds-barred, basically. Just write your music, practice it and record it. And then the third album came, and at least I was thinking, from a writer's standpoint, "I'm going to make my song a little more basic and a little more simplified." So, they're not as tricky as the songs on the previous album, called "Grassroots." Generally, I just made it basic, made everything a lot simpler -- maybe a little bit easier to understand. I accomplished what I wanted to do as a writer from that standpoint. I think the other writers, Nick mainly, accomplished what they wanted to do also. So now, this next album is kind of what I said to you at the beginning of this conversation. We're just trying to let it come out naturally again. We're not going to think, "Is this person going to like it? Is this radio station going to play it?" We're just going to say, "Wow, this is the most interesting music. Let's fuckin' try and play this," or, "God, I got this great idea." Just from the music standpoint, that's where we feel happiest -- writing a really cool, maybe sometimes awkward, very unique style of music. On this next album, compared to the last one, "311," I'm going to let it flow, basically, now that I know I just want to be creative and let everything come out naturally -- not gear it toward being simpler or being heavier or anything; let it be as creative as it wants to be. That's where I'm coming from as a writer, and I think the rest of the people in the band would agree. We've got to let our innovative methods and our creativity flow naturally, not gearing it toward anything except innovative music. Does anybody have plans to explore different musical styles and directions that wouldn't fit with the band? Anybody planning a solo project or working with different musicians?
Everybody's more than welcome to do what they want to do, basically, but 311 is always going to come first for every member of 311. There's not going to be, "well, I've got to do this tour guys, so you're going to have to wait." Of course, you just never know. Somebody in the band could be producing another band, or shifting in the music business. Whatever you're interested in, you should go for it, whether it be making extra money by doing commercials, or by being in the studio helping a band out, or whatever. Everybody's free to do what they want to do; but after touring six weeks, you have two months off, and then you go back out on the road for two more months. You really want those two months off. We're always writing in our spare time, so it's not like we're taking the full two months off. There's really not a lot of time for other shit to happen. Plus, everybody loves their free time so much that I think they'd rather cook their nice meals, play their guitar and write -- just be chill, rather than go to the studio and record another album for another band or something. But, like I said, there's no real rule. Everybody's free to do what they want to do. For us five, I know that 311 comes first. We're going to work it long-term. I don't want to be done with this in five years. I just want to keep evolving.
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