311 Give Up 411 on Next Album (Rolling Stone)

Since 311's tour wrapped with Incubus a short while ago, the band has already written a whole new album, filed a lawsuit against their label, Capricorn Records, and built a recording studio. "We had a real busy summer," singer/guitarist Nick Hexum laughs.
And just because the band is already on tour again (this time with Zebrahead, which kicked off Oct. 9), the recording pace isn't about to relent. Hexum says that he's taking the studio on the road to fine-tune songs for the band's next album, which they hope to have finished shortly after the tour wraps Nov. 22.

"I've done that before on our past two tours, and that's where a lot of the songs get started," he says. "We did a remix with Black Eyed Peas -- we had them come and re-do the vocal, all on the bus. It was pretty crisp, because we've got Pro-Tools. Recording is more portable than it ever was before. You don't need a $200,000 mixing board to record an album anymore."

So far, he says, 311 have written nineteen songs in all, nine of which already have the vocals finished. Working with producer Ron Saint Germain again (who manned the boards for the band's self-titled breakthrough in 1996, also known as the Blue album), Hexum says this latest album, the band's sixth, with Germain's aid, is a "real return to the balls-to-the-wall approach to our first couple of albums."

"It's a natural progression," Hexum says. "We've always had such an exploratory attitude about these things. We've done weird, esoteric dub styles, real dreamy kind of things, and maybe some kids want some stuff like that, but we've gotten back to that place where we're writing hard and fast, hip-hop, not as much reggae on this album, almost none, plus funk, punk, metal, rap and one ska song for good measure. It's really all about the energy and letting more energy flow through it."

So far, there is no album title, but working song titles include "You Get Worked," "From Chaos," "You Wouldn't Believe" and "We Do It Like This." Some of the songs will be debuted on tour, but only a few, bassist P-Nut says, because "it's kind of walking a fine line between giving the fans what they want, what they expect, and throwing too much of a curveball. We always kinda write songs that take a little bit of understanding before you can really get it, so we're just going to ease them into the set slowly."

Though legal questions remain whether 311 can actually release the album, since their lawsuit against Capricorn is still pending, they're trying not to let that distract them from continuing the course. Instead, Hexum says the band's focus is just on letting the songs evolve, not how they'll be released. "When you play a song live, it goes to its most rocking level ever," he says. "We try to let that take place before we record the song, so we would be smart to bust out as many new songs as the crowd seems into. There's nothing better than giving it to them live."