311.
It's the police code for indecent exposure. You know, the stuff that streakers, flashers, and drunken frat boys do.
311 is also the chosen nom de soniference of 5 guys from Omaha, Nebraska . Anyone not even remotely familiar with 311 (Nick, Tim, Chad, SA, P-Nut) has obviously been residing in a total vacuum. This is a muy popular band whose diverse mixture of ska, reggae, funk, rap, and rock have won them a legion of loyal fans the world over.
IGN For Men's Senior Editor Spence D. recently caught up with the band's master of the low-end, P-Nut, and chopped it up about dogs, 311 music theory, and film.
P-Nut: Sorry I'm late. I had pictured it on my gravestone that I was always on time, but it's gonna have to be 99-out-of-100 times that I'm on time. I do my damndest, though. I was out walking my dog, if you can believe that.
IGN For Men: What kind of dog do you have?
P-Nut: I've got a 13-month old Weimaraner.
IGN For Men: Right on. You know what's so weird is that I've been starting to see a lot of those poppin' up. It used to be that you just saw them in the William Wegman photos.
P-Nut: Yeah, they're startin' to pop up pretty much everywhere.
IGN For Men: Yeah, it's like all of a sudden they're the popular dog. It's like I'd never really seen them out and about until this year.
P-Nut: Yeah, I didn't either, before I got one. Then I started noticing them all around, probably because I had one at that time, too. But also, they are startin' to just become popular pets.
IGN For Men: So what prompted you to get a Weimaraner?
P-Nut: Well, I have a gray house, a gray truck...what else is gray? I just kind of surround myself with gray. Like all of my cars have been either gray or silver. I think it's kind of like a safety thing for me, so I wanted a gray dog to protect the rest of my gray stuff.
IGN For Men: I bet it could work like camouflage, too. You know, somebody is sneakin' up to jack your gray car and all of a sudden from out of nowhere jumps this gray dog. Pretty clever, like urban camouflage.
P-Nut: Exactly, something like that [laughs].
IGN For Men: I got some questions that were thrown to me by our readers, which I took the liberty of reworking into my style and I've also got some of my own questions to ask, as well. But I guess the most obvious question is that we all know that Omaha, Nebraska isn't really known as a bastion of pop (or traditional) culture...
P-Nut: Oh, well I don't know what you've been reading! [laughs].
IGN For Men: I don't mean to stereotype the mid-west...
P-Nut: Oh it's true though. Stereotypes are there for a reason.
IGN For Men: True. Now, with the exception of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom,I can't think of any other significant contribution, other than you guys in 311, that Omaha has made to pop culture. 311 and Marlon Perkins, that's my generalization of the contributions to popular culture made by the city of Omaha in the last several decades. ..
P-Nut: Right, but we're in good company, at least.
IGN For Men: True, true. My question is, how the hell did you land on your ska-rock-rap-funk hybrid way the $%&* out in the middle of nowhere America?
P-Nut: I mean, I guess it comes from people not telling us that we couldn't. You know, people not being inundated with so many bands and so many different styles of music. There was either cover bands, which would make all the money in Omaha because that's what people wanted to come and see and hear; people performing songs that everybody already knew. Those bands were pretty much instantly successful on the local scene in Omaha. But we didn't want to do that. So we started makin' our own music. We were just these punk kids and no one told us that we couldn't do reggae and rock and, you know, what was 'grunge' at the time, which is now just 'modern rock.' Just taking all the things that we loved and things that were hard to play, too. Not easy things, 'cause we're all pretty accomplished musicians, even before we all got together we were pretty damn well rehearsed. So when we did get together, we wanted to do something really new on the technical side and the melodic side.
IGN For Men: Did you and SA perform in your high school band?
P-Nut: Umm, S.A. was in the choir, the swing choir. He'd do the little steps and sing a little bit. And I was in the Jazz Band for a matter of months. It was a little too boring for me. It was cool, I mean I really like my teacher, but it just wasn't open enough. It was very, very structured and I thought it would be cool to get into jazz because of all the improv that's usually associated with that style of music, but...
IGN For Men: So you were like Lisa Simpson, busting out with the crazy sax solo that's totally incongruous with the rest of the class, eh?
P-Nut: Yeah, I tried.
IGN For Men: So were you bustin' out with the Jaco [Pastoris] and Mingus bass riffs while the instructor was trying to teach you something else?
P-Nut: Right. And he knew that I was a better player than most of the people in the class, so he'd let me solo every once and awhile and make sure that I stayed within the chord structure, even though I didn't even know what a chord structure really was [back then]. But it was fun, it just took a little too much time away from my personal life.
IGN For Men: I know what you mean, I was in choir and on swim team when I was in high school and both of those activities took up a lot of my free time.
P-Nut: And that's good, but I knew I was gonna be playing music for the rest of my life and I wanted to enjoy my high school years as much as I could, since I was just skatin' through school anyway.
IGN For Men: Speaking of lack of free time, how often do you and the rest of the band practice? And, coming with the double-edged question here...
P-Nut: Ooooh yeah!
IGN For Men: Since this is your livelihood, how do you keep it from becoming a routine 9-to-5 'job'?
P-Nut: Well since we've stayed the same pretty much since 1991 when Tim came in the band, it's just been a building thing. The more we spend time together and since we lived together out in Los Angeles in 1992, 1993, pretty much broke-as-a-joke, you just learn to love who you're with. And we have so much fun playing together and everybody's such an individual and everybody brings such different styles to the table that it's fun for everybody else. We're all pretty strong personalities and egos, but we're open enough to accept what anybody else brings to the table. So in that way, it's a lot of fun and you learn tons of things that you wouldn't have come up with on your own. And since they respect me and I respect all of them back, it's just a perfect marriage of minds. As far as practicing, I make sure my calluses are ready to go, so I don't have to play through blood on a couple of songs. And Nick makes sure that his voice is all warmed up and Chad makes sure that all his chops are ready to go. We do it enough to stay on top of it, but we've played probably like 500 shows now and we're damn well rehearsed at the stuff we do live. But one of the things that we really need to concentrate on is that now that we have probably 80 songs out, is mixing up the set-list. And that is kind of a difficult thing to do.
IGN For Men: Speaking of you calluses, do you tape them up or do you do some Ancient Zen type of thing where you soak your hands in water heated by hot stones? You know how all those Indian tribes run through the forests barefooted and they build up the calluses on their feet? Do you do something like that?
P-Nut: [laughs] I just keep playing. And even though when I play at home I don't play nearly as hard as I do when I play onstage, it's still a good practice and it keeps me warm, per se [laughs].
IGN For Men: I don't play bass, but growing up I was really into Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Tony Levin, those were the guys that I was just fanatical about. Who are your low-end heroes?
P-Nut: Steve Harris from Iron Maiden. Very, very big [influence]. He was one of the first people that really like stood out as a bass player/composer/personality in a band. Most of the time, like as far as the Led Zeppelin era, Jones was back with Bonham just being the percussive part, and Robert Plant and Page were up in front. They were the lead guys and the rest of the guys were in back. I thought it was really cool that Steve Harris would be leaning up on his monitor, grabbin' people's attention, showing 'em how @#$%&*' great a player he is, and if you look at all the credits on the songs, especially their old stuff, he wrote pretty much everything. Even the solos. He was just cool like that. Even if you don't listen to their music, you can just tell that he's powerful and I wanted to carry that on to the generation of music that I represent.
IGN For Men: I must admit that I missed the whole Maiden voyage, you know, I was never really into their music. "Run To The Hills," that's about the extent of my Maiden experience. I did like the artwork though. The cover of Killers was sick.
P-Nut: Hell yes! It was all about the artwork and the music, the combination of the two. The image that they created was like 'I'm gonna scare the #$%^ out of my parents with this album.' My dad was a preacher and I'd bring home Number of the Beast.
IGN For Men: Wait, your dad was a preacher?
P-Nut: Well yeah, when my folks lived together. He still kind of is, but mostly he just marries and buries people nowadays. But that's all he kind of really did anyway, but he was more active in it [back then]. Now he lives out in New Mexico, which is really cool. He's happy and retired.
IGN For Men: So he doesn't have a problem with your rock-n-roll lifestyle?
P-Nut: Oh no, he loves it.
IGN For Men: Is he your number one fan?
P-Nut: One of them. Tied up there with many other family members.
IGN For Men: Does anybody in the band cook?
P-Nut: Umm, Tim cooks a little bit. I know Chad cooks a little bit...
IGN For Men: But does anybody have like a special dish that they prepare. You know, like 'We're having a potluck party tonight...'
P-Nut:...come check this out!
IGN For Men: Right!
P-Nut: Not really, but my fiancée is a @#$%&*' great cook and she's really into learning a bunch of different recipes and trying new stuff out, so we have people over once in awhile. But we haven't had like the whole band over to eat. But that might be because we don't have a kitchen table yet [laughs].
IGN For Men: Live versus the studio. I once read a quote from you where you remarked that you dig the live experience as it becomes a more collective experience as opposed to the more personal experience of the studio.
P-Nut: When you come out with a product from the studio, it's more set for headphones. That's how we want to mix [songs] so they sound really good on headphones. Of course we try it out in our car systems and stuff to get a perspective, but albums are made to be listened to through headphones. I think that's really cool and makes it a very personal [experience], it's very inside yourself and you can make it whatever it is. But if you're with 2000 people who are all jumpin' up and down at the same time, sweatin' their brains out, singin' the songs word-for-word, that's @#$%^&' badass. It's another peak. You know, I like making albums. I love it, actually. And we get better at it the more we do it, but after playing after about 500 shows and seeing that connection, seeing how powerful it can be when people are watching us create our music, it's so @#$%^&' cool. I wouldn't want to do anything else except for make movies.
IGN For Men: Now you've just said that you wouldn't want to do anything other than make music except for making movies. Are you talking about directing or acting?
P-Nut: Directing.
IGN For Men: What kind of movies would you make?
P-Nut: I would make disturbing movies in which at least one of two people would walk out [of the theater]. No matter what.
IGN For Men: You'd want to do like David Lynch-crossed with David Cronenberg on like crack or something?
P-Nut: Something like that. Those are good Davids. I'd probably be more like Kubrick-meets-Lynch.
IGN For Men: I was also thinking Alejandro Jodorowsky, y'know, the director of El Topo and Santa Sangre.
P-Nut: He's pretty freaky. I like that. I want like some square people to walk out of my movies at least at every show [laughs].
IGN For Men: Now you don't strive for that with 311. I mean you guys don't want people to walk out of your concerts.
P-Nut: No, no. We want everyone to stay for the show.
IGN For Men: But if you made movies you'd want some people to walk out .
P-Nut: Yeah. The cool thing about putting an image up on a screen is that you are hitting people in many, many different ways. It's not just a band performing the music that they want. It's like you get into someone's brain once you put an image up there and you can really $%&* with their heads.
IGN For Men: Yeah, but I think you can do that as a band, too. Especially once you gain a certain level of popularity and garner a sort of cult following. I mean if somebody is out in the audience reciting the words to all of your songs, I'd say that you got inside of their head, wouldn't you?
P-Nut: Yeah, it's true. They're a part of it. But I think, I don't know. Kind of like the headphone experience of listening to the album by yourself. You can make that image whatever you want and it will be different to other people around you. But as a show I think people take it in the same way. I don't know, you could fight both sides of it.
IGN For Men: Yeah, we could sit here for a few hours and ruminate on that, I'm sure. We'd even have to take a break and go get some beers or something.
P-Nut: Yeah [laughs] remember what you were gonna say next!
IGN For Men: Speaking of beers. I managed to catch a glance at your contractual rider and found it interesting that you request 24 bottles of beer, which is then broken down to 6 Sierra Nevadas, 6 Coronas, 6 Anchor Steams, and 6 Pete's Wicked Ale...
P-Nut: Oh 6 Pete's? There's probably a 4-pack of Guinness in there somewhere..
IGN For Men: But that comes out to a six-pack each for four of the guys and the fifth member of the band gets screwed. Is one of you on the wagon? And how did you come up with the beer selection?
P-Nut: [laughs] Well someone always wants something lighter like Corona. And I always want something a little bit more amber like Pete's or even darker like Guinness. It was just trial and error. That's a good mixture.
IGN For Men: It's like the selection that won't really disappoint or piss anybody off then.
P-Nut: Right. There'll be something for everybody. We really don't drink that much at all. Like I'll have a beer on-stage and that's pretty much my favorite time to drink is when I'm actually performing. But you won't see me drinking that much outside of that.
IGN For Men: Why is having a beer on-stage so good? I mean alcohol is a funny thing. I play pretty good pool after about 2-3 beers. And I bowl pretty good after a few beers. But it's that fourth beer that really $%^&$ your game up. I'm sure it's the same way with performing. I'm sure there comes a point when you can just be [too smashed]. The Replacements were pretty much the band from recent memory that could really drink and still play. But were also the band which perfectly illustrated what happens when you drink too much and try to perform live, you know? So does just one beer loosen you up a bit and put you into that performing vibe?
P-Nut: Yeah, yeah. And it just tastes a little bit better when I'm really, really sweaty and my heart's going crazy. And I pretty much, almost always, 9-out-of-10 times if I'm gonna have a beer on-stage it's gonna be Guinness. Which is even stranger because it is such a meal. But it goes down like water when I'm up on-stage. I'll have one, maybe two on a crazy night, and then I'll be kinda $%&*@#! for the rest of the night, between that and bangin' my head and jumpin' around. It's crazy. But I don't over do it.
IGN For Men: I'm more of a Black & Tan fan myself.
P-Nut: That's the way to go.
IGN For Men: Where do you see 311 and the music of the band headed over the next 10 years?
P-Nut: I see us constantly mixing up styles, doin' pretty much whatever we want because we have a very dedicated fanbase, even though with every album we shake off some people who have been listening for awhile and we gain new people. That's kind of a healthy mix, because if it's all the same rabid people all the time and you don't add any extras and you don't shake anybody off then you're not really doing enough, then you're just maintaining a straight line. We're into experimenting, we're into trying new things, we're into stretching our musical capabilities and we're ready to innovate a whole new sound of music. That's what we're out to do.
IGN For Men: Well you've constantly changed your sound and vibe since Transistor up until now. You've dabbled in electronic embellishment and what not. One of our readers, a veritable hardcore 311 fan, pointed out that Sound System goes back to the Grassroots sound a little bit.
P-Nut: A little bit. But you know, you can never go all the way back. And once people start saying that there's gonna be a huge backlash because people feel so strongly about our older stuff, as they damn well should, so we were just trying to have the songs [on Sound System] be ready to be played live like we had for Grass Roots. We knew after doing our first album of music that we'd have to go on the road for a long time. We also knew that after coming off of Transistor that when we made an album that we were gonna want to stay out for a long time and we wanted to write songs that we could play all of them in front of a crowd instead of how trippy Transistor turned out to be. That album was totally made for headphones and Sound System was compeltey made for the stage. It's nice to be able to play both sides of it.
IGN For Men: That's cool. So you went in [to record Sound System] with the intent 'Okay, we did our headphone album, now it's time to do an album where we won't have to take all this techno equipment on the road.
P-Nut: Right, a bare bones record as opposed to 'This sounds great, but how the hell are they gonna do it live?' We didn't even want to have to worry about that [this time out]. And the whole attitude of coming out aggressive and wantin' to play the songs that we had just written, it's cool and it's good for the organization, everyone feels a lot of momentum behind the band and we plan on touring very, very extensively the rest of the year.
IGN For Men: Would you consider yourself a touring machine?
P-Nut: Yeah. That's the only way to do it. And it's the only way not to rely on media, which is fleeting. No offense, of course.
IGN For Men: None taken. I know what you mean, though, trying to rely on the media to get the word out about a record and a tour is kinda lame these days.
P-Nut: Yeah, you can trust on it happening to a certain degree, but there's nothing like word-of-mouth as far as a valid source of information. Especially from a friend that you respect. I know you've got a friend that if they told you 'This album is good,' you'd go buy it. Same thing about a show, 'Go see this band live, they'll $%^&*!' blow your mind!' That's what we want to do. And that's why we take it to the street, because that's when that type of advertisement happens. And that's what was cool, I think, about doing our small club tour earlier in the year, was that not everybody in the city could go if they wanted to. Like there was gonna be some people that were left out in the cold. But now, the people that did get to go told all of their friends that couldn't go and even some people that didn't even give a #$%& at the time, how great of a show it was and now we're gonna be playing like 2000-5000 seats a night, so hopefully we'll be able to satiate all the funk crazed kids out there.
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