Before Bizkit, before Korn, there was this quintet from--of all places--Nebraska that blended funk, metal, rap, hip-hop, ska, and dancehall into a concoction that dominated alt-rock radio.
311, getting ready to invade Europe to support its new album, "From Chaos" (Volcano), won the masses in 1995 with infectious songs like "All Mixed Up" and the No. 1 Modern Rock hit "Down" from their triple-platinum third studio effort, the self-titled release known as the "Blue Album." Then, like many before them, they committed a music-biz cardinal sin and took serious chances with "Blue Album'"s follow-up, 1997's adventurous but occasionally meandering "Transistor."
"Everybody just f---ing hated that record with a passion," said drummer Chad Sexton. "We don't know why, but I do know that it was too long of a record. It should not have been 21 songs, in my opinion."
After the lackluster response to "Transistor," the working title of their next album (which became 1999's "Soundsystem") was "At Least We're Trying." "Soundsystem" proved to be a back-to-basics gem, melodic and cohesive. However, 311 was now one of many rap-rock bands, it endured a lengthy legal battle with longtime label Capricorn, and sales dwindled, the album only going gold. Exit Capricorn, enter Volcano, re-introduce producer Ron St. Germain ("Blue," as well as Creed, Tool, Bad Brains) and you have the re-invigorated spirit of "From Chaos."
Sexton spoke with liveDaily about "Chaos," the tour, and the whole rap-rock thing.
LiveDaily: How is the tour shaping up?
Chad Sexton: We go to Europe for two weeks, and then we come back and start our own headlining fall tour, which will last from, like, September 8th to Halloween. We'll do ten of the shows with Alien Ant Farm, who we met on the Warped tour.
LiveDaily: You reunited with Ron St. Germain for "Chaos." How did that come about?
We had producers in the past that just didn't show the enthusiasm--we could tell that it was just a gig for them, and there wasn't any love for the project. We wanted to get someone that liked and believed in our band. And talking to Ron, even our first conversation, it was magic. He's an energetic person to begin with, and he really enjoys working with us too--it was just kind of a sign that he was the perfect guy to do our album again. We didn't have to talk him into doing it.
We were kind of in a bind at the time, because we were going through a lawsuit as well. So we weren't really taking any money from the record label for our budget. So we told him, this was coming out of our pocket, and we'll probably pay you a little bit more slowly than usual. And he was so cool with that, he didn't even mind. He just wanted to get busy on making a great record. So all those things combined, it was just obvious that he was the one to use.
You guys don't mess around musically. "You Get Worked" and "Sick Tight" come out hard.
Definitely. We wanted to try and get the energy up. We had been playing some of those songs live in our previous tour in 2000, to see if we could make them rock harder or what we could change to make them different. Playing those live in front of a crowd really helped them come off on tape like they did.
It's probably asked a million times: rap-rock's popularity and your influence on it.
I think people are under the impression that rap-rock is huge, but I don't think it is, really. I think there's Limp Bizkit that has made it huge, obviously. And then maybe Linkin Park and maybe a few other bands. But I guess our philosophy is that we don't look to ... I mean, I get that question in every interview, about paving the way for these bands and whatever. We have a lot of pride of starting this movement back in the early days, and doing it along with bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers--who did it before us--and Beasties, and Rage. All of us together helped pave the way on radio.
But here's the funny thing. Now, I'll go do radio interviews, and they'll ask that same question. They'll be all, "Aren't you upset? I mean, can you believe the rap-rock thing, how big it is today? Aren't you sick of it, 'cause we're sick of it." And I'm thinking, "You guys are the ones that made it big! And now you're complaining about it. You guys are the ones that spun it like crazy, and now you're asking me?" It's so funny. They never come from the angle that they helped make this big.
We're known to stick to our guns. This is what I think the difference is. I think there are bands out there, and I'm not going to name any, that are formula. You know, they put a rap record on, have the drummer copy the drum beat, have the bass player copy the bass line, have distortion guitar put up over that bass line or doing something else, and have a guy put his own rap on it. Now when music is manufactured like that, it's just like anything else--when you fake it, put it together like that, or copy something, that's what it is. It's a copy.
And it happens over and over again.
What we like to do, we always start off from the point of view that we're music lovers first. We are true to ourselves, we don't think, "Hey, this is gonna be a huge hit." Of course, we hope we have hits or whatever, but we don't manufacture songs to have hits. We write strictly from our hearts. We did on our first record, we did on our last record.
If you could just be with me for one day when we play a show, and watch how many people come up to me and say ... like, this girl came up to me on the Warped tour and started bawling. She's like, "You guys saved my life. I would be dead if it wasn't for your music." I have people come up and say, "My brother died in a car accident, and I don't know what I would have done without your music." So that's more of our focal point, really. We try to stick to our guns and make our fans happy, and we want to keep influencing people in a positive manner for a long time--that really is our goal. Of course, we wouldn't mind if we sold five million records, but we'll be happy if we continue this for a long time. Hopefully, when it's all said and done, and it's 2148, we'll have a book of music that helped and inspired a lot of people.
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