Friday, December 4, 2009

Q&A 311 bassist Aaron 'P-Nut' Wills (AZ Central)

It was 1996 when 311 topped the Modern Rock charts with a single called "Down" that was anything but. And the weird thing is, 13 years later, they're still having hits. Here's bassist Aaron "P-Nut" Wills on what keeps 311 going strong.


Question: You're pretty happy with the way the album's doing?

Answer: It seems like the younger kids on the front rail of the shows this fall have really been reacting to the new stuff, which is nice. Instead of our whole audience getting old like us, our fans at some point begin to regenerate. So we're really thankful that kids are connecting to our new stuff and if they're not buying it, they're trading it.

The whole point is for them to listen. It's not really about selling millions and millions of albums. It's making this musical experiment as long-lasting as possible so we can change and grow and turn into something that we could never even have thought of when we were teenagers back in Omaha.

Q: The ages of the kids up front has stayed the same. Why do you think that is?

A: We're a rare breed. We're hopelessly positive. We're into solving problems in our lyrics. And I won't be shy about thinking that we have some of the best players in rock. We're not shred monsters, but we're consistent at what we do. We've got a great rhythm section and our guitarists are fantastic. I've always thought of 311 as a supergroup.

Q: Your singer, Nick Hexum, has called this album 311's rebirth. How so?

A: Instead of trying to sell a million albums by being some crossover hit and having a bunch of new fans fall in love with us, there's a singular mindset in the band that we should understand our core audience and nurture them.

And if success comes out of that, it'll be a lot more real. So we need to keep being ourselves and making music from our own perspective without getting hung up on what's on the radio or "Why aren't we as critically acclaimed as Radiohead?"

Q: Why aren't you as critically acclaimed as Radiohead?

A: That's a tough question. Part of it is a lot of writers and critics and fans on the mainstream don't understand us, or just know us from our singles and have decided to judge us quickly, which I totally understand. I do that with bands myself and I'm probably missing thousands and thousands of musical gems. So it's OK. It's not that big a deal.

Q: There aren't a lot of bands that came out when you did that are still having hits.

A: It's that kind of unique message where we spin conflict into resolution. It's much easier to make kids depressed than try to tell them there's a better way to live.

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