Ep 513 - 311 (feat. Nick Hexum & S.A. Martinez)
36:00 Share

Hey, welcome to the podcast. Thank you guys so much. Nick Hexum, S.A. Martinez. Sure. Oh, come on, man. Don't try me. That's my name. Yes. I respond to it. Dude, I'm terrible with names and it's a bane of my existence. Dude, I know you guys for real. I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be weird. You can say it. You guys fucking rule. You guys got me through the sweatiest period of my life easily.

I would just... Me and my friends would just wax up a 4x4, like, post. Just skateboard. Oh, nice, man. Board slide it and shit. Seventh grade, just all head boners. It was fucking weird, dude. But no, you guys fucking rule, dude. Thanks for doing this. I was, like, genuinely stoked. I don't get...

Stoked on a lot of stuff and I saw that come through my email. I was like, oh Yes, please So seventh grade like for context was that late 90s? Yes. Yeah late 90s Yeah, cuz my older brothers they graduated like 96 98 and I was like four years younger than them But yeah, it was like it was for real like I don't mean you guys obviously older than me But you know, you don't really look it but I think I'm aging rapidly but yeah, it was like

that was crazy dude just be like bopping around seventh grade doing your thing and all of a sudden someone hits you with i i had the blue album the self-titled album first and then i was just like dude this is crazy we were just that one song down it was allegedly about making out right

00:44:00:10 - 00:44:11:10 Unknown Well, he mentions making out. So the funny thing, the war associated with you guys was so funny. It was like everyone like, yeah, dude, they studied music actually at the Juilliard. And I'd be like, yeah, obviously I can tell it. They're definitely like in seventh grade. Like, yeah, obviously. 00:44:11:10 - 00:44:26:10 Unknown But yeah, we don't think about making out. We like, I can't wait to fucking make out there. It's going to be so sick. 00:44:26:10 - 00:44:33:10 Unknown It's so funny because we just played a spot called Interlochen, which is like the Juilliard for high school kids and Michigan. The

The chick I made out with in a dark hallway, I went to interlock in when we met in summer camp and she was telling me about this other camp and it sounded really prestigious and it was like, so we were just there and it was one of those full circle moments. - Yeah, it was. - Yeah. - I did not know that. - Did you make out? - This is news to me. - That's news to you? - Well, the summer camp, that was my dark hallway make out. - But then you went to the other summer camp.

No, she went. No, yeah, we played there. 311 played. They have an amphitheater there. And it brought back this story. I know, I'm trying to figure out if you made out to make it full circle. Yeah, I know. Where was the make out? That was in Nebraska? The make out was in Nebraska. It was in Lincoln, Nebraska. Dude, that's awesome. Music camp. And she was a violinist.

What? Those were the days. Yeah, dude, that was sick. Making out before you knew about anything else was like, does it get better than this? And you're like, yeah, it turns out it absolutely destabilizes your life, the rest of it. That's a good reference point. Well, dude, that's fucking awesome, man. So you guys have been touring for what, like 20, 30, how long have you guys been touring for? Since 93. What? Yeah. What's the secret to the staying power, dude? A lot of bands just completely disintegrate.

how do you guys do it we just don't say no to anything the heroin we don't say no yeah we just say none of that we don't say no to gigs and we don't break up yeah like what's the secret to keeping a band together don't break up yeah true that's a good point how do you balance though what do you think what's the force what's like the the centrifugal force that just pulls bands apart would you say

Yeah. You know, people digging in too hard on their positions. I mean, you know, we respect democracy and we have five band members. So if it ever needs to come down to a vote, it's going to be, you know, two against three. If there was four people and it was two against two, then what do you do? Yeah. So fortunately we have a deep relationship.

an odd number of band members and but most the time we just talk things out and it doesn't really even come to a vote we just

somebody gives in and we just keep talking till there's a consensus, but if if there ever needs to be a vote and we respect that and just And also keep an attitude of gratitude knowing that we're super lucky to get to do this that we've stumbled on a really special lineup that We're better together than we could do on our own and for sure just take good care of it. Damn. That's awesome Because I feel like that's pretty rare when I mean you guys have must have seen bands come and go and kind of implode and all that stuff Yeah

Yeah, and so many bands that we started out with have like one or two original members and then just side guys. Yeah, that's what I saw in your guys' Tiny Desk concert. That's like, I mean, I don't recommend you guys going through comments. They're all very nice. But it was the big thing was like, I can't believe they're all still together. Usually it's one guy and a couple studio musicians and it's, you know, so it's sick, man. Yeah. It's awesome. So how do you like...

when you because you guys have come out with almost like an album a year with you know give and take like well in the beginning in the beginning it was like that i mean you know it's a mad terror when you think about it um i and i thought we were on on a bender when we did that and then i looked at rem's discography and they did like six albums or something like that in their

in their launch like per year and but it also made sense because they reached a status in a level that is very hard to come by but unless you put in mad work man yeah you know so we did a lot of legwork obviously and um and then you know we continued to do it but um

it's important to get back to the not imploding part to like have some space that you carve out, you know? - Yeah. - So now we all have families at this point in time. - Got you. When did the family start and how was that like balancing that whole thing?

- Well, thankfully we kind of waited. - Did you really? - Yeah. - So, I think maybe it's possible had we started families early that things might've gone awry perhaps because there's tensions that can build. And if you don't address them in a familial setting,

that can spill over into your professional lives. - Oh yeah, I know. - So I think we were a little wiser by the time we started families. - How old are your kids, if you don't mind me asking? - Ours are about the same. I have two guys, three of mine is almost, well, 14 and 12. - Okay, sweet, I got you. So you guys really waited till the time was right. - Yes, definitely can.

- Not have to wonder if I sowed enough wild oats. You know what I mean? - Yeah, yeah. - I was the first one to have a kid and I was 39 and now there's been 10, 311 kids.

- Damn, that's pretty cool. - Yeah. - So you kind of broke the ice and everyone else was like, "Yeah, I'll do it." - The floodgates of offspring. - It's okay. - Yeah, they're tough, man. I have a two and a four year old and they're, it's like, and I told her with standup and it can be tough. It can be like kind of like deciding how much do you go away, how much do you not, and you just feel like consumed with guilt and stuff. - Yeah, that's a thing. But fortunately, I kind of did the math once and

We're maybe gone like between a quarter and a third of the year. It's not like we're gone all year. So then when we're home, like I'm super hands-on dad. Got you, got you. Getting the kids ready for school and driving them to school and stuff in the morning. Yeah, that makes sense. And if you really take – if you put it up against a 9-to-5, it's like you're going eight hours a day almost every single day. Yeah. Versus, you know, going away here and there. And I also tell myself, too, if I had to work in an office, I probably would have burned my house down. Yeah.

There's that. I would have probably, like, beat my kid. You know what I mean? So it's, like, being able to get, like, a creative outlet helps me not be, like, a nightmare to my kids and stuff. Yeah. One of my kids said, Dad, I'm glad you're not a mister. And I was, like, what are you talking about? She was, like, you know, like, comes home with a briefcase and a suit. I'm really glad you're not a mister because, like –

- Do those exist anymore? - A mystery. - I saw that on TV once. - That must've been nice to be like, fuck yeah, I'm not a mystery. You get it. - I was very good to, and then now when I do something crazy, I'm like, would a mystery do that? They're like, no, you're proving our point, dad. You're not a mystery. - That's awesome, man. Yeah, my kids have got to come when I do stand up, like we've, if I have like an earlier show, like sometimes you do like a 4:30 matinee show

And they've got to come do like, just hop on stage and like mess with the mics while the staff setting up. And like, they, I feel like little kids love that. Like if you're telling them like I'm playing music or like they say, I'm a funny man. They're like, you're a funny man. You have to go be silly. And I'm like, yeah, that's pretty much what I do. That's cool. But that is tight, man. So how, so you guys, you started in 88, right? Yeah.

There was a previous incarnation of 311 called Unity that was '88 and '89. 311 started on June 10th, 1990. And then we were in Omaha for two years putting out locally produced albums that started to do really well. So we used those as demo tapes to get us the record deal. Then we moved out to LA in '92, put out the record in early '93.

i it would that we definitely didn't like rock it because like what you were sharing about you know the skateboards only like the really cool kids knew about us we were not obviously we were not in the mainstream so that's why we named our second album grassroots because we're like

We're not going to be embraced by the mainstream culture. MTV was not touching us at that time. Yeah, yeah. So we're just going to do it through touring and stick to our guns. And kind of what SA was mentioning, like REM, also like U2, like they stuck to their own weird sound and waited for culture to come to them. So that's what we did too. Like we're just going to keep doing our rap rock with reggae, even though that's not at all what's on the radio. And then finally...

With Down, that culture came around to us. Yeah. But we just stuck to our lane. And it's cool, too, because you already had, like, dude, music might be an all-time album, dude. Like, I'll listen to it still today, and I'm like, God damn, dude, it's so good. The production on that's insane. Like, Eddie Offord was...

the one who touched the knobs there and you know he was this eccentric british guy from prague rock world dude he worked with like yes okay anderson lake and palmer and he'd worked with john lennon and stuff so he had a ton of stories yeah that's pretty cool and it was just this

very sweet english gentleman prototypical right and and and us yeah what were you guys like early on were you guys like good boys bad boys what was going on um smoking weed constantly yeah around the clock that's what's up that's what's up dude respectable kids yeah so that was that was your so you guys are just like smoking weed i'm guessing that kind of like usually gateway to mushrooms lsd like what was that was that kind of was it just a weed

Um, ecstasy. There you go. Ecstasy. Don't forget that. Jack Daniels. Um, nice. So you guys kept it within like a very, I always say that is the best, like keeping it within the sphere of like weed, some alcohol, you know, obviously some ecstasy and maybe some mushrooms and acid, but that's good. So you guys were able to keep that. Did you guys have like, I mean, obviously maybe private issues, but like any public, like meltdowns with cocaine, any stuff like that, or did you guys keep it just kind of tight the whole time?

Well, me personally, I've decided that I'm better off sober. There you go. It works for me. A little caffeine is fine, but that's it. But everybody in general has kind of...

matured and cleaned up their acts so there's no problems in that arena anymore. Yeah, you get to a certain age. I used to smoke a lot of weed and you get to a certain age and you're like, what the fuck am I doing? Exactly. I'm like a part with my kid and I'm bugging out. I'm like, I can't do this right now. It does smell like weed in here. So was that... Awesome, man. Awesome, man. No, I'm scared of it now, dude. I sound like an old guy but you see the fucking weed is like 47%. Literally, I saw one of those. 42%.

I'm like, I don't need that. Well, the weed back in the day was like very seedy, very weedy. I mean, it was, it was like a joke. I know. Snap, crackle, pop. I honestly think I could smoke a whole pound of it. It wouldn't do anything to me now. But yeah, it's like, that's cool. So that, I mean, I just think it's cool because a lot of, especially in entertainment, there's this whole other thing. There's like, you know, there's your core business, which is like touring, selling tickets, albums, all that stuff. And then there's like,

let's say forces of like fame, fortune, all of that other stuff. And I really feel like that can have like such a fucking brutal effect on people. But it seems like you guys kind of just were like, all right, let's just throw fun shows, let people have fun, keep doing our stuff. And obviously I noticed you're very like, you know, gratitude and all that. And I think it, I think it's working. That's fucking awesome, man. Cause you don't see it. You only see, you only see the stories that become like the ones that get like glorified or like, and then they were doing this and it all fell apart and everything turned to shit. And it's like, I always wonder like,

Why does that happen? I'm always curious. People are making millions of bucks. Where's all the seeds of destruction come from? Well, I think, and again, we didn't have it. I think he was alluding to that at the beginning. The success wasn't there initially. So it took time. And then, yeah, you figure out

0:00:00.640,0:00:03.440 shit this took a lot of effort to get 0:00:03.440,0:00:05.840 here bro you know like yeah that makes 0:00:05.840,0:00:07.440 sense it's not gonna you know ruin it so 0:00:07.440,0:00:09.440 how old are you guys when things started 0:00:09.440,0:00:11.540 really popping off you weren't you guys 0:00:11.540,0:00:13.440 weren't we were young yeah i'm saying 0:00:13.440,0:00:15.840 you guys weren't old at all no 25 26. 0:00:15.840,0:00:18.440 that's that's that's better than like 19 21 0:00:18.440,0:00:21.720 but still that's pretty young man 0:00:21.720,0:00:24.920 super young yeah yeah so how what was 0:00:24.920,0:00:27.440 that what was like the big moment when 0:00:27.440,0:00:29.440 you're like holy shit this is kind of 0:00:29.440,0:00:31.720 getting out of control was it the blue 0:00:31.720,0:00:33.440 album or

Well, it was when you were hearing your music coming from other cars, like on the street. Yeah. And like... Yeah. I remember... Maybe we should move. You're still in Omaha. I remember once we were doing a gig at the Whiskey on Sunset's trip, and I heard a car pull up with grassroots, and it wasn't even out yet. Like...

And somehow they had gotten an advance copy of it and they were trading it all because there was just so much demand that they were like, damn, you know, stolen our music somehow. Yeah, shit. That's kind of nuts. So how did you – so when you guys first came out, you were saying you were sending stuff to radios and they were like, nah.

Like, what was their big... Because you guys said you had, like, local... Well, it was, like, we weren't the sound of the time. Like, you know, when we came out, grunge was, like, you know, on the radio. That was, like, alternative rock. Yeah, yeah. And we weren't really grungy at all. You know, maybe a track here or there, but not, like, a whole album. I know what you mean. Of a vibe. You guys were ahead of your time, though, because then, like, you know, quote-unquote rap metal became... Just, like, blew up. Like, right after kind of grunge fell, pretty much rap metal became huge. So you guys were...

Right in time. You guys are right in time. Yeah. And it's, it's really awesome to see next generations of bands that grew up on us. Like the guys from 21 pilots tell me that once this drunk chick came up to them after a show and was like,

you guys sound like a mixture of 311 and 311. And they were like, great, we'll take it. And I'm friends with the guys from Turnstile, and they grew up on us too. So it's really cool to see passing it on as we were influenced by so many bands too. So it's just all part of a big kind of family tree. What were your guys' influences actually? Now I'm kind of curious about that.

- Well, when we met, like he kind of got me into Bad Brains. Like I knew of Bad Brains but I didn't really listen. So he was like, "We're listening to Bad Brains." - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So we cranked it. And then, but as like as a band, you know, Jane's Addiction was a big band for 311. You know, I think we all saw them together. Helmet was another great band. - Fishbone, Chili Peppers. - Yeah, gotcha.

And you guys, I'm sure you guys have met all those guys, Peppers and all that stuff. Yeah. We played with them a few times. For the big turn of the millennium, the night of 1999. Yeah, I remember. December 31st. Everyone was going to lose all their money. Did you guys lose all your money back then? It took my whole family out. We played with the Chili Peppers that night at the Forum. So that was like kind of the coolest gig that we could have had. That's pretty cool. Fuck yeah, man.

13:00 Scott: So what's your guys' plan now? What's the plan going forward? Obviously, just staying shredded, staying ripped. Obviously, got the ordering. 13:06 Scott: Monitoring, making sure everything's okay. 13:09 Scott: What do you think about all this monitoring going on? Do you have feelings about it or what do you think? 13:13 Scott: He's taking care of himself. 13:15 Scott: A lot of people are negative. A lot of people get negative. They see the order, they go, "Come on, man. I don't wanna see that stuff." Do you want the data or are you against the data? 13:22 Scott: No, I mean, at home when I run, I have... Obviously, my

Phone's in my pocket and all I don't I'm not obsessed about tracking, you know, yeah, but yeah, I mean it's great There's so much information these days, right? Sure So if you can tap into it tap into it if you want true, damn you guys are too chill I'm trying to see if you guys will turn on each other But it becomes like a thing man when you get older it's like you do have to take the helm on some regard like you said you're running you're doing a bunch of other stuff I'm sure it's like

it's tough man you get older it's like it go it gets away from you fast dude oh absolutely man like it's well what we do you have to it's it's it is it's a sport and it's it's all season long that's true too yeah like you can't go home and just chill hang on the couch

Oh, we're going to go out in a week. Yeah. You can't just show up at the Super Bowl without training. Like you have to be ready. I'm guessing you guys have a pretty lively live show. So yeah, I didn't think about that. You can't if you like if you really took time and chilled out, you'd be on stage like, oh, dude, absolutely. That's crazy. No, you're.

Yeah, well, that might be another reason why a lot of, you know, bands kind of just crumble because of the stress of touring, you know? Yeah. How do you guys deal with that, though? Well, working out. Yeah. Preparing. Lifestyle, you know? Whoa. Yeah. Eat good. I like take a nap after soundcheck, you know? So I sleep in like I just woke up.

15 minutes before we came here. Damn. That's got to be weird. That's got to be crazy. We work nights. Yeah, true. We work nights, my guy. After the adrenaline of a show, it takes hours to flush that out and get ready. That crushes me in doing comedy clubs. You're doing a club, it's packed, then you just leave and go back to your room and it's silent. You're just in your hotel room just kind of like, well, I love that.

I like it. Your body's flooded with adrenaline. So do I. Dude, I get right out. I go right back to my room. But your body's just flooded with adrenaline. You're just sitting there just like, I just take melatonin and wait until I feel heavy. And I'm like, no, I just pass out. Well, what's crazy is that

In the wild times of the early 2000s and late 90s, we would party so late, go to sleep when the sun is coming up, and then wake up at like 1:00

Smoke weed and do sound shit unlike we battle. Yeah So caliber Just the street fighting games So fucking fun breaking controllers when you lose dude waking up smoking weed and playing video games And then doing a concert party on it's you guys you guys have cracked the code You guys have cracked the code, dude

It's so fucking tight. I really think you guys have figured it out, man. You guys seem like you have normal, fruitful lives. Delete this episode. We don't want anyone else to know. Have you seen, in terms of being around entertainment, do you have any thoughts on how people manage levels of fame and notoriety and how to live with it without it kind of...

I guess, thrown you for a loop? Well, you know, you mentioned don't read the comments and that's kind of a good thing. Like, don't Google yourself because there's people that are going to be mean. Yeah. You know? And I think the fact that we weren't immediately embraced made it tough. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You guys got thick skin already. And we looked inside the circle. You can't hurt my feelings. Yeah.

what he said that makes sense you kind of you got to keep like a tight because it is true especially with the internet now it's like especially having like families like i you know i'm like i have my life with like my kids then there's like me on a fucking computer screen just getting all kinds of whatever like yeah great fucking this guy sucks he's the worst right and then like i'll catch myself being almost more concerned about like you know my digital rendering with the comments on the line i'll be like with my kids i'm like

what am I doing, dude? This is sick. This is disgusting. You know, it really does need to be like, it's such a hard thing to sever because it gets you, but it's also not you in a sense, if that makes sense. Yeah. They know he's not a mister. True, true. True that. There's a mister thing to worry about. I'm a fucking mister, I think. So I guess I'm trying to think what other questions I have. So you guys, you did the, you guys are in it for the long haul. What's the plan? Do you guys have like a, cause you have the cruise too, by the way.

Were you guys the first ones who started doing kind of like the... One of them, but not the first. One of them. Yeah. Like at first they were called like Blues Cruises. Yeah. It was like kind of a thing with blues bands to go. And then they contacted us and we like, we think your band would be perfect for this. And then it turned out to be awesome. We're doing our seventh one coming this... Eighth. Eighth? Eighth. There you go. Damn. So we rotate one...

Earlier this year, we did 311 Day, which is a big kind of convention in Vegas. And then the next spring, a cruise. So they're like destination. It wouldn't have worked in the early days of 311 because, you know, they're high school kids that don't have the money to go. And the fan base isn't really built yet.

No, that's true. Yeah, you got to be like, ask your parents. Come on, get out there. Yeah, so my cousin's husband, I think he's been on it multiple times. Oh, yeah. Shout out Flick, dude. Yeah, he's a mega fan of you guys. He swears by the cruise. He said the cruise is sick. It is fun. Initially, when we were approached, I'm like, that sounds awful. As soon as I heard, I didn't know it existed until years ago, and I heard about it. I'm like, obviously, dude, that sounds like such a good idea. And it's turned into a shit ton of fun. Yeah, I bet. It is so much fun.

So where do you guys go? Where's what's like the cruise destination? Usually we're going to Nassau this time and one other destination. Something. We keep switching it up. It's always in the Caribbean. How many shows usually play on the cruise? Is it like like three to three? Yeah. Oh, that's nice. And they can stop and get off and come on. There's like a concert. It's a fucking it's a good idea. And a bunch of other cool acts. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Comedians. Nice. Yep. Well, it's pretty cool. Bring me out to see. Yeah.

13:31 CH: And tonight you guys got the... You guys are at the Moody Center. Is that what it's called? 13:35 SJ: It's outside. 13:35 CH: Yeah, yeah. Wait, outside? 13:36 SJ: Outside. 13:37 CH: You guys are playing outside tonight? 13:38 SJ: Yeah. 13:39 CH: You guys are gonna be fucking sweating your balls out there. It's 105 degrees today. 13:43 SJ: Yeah, it's hot. 13:44 CH: It's no joke out there. 13:45 SJ: Nice, man. Oh, that makes... You're at the Moody Amphitheater, I think, or whatever it's called. 13:49 CH: Yeah. 13:51 SJ: Hell yeah, man. Well, nice. What else... What are the... Give me some of the major lessons you guys have gleaned from your years and years and years. 13:57 CH: Hmm.

Well, I was just going to mention that, you know, we have a new album. Right on. That is coming out this fall. I was going to ask you that. I saw the single. I was curious if you had the album. So I think one thing we want to do is put out music a little bit more frequently. But, you know, the pandemic kind of slowed everything down and we were just kind of scrambling to even stay connected with our fans. We were doing like live streams from our studio playing music and grassroots and everything in its entirety. Yeah.

But we're super excited about this new album and I would just encourage younger artists to play out as much as possible because it's like live music is the most important thing. It can't be replicated by a studio artist. It's like a tradition that's gone back 100,000 years. Rhythmic music goes back that far, melodic music maybe 50,000 years.

We're part of that tradition of one set of guys plays an instrument, the other people dance. You know what I mean? So it's just very important to play live a lot. So that's kind of one piece of advice I always just take every gig. Yeah. You know. It was awesome. Play. Are you familiar with Harry Nielsen?

Yeah. Apparently he never played live. That was the bane of his existence. He had like a zillion albums, but he could never play live. Too nervous. Too nervous. Yeah, there's a doc on him, right? Yeah. He was too nervous. He was so good. He just couldn't play live. It's kind of tragic. Yeah. The guy from XTC, too, at one point said, I'm done with live. Really? Because he had a panic attack. And he was like, I am done. And that was a big influence. That's a really good group. Damn. Yeah.

And I think I, at one point, did kind of struggle with a bit of anxiety. And then, you know, I just needed to learn tools to deal with it. Yeah. You know, walk towards the fear. Yep. You know. Can't walk away from it. I have panic attacks on stage doing stand-up like five times a week.

a year it's nothing i just eat them i just sit down like i'm gonna die i'm gonna have a heart attack and i'm like all right whatever yeah here we go yeah here we go i'm gonna forget that's the one thing it's like i'm gonna forget everything that that like thought is just an absolute worm like a brain worm like i'm gonna forget everything you're staring at you and you're like oh it's happening i knew you know but you just gotta yeah and i think having the mantra of like

Stop, I'll know what to do when I get there. Just trusting that you're going to know what to do when you get there. And then it kind of is a way to end that. I think you're right. It's in you. And it's just the questioning of is it in me creates that feeling of panic. Just stop. I'll know what to do when I get there. That's a good move. That's a good call. What do you think about that? Well, for me personally, I just try to stay in the moment at all times. Like, you know,

I kind of grew up performing. I was always in musical performances in school, etc. So it was something that in my family, too, it's like we all kind of performed. But I remember our first like big show we did. I was in Omaha before we were to embark on our trek out to L.A. and we played music.

our biggest show to date, it was in front of like 2000 fans in Omaha. And I'm like, holy shit. How am I going to do this? You know? And then- - This is serious. - Yeah, this is like, this is next level. But yeah, you just, you do it. And we learned it together, essentially. - Yeah, that's true. - It wasn't like a, yeah, solo acts or whatever.

trying to figure it out or getting over these humps, obstacles, et cetera. But to back to your point, I think you place a lot of those in front of you. You know, like for me, I try not to look at the set list while we're performing because I have on occasion seen

looked at a song and then I'm like, wait, how's that? How's that going? You know, so it's just kind of there for like a reference point. But I rarely look at it. I do sometimes like how many fucking songs we have left. Yeah. Yeah.

Other than that, but yeah. No, that's a fun thing to think about because it's like, especially with anxiety, which again, if you're doing any kind of performance, even if you're like going into a meeting at work, there's always anxiety, you know? And it's like, the way I think about it is, I think a lot of people take a pretty,

I think unhelpful approach to it today where it's like, you know, just like just silence that part of your brain with a pill, which, you know, some people need whatever. But there's a lot of people where it's like, if I were to listen, every time I got like supremely nervous about a thing, if I were to not do it,

Dude, like I can't imagine what my life would be like. You know what I'm saying? Like for doing stand-up, my heart was leaping out of my chest when I first started. Yeah. If I had been listening like, no, you're right. Let me just not. I'm scared. Not do that. Right, right, right. Dude, it makes sense because it's literally built into our body to keep us from like genuine physical threats. But when it comes to like, well, I want to perform and they're not going to like eat you. It's just kind of like, you know, it's kind of amazing to think of like the lives that lay on the other side of like pretty intense personal fear.

Yeah. I think we're told to kind of be like, yeah, yeah, listen to that. Dull yourself, you know, get away from that. Yeah. I think it's the worst advice. To have like exposure therapy. Like let's go in towards that thing that's making us really uncomfortable. Last week's version of This American Life has some really cool stories about like a guy that gets a concussion and

a woman that gets a concussion and then everything loud, bright, like for years. And she just kept avoiding those until she met a doctor that was like, go towards those most uncomfortable things. And then that broke the, the hold that it had on her. So to me, I always just, you know, walk towards the fear or discomfort, whatever it is you got to,

keep pushing into it or else it's going to rule you. Yeah, exactly. I went to, I studied to be a social worker, like, you know, in between doing standup and I went to go, I was like, yeah, maybe I want to be a therapist. I was kind of bouncing back and forth, but I would bring up exposure therapy in my social work school. And they were like, that's abuse. I'm like, Oh, it's not. It's like demonstrated to be like 83% effective, like better than a lot of other forms of therapy for anxiety. And they'd be like, that's kind of rugged. It's like, well,

So is life. You got to do stuff that is scary. You can't always just be like, oh, I feel very comfortable and safe. It doesn't work that way, man. Totally. It does not work that way. Kids today. Oh, man, dude. Don't get me started. I was in school with a bunch of 22-year-olds. I was like, actually. And I was like, you guys have no fucking idea what you're talking about. But that is cool, man. It really pumps me up to see you guys are able to kind of, again, just be in a space that can be very...

you know, threatening to people's well-being and just stick to the mission of like, you know, we have our, I think you mentioned like our core circle. Let's just focus on each other. Our families, obviously the 311 babies.

And just keep the blinders on, eye on the prize, and don't get caught up in all the bullshit and the hype and just blast through. Let's go, coach. It's awesome, man. Yes, I'm saying. Come on. Yeah, because that was the thing is basically we had our little gang. So we could just walk into a venue and just we had each other. So it just supplemented our confidence a lot. Like I don't know how –

solo artists do it. But for us, it was just great to have that crew and our road crew there. And it was just like a big family. So we'd just go in there with swagger and blow the place up. - That's awesome.

Dude, I think, I don't know. Is there anything else you guys want to talk about? You got the new album coming out. I mean, I think people should also dig into your entire discography because I didn't know how many albums you guys had. I knew you had like a decent amount, but I like looked at it like three days ago. I was like, what the fuck? These guys are releasing album after album. It's insane. Were you like conceptualizing the live albums or the albums for live shows more so? Or were you just kind of like putting them out for like a listening experience? It varies. Like the blue album was meant to be like

what are songs that just kick ass live but then the one after that Transistor was just more experimental and studio trickery so you know we went through different phases you do sometimes in our history like yeah well what are they gonna like love to listen to that type of thing you know what's gonna get hype and

And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Yeah. You think, do you ever, do you ever have a song where like the crowd's about to go fucking nuts and you play it and they're like, all right. That's part of the thing though, man. Like the same thing with standup. You're like, this joke's about the, it's going to kill. It's going to kill bro. Everyone just looks at you like, why did he just disclose that detail about himself? That's not funny. That's disturbing. You're like,

moving on yeah that is a process so you gotta you throw it out eventually you're like okay wow this one what was it what was the song that like absolutely murdered that is there anything that surprised you guys that you're like damn i don't think this thing would be the one well down was a hit before it was a hit like when we played it but it was also just the zeitgeist of our fan dumb building you know moment where it was just like

the pot's about to blow. Yeah. And that, but that, that was a song that when we played, it was a hit already, you know, and it wasn't even on radio yet. Right. Yeah. Was there anything that like on the other way where you're like, this is, you're like, whatever other song and it turned out to be popular. Have you always had a sense like,

Well, with Amber, we were so used to putting out hard singles and worrying about the male part of our fan base. But then that song really was just like a sleeper. Oh. Yeah. It's classic as well. So you're saying that was what the ladies were saying? I mean, it's more of a romantic song. But then we'd have these huge meatheads and be like, Amber's my favorite song. It does roll, dude. It's awesome. Yeah.

That song for real does something to you. When you're like just sitting there, you're like, God, this is so fucking nice. My energy is definitely amped, dude. It was our first chill single ever. We'd always had rockers before that. Like Crush, too. Yeah, it was like number one for a really long time. That's awesome. You did it for the babes. What did the babes say afterwards? The babes like, thank you or...

- Amber is the color. But it's having a moment now with like teenage TikTokers, a lot of people making videos of them. And a lot of times they use the slightly sped up version that makes it a little bit like sound like chipmunks, but whatever. - Sprat baby. - They're probably doing it so they can like fit it into like a, you know,

I've noticed people do that now online where it's like they'll just speed themselves up talking at like three times the speed. And you're like, this is already bad for me enough. I don't need this fast. Just more information faster. Right. Get it in. Well, dude, thank you so much. And where can people get tickets? You guys are on tour right now. Where can people get tickets for the rest of your guys' tour? Everything's at 311.com. And we're heading over towards California and up the coast to Seattle and Florida.

And then we've got various fly dates in the fall. And we're going to Australia for the first time in a long time. Ooh, nice. Around Thanksgiving. Hell yeah, man. That's their summer too, isn't it? It'll just be starting, yeah. Nice. Well, dude, thank you guys so much, man. Yeah, man. This was fun. Appreciate it. Thank you guys. Thanks for the invite. Of course.