The short-lived Eds called it quits when Hexum graduated from high school a year early and moved to L.A. Eventually, we started doing our own tunes, and those became the highlight of our shows.” “We covered the Cure, the Smiths, R.E.M., and a lot of smaller bands, like Guadalcanal Diary. The group was called The Eds, “because our drummer was named Ed,” he continues. “We had to have our moms drive us around to gigs and stuff like that,” Hexum remembers. Hexum was in the concert jazz band with Sexton, and he had a cover band with Mahoney - but no driver’s license. The first hint of that 311 magic emerged around 1985, at Westside High School in Omaha. But we’ve also always followed our hearts, which is kind of hard to do in a business that’s trying to tell you not to.”Īdds P-Nut: “I like the way these guys push me, and I like the way I push them, and how everything’s equal when we hit that stage … that’s magic.” So do the relationships that you build within the band. I think, ultimately, our love of music has kept us together. “Some credit goes to us members, but some of it was just kind of luck and magic, in a way.
“There have been a lot of things that’ve gotten us here - including luck, including things that were out of our control,” Sexton tells SPIN, surveying the band’s career. So, how did these lifelong friends go from playing Guadalcanal Diary covers in dodgy Omaha basements to peddling their own line of cannabis products and hosting themed Caribbean cruises? Even they can’t believe their band has become something of a lifestyle. “We love our subculture, and we love that taken care of us for so long, and we love giving them what they want,” P-Nut says. All the while, they’ve amassed a rabid following, while cementing a culture on positivity and celebration.Īlso Read Members of Limp Bizkit, 311, The Used and More Cover Jane’s Addiction to Support Roadies move, the quintet - P-Nut, singer and guitarist Nick Hexum, drummer Chad Sexton, guitarist Tim Mahoney, and vocalist Doug “SA” Martinez - have issued 13 studio albums, from 1993’s Music through 2019’s Voyager, and played thousands of live shows. Since solidifying their lineup after their L.A. With their unique sound and devotion to their audience, the rockers have, almost accidentally, become a brand. The genre-fusing stoners - who broke out at the onset of the ‘90s rap-rock boom - achieved the virtually impossible: a sustainable music career, with multiple album cycles and sell-out summer arena runs. Today, over three decades after their first official live gig, opening for Fugazi at the Sokol Arena, 311 is essentially a corporation. We were a band trying to make a new sound, by just falling in love with these rhythms and these ideas and having fun together, really.” We were just going for it, and we were just playing. “There was no Plan B for us,” bassist Aaron “P-Nut” Wills tells SPIN. The odds weren’t in their favor, and there was no guarantee things would work out for the young Nebraskans. It was more than 28 years ago that five ganja-toking, Goldeneye-obsessed, Bad Brains-worshipping musicians, known collectively as 311, left their hometown of Omaha to chase a record deal in a post-riots Los Angeles.
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