Liza Mitchell
ALWAYS HAD A BIGGER PICTURE IN MIND
Statistically, the odds were stacked against five Midwestern kids hoping to bust out of Omaha and become rock stars. They were average teenagers who liked to play music together and shared a collective vision to make it big on the west coast. That’s what makes the odyssey of 311 so compelling. There was never a Plan B.
In just under two weeks, 311 will head out on its 18th consecutive summer tour and there is still a lot to do. The band drops its 12th studio release Mosaic on June 23 and will bring its Unity Tour to the St. Augustine Amphitheater Aug. 2 with special guests New Politics. Leaving for months on end isn’t as simple as it was in the early years.
EU Jacksonville talked to singer/rapper Doug “S.A.” Martinez about the early days and how they’ve managed to stay positive – and stay alive – through it all. “Back in the early days it seemed like it was easier. It was like ‘put our shit in storage and say goodbye to this place for nine months’. Now we have kids we have to say goodbye to. That’s the big difference now that there are little ones and families and all that entails,” says Martinez. “My little ones understand the deal but that doesn’t make it any easier. Touring is a mindset. It’s what we do. Come the day we step on the bus, that switch turns on. It’s work mode.”
On June 10, 1990, 311 opened for Fugazi during what is officially known as its first show in Omaha. It sparked a new beginning for the bandmates. At the time, there was no internet. To discover new music, you had to search for it. In a small town scene like the one in Omaha, word of mouth spread like kerosene on a cornfield. “There was like a scene popping in Omaha at the time. Scenes come and go but we were part of a thing that was going on in Omaha at the time that was really special. There were a handful of really good bands, several bands that we looked up to and influenced our sound, our look and how we wanted to present our music. Bands are always going to be influenced by bands that came before them. That’s just part of the process. Bands will always come together as long as there are places for kids to be collected in the same spot,” says Martinez.
“We put it out there every night. It’s always a different set. Word of mouth is a real thing. Back in L.A. we might play a certain club every Wednesday night and every week we would see our audience grow because the live show was great and people were talking about it. We blew up in Omaha and that was just a microcosm of the world at large. And that gave us the confidence to even make the move to Los Angeles and to keep believing in what we were about and things would happen for us.”
“We were genre non-defining. I don’t think we fit into one category and we still don’t if you ask me. Labels used to say ‘where do we put these guys?’”
The 90’s was a fertile time for new music and 311 seemed to fill a space that had yet to be occupied by any other band before it. As a general mission statement, 311 was all about positivity. The music made fans feel good without telling them that’s how they were supposed to feel. At a time when so many other bands were trying to squeeze the last drops of life from the waning hair metal scene, the anything goes mentality of 311 resonated with fans looking to identify with something new. “When we got out to L.A., there was still this hair thrash scene happening. It was on the wane but some bands didn’t see the writing on the wall. It was an interesting mix, especially in the San Fernando Valley. There were bands that were holding on to that sort of aesthetic, musically and image-wise. I think we were on that new wave of rock at that time. Rock was just getting another push, so to speak, maybe its last true meaningful run through the 90’s. We had been influenced by bands that we thought were doing something different like Bad Brains, Jane’s Addiction, the Chili Peppers and that felt more akin to what we were,” Martinez says. “We were genre non-defining. I don’t think we fit into one category and we still don’t if you ask me. Labels used to say ‘where do we put these guys?’ If we did any one thing, that was it. Anything goes musically in 311 as long it makes sense for our band. Bands have definitely been inspired by us. I think they’re like ‘if these guys are from Nebraska and they can do it, then we can too’.”
The band released its first album Music in 1993, followed by Grassroots in 1994, which spawned the hits ‘Down’ and ‘All Mixed Up’. 311 hit triple platinum status in 1995 with its self-titled release. To date, the band has played over 1,700 live shows, each with a set list unique to that performance and recently released a 25th anniversary box set Archive featuring 81 songs to commemorate its silver anniversary.
Riding the wave of success was not without its challenges for a young band. As 311 rose in popularity, Martinez says the band flirted with the same temptations that consumed many of its contemporaries like Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley, Sublime’s Bradley Nowell and Blind Melon’s Shannon Hoon. If they fell into the traps, they somehow managed to claw their way out. “I think any band that has been through the years that we’ve been through, you kind of have your version of that within a band. We’ve definitely dealt with things of that nature but luckily nothing ever took a tragic turn. Then again, you can always fall back into those things. I think the main thing about 311 is that we’ve always had a bigger picture in mind. And there’s always been really good communication in the band. No one is afraid to not say anything. That’s been a big part of what’s kept the band alive and well. We really are a band of brothers. Brothers can be in arms and brothers can be at odds. It’s an aspect of the band that I think is pretty important. We are truly a family. I think that maybe some bands don’t enjoy that bond. And we were raised a certain way and I think there is something to be said about that. It’s part of our DNA,” says Martinez.
“I don’t let any turmoil within the band dynamic ever get me down or change my perspective on the band or what we mean to people.”
“It’s all in how you look at life and you are either adaptable and can see things for what they are or you need to work on that. That’s really what it comes down to. I don’t let any turmoil within the band dynamic ever get me down or change my perspective on the band or what we mean to people. I know music is important to people and people are coming up to us all the time and telling us how much the music means to them. I always keep that in mind. People have real struggles and we are beyond lucky. In a nutshell, we hit the lottery and it’s still printing out money. We’re still on that wave.”
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