311 EMBARKS ON TOUR

311 just kicked off their tour of the U.S. Thursday (July 20) in Santa Cruz, California, and the band is hitting the road with The Wailers and Pepper. The summer tour will run through September 9 in Santa Barbara, California.

The band hasn’t released an album since 2005’s “Don’t Tread On Me,” and they hope fans will be more familiar with the new effort than they were last year. We asked the band’s Nick Hexum and P-Nut about creating a set-list and maintaining harmony within the band for such a long period of time.

“Over 200. [to P-Nut] “Like, what’s our song count now? [P-Nut] “It’s got to be close to that…. Don’t take any ego smashing too seriously, because it’s just like a matter of time before it’s going to come around to the wheel. Someone is going to get their feelings hurt. But just don’t take it so far that it becomes a personal thing. No one is out to hurt anybody else in the band. It’s just five guys are going to disagree sometimes and in a creative unit it’s tough. It’s a tough situation, but we deal with it better than anybody. That’s why we’ve been around long enough.”

311 released their first single in 1992, “Freak Out,” via Warner Brothers records, and their first official album, Music, was released in 1993.