All five members of 311 grew up in the 1970's in Omaha, Nebraska.
Nick Hexum, Tim Mahoney and Chad Sexton lived on the west side of town
and went to Westside High School together. P-Nut and SA Martinez lived
on the south side of town and went to Bryan High School together.
During high school, Nick and Tim played in a rock band together called
"The Ed's". Nick was also in the high school concert jazz band with Chad.
At seventeen, Nick graduated early from high school and moved to
downtown Los Angeles in pursuit of a music career. When Nick returned
to Omaha for Chad and Tim's high school graduation - the three of them
jammed and realized they had a special musical chemistry.
They soon added a keyboardist named Ward Bones and called themselves
"Unity". In late '88, Nick, Chad and Ward moved to LA and made an
unsuccessful
stab at getting a recording contract.
Disillusioned with the L.A. scene, Chad soon moved back to Omaha and
began jamming with P-Nut and a guitarist named Jim Watson. Months
later, Chad persuaded Nick to move back to Omaha and join them. They
played their first gig opening for Fugazi on June 10th 1990.
In 1991, they parted ways with Jim Watson and added Tim Mahoney as lead
guitarist. At that time, SA Martinez began to make guest appearances
with the band - and was eventually added as a full member. 311 was
complete (Nick, Chad, Tim, P-Nut and SA).
In 1990 & 1991 the band released three independent records on their own
label (What Have You Records). The records were called "Dammit,"
"Hydroponic," and "Unity." With these records and their solid live
show, the band quickly established a following in the Midwest and then
set out for the West Coast.
They rented a small house in Van Nuys, California and all moved in
together. These were very lean times for the band. Just before
disintegrating into total poverty, they were signed to Capricorn
Records.
311's first cd "Music", was released with little fanfare in February of
'93. The band hit the road in support of the record and was temporarily
sidelined when their touring RV caught on fire and exploded on the
shoulder of the highway. The fire destroyed all their equipment,
clothes, money and personal possessions. Despite losing everything -
the band members escaped the blaze with minor burns and injuries. They
decided to persevere and they only canceled one show before returning to
the stage with equipment donated by fans and friends who heard about the
disaster on the television news.
In July of '94 they released their second cd "Grassroots." By this time
they were touring the US non-stop. They moved out of the house in Van
Nuys - put their stuff into a storage space and literally just lived on
the road. They put all their energy into their live show and steadily
developed an incredible grassroots following nationwide.
In July '95 they released their third cd "311" and once again set out on
tour. By '96 the shows and the fanbase had grown considerably - and the
media which had basically ignored 311 until then, began paying
attention. In September of '96 (14 months after the release of the
"311" album) the song "Down" hit the airwaves and became an across the
board success at radio and MTV. "Down" went to #1 on the Billboard
Modern Rock Chart and the follow-up single "All Mixed Up" went to #2.
After the success of the "311" album (which is now triple platinum), 311
released a long form home video called "Enlarged to Show Detail"
containing live concert footage, interviews, videos, backstage footage,
etc. To make it a unique item, 311 bundled the video with a 5 song EP
containing outtakes from the "311" cd. The home video debuted at #1 on
Billboards Music Video Sales Chart and is now a platinum video.
After releasing the home video, 311 went back into the studio to record
their fourth cd "Transistor". "Transistor" debuted at #4 on the
Billboard Top 200 and is now platinum.
311's 1997 headlining tour in support of the "Transistor" album drew an
average of 10,000 people per night in the US. The band also toured
Europe, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
In September of 1998, 311 re-issued some old material on the "Omaha
Session" EP. The EP contains 9 songs from the bands 1989-1991
independent releases ("Dammit," "Hydroponic" and "Unity"). The EP is on
the band's original "What Have You Records" label and is only available
via the 311 website 311.com and the 311 Mail Order Merch
Catalog.
In November of 1998, 311 released 311 Live - a collection of live
recordings from the 1997 US Tour. And in October of 1999, 311 released
their fifth cd "Soundsystem" which debuted at #9 and toured extensively
in the US and Japan.
In 2000, the band purchased a recording studio in North Hollywood.
After making some renovations and bringing in their own equipment, they
renamed it "The Hive" (which is also the name of their fanclub). The
studio was active in the 70's / 80's. Missing Persons and Adam Ant
recorded albums there and most recently it was used as a voice over
studio for movies, etc.
In 2001 311 released another album "From Chaos" which was produced by Ron St. Germain. It was a major success after tons of touring across the world
311 is now working on another EP that is due to be released next spring to early summer.
