The Never Ending Summer Tour featuring 311 & The Offspring w/ special guest Gym Class Heroes is making this solstice a memorable one for fans going out to see them play.  For the guys in 311 this marks 25 years (has it really been 25 years??) since their debut album, Music dropped.  They’ve been making records and touring ever since.

I had the opportunity to catch up with guitarist Tim Mahoney ahead of their Detroit stop on the tour.  Tim has fond memories of Detroit and even laughs when recalling playing there in the early days to the bar staff at the pool hall.  This show will be at a little bit bigger of a place.  The Freedom Hill Amphitheater.  You can get tickets for the tour here: TOUR

With Tim Mahoney, you get a guy that truly seems like he relishes each and every moment of his musical life. He also appears almost giddy about touring with old friends The Offspring.  He tells me, “We’ve toured in the past and played a few festivals here and there with them, so it was nice it worked out to go and travel and do this co-headlining tour with them.  And I sort of forget, because it’s been so long, but their WHOLE set is just hits.  Hit after hit after hit.  You forget how many popular songs they have, ya know? (Tim laughs) They have a lot of good energy and stuff so it’s definitely been fun.”

The bands get along so well that they are each covering a song by one another.  311 covering Self Esteem and Offspring covering Down.  Seriously.  How fun is that?  I asked Tim how it all went down.  “Yeah!  Their camp contacted our camp and said we’ll do one of yours and you do one of ours!  The thing is that they’re both good versions!  It was cool to see what they did and hear what their take on Down was.  We rearranged a little bit on their song and stuff so it was a fun little project to do.  There’s a vinyl so I’m excited to get the dual 7″ of that.”  You can listen to each version here: Self Esteem & Down

While talking about live shows I asked Tim about the bands highly successful Cruise.  Seems like a true fans dream.  The next aquatic adventure, set for March 1-6 is already sold out and hopefully these events will continue on for years to come.

It really is a chance to meet the fans and connect with people that love the bands music.  I asked Tim what the vibe was like when you’re on one of these things and how you’ve got fans right up in your face.  (Tim laughs) “It’s like a closed audience and they can’t go anywhere! (laughs) We’ve got them captured!  But it’s really fun and it’s really the only time I’ve ever been on a cruise.  I don’t know how to contrast it with another experience but it’s really fun for us because we can stretch out and do at least 3 sets over the length of the cruise.  This cruise is a little different because it’s an extra day.  It’s going to two different ports, which is the first time we’ve done that.”

Tim continues, “It’s just a lot of fun and it’s a community of like minded folks.  It’s a fun environment with all of the music and a lot of different bands.  People can party and do whatever they want, stumble back to their rooms and take a nap and then get up and go do it again.  Event shows like that are our favorite to play because you know, you can stretch out and get into some deep tracks from the record.  Get into to some songs we won’t be playing this summer due to time constraints.  So that makes it fun and really just enjoy the community of folks.”

I wondered if the current tour dates and festival shows would be the last until the cruise so the band might have the chance to finish a new album.  Tim tells me, “We’ve been trying to make sure we don’t add too many shows because we want to make sure we get the record done.  So right now that might be the last show depending on what we talk about, but the priority when we get off the road will be to finish the new record.  It would be nice to get it done and be able to put it out on March 11th.  That would be a lot of fun.”

I also asked how the writing process was coming along so far.  “We’ve got some really great stuff and probably have more than an albums worth of material.  We thought, maybe, at the beginning of this year we’d be able to get it out before we left for the summer tour.  But there is just too much good stuff and it just takes time to get it together and get it all to where it needs to be and get recorded.  I’m really looking forward to it and I think there’s some really good stuff on there that people are really going to like.”

You can hear the passion when Tim speaks about the process of making a new album.  It is obvious that none of this has become stale or tiresome for him.  Another aspect of recording is the role of the producer.  On the bands last record, Mosaic, the band had two people they worked with, Scotch Ralston and John Feldmann.  I asked if they would also be apart of this process for the new album.  “John and Nick wrote a whole bunch of songs, so there’s a group of songs that they worked on.  Then there’s a whole other group of songs that Scotch has been involved with.  So it’s probably going to be a group effort once again.”  Says Tim.

Mosaic had such a great sound, production-wise as well as a diverse sound, musically.  I, for one, am looking forward to another group effort like the last album.  Also wondered if Chad (drums) was going to mix some of this new record.

Tim tells me, “Chad mixed the last record, not the Feldmann songs but all of the other songs.  And then he (Chad) mixed the Self Esteem song and I thought he CRUSHED the mix on it.  So Chad is really involved with that part of it.  It’s really nice having him there and he’s really developed as a mixer too.  So I’m hoping he mixes the whole thing.”

Another part that goes into these records is just flat out tone. This is something that Tim Mahoney has a ton of.  If you want some crunch to move your whole body to, he has it.  If you’re looking for that chill tone that you can sit back and just enjoy.  He has that as well.  I told him that on those songs where he has that clean tone with some delay or echo, it gives me such an Andy Summers (The Police) vibe.

“Hey!  Thanks!  I’m a big Andy Summers fan as well.  There’s a lot of times where I’ll put the delay in time to an 1/8 note and use that.  I’m a big fan of his tones too, that chorus, flangy kind of stuff.  Like, I love hard rock but I also love the clean, whether it’s The Police or reggae.  I just love the whole spectrum of guitar playing.”  Tim exclaims.

So what kind of amps and guitars does he use to achieve those warm tones?  Tim runs down some of the equipment he uses.  “For the crunch I use a Bogner Uberschall and then I’ll supplement that or blend in other amps whether it’s a Mesa Boogie or other amps.  It just kind of depends on what we’re going for.  On Self Esteem we’re using this new Mesa Boogie Triple Crown amp that they did a good job on.  For the clean I really like a Fender clean like a Twin or a Deluxe.”  It’s really hard to beat those clean Fender tones.

I asked him if he still uses PRS Guitars.  “Yeah I’m using what is probably called a PRS Standard.  It’s just like a Custom 24 but instead of a maple top it’s mahogany.  It’s a simple guitar but it’s hard to find one that does clean and dirty, ya know?  It’s a pretty good balance and it’s comfortable.  It feels good.”

I know the fans will be waiting anxiously to hear what new ideas and tones come out of these new recording sessions.

While it seems like forever since that first record, the bands popularity on the road is still going strong.  So strong that it feels like these guys are this generations new “cult” type band.  Sort of like a Grateful Dead-like following.  I asked Tim if he had anything he wanted to say to the fans that have been and still remain so loyal to 311.

“We’re fortunate that our fans will follow us through some of these strange places that the music will go and always seem to support us.  We always want to do stuff that they’ll be like, Yeah!  This is so cool!  And at the same time keep moving into the future and everything that is coming.  So really I just want to say: Thank You!”

-Tommy Marz

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You can see the entire tour schedule at: http://www.311.com/shows/

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