P-Nut doesn’t flinch when asked how long it took to make Mosaic, the 2017 album that doubled as both a statement of purpose and a therapy session. “It was a patient adventure,” he says. “For the first time, we were professionally patient.”
Which is a very 311 way of saying they actually gave a damn this time.
Not that they phoned it in before—but after Stereolithic, which dabbled in old demos and backward glances, Mosaic was a pivot toward something bigger. And according to P-Nut, that leap required handing over the reins to someone outside the 311 hive mind. Enter John Feldmann, producer, pop-punk whisperer, and apparently, motivational sadist.
“John pushed us in a way no one ever had,” P-Nut says. “He told Nick to do it again—but better. And Nick just smiled. I was like, oh wow, we’re really doing this.”
The result is a sprawling record that swings between arena-sized hooks and tightly wound funk-rock, anchored by a band that finally decided it was okay to be told what to do—at least a little. “We’ve refused good ideas from the best in the industry before,” P-Nut admits. “We’re stubborn. We know what we’re doing. But this time we listened. And we learned.”
Part of that learning came in the form of embracing discomfort. “When Nick brought in the riff for ‘Too Late,’ it felt like trying to summon a troll,” he laughs. “It was dark, it was energetic, it was a tongue twister for my hands—and I ate it up.” That’s the vibe of Mosaic: confident, challenging, occasionally deranged. A band with nothing to prove but still unwilling to coast.
Case in point: “Too Much to Think,” the album’s lead single, and a pure serotonin blast. It was Feldmann’s baby, co-written with Nick, and the first song P-Nut heard that made him believe the album was something special. “It was like a breath of fresh air. I was blown away. I said: that’s the first song, and that’s the single. And I never do that.”
It helps that P-Nut was newly obsessed with pop music—“5,000 percent more than ever before,” he says, blaming SoulCycle for blasting choruses into his subconscious. But that influence worked in 311’s favor, nudging the band toward bigger, louder, bolder territory. “We asked: how big can it be? How much rock does 2017 want? And it turns out: still some.”
What it doesn’t want, according to the band, is politics. “We try to stay apolitical,” he says. “But I do feel that weight. It’s hard not to. If you’re non-political in a political time, it’s hard to have a voice.” Still, their goal was—and remains—to be the antidote. “We want to tell everybody it’s okay to slow down. Take a deep breath. It’s weird out there, but it’s also pretty awesome.”
It’s a line the band has been walking for three decades now—keeping the optimism without sounding out of touch, playing to nostalgia without becoming a tribute act. “We’ve got a double-disc greatest hits,” P-Nut says. “We could phone it in. But we won’t.” He even cops to leaning on old habits in the past, just demoing songs and calling it a day. “This wasn’t that. This was work. This was learning.”
And in the end, Mosaic is still very much a 311 record. “There’s throwback stuff like ‘'The Night Is Young,’ but also those moments where fans will go, ‘Oh, look what they did there.’” P-Nut grins. “It’s still us. But maybe a version of us that isn’t afraid to be uncomfortable.”
Listen to the interview above and check out the lyric video to "Too Much To Think" below.
