Nick Hexum's Musical Journey: From Capricorn to Americana

It is probably fair to say that many of us have very distinct and specific memories from when we heard a song for the first time. We remember where we were, who we were with, and the feelings generated by the music. I remember sitting in the passenger seat of my grandparents’ grey Oldsmobile, hearing Neil Diamond’s “Solitary Man” for the first time. My grandpa to my left, I was captured by the song. I have a similar memory of hearing 311’s “Come Original” for the first time. They had just released Soundsystem, the fifth and final album the band released on the Capricorn label. I was sitting in the studio of my college’s alternative radio station with my buddies, John and Duane, and when the opening guitar riff of the song played, all three of us looked around and just nodded to one another in awe and approval. 311 was a core artist on that college station. Songs from all five of the Capricorn-released albums were in heavy rotation.

Nick Hexum, the lead singer of 311, released an Americana album - Phases of Hope and Hollow – in August. Listening to the song “I Am Open” for the first time, I had a feeling like the one I had with “Come Original.” It took me back to the college radio station and the nods of obvious approval. I had to listen more, I shared it with friends, and the song was added to heavy rotation on The Creek immediately.

As Hexum started his tour in support of Phases of Hope and Hollow, we sat down in his RV to talk about his music, new and old, and how the lead singer of a rock/reggae/rap band from Omaha made his way to the Americana genre. The setting – an RV – was perfect for the conversation, as Hexum explained that 311 started its journey “in an RV like this, driving ourselves around and touring.”

When 311 signed with Capricorn Records, they were guaranteed two albums, “which was fairly rare at the time,” Hexum shared. “It wasn't just, you know, put on an album, see how it goes. We talked to them and said, ‘We're gonna build this through touring, because … we were combining rap and reggae and rock and funk and jazz and there was no radio format.’ So, they didn't have unrealistic expectations. They knew it was going to be something like the Southern Rock that they had worked with. That it was going to be, you know, slowly come up through touring and just building a fan base. That's what we want(ed) to do. And so they really supported a long, slow growth, which really helped us to build a solid foundation.”

That relationship with Capricorn led to three gold records (Music, Grassroots, Soundsystem) and a platinum record (Transistor). Their self-titled release, known sometimes as the Blue Album, earned a 3x platinum status. The understanding, the support, and the launching pad that Capricorn provided 311 still resonates decades later. Hexum said that he has “a special place in my heart for Capricorn and Georgia in general.”

Hexum’s turn to Americana isn’t the first time he’s dipped his toes into the waters of different genres. The Nick Hexum Quintet released My Shadow Pages in 2013 and features what he describes as a “jazzy pop situation.” Hexum also worked with George Clanton in 2019 and 2020, and the pair released the album George Clanton & Nick Hexum in 2020. The writing and recording arrangement for that album in a way foreshadows some of Hexum’s current writing and recording process. Hexum would record and send MP3 files to Clanton, wait for Clanton’s instrumentasl, and put the finished track together in his studio.

Hexum is a curious and collaborative musician. Originally trained on the piano, he “picked up a guitar when I was 12.” He was the original bassist for 311, but “wanted to be a lead singer.

In his 30s, he “really started working on my guitar technique and worked with a few different teachers to really help me learn all the jazz chords that I didn’t know, being able to play every scale and every position up and down the neck. And more recently, (I’ve been) picking up the pedal steel, the banjo, the mandolin. I can do a lot of things just to get the part down, but then when you take a song like my Billie Holiday cover of ‘Solitude,’ that was such a special pedal steel part that I got my pedal steel teacher, a guy named Brian Simpson, to play the part because it was beyond…I mean…that is one of the most difficult instruments because you don’t have frets. It’s all just purely by ear and every little movement of the slide, and then you’re working on pedals. You’re working with your knees. I mean, it is insane how much coordination it takes, so I definitely don’t want to try and do everything myself to the detriment of the music.”

Hexum sees the writing process as a “communal experience.” While he is doing chores on his property, taking care of dogs and cats and ducks, he records voice memos or uses his notes app. “When I listen to a song and then work with my hands, then melodies are just going to write themselves. I’ll sing into my voice memo.” But when it comes to lyrics, Hexum said he, “Likes to talk it out with somebody.” He has recently worked with Melody Walker, who won a 2024 Grammy with Sierra Ferrell, on songs in the Americana genre. To Hexum, it is “about remaining teachable because the more I ask for help and take help, the more I’ll learn and be able to pass on other things and help other people with their songs.”

Hexum embarked on his solo tour with the support of the L.A.-based band Water Tower. His passion for collaboration was evident when he spoke about the guys in the band, when he and they post videos on social media, and when I saw him perform with them later in the day following our conversation.

The connection with Water Tower is one that seems easy. Perhaps it was because I was searching for something familiar to me, but watching the guys in Water Tower, there is a distinct 311-feel from them. And perhaps it isn’t just me searching. They call themselves a high-energy bluegrass band with a punk rock edge. The marriage of influences, ranging from reggae to rock to jazz to punk, all wrapped up in a bluegrass package, makes them very similar to 311. The Water Tower quintet, plus Hexum, bring energy, passion, and musical generosity to the stage. You can tell all of those are rooted in friendship and a deep respect for the musical talents of every other person on the stage. You can see that, too, when they’re busking on a street corner and filming themselves walking down the street in cities on their tour. Everyone has the opportunity to shine.

Hexum and Water Tower frontman Kenny Feinstein met in Los Angeles and started hanging out, playing music, and writing. Feinstein was Hexum’s first mandolin teacher, in fact. “I was like, I really want to learn the mandolin. He said, ‘Well I can teach you.’ And so that was the first thing. He said he was my mandolin teacher.”

“And then I told him about this Americana vibe that I was getting into. And he said let’s write a song. And that was “A Lonely Existence” and “Cosmic Connection.” And he helped me write the music too, and he played instruments on them, and it just is a partnership that just keeps growing. Now to have our first tour together, it’s a lot of fun. He’s just a very generous, knowledgeable, kind person.”

Feinstein challenged Hexum to step out of his comfort zone, too. Back in July, Hexum and 311 performed in front of 70,000 people in Long Beach. The next day, he and Water Tower performed a free, acoustic show in Echo Park. “Your comfort zone can be kind of a prison,” Hexum said. Feinstein also invited Hexum to join Water Tower to busk on a freeway off-ramp. While super nervous to do that for the first time, Hexum said, “That sounds terrifying, but let’s do that. And afterwards, I thought, ‘‘Why was I so nervous about this.’”

The Americana vibe that Hexum and Feinstein discussed was a combination of new instruments and deeper lyrics. Phases of Hope and Hollow is an emotional and introspective album, initially released as 3 EPs in 2025. Writing the lyrics offered Hexum the opportunity to “pull back the covers, to get honest with myself, and share that with people.” After reading the book “Saved by a Song” by Mary Gauthier, he was inspired to explore the dark caves of his soul that Gauthier writes about, “to find the treasure, because it’s just so relatable when you do that.”

Hexum realized that there were aspects of his life that he hadn’t talked about. The song “I Am Open” speaks about the loss of his brother. In writing, he was “putting myself back in the mindset of what it was like when he was still alive and I could just tell him he was headed to ruin. I was trying to help him and just let him know I’m there for him, but you know, I can’t. I couldn’t do it.” Hexum didn’t feel any vulnerability in writing for the album. “I just knew it was something that I needed to do for cathartic reasons, so I found a bunch of little topics like that, speaking more frankly about my own…facing my own demons…admitting that I needed to be sober in that whole journey.”

The album opens with the song “Please Explain” which Hexum wrote to, and for, his daughter. He had recognized that she was having some tough times, and he wanted to talk with her, comfort her, and help her, as any father would. Sharing his own feelings, emotions and openness through song, he was able to connect and open a new door. “She was so touched that I wrote that song. You know…feelings get so big that they just feel like they can’t handle it. And you can just see in their eyes that there’s stuff that they’re holding back, that you really need to make a safe place that they can talk to you and you can shower them with love so they open up.” He wanted to share his own experiences with his daughter and let her know that she could feel safe talking to him. “We’re just so so bonded and so close.”

The song was written following a conversation with singer-songwriter Ben Kweller, who had lost his son in a car crash. The two poured out emotions of being a father to one another, and “we wrote the song in an hour.” Hexum’s experience with Kweller was “a really special experience to connect so deeply with a new friend like that and come out with a piece of music that I’ve had so many people say ‘you’re telling my story there.’”

The album isn’t just catharsis. It isn’t just deep and emotional lyrics. “A song like ‘Lost Counting’ is more of that kind of classic, I’m a fuck up, but it’s kind of funny, you know what I mean?” Hexum also wrote the song “1978” with his sister, Angie. The song is on one hand, a fun trip down memory lane, highlighting their experiences growing up in the late 1970’s, with references to dodgeball on the black top, hearing the porch bell ringing for dinner time, and having your lunch box packed up for school. It also speaks to a more simple time when technology wasn’t front and center in so many people’s lives. “1978” also features Hexum’s daughter, Eco, on piano.

Hexum and his wife Nikki launched the company SKP, which released 311’s latest album Full Bloom as well as Phases of Hope and Hollow. The company was built to help artists navigate releasing music, keeping their music rights, and promoting. It has also provided Hexum the chance to work more quickly and to bring listeners a more gritty and honest recording. When he wrote the lyrics for “I Am Open,” he was in the studio, in front of a mic, within five minutes. The immediacy led to a more raw, open and vulnerable recording than the traditional process would have.

Hexum smiled when asked about what he’s working on next. “I mean, yes, I will stick in Americana, but I also have some very exciting 311 songs, too.” He highlighted an intersection of jazz and country that he may be leaning toward. “If you listen to the song ‘Crazy,’ made famous by Patsy Klein, but written by Willie Nelson, they’re very sophisticated jazz chords. But since we’ve heard them so many times, we just think of it as country. But it is jazz. And you know there’s a lot of augmented little lifts and accidentals and complex chords, so I think I’ve combined those two worlds of my jazzier side with this more Americana side. This is something that I might be in the future.” So no matter the genre or packaging, it seems very likely that fans will have more to hear from Hexum in the near future.

When you hear something that connects with you, like I did when I heard both “Come Original” and “I Am Open,” it is something that will resonate no matter what. But when you have a chance to really see a person where they are - in this case sitting at the dining table in the back of an RV, surrounded by instruments, with an air conditioner struggling to keep up - that connection to the music grows. You don’t just have a picture of who you think someone is. You have a truer sense of who they are, and you want to celebrate both the music and person behind the music.

While I spent what is really a brief amount of time with Nick Hexum, I can completely understand why so many are excited about working and collaborating with him. Seeing him perform with Water Tower a few hours after we sat down together, what I was thinking about him was solidified even more. He was the name at the top of the bill to be sure, but it was apparent that he saw things differently. The guys in Water Tower were equals. He stood back and smiled like a proud dad when younger members of the band stepped up to hammer out a mandolin or banjo solo. There’s a generosity and an appreciation for others, not just musically.

I can understand that people like Ben Kweller and Kenny Feinstein are excited to work with Nick Hexum, because he’s present for those interactions. He’s not just listening, but hearing. Our time together was for me to interview him, but it was obvious that he was also taking in the things I shared with him, too. It wasn’t just a question and answer session. We talked as fathers. We talked as people. We talked as music fans. There was interest in the other from both sides of that dining table. He was exactly the person I hoped I would meet, and it makes it so much easier to support him and cheer him on as a musician and performer.

Check out Nick Hexum wherever you can. He’s a regular poster on Instagram, and definitely worth following. Go see him busk with Water Tower on an off-ramp. His album, Phases of Hope and Hollow, is something I’d strongly suggest spending some time with, too. Give it an active listen. The music and lyrics are worth paying attention to. Be present for what he’s giving you, just like he’s present on stage and in conversation. You might just have one of those moments with a piece of music that you’re going to remember years later.