The first official announcement regarding Nick’s solo project, The Nick Hexum Quintet, was made today on yahoo.com! In addition to Nick, the Quintet will also feature Zack Hexum and three other (not yet known at this time) musicians. My Shadow Pages is slated for an October 1 release, but “Blame The Sky” is available to listen to online now!

In the article posted on Yahoo!, Nick said, “I wrote this song with my brother, Zack. We were initially throwing out lines to inspire each other with no particular theme in mind. As we went on, a thread came together. It’s about seizing the day. Follow your dreams and believe in yourself. And if you need a reason why — blame the sky!”

I can’t wait to hear the full album…congratulations, Nick!

Nick was tweeting pretty actively early this afternoon, so my good friend Ben decided to take advantage of the opportunity and ask him when we can expect some new music.

When asked, “When can we hear new stuff from you and Zack?” Nick responded, “maybe April.” SWEET!!

Ben then tweeted, “Better question. When will u start working on new 311?” Nick responded: “January 3rd.”

This is great news! I am very interested in Nick and Zack’s collaboration project, as I loved the songs they performed together for the Hexum Brothers Rock for Kerry tour in 2004. One of my favorites was a cover of the Beatles’ “Two Of Us.” They also performed a number of songs together for a benefit show in Colorado in 2010 (Candlelight Serenade). You can find a number of videos from that show on YouTube.

It’s also obviously very exciting that new 311 music is in the works for 2013! Now that they are on their own label, the band has talked multiple times about releasing music more regularly, in smaller doses. I wonder if we will see a short EP by the end of 2013…