No
1,000 dollars a day coke habits, no drunk drivin’ homicidal
Porsche escapades, no Milli Vanilli inspired lip synching, and
yet they had already made it to the pinnacle of rock ‘n
roll; therapy. In the long list of dysfunctional and fucked
up bands, Incubus is near the bottom, far from soon being the
billionth band to breakdown in a stream of tears on VH1’s
Behind The Music. But being in a band is like a marriage and
therapy provided the band with a much needed way to vent their
frustrations after recording one of the best releases of Y2K,
Make Yourself. It must have worked, Incubus is touring through
the year and plan on logging over 500 shows. What started out
9 years ago as a few high school friends jamming in a Calabasas,
California living room has blossomed into worldwide recognition.
With the independent album, Fungus-Amongus, their ‘97 major
label debut, S.C.I.E.N.C.E, and now, Make Yourself, Incubus
is slowly emerging as one of the most popular new metal acts
in the country. In a genre filled with white bread hip-hop wannabe’s
rapping over stale metal grooves, Incubus is an anomaly, bucking
the latest trend for more intelligent, thought provoking melodic
musicianship. On an unseasonably warm winter afternoon on a
grassy knoll overlooking Arco Arena, the home of the Sacramento
Kings, , Incubus lead Singer Brandon Boyd and I sat down for
a chat. The therapy session is as follows:
Brandon: Heckler, isn’t that a skate mag? Yeah, it’s got skateboarding in it - along with snowboarding
and music too. Do you skate?
I used to skate all the time, along with Jose our drummer. You guys like the Southern California parks?
Yeah. We mainly skated around where we grew up, Calabasas and
stuff like that. That along with the Valley. Calabassas, isn’t that right next door to Malibu?
Yes it is. Right between the San Fernando Valley and the water. Was that a nice environment to grow up in?
It’s a suburb. There’s one end of Calabasas that’s
more lower middle class, and there’s one other end that’s
just like crazy, rich kids driving BMWs to school. What color was your BMW?
(Laughing) No, I grew up in the hills, I grew up right in the
middle. I didn’t get a BMW in high school. I knew a few
kids who did, but I wasn’t one of those people thankfully. You guys started in a garage back in ‘91?
Yeah, we were 15. Actually we started off in our guitar player’s
living room, inside his mom’s house. Started making a bunch
of noise and writing songs on day one, then did every party
anyone would have us play at in the Valley. Next came little
shitty bars around the Valley. After that we did the Hollywood
club thing - opened up for a bunch of hair bands. I don’t
know why we got those gigs, but like Revlon Red, bands like
that (laughter). You guys ever open for Great White?
No, they were never like big hair bands, they were just Hollywood
hair bands. Promoters didn’t know what we were, or who
we were, they’d just throw us on bills. We’d have
a good mix of people at the shows, guys with high heels and
tights coming to see Revlon Red, and grungy dirty looking kids
coming to see us. I notice you cut your dreads.Through the development
of the band they’d seemed like such a fixture.
I cut them about three months ago. I don’t know exactly
why I cut them, there’s a 100 reasons why, It was just
time for me to start over again. I had dreads for five years
and long hair for most of my life, and you hold everything in
them, like emotionally and spiritually - in the locks. I was
holding a lot of negative parts of my life, parts that I’ve
grown out of, and so in a sense I wanted to start over. Are those the same feelings that seem to permeate the new
album, Make Yourself?
Yeah, there’s a definite theme of self liberation and wanting
to rise above and destroy aspects of certain things and recreate.
There is definitely a liberation freedom rock thing going on
the new record.
You guys toned down the funk quite a bit on this release compared
to the previous, S.C.I.E.N.C.E..
We’re trying a lot of new things on this record. We wanted
to try and distance ourselves from what is being called funk-metal,
or rap-metal. I’ve never gone, ‘Oh! I rap in this
song,’ I never thought of it that way, I just thought it
maybe had a lack of tonality. I would synch up words with the
beats in what I thought were interesting places. We tried to
distance ourselves from that, so that’s why I think the
new album came out more song-oriented. Were feelings different going into the recording of Make
Yourself?
I guess you could say I’ve just been growing up, and growing
up touring is an interesting experience. How old are you?
I’m 23. The four original members are all 23 and our turn-tablist,
Kilmore, is 26. What happened to the old turn-tablist?
He was fired as a matter of fact, which is kind of sad story,
but we’re actually a better band now. Are you a big drum ‘n bass fan?
Huge. I’m a humongous Roni Size fan. What do you think of DJ Shadow?
Oh my God, his UNKLE record was insane. How did you get introduced to instruments like the digiridoo?
Mainly just the love of music. I’d get together with old
high school friends on like a full moon. Full bore fucking hippie
nuts, and go out play drums naked, smoke pot, and play digiridoos. I
heard that surfing has a big effect on the kind of music you
write.
Yeah, it does. Surfing is like my church. I go out in the water
and it calms me down, makes me feel like I have some sort of
communion with nature. It’s just one of the most fun things
I’ve done and I’ve been doing it all my life. When
I feel like my music career has plateaued I’ll just steal
away to Fiji, get a house there, and just surf the rest of my
life. Lyrically you’ve always conveyed some deep messages,
would you consider yourself a very spiritual person?
I would say that I’m a thoughtful person and I do believe
in spirit, I’m not a religious person by any means, but
I enjoy exploring new, dangerous ideas. I like stuff that makes
people’s brain’s bleed. You call the new record Make Yourself, have you ever noticed
that the statement runs close to the American ideal, Make Yourself,
pull your sorry ass up by your bootstraps?
You’re totally right, America does push that ethic, but
it’s more of an aesthetic following along with the pharisaical
American dream. My Make Yourself was more of a truly Make Yourself,
truly make your own definition of what you are and what you
believe. Sort of like a spiritual rebellion so to speak. You convey some wonderful messages through the songs and
hopefully people listening will take those to heart and instill
those beliefs in their own lives.
Absolutely, or if anything, just think about it. I’m not
trying to say, “My way is the way” because that would
be just as detrimental as losing your mind in some organized
religion. I would enjoy it if people were interested enough
to read the lyrics and really get into the band and it just
light’s a fire under your ass.
No
1,000 dollars a day coke habits, no drunk drivin’ homicidal
Porsche escapades, no Milli Vanilli inspired lip synching, and
yet they had already made it to the pinnacle of rock ‘n
roll; therapy. In the long list of dysfunctional and fucked
up bands, Incubus is near the bottom, far from soon being the
billionth band to breakdown in a stream of tears on VH1’s
Behind The Music. But being in a band is like a marriage and
therapy provided the band with a much needed way to vent their
frustrations after recording one of the best releases of Y2K,
Make Yourself. It must have worked, Incubus is touring through
the year and plan on logging over 500 shows. What started out
9 years ago as a few high school friends jamming in a Calabasas,
California living room has blossomed into worldwide recognition.
With the independent album, Fungus-Amongus, their ‘97 major
label debut, S.C.I.E.N.C.E, and now, Make Yourself, Incubus
is slowly emerging as one of the most popular new metal acts
in the country. In a genre filled with white bread hip-hop wannabe’s
rapping over stale metal grooves, Incubus is an anomaly, bucking
the latest trend for more intelligent, thought provoking melodic
musicianship. On an unseasonably warm winter afternoon on a
grassy knoll overlooking Arco Arena, the home of the Sacramento
Kings, , Incubus lead Singer Brandon Boyd and I sat down for
a chat. The therapy session is as follows:
I
heard that surfing has a big effect on the kind of music you
write.