Interview
Interview
My Greatest Hits: Incubus’ Brandon Boyd
Brandon Boyd talks career highlights, honouring musical heroes and proving doubters wrong
Morning View was the album that propelled Incubus into the proverbial big leagues. Though their 1999 album Make Yourself was largely considered their breakthrough – in large part thanks to swooning alt-rock ballad ‘Drive‘ – it was 2001’s Morning View that established the Californians as a formidable arena rock presence. Changing pace from the funk-flirting nu metal that saw them brush shoulders with System Of A Down and Korn, Morning View was the sound of Incubus digging their toes into the irresistible sands of melodic surf rock.
The shift felt like a natural step for the tousled beach-dwellers, in turn offering themselves a sanctuary from the personal turmoil in the band’s lives at the time. It also became their best-selling album to date.
So you’d understand, like many artists with similar landmark records, why they chose to commemorate Morning View with an anniversary celebration. Incubus, however, decided to re-record the entire thing.
“In some ways it’s super foolish, trying to add to something that’s in no way shape or form broken,” the band’s eternally dashing frontman Brandon Boyd admits over Zoom. “Some of our fans were skeptical, and probably still are, about having a second version of Morning View. But this was super fun for us, and why not? A lot of weirder things exist on the internet. So why not have two versions of a record people really enjoy? F*ck it.”
Talking from his temporary home north of Los Angeles – and feeling “incredibly fortunate” for the survival of his permanent residence after the series of enormously destructive wildfires that swept through the city at the turn of this year – it was a return to a former homestay that inspired the band’s reimagining of the album: Morning View XXIII.
To mark two decades of the album, Incubus returned to the derelict beachside house – or “crumbling palace” as Boyd affectionately refers to it as – in Malibu where they originally recorded Morning View to perform a live-streamed show of the album during the pandemic. They enjoyed the experience so much, the band, with new bassist Nicole Row in tow, decided to re-record the album in its entirety. Receiving their rights to do so was also a key factor. “Little known fact about making records: for as long as there’s been a record industry, if you sign to a major label, that material belongs to you in a sense but in a legal sense does not belong to you,” Boyd laments, motivating the West Coast natives to savvily take a leaf out of Taylor Swift‘s book.
Released in 2024, Incubus have since taken the re-recording out on the road across North and South America, and are set to illuminate London’s O2 Arena later this month with their sun-kissed alt-rock. Ahead of the band’s one-off UK show, we talked to Boyd about his career highlights; the privilege of honouring musical heroes, reflecting on the moment his career in music was about to kick off, and proving doubters wrong – as well as revealing details of a forthcoming new album.
Making Morning View
“We’ve been blessed with what I suppose you could call a ‘highlight reel’. I’ll start shooting at it I guess. Morning View was definitely one of those career highlights. It was a moment when we went from playing in beautiful theatres all over the world, these gorgeous rooms. But we graduated into arenas with Morning View, which was an interesting thing especially being a rock band. Rock bands dream of playing and filling arenas. What came with that was this level of enthusiasm we hadn’t experienced before, from a growing audience. We felt people really resonating with the songs and the lyrics, singing them really loud back at us. It deepened that relationship with our fans, which continues to this day.”
Playing the Latin Grammys
(Photo by R. Diamond/WireImage for NARAS)
“Our band has largely been off the radar when it comes to the awards circuit – the Grammys, that kind of thing. It’s never really been the band’s experience. Very briefly, but tiny little moments. There was a period of time when it hurt our collective feelings, but at a certain point we realised it didn’t stop us from what we were doing and being successful in what we do. But there was a moment when the attention of the Grammys turned at us. They asked us to play with a band called Café Tacvba – we played live at the Latin Grammys with them. They were up for a Latin Grammy that year, and we were up for a Grammy that same year, for ‘Megalomaniac’. So, we went on TV together to the Latin Grammys, and we learned each other’s songs. The two bands played together, we learned their song, but then merged into ‘Megalomaniac’, this Latin version of it. It was so weird, but awesome. On paper it probably sounded like a bad idea, but was really fun for us to do. Café Tacvba were super guys.”
Do you think you’d ever fully record a Latin version of A Crow Left Of The Murder?
“Hell yeah. I’d have to work on my Spanish a little though. That would be amazing.”
Working with producer Brendan O’Brien
“Working with Brendan O’Brien [whose credits include Neil Young, AC/DC, Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine, The Killers, The Offspring, Bruce Springsteen, Mastodon] as a producer, was like we’ve definitely arrived if we’ve caught the attention of someone who’s made literally all of our favourite records as a band growing up. Either he mixed them, or produced them, or was the engineer.
We started working with him when we were writing A Crow Left Of The Murder, and it was so much fun. We’ve been working with him off-and-on ever since. We’ve just recorded another record which is finished and ready to go, with him again. I recorded a solo record with him called Sons Of The Sea, which we wrote and recorded together. He produced it too. Whenever we work with Brendan, it’s a highlight for sure.”
Is this new album set for release this year?
“This year, yeah. We’re hoping it comes out in October, but there will most certainly be a single that comes out before then. I wish we could put it out today – it’s done, it’s mastered, it’s ready to go. But putting out a record into the world today, it’s not as if it goes to a record store anymore. Whatever you put out comes out on the internet, and the internet is an infinite universe of content and ideas, videos, insults, injuries, revelations. It’s a microcosm of the universe. Putting an album out today is like introducing a new dot into the night sky, so you have to set it up properly, focus all the telescopes on that area, then hope and pray someone will notice.”
Quitting the day job to be in a rock band
(Photo by Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images)
“There was a moment when we’d already put out Fungus Amongus, and there was an EP we released called Enjoy Incubus that came out when we got signed in 1996. It was that same year, I was working at a little coffee shop in Topanga Canyon in LA, serving bagels and making coffees for people commuting through the canyon. I liked the gig. It was fun. It was mellow, there were rush hours, [but mostly] it was just hanging with fellow employees. There was a moment when we got signed, and we were going on tour a lot. I remember handing in my letter of resignation as it were, driving away being like ‘oh wow I just quit my job to be a rock band. I wonder what my dad’s gonna say about this….'”
Supporting Korn in 1997
“Soon after we were working on what became S.C.I.E.N.C.E., and a major career highlight especially in the early days, was when Korn asked us to support them on a UK and European tour. I don’t think S.C.I.E.N.C.E. had even come out then, or maybe it was just about to. It was in the winter, an eight-week tour throughout the UK and Europe opening for Korn. Their audience was really supportive of us. I remember feeling super intimidated. They were a heavier band than we ever were. But their audience was really into it. They really absorbed what we were putting out on stage every night. The guys in the band themselves were super supportive too, it showed us that what we were doing had some viability. That was a major step for us.”
You were given that nu-metal tag in the beginning, but your sound consistently shape-shifted. I wouldn’t really know how to categorise Incubus now.
“I take that as a huge compliment. There were definitely things that we did that earned that moniker at certain moments in time. But we’re a group of people, not only as a band, but the types of people that never wanted to be part of a music scene. We thought that might be quite limiting. We wanted to make music and allow that to manifest in any way that felt authentic. I think that’s why our creativity has run across a broad spectrum. We’re in pursuit of authenticity, not necessarily making music for a particular audience. Making music is an incredible experience, and it’s an incredible life. I can see feeling held hostage by a music scene – rules of decorum, dress, language – that I’d get bored really fast. We enjoy the dynamism of creativity, and being able to spread our wings.”
Honouring their music heroes
“There were two televised performances we did, each of them honouring other bands. One of them was The Who. We played with Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, Tenacious D, surely some bands that I’m forgetting. It was an incredible opportunity. They asked us to play one song. We got to the gig early that day to do a sound check as it was televised later than night. Dave [Grohl] was a little under the weather and they were supposed to do two or three songs. He was like ‘my voice is a little f*cked up, so can you take one of our songs?’ I was like ‘err, I know that song but I don’t know that song’. So, they gave us a few extra minutes to rehearse, like 15 minutes. The song was ‘I Can’t Explain’. We performed it live on tv a few hours later. I watched Foo Fighters later that night and he seemed fine, they were great. Then The Who played. I got to hang out with Roger Daltrey in his trailer that night, drinking vodka whilst he told me about the 60s. It was a big moment for me.”
“Another concert we did was honouring The Pretenders. It was us with Iggy Pop, Kings Of Leon, and Shirley Manson from Garbage performed as well. That was so much fun. I got to be on stage with Iggy and Chrissie Hynde. That led to having Chrissie perform on a lesser known Incubus track, which appeared on a movie soundtrack, called ‘Neither Of Us Can See’. Being able to honour those bands, play their music, and get to know these heroes was huge.”
Playing at Red Rocks
“We’ve had the great pleasure of performing at the great Red Rocks Ampitheatre a handful of times now, about five times. We’re playing there again in the summer. It’s truly one of the Earth’s unique venues. We’ve played basically everywhere you can play, and Red Rocks is truly special. Not from just a geological, architectural standpoint. But what can’t be described, unless you actually go there, is the feeling of when that place is filled up and you’re playing music under the moonlight there, with the rocks all lit up. It’s intoxicating. Especially that weed is super legal in Colorado, so there’s this low pressure system of cannabis smoke that engulfs the entire place. The people there are just blissful. It’s almost like they don’t actually care who’s playing, haha. When we’re playing there it’s like ‘do they love us, or is it just the weed and altitude?’
The Alive At Red Rocks concert was very special to us, as I know it’s special to people that were there or that have seen the DVD. We’ve played there when it’s like 40 degrees Fahrenheit, so freezing cold, and the place is still lit up. It’s a very special place.”
Winning over hungover festival goers
“I have one last thing for you. One of my favourite things to this day is to do the European and UK music festival circuit. I love going from festival to festival, getting to see all your favourite bands and bands you’ve never heard of, dancing through the deranged culinary jungle that is backstage catering. A new adventure every day, waking up in all these places.”
When we first started doing the festival circuit in the late 90s, we were always first on, which is sometimes at 10AM. There’s people camping at festivals, right. We’ve graduated to the point of headlining festivals, having done the whole spectrum of time slots. But when we first started doing it, there was a festival somewhere in rural Europe, with a bunch of face-painted death metal bands playing after us throughout the day, so it was definitely a metal festival. We go on stage at about 10ish, and there’s this big open arena with a huge perimeter of tents, with like 15 people in the field which holds about 100,000. I’m like, ‘good morning, people of Europe’ to 15-odd dudes who have probably been up all night, dazed, ready to party again. I’ll never forget when we played our first song – I was jet lagged but ready to give it my all – and I remember people crawling out of their tents, rubbing their eyes, pouring their coffees out of their Thermos flasks and staring at us. There was something so comical, but amazing about it. Teenagers being like, ‘whut, this is cool I guess’. We were just kids ourselves. I was like 19 or 20. We were all about it. Then the rest of the day you’re just watching bands you love. That experience, I’ll never forget.”
