Something To Crow About
It wouldn't be surprising if Incubus's Brandon Boyd was one big jerk. After all, he's a bona fide heartthrob and the superstar singer of a huge band, most likely constantly surrounded by fans and label suckups catering to his every whim, right? So it's no stretch to imagine him being a bit of a diva. But thankfully, nothing could be farther from the truth. When he recently stopped by the LAUNCH studios to chat with editor Lyndsey Parker about Incubus's new album, A Crow Left Of The Murder, Brandon was incredibly, refreshingly down-to-earth. Not only did arrive in his own car (yes, that's right, he drove himself--no chauffeured limos for this guy!), but he remembered LAUNCH employees from past visits to our office, smiled and shook hands with everyone, and answered all interview questions intelligently and thoughtfully. Aspiring rockers should take a lesson from Brandon before they think it's cool to throw fits, pull star trips, and toss TV sets out windows.
Of course, Incubus have been around a while now--A Crow Left Of The Murder is their sixth album in eight years--and the wisdom of experience shows in their complex musicianship, probing lyrics, and charity endeavors as well as in their interview answers. Read on to get those answers, and as you do, wish all interviews could be this pleasant and compelling.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Your "Megalomaniac" video seems much more political than any of your other videos--can you explain the story behind that? And does that mean A Crow Left Of The Murder is a political album too?
BRANDON: I wouldn't necessarily call the record political. But I think that there are some opinions that came across lyrically on this record that there have been hints of on previous records--but they've got sort of overshadowed by other things. But on this record, just in writing the lyrics part of it, I had a lot more experience to draw from. I am becoming way more opinionated the older I get, especially in this sort of time in history. It's kind of hard not to have an opinion about the things that are going on. And if you don't have an opinion about it, you're probably living under a rock or in a cave somewhere! So, being that I am a certainly active member of society, I just couldn't help but notice certain things, and sort of be infuriated, inspired, frightened, and enlightened by everything in the past two or three years. So I wouldn't call it a political record, but I'd say it's definitely more opinionated than the rest.
YAHOO! MUSIC: How did the idea for the video come about?
BRANDON: Weell, I I've been a fan of [director] Floria Sigismondi for a while; everything that I'd seen of hers kind of blew me away. But I never really thought we'd ever have the chance to work with her. So when we started getting treatments for the video, most of them were pretty disappointing; they were mostly along the lines of a band playing in front of extras jumping around, pretending to like the song a lot more than they do, and that whole thing. And we're not really into that kind of a video; we never have been. And then Floria, at the very, very last minute, right when we were about to give up all hope, sent us a treatment along with some really beautiful, well-put-together montages of what she had in mind. And so, not only did she have a treatment, but she had stuff to look at. Everyone was like, "Wow. This is amazing!" Then it got more and more involved as the process unfolded, and she was awesome to work with. She knew exactly what she wanted to get. And basically, what it is is just her interpretation of that song--which is a really wonderful thing to receive from somebody who you respect as an artist, interpreting what you were trying to say, sometimes maybe even differently than you had in mind. But that's the whole point, you know? That's the point of music, to reinterpret and personalize it, and not make it so much like, "This song is about this." I don't really like to explain exactly what lyrics are about, because that sort of undermines the intelligence of the listeners: Should they be so inclined to want to interpret it on their own, I'd love to give them that chance. So that's exactly what she did. And I think that the results are really cool.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Have you received any backlash from it?
BRANDON: Actually, I hope that some people are offended by the imagery! We aren't trying to be controversial, we aren't trying to offend people necessarily, but I'd much rather have people be sort of polarized than have everybody like it or everybody hate it. You know what I'm saying? Some people really like it and some people are really bummed out about it. But I don't worry about that stuff. I don't think about controversy, or trying to breed controversy, or trying to avoid controversy. Those things are going to happen as they're going to happen. We normally just write our songs and lyrics as they come to us, and as they seem fit. And if they cause a reaction, it's like, "Thank God, they're causing a reaction!" So we will see.
YAHOO! MUSIC: It's been said that this album is a return to the "classic" Incubus sound. Do you agree, and if so, was that deliberate?
BRANDON: I've heard some of the talk about our new record returning to an older Incubus ethic, an older Incubus sound. And my reaction to that is pretty much that those ethics never really went away. They just sort of weren't up front completely on the past couple of records. I'm very proud of the past couple of records we've made, because they're much more focused and energy was put into the songwriting and content, as opposed to just pure instrumentation. I feel like maybe we would've lost people a long time ago if we just kept on with, you know, the noise and the wandering and stuff like that--the musical meandering. But when I say that it never really went away, I mean in the sense that in every one of our concerts ever since we released S.C.I.E.N.C.E., we've always dedicated a portion of our concerts to just improvising and freeform and exploring areas. And the kids at the shows have always seemed to respond to that. And we respond to it as well, as musicians and as friends, because it keeps things very interesting for us. We'll sort of reconfigure songs, stop songs halfway through and play a different song at the end of it. So that ethic never really left, it just kind of swooped back around during the writing and recording of this record, for probably a lot of reasons that we couldn't really pinpoint. A lot of it had to do with sort of a renewed feeling that we have, being that we have a new member, Ben Kenny, who is a pretty darn good musician. And he brought with him, I think, just this freshness and this ability to really do anything. Once we got him in the room and all of us started playing together, I think we really felt like we were able to do whatever we could think of, whatever we wanted. It was fun. It was a good time.
YAHOO! MUSIC: I know you were suing your record label while making this album. That's all settled now, but I assumed that during the recording you weren't sure what label would be putting out this album, or if maybe you'd be putting it out yourself. Did that free you creatively in any way, not being obligated to a label?
BRANDON: That lawsuit was kind of going on when we were writing the record, and there was a small uncertainty as to how it would be coming out, but I don't really think it had a conscious effect on things. We didn't really think about anything when we were recording. We were sort of going about our everyday routine: We met up at the rehearsal spaces, and we just wrote music as it came to us. There were a lot more important emotions and stuff floating around, as opposed to concentrating on a lawsuit or something like that, which in the long run is kind of trivial.
YAHOO! MUSIC: What musical influences has Ben brought to the record? I know he used to play with the Roots, so did he bring any R&B flavor to the mix?
BRANDON: Ben's done a lot. He's been in probably more rock bands than R&B or hip-hop bands, but it's the R&B and hip-hop bands that he was a part of that have sort of garnished notoriety. But I am going to speak for him briefly, and say I think maybe his heart is in rock music, and that's what he likes to do the most. But he can kind of do whatever kind of music he wants to--he is one of those musical minds that just whatever he can think of, he can do. It's really fun to be in a band with a guy like that.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Tell me about your charity project, Incubusbootlegs.com. How did the idea of selling bootleg to raise money for charity come about?
BRANDON: We actually stole the idea of doing Incubusbootlegs.com from Pearl Jam! We saw that they were putting out these live bootlegs--probably for a lot of their own reasons that are unbeknownst to me, but maybe as well as a reaction to the fact that their shows were being bootlegged anyway, so they figured they would do it themselves and put their name on it, and their stamp on it, and do something good with it. So we decided that was a really cool idea. Pearl Jam is an amazing band, and they've had a lot of good ideas in the past. They've created a legacy, so to speak, that is admirable. And so, there is a lot to be learned, I think, from what they've done and what they do. And you know, we've been participating in a couple of charity organizations over the past couple of years, devoting time and money and resources to scattered causes. Each cause was equally as important, but we started feeling maybe our time and energy and money could be a little bit better spent if it was more focused. So we actually created our own charity organization, which is called the Make Yourself Foundation. At the end of every year, we basically distribute the money in that foundation to specific charities or to one specific charity, as the need arises. And so, Incubusbootlegs.com is our first attempt at doing that. We're going to just take all the money that we make from that and a bunch of other things--events, concert tickets--and put it into the Make Yourself Foundation.
YAHOO! MUSIC: That's very cool. Do you think it is important for bands to give something back to the community and get involved in this way?
BRANDON: Yes, I think so. I mean, it's not for everybody; there are some bands that choose not to do it. And that's fine too, because it's your own prerogative. But I think we feel a basic sense of responsibility to where we come from--a sense of community and a sense of responsibility about the fact that we are making money, and the fact that there are a lot of other people and a lot of other places where the money could be a lot better served. A lot better used than us just buying a bunch of cars, you know? There will be that day, hopefully, when we will buy a bunch of cars and give the cars to people, and keep one for ourselves--it's like, the more the merrier. But it's just kind of a share-the-wealth philosophy, I think. I think that we've always done that, even if it was just our ability to take out a friend's band on the road.
YAHOO! MUSIC: So how do you feel about having your stuff bootlegged by fans? Are you OK with that?
BRANDON: Well, I think it shows a level of enthusiasm that reminds me that people are still very interested in music. I don't think music is in trouble, I just think the music industry is in trouble. I think people are just as interested in listening to music and finding music; they're just not as interested in it being sold to them in the ways that it's being sold to them, so they're finding new and sort of devious ways to find it. And yeah, it affects us a little bit, but I'm more concerned about them hearing the music than about how they get it. I might as well go with the flow. In the long run, it's actually just great that they want to hear it.
YAHOO! MUSIC: How is the album being received by fans so far? Is it getting a good response?
BRANDON: It's been largely very enthusiastic. Really, really good. It's funny, because the people who listen to our music and the people who frequent our message boards are some of the most opinionated people I've ever encountered. There is a level of passionate enthusiasm there, even if it's like, "You guys f--king suck, I want you to die!" Or, "I love you! You're the best thing I've ever heard!" That is refreshing. It just shows that people are not as jaded as some people think they are, you know! So the reaction now largely has been really kind of overwhelming, actually. It's been nice.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Did you test any of these songs live before you recorded them, to see how fans would react?
BRANDON: Yeah, actually on Lollapalooza this past summer, we played "Megalomaniac" before it was recorded or was a single or anything. And we played a song called "Pistola" that's kind of this, like, five-minute long ode to prog-rock. And the reaction to those songs was really amazing. Like, kids were holding up cell phones and recording them, and then downloading them onto the Internet. We'd hear these versions of them that were live that were just the worst possible recordings, but everybody on our website was downloading and listening to them. So we took that as a good sign--even though the recording sounded like the worst AM radio drowned out; you could hear somebody talking next to them, like, "Hey man, get me a beer!" It was hilarious. But the reaction was really cool.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Was this your way of figuring out what songs to put on the final album?
BRANDON: Not necessarily. We were just really stoked on the new songs we were writing, and we wanted to play them! We wanted to play more, actually, because we had a bunch of songs written at that point. But then we decided we didn't want to reveal too much. We wanted to wait to reveal it on the record. So we chose only those two songs. We felt they were a good mix of what was going on on the new record.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Was this record easy to make?
BRANDON: Yeah, it was, recording-wise, and actually, writing it was the most pleasurable, too. But recording this record was just a pleasure. There wasn't any arguing. There wasn't any disagreement about what should go where. It just, like, kind of happened. It happened very quickly, too. The bulk of the record was recorded in a little under two weeks. We played everything together live; I sang all my parts with the band. It was just right, you know? It was like when you pet a cat in the right direction, as opposed to trying to go against the grain. We were just sort of going with the flow. We went to Atlanta, Georgia, where our producer lives and works, and we recorded in his studio and stayed there during the week. It was so fun. It was awesome.
Of course, Incubus have been around a while now--A Crow Left Of The Murder is their sixth album in eight years--and the wisdom of experience shows in their complex musicianship, probing lyrics, and charity endeavors as well as in their interview answers. Read on to get those answers, and as you do, wish all interviews could be this pleasant and compelling.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Your "Megalomaniac" video seems much more political than any of your other videos--can you explain the story behind that? And does that mean A Crow Left Of The Murder is a political album too?
BRANDON: I wouldn't necessarily call the record political. But I think that there are some opinions that came across lyrically on this record that there have been hints of on previous records--but they've got sort of overshadowed by other things. But on this record, just in writing the lyrics part of it, I had a lot more experience to draw from. I am becoming way more opinionated the older I get, especially in this sort of time in history. It's kind of hard not to have an opinion about the things that are going on. And if you don't have an opinion about it, you're probably living under a rock or in a cave somewhere! So, being that I am a certainly active member of society, I just couldn't help but notice certain things, and sort of be infuriated, inspired, frightened, and enlightened by everything in the past two or three years. So I wouldn't call it a political record, but I'd say it's definitely more opinionated than the rest.
YAHOO! MUSIC: How did the idea for the video come about?
BRANDON: Weell, I I've been a fan of [director] Floria Sigismondi for a while; everything that I'd seen of hers kind of blew me away. But I never really thought we'd ever have the chance to work with her. So when we started getting treatments for the video, most of them were pretty disappointing; they were mostly along the lines of a band playing in front of extras jumping around, pretending to like the song a lot more than they do, and that whole thing. And we're not really into that kind of a video; we never have been. And then Floria, at the very, very last minute, right when we were about to give up all hope, sent us a treatment along with some really beautiful, well-put-together montages of what she had in mind. And so, not only did she have a treatment, but she had stuff to look at. Everyone was like, "Wow. This is amazing!" Then it got more and more involved as the process unfolded, and she was awesome to work with. She knew exactly what she wanted to get. And basically, what it is is just her interpretation of that song--which is a really wonderful thing to receive from somebody who you respect as an artist, interpreting what you were trying to say, sometimes maybe even differently than you had in mind. But that's the whole point, you know? That's the point of music, to reinterpret and personalize it, and not make it so much like, "This song is about this." I don't really like to explain exactly what lyrics are about, because that sort of undermines the intelligence of the listeners: Should they be so inclined to want to interpret it on their own, I'd love to give them that chance. So that's exactly what she did. And I think that the results are really cool.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Have you received any backlash from it?
BRANDON: Actually, I hope that some people are offended by the imagery! We aren't trying to be controversial, we aren't trying to offend people necessarily, but I'd much rather have people be sort of polarized than have everybody like it or everybody hate it. You know what I'm saying? Some people really like it and some people are really bummed out about it. But I don't worry about that stuff. I don't think about controversy, or trying to breed controversy, or trying to avoid controversy. Those things are going to happen as they're going to happen. We normally just write our songs and lyrics as they come to us, and as they seem fit. And if they cause a reaction, it's like, "Thank God, they're causing a reaction!" So we will see.
YAHOO! MUSIC: It's been said that this album is a return to the "classic" Incubus sound. Do you agree, and if so, was that deliberate?
BRANDON: I've heard some of the talk about our new record returning to an older Incubus ethic, an older Incubus sound. And my reaction to that is pretty much that those ethics never really went away. They just sort of weren't up front completely on the past couple of records. I'm very proud of the past couple of records we've made, because they're much more focused and energy was put into the songwriting and content, as opposed to just pure instrumentation. I feel like maybe we would've lost people a long time ago if we just kept on with, you know, the noise and the wandering and stuff like that--the musical meandering. But when I say that it never really went away, I mean in the sense that in every one of our concerts ever since we released S.C.I.E.N.C.E., we've always dedicated a portion of our concerts to just improvising and freeform and exploring areas. And the kids at the shows have always seemed to respond to that. And we respond to it as well, as musicians and as friends, because it keeps things very interesting for us. We'll sort of reconfigure songs, stop songs halfway through and play a different song at the end of it. So that ethic never really left, it just kind of swooped back around during the writing and recording of this record, for probably a lot of reasons that we couldn't really pinpoint. A lot of it had to do with sort of a renewed feeling that we have, being that we have a new member, Ben Kenny, who is a pretty darn good musician. And he brought with him, I think, just this freshness and this ability to really do anything. Once we got him in the room and all of us started playing together, I think we really felt like we were able to do whatever we could think of, whatever we wanted. It was fun. It was a good time.
YAHOO! MUSIC: I know you were suing your record label while making this album. That's all settled now, but I assumed that during the recording you weren't sure what label would be putting out this album, or if maybe you'd be putting it out yourself. Did that free you creatively in any way, not being obligated to a label?
BRANDON: That lawsuit was kind of going on when we were writing the record, and there was a small uncertainty as to how it would be coming out, but I don't really think it had a conscious effect on things. We didn't really think about anything when we were recording. We were sort of going about our everyday routine: We met up at the rehearsal spaces, and we just wrote music as it came to us. There were a lot more important emotions and stuff floating around, as opposed to concentrating on a lawsuit or something like that, which in the long run is kind of trivial.
YAHOO! MUSIC: What musical influences has Ben brought to the record? I know he used to play with the Roots, so did he bring any R&B flavor to the mix?
BRANDON: Ben's done a lot. He's been in probably more rock bands than R&B or hip-hop bands, but it's the R&B and hip-hop bands that he was a part of that have sort of garnished notoriety. But I am going to speak for him briefly, and say I think maybe his heart is in rock music, and that's what he likes to do the most. But he can kind of do whatever kind of music he wants to--he is one of those musical minds that just whatever he can think of, he can do. It's really fun to be in a band with a guy like that.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Tell me about your charity project, Incubusbootlegs.com. How did the idea of selling bootleg to raise money for charity come about?
BRANDON: We actually stole the idea of doing Incubusbootlegs.com from Pearl Jam! We saw that they were putting out these live bootlegs--probably for a lot of their own reasons that are unbeknownst to me, but maybe as well as a reaction to the fact that their shows were being bootlegged anyway, so they figured they would do it themselves and put their name on it, and their stamp on it, and do something good with it. So we decided that was a really cool idea. Pearl Jam is an amazing band, and they've had a lot of good ideas in the past. They've created a legacy, so to speak, that is admirable. And so, there is a lot to be learned, I think, from what they've done and what they do. And you know, we've been participating in a couple of charity organizations over the past couple of years, devoting time and money and resources to scattered causes. Each cause was equally as important, but we started feeling maybe our time and energy and money could be a little bit better spent if it was more focused. So we actually created our own charity organization, which is called the Make Yourself Foundation. At the end of every year, we basically distribute the money in that foundation to specific charities or to one specific charity, as the need arises. And so, Incubusbootlegs.com is our first attempt at doing that. We're going to just take all the money that we make from that and a bunch of other things--events, concert tickets--and put it into the Make Yourself Foundation.
YAHOO! MUSIC: That's very cool. Do you think it is important for bands to give something back to the community and get involved in this way?
BRANDON: Yes, I think so. I mean, it's not for everybody; there are some bands that choose not to do it. And that's fine too, because it's your own prerogative. But I think we feel a basic sense of responsibility to where we come from--a sense of community and a sense of responsibility about the fact that we are making money, and the fact that there are a lot of other people and a lot of other places where the money could be a lot better served. A lot better used than us just buying a bunch of cars, you know? There will be that day, hopefully, when we will buy a bunch of cars and give the cars to people, and keep one for ourselves--it's like, the more the merrier. But it's just kind of a share-the-wealth philosophy, I think. I think that we've always done that, even if it was just our ability to take out a friend's band on the road.
YAHOO! MUSIC: So how do you feel about having your stuff bootlegged by fans? Are you OK with that?
BRANDON: Well, I think it shows a level of enthusiasm that reminds me that people are still very interested in music. I don't think music is in trouble, I just think the music industry is in trouble. I think people are just as interested in listening to music and finding music; they're just not as interested in it being sold to them in the ways that it's being sold to them, so they're finding new and sort of devious ways to find it. And yeah, it affects us a little bit, but I'm more concerned about them hearing the music than about how they get it. I might as well go with the flow. In the long run, it's actually just great that they want to hear it.
YAHOO! MUSIC: How is the album being received by fans so far? Is it getting a good response?
BRANDON: It's been largely very enthusiastic. Really, really good. It's funny, because the people who listen to our music and the people who frequent our message boards are some of the most opinionated people I've ever encountered. There is a level of passionate enthusiasm there, even if it's like, "You guys f--king suck, I want you to die!" Or, "I love you! You're the best thing I've ever heard!" That is refreshing. It just shows that people are not as jaded as some people think they are, you know! So the reaction now largely has been really kind of overwhelming, actually. It's been nice.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Did you test any of these songs live before you recorded them, to see how fans would react?
BRANDON: Yeah, actually on Lollapalooza this past summer, we played "Megalomaniac" before it was recorded or was a single or anything. And we played a song called "Pistola" that's kind of this, like, five-minute long ode to prog-rock. And the reaction to those songs was really amazing. Like, kids were holding up cell phones and recording them, and then downloading them onto the Internet. We'd hear these versions of them that were live that were just the worst possible recordings, but everybody on our website was downloading and listening to them. So we took that as a good sign--even though the recording sounded like the worst AM radio drowned out; you could hear somebody talking next to them, like, "Hey man, get me a beer!" It was hilarious. But the reaction was really cool.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Was this your way of figuring out what songs to put on the final album?
BRANDON: Not necessarily. We were just really stoked on the new songs we were writing, and we wanted to play them! We wanted to play more, actually, because we had a bunch of songs written at that point. But then we decided we didn't want to reveal too much. We wanted to wait to reveal it on the record. So we chose only those two songs. We felt they were a good mix of what was going on on the new record.
YAHOO! MUSIC: Was this record easy to make?
BRANDON: Yeah, it was, recording-wise, and actually, writing it was the most pleasurable, too. But recording this record was just a pleasure. There wasn't any arguing. There wasn't any disagreement about what should go where. It just, like, kind of happened. It happened very quickly, too. The bulk of the record was recorded in a little under two weeks. We played everything together live; I sang all my parts with the band. It was just right, you know? It was like when you pet a cat in the right direction, as opposed to trying to go against the grain. We were just sort of going with the flow. We went to Atlanta, Georgia, where our producer lives and works, and we recorded in his studio and stayed there during the week. It was so fun. It was awesome.
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