Incubus Singer Inspired by Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains

2012-06-28

Story by Cat Badra

Brandon Boyd on Incubus’ beginnings: ‘We were basically so inspired by music, that we decided to make music on our own’

Incubus main man Brandon Boyd recently gave a talk at Hollywood’s Musicians Institute, an educational facility dedicated to educating students in a variety of fields of music, including performance, business and sound engineering. Boyd’s chat was part of the Musicians Institute’s “Conversation Series,” highlighting big-named musicians. Some of the past guests on the series included Nikki Sixx, No Doubt‘s Adrian Young and 311‘s Nick Hexum.

Boyd told the audience about his early days in Incubus and the kind of music that inspired the guys to jam out in Calabasas, Calif. “When we started our band I was fifteen. I’ve very recently been reminiscing on how lucky we were or how lucky I felt now to be that particular age at that particular time, because at that time music got turned on its ear,” he told Los Angeles radio station KROQ. “We were listing to bands like Primus, Mr. Bungle, John Zorn, we also got into [bands like] Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine…what’s amazing is those bands are still good now, they’re still relevant now. Alice In Chains, Red Hot Chili Peppers, these bands that were coming of age right when we were growing up, at that most important, kind of pliable time in your youth. We were basically so inspired by music, that we decided to make music on our own.”

As for how the band generate creative ideas during their songwriting process, Boyd said the band’s writing process is parallel to “climbing a jungle gym.”

“The guys in the band are really great at building these intricate, fun, architectures that you can see through it, climb on it, through it, and around it,” he said. “It’s my job to be a bit of like a trapeze artist and climb on the jungle gym they’ve made.”

In other band news, Incubus are co-headlining this year’s Honda Civic Tour with Linkin Park. The tour kicks off in August, and find a complete list of tour dates here.

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Cat Badra

Meet the expert - Cat Badra is a music writer for Audio Ink Radio and a range of other music, sports and lifestyle publications. She's a graduate of Michigan State University with a master's degree in theater and speech. Contact her at cat@audioinkradio.com.