Incubus: Do The Evolution

06/04/09 4:14pm

by Jared Story (CHARTattack)

California Rockers Have Mastered The Art Of Adapting To Survive

If Incubus had been around in 1859, Charles Darwin might have included them in The Origin Of Species. Their musical career is proof of evolution. Since the awkward ape-like funk-metal of '95's Fungus Amongus, they've consistently changed with each album, to the more mature and sensitive alt.rock sounds of 1999's Make Youself and 2001's Morning View, to the ambitious experimentation that was 2004's A Crow Left Of The Murder. New album Light Grenades sends them in another direction. In this naturally selective world, Incubus have always adapted to stay relevant.

"It's really actually quite refreshing and exciting for us on a continual level, because we write music that doesn't sound like anything we've done before," says Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd. "In the same sitting we'll write a song like Light Grenades' 'Rogues' and then a song like Morning View's 'Aqueous Transmission.' It really can go anywhere and that is a wonderful thing."

Light Grenades shows a band very comfortable with change. It's a diverse disc that goes from the sensitive pop of "Dig" to the rock fury of "A Kiss To Send Us Off." The ultra-hooky "Diamonds And Coal" sums up this musical fruition beautifully.

"We definitely started out as a little lumpy piece of shit in a cave," says Boyd. "We've come an extremely long way. We went from being a terrible garage band, with a lot of heart mind you, but we sucked, and we've bloomed in a lot of ways. It's really scary, but exciting too that the vast majority of our work is available in record stores and for download, from the time that we were that terrible lump of coal to our most shiny moments. The chronology of our band is right there for anybody to check out."

Boyd's very interested in the evolution of our species. The title track on the new LP contains the lyric, "Will we survive ourselves? Are we living in the Brave New World? Are we our own enemies?" Boyd acknowledges it could sound rather nihilistic, but, being a positive person, he points to our capacity to change.

"We've come so far in our human, cultural and social evolution, but we've barely scratched the surface as far as what we're capable of as a species," Boyd says. "After all these years of human evolution, we've just poked our heads above the muck of the animal world, and we've been hovering lately in this suspended state of technological and cultural adolescence. There is still great potential to fuck everything up, not only with technology but with weaponry and current social philosophies. We're in a really dangerous place. That being said, now that we've identified where it could go on the dark side, we can also start to see the upside as far as our potential is concerned."

One of those dangerous places that Boyd and Incubus are involved in is the issue of global warming. They're working with StopGlobalWarming.org to help raise awareness on the subject.

"We've come to a place where our way of living and our behaviours are directly affecting the climate, our home, our nest. We're shitting in our nest. With science we've been able to identify lots of great things about our world, universe and history, and we pay attention to all of that, but right when science identifies something that might force us to alter the way we live, we say we don't know for sure. It's completely ridiculous. Even if there was an inkling of an idea that we might be affecting our climate, we should do something. It really doesn't take that much from people. It's just a matter of shifting the tiniest bit here and there in our daily lives. God forbid that we step out of our comfort zone for a brief minute."

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If It Ain't Broke…

Musical evolution isn't for everybody. Here are four kick-ass bands whose songs always remain the same:

Motorhead
Except for 1992's March Or Die, a lame attempt at commercial success, Lemmy and co. have never strayed far from dirty, fast and especially loud rock 'n' roll.

AC/DC
Since 1973, the furthest The Thunder from Down Under have strayed from their three-chord rock boogie was the bluesy ballad, "Ride On."

Slayer
Always the hare, Slayer played tortoise for only 1988's South Of Heaven, realizing that a slow and steady sound wasn't their game.

The Ramones
With more member changes than time changes, The Ramones kept a steady 4/4 pop-punk beat for 22 years.

This feature is from the February 2007 issue of Chart Magazine. To purchase the issue, go to the Chart Shop.