Incubus Aren't Ready For State Fairs

08/07/09 12:32pm

by Shehzaad Jiwani (CHARTattack)

If you think it strange that Incubus have a greatest hits compilation this early into their careers, you're not alone.

The band themselves found it somewhat soon to be releasing a career retrospective, but when you think about their output since they broke through with 1999's Make Yourself, you begin to realize the California quintet have had their fair share of hits in the past 10 years.

CHARTattack recently spoke with guitarist Mike Einziger about the collection, Monuments And Melodies, their status as established arena rockers and his return to school.

CHARTattack: How does it feel to put out a greatest hits record when you guys are barely past the age of 30?
Mike Einziger: It's a combination of things.

From our generation of bands, there aren't many that have put out greatest hits records. They're always from older bands, or they always feel older because we get into them when we're younger.

I wasn't initially interested in the idea of putting out a greatest hits record, because it was like, "Really? That's something you put out when you're old." Then I remembered that I got into bands who became very important to me through their greatest hits records.

We've had a shockingly long career thus far and it just seems like a nice time to take stock in where we've been since we started the band.

How did it feel to listen to all of those songs back to back?
It was fun and really nostalgic to put it together.

The experience we have being on the road and travelling all the time, it's like a whirlwind. No one really stops often enough to smell the roses, so to speak, and take a moment to realize where we are.

It's fun to look back and see all the records we've made and all the concerts and the experiences we've had wrapped up into all of it. It's kind of overwhelming for us, but it's fun and that's a good thing.

As a retrospective, it doesn't really represent much beyond Make Yourself. Was that a conscious decision?
It was conscious in that we only wanted to include the songs that were released as singles. There may have been some songs shopped to college radio when we were touring behind [1997's] S.C.I.E.N.C.E, but if we were going to do a greatest hits record, we wanted them to actually just be the "hits," so to speak.

People that have listened to anything we did before that all have those records anyway, and we think it would be a cool, consistent statement to make to have all of those songs there in one place.

People will have gravitated to us mostly for those songs. Over a long period of time, if we're remembered at all, people will remember us for those songs. The other stuff is not as important, or it's important to me, but I can't necessarily say that for everyone else.

You guys took a bit of time off in the past year. What was it like coming back together after a relatively long time apart?
We're all very close with each other. We spent the majority of our lives together in the band and writing music together and being on tour and whatnot. It was nice to take a little bit of a break. I went to school, I just finished my first year of college.

We've grown up in this band together. We've learned how to write music together, we've learned how to write songs together, we've learned how to play our instruments together. We've changed a lot over the years musically, and I think that's just reflective of us changing personally on many levels.

What did you go to school for?
I've been studying physics and evolutionary biology, and a little bit of composition. I always get raised eyebrows whenever people ask me what I'm studying.

I never had a college experience, so now I'm getting a full on experience living at school and being a student. It's the greatest thing I've ever done. It's cool to keep inserting new things into my life.

I just discovered how much I love to be a student. I could go to school for the rest of my life. After being in a classroom for a year, coming out and playing rock concerts is so much fun. It gives me a lot to look forward to.

Most bands tend to start resting on their laurels after releasing a hits compilation. Do you guys still feel the need to put out new material?
I think if we didn't love playing music and hanging out with each other, it would fall apart. The creative spark that we have with each other is the engine that drives us. When that's gone, Incubus won't exist anymore. We can just play shows or whatever, but we wouldn't be making records once that happens. That creative spark is very much intact, and that's the common thread that keeps everything moving.

Could you be one of those bands that just tours every five years and plays the same old hits?
I've never thought about that, to be honest. I've always planned on making records and exploring new material.

I definitely think that we have more records in us. That's the motivation over everything else. Once we lose that, that desire to keep making new music, then we'd turn into that state fair band that comes and plays the summer barbecue or whatever the hell it is.