INCUBUS :: A CROW LEFT OF THE
MURDER
Noisemakers Incubus makes the
adrenaline surge through your
veins yet again with A Crow Left
of the Murder.
Published in PRESS
Magazine
February 2004
Since it’s formation, Incubus has remained an
ever-changing and developing band. Charged with an intensity that is just as
prevalent as their laid-back groove, they have successfully maintained a steady
balance as they evolved their sound and lyrical content through each of their
four full-length albums, various EPs, soundtrack work and home DVDs.
With a
penchant for drama and delightful excesses that only enhance their poignant
lyrics and classically influenced guitars, Incubus’ true strength lies in their
cohesiveness as a band where each member is extremely skilled at their
respective instrument. With a range of funky bass lines, loud guitar riffs, a
brilliant mix of turntable effects, insightful and thought-provoking lyrics
about personal completeness, subtle verses, rousing choruses, some interesting
metaphors, and lyrically mature tracks that audiences can connect with on many
levels, Incubus has broken the standard music mold many times over and
throughout their 12-year career, continues to make music that is always one step
ahead of its predecessors.
For the Love of Music
Like all other great bands in history, Incubus
had their share of humble beginnings. Way back in the late eighties, Incubus
vocalist Brandon Boyd and drummer Jose Pasillas were just elementary friends at
a school in Calabasas, California, a Los Angeles suburb west of the
San Fernando Valley. In 1990, during 8th grade at A.E. Wright Middle School,
Pasillas met their guitarist Mike Einziger who spent most of his time playing
guitar in his bedroom. Upon entering 10th grade at Calabasas High in
1991, Pasillas and Einziger became friends with bassist Alex Katunich (who would
later be known as Dirk Lance), who had just been kicked out of Jazz Band at that
time for not knowing how to read music. Deciding to form a band, the trio jammed
a bit, simply for the love of music, initially playing Metallica and Megadeth
cover songs which helped them land a few party gigs and earned them the
reputation, "entertainment for the neighborhood."
Spiral Staircase? Chimera? Chunk-O-Funk?!
A few months later, the trio came across
Brandon Boyd’s vocal abilities, and the four young musicians decided they were
ready to give up playing cover songs in order to write their own. Jamming in
Boyd's garage, the band's first song, "Love Sick," sounded like an Incubus
track. Though it was totally stripped down, it had elements of funk and thrash
in it. In 1991, the band began plotting a circuit of gigs at area parties, but
since the group did not have a name yet, they had to come up with one quickly.
Suggestions included “Spiral Staircase,” “Chimera” and “Chunk-O-Funk.” Einziger,
however got out a thesaurus, found the word “Incubus” and read what the rest of
the members thought was a cool sounding word with a cool definition --
an evil spirit that has sex with women while
they sleep.
One Hundred Dollar Luck
Despite their age, the band wasted no time getting
their music heard. Making use of their surroundings, Incubus began promoting
themselves in and around L.A. and within a year, moved up to the bars and
all-ages clubs in the San Fernando Valley. They even got a gig at the Roxy on
Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, thanks to a hundred dollar bill Einziger found on the
ground which he used to book Incubus a gig at a the well-known club. Buying a
rasher of tickets to sell to friends and fans, it turned out to be a worthwhile
investment as the band's popularity rapidly spread throughout the Valley and
every ticket was promptly snapped up.
Out of the Closet
For the next few years, Incubus continued to play
live and write music, and the band, influenced by Mr. Bungle, Primus, Faith No
More, Led Zeppelin, and the Police began selling out shows in their senior year
of high school. After graduation, while members Brandon Boyd and Jose Pasillas
attended Moorpark Community College, Einziger tried out for a small named
artist's band, Alanis Morissette. Though unsuccessful, the outcome proved to be
for the best as the band members found time in their schedules to write and
record music as well as play live, which cumulated in their first 3-track demo
recording released in 1994, Closet Cultivation. Since then the band has
never stopped.
On January 7th, 1995, the band
released their second demo tape, Incubus, which featured five songs that
would later appear on their first album, Fungus Amongus and their EP,
Enjoy Incubus. Then on November 1995, after recording and co-producing it
with Jim Wirt in Santa Monica, California, Incubus released their first
full-length album, Fungus Amongus
on their own label, “Stopuglynailfungus Music on Chillum.” Self-edited by the
band, it was a collection of demos and recordings they had done while in high
school, as well as some of the first songs that Incubus ever wrote together.
The band also shot their 1st video for the track “Take Me To Your Leader.”
Incubus continued to
persistently gig wherever they could, and at one show, hip-hop rapper Gavin “DJ
Lyfe” Koppel, approached the band and asked if they would be interested in
incorporating some of his hip-hop tracks into their music. While they were
skeptical at first, DJ Lyfe became Incubus' first turntablist, adding yet
another dimension to Incubus' already eclectic mix of funk, metal and jazz, and
energetic and rhythmic sound.
Incubus Immortalized
Incubus' unusual amalgamation
of styles and adrenaline-driven live shows, combined with the growing fan-base
they had created with their determined self-promotion, generated a buzz around
the band which turned several major label heads and put the band in the enviable
position of a bidding war. By the end of 1995, Incubus signed to fellow heavies
Korn's label, Epic/Immortal Records, a Sony group company, who saw the band as a
long-term investment, and won them over by recognizing that Incubus is a touring
live band (and needed to remain as such), not an out-of-the-box, hit-single
sensation, intent on building its following from the ground up.
On January 7th, 1997, exactly
two years after the release of the band's second demo, their 1997 major label
debut EP, Enjoy Incubus was released on Immortal Records, featuring
re-recordings of 4 tracks off their independent record, Fungus Amongus,
plus 2 recently written tracks that have been remixed in the studio. After the
release of Enjoy Incubus, the band successfully completed several
mini-tours in support of it, touring with the Urge and Korn in Europe and
playing in front of more people then they ever had before, including an audience
of 5,000 in Paris where they were well received.
Shortly after the release of
Enjoy Incubus, the band collaborated with DJ Greyboy to produce the song
“Familiar” for the soundtrack of the movie Spawn. This was then followed
with the release of S.C.I.E.N.C.E. on September 1997, an album which
surprised listeners with its variety of sounds and influences as one could hear
rock in one song and some jazz in the next.
In February of 1998, due to
certain issues affecting the band’s productivity as well as creative
differences, DJ Lyfe's career with Incubus came to an end and was asked to leave
the band. Based on a friend’s recommendation, Incubus checked out DJ Chris
Kilmore who was immediately asked to join the band permanently. After the very
productive tour with Sugar Ray and 311, and a DJ replacement, Incubus began
tours in Europe and America, followed by a Warped Tour and the Ozzfest '98 tour
with Tool, Limp Bizkit, System of a Down, and others. On October 1998, the band
earned a coveted spot on the Family Values tour as well as a spot on the
Family Values
compilation album when they replaced Ice Cube for
the four remaining dates in the fall of that same year.
Incubus Makes It!
In 1999, after touring with
Black Sabbath, Incubus took some time off to work on the successor of
S.C.I.E.N.C.E.,
and on the 26th of October 1999, the thirteen-track
Make Yourself was released. It was this
album that proved to be catalyst for propelling Incubus into the mainstream
music scene by spawning numerous hit singles, as
Make Yourself
hit gold status in April of 2000, selling 500,000
copies, and on July 2001, became Incubus' first multi-platinum album, selling
over 2 million copies world-wide, confirming Incubus as a solid band on the
present musical scene. Eventually realizing that the fans were loving the
acoustic versions of songs from Make Yourself, on August, 2000, the band
released a limited edition (only 100,000 copies were edited) six-song EP titled
When Incubus Attacks Volume 1 that featured acoustic and live recordings
of several songs, as well as “Crowded Elevator,” a track original made for the
Scream 3 soundtrack.
The band’s success took them
directly to the source of their influences and went on tour with Primus, one of
the bands that inspired them. Shortly after the release of Make Yourself,
the band began to gain a mainstream following with the release of the album’s
first single “Pardon Me,” that began to play all over radio stations across the
United States, coupled with the airing of the song’s video on MTV and TRL. Some
time later, “Stellar” was released. Though the video received airplay on MTV, on
TRL, and also became a huge success on Billboards Modern Rock Chart, it was with
“Drive,” released on January 2001, that the band gained world-wide success as it
quickly moved up to the top of the Modern Rock Charts eventually hitting the #1
spot. Meanwhile, the video for "Drive," the artwork of which Brandon Boyd and
Jose Pasillas spent over fifty hours working on, was nominated for an MTV Video
Music Award in the category Best Group Video. Unfortunately, Incubus lost that
award to the pop group N'Sync. In November 2001, however, “Drive” won the band
an award for Billboard's Modern Rock Single of the Year.
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