Incubus: 17 Interesting Facts You Might Not Have Known

Incubus played a show in my hometown (Pretoria, South Africa) on the 24th of February 2018 (the day that I turned 41 years old).

Many of you reading this post are most likely familiar with this American Rock band, but there’s probably a few things that you didn’t know about them. Today my aim is to change that.

Here are 17 Incubus Facts you may not have known

1. Incubus have been around for longer than you think. The band was formed in 1991 by lead vocalist Brandon Boyd, lead guitarist Mike Einziger and drummer Jose Pasillas when they were still attending high school in Calabasas, California. The band later expanded to include bassist Alex “Dirk Lance” Katunich, and Gavin “DJ Lyfe” Koppell; both of whom were eventually replaced by bassist Ben Kenney and DJ Kilmore.

2. Incubus have sold a lot of records. To date the band has released 8 studio albums and have sold more than 23 million records. Their first album release was 1995’s Fungus Amongus. Their 1999 release Make Yourself has been certified as double platinum.

3. S.C.I.E.N.C.E sold over 100,000 copies without radio or television support. This album was released in 1997 and the band toured extensively to promote it. If you consider that the Internet wasn’t really a big thing back then like it is now, that’s pretty damn impressive if you ask me.

4. Incubus had one of the most logical hiatuses. In 2008 the members needed a break and sometimes when bands need a break they don’t take it and it leads to the band breaking up. This was not the case for Incubus as front man, Brandon Boyd started going to school for art, drummer, Jose Pasillas was starting a family and guitarist Mike Einziger decided to study composition.

5. The band lived together during the recording of Morning View. The band believes in a very close knit recording process and lived together while recording Morning View and recorded Megalomaniac in lead guitarist, Mike Einziger’s, living room. They have voiced feeling that being in close proximity to one another is important during the writing and recording process.

6. Brandon Boyd’s father, Chuck Boyd, is the Marlboro Man. Chuck Boyd describes himself according to CNN as “one proud father” and it seems that charisma runs in the family.

7. They were nameless for quite some time. They existed as a band for some time before they gave themselves a name, having only chosen the band’s name “Incubus” when required to supply a band name for an upcoming show.

8. They were labeled as a metal band thanks to Ozzfest. Incubus first broke through to the mainstream playing at Ozzfest, which got them labeled a metal band (there is a rumor that Incubus got the Ozzfest second stage slot because they were Jack Osbourne’s favorite band). They have since broken that stereotype with lighter songs.

9. Boyd and drummer Jose Pasillas drew all the artwork for the video for “Drive”. It took them more than 50 hours to do it and the video still looks amazing (even though it was released in 1999).

10. For a while MTV was only willing to air the music video for “Megalomaniac” late in the evenings. The video had lots of images of famous megalomaniacs, including Hitler and George Bush. MTV was under a lot of pressure after Janet Jackson bared her breast at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, which they produced.

They responded by banishing this and 6 other potentially offensive videos to late rotation, but this was the only one deemed offensive for political reasons – the others had too much sex.

MTV eventually started playing this during the day, but before they did, guitarist Mike Einziger said, “It’s ironic that this MTV scrutiny comes from an incident where someone bared their chest in public, while for the first time, our singer has his shirt on for an entire video.”

11. Every member of the band surfs.

12. The song title “Anna Molly” is a play on the word “anomaly,” which means “deviation from the rule.”

13. “I Miss You” is about missing somebody you just met. It’s expressing how much you care about someone because they affected you so much.

14. The line “Better than watching Gellar bending silver spoons” in “Wish You Were Here” is a reference to Uri Gellar, who is famous for using psychic powers to bend spoons.

15. Parts of “Warning” uses an interesting metaphor. The song describes society as frogs in a jacuzzi oblivious to the water starting to boil, which may be a reference to the writing of philosophical novelist Daniel Quinn, whose books have used a similar metaphor to express the idea that people pay no mind to social decline because it is gradual, while the same events occurring more quickly would outrage the masses. His book Ishmael inspired some of the ideology of the film Instinct, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Donald Sutherland.

16. “Talk Shows on Mute” is about the mind-numbing effects of TV talk shows. The phrase, “Come one, Come all into 1984” is not referring to the year but to a book written by George Orwell called 1984, which is about a man living in a totalitarian oligarchy.

17. According to Brandon Boyd “The lyrics to ‘Stellar’ were inspired by my lover, Joan English. It’s about love as a transcendental feeling, like free-floating in outer space. It’s kind of a traditional song in that way.”

Well, I hope that you feel informed. If you have any other Incubus facts you want to share, feel free to comment below.

Watch this space for regular updates in the Music category on Running Wolf’s Rant.

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