Born in Calabasas, California, Brandon and Mike have known each other since grade school alongside Incubus drummer Jose Pasillas. In 1999, Incubus released their breakthrough album Make Yourself. A year after, the band released the monster hit album Morning View. Incubus now returns with the explosive new album A Crow Left Of The Murder, including the chart-topping single Megalomaniac.
The band is now gearing up for their A Crow Left Of The Murder Asian Tour which starts this month, heading off first to three cities in Japan, next to Korea, then the Philippines on March 12 and swing with Thailand and Malaysia.
The STAR had a chance to chat with heartthrob vocalist Brandon Boyd (who recently celebrated his 28th birthday) and guitar whiz Mike Einziger straight from Los Angeles.
We heard you’ve been childhood friends, how did you meet?
Mike: Love at first sight.
Brandon: We were in school together. Actually, I’ve known Jose Pasillas since the fourth grade and Mike since sixth grade.
What makes Incubus special? What is the band’s cutting edge?
Mike: A knife! (laughs)
What are your favorite videogames?
Mike: Gran Turismo. But you can’t mess with the old school Dragon’s Lair.
Brandon: My favorite video game is walking in front of the video game when these guys are playing and they yell at me.
Will you ever break up into solo careers like Justin Timberlake and N’Sync?
Mike: Last time we tried to do the whole boy band thing, it didn’t work out.
Brandon: I’m a terrible dancer.
What do you guys think of Britney Spears?
Brandon: She’s a girl so I would have to be gentle but I would certainly ask her to think about what she’s doing to the youth of America.
Is touring always fun? Is there a downside?
Brandon: Oh yeah, when you’re traveling in a tour bus? Gig butt. Truck stop food. No sleep. No showers. This equals gig butt.
How would you describe your music?
Mike: When we were younger we never fitted into any music scene. There were all these punk and grunge bands around and I love that kind of music, but we never fit into those type of shows you know, so we just did our own kind of shows.
There’s a rumor that one of you tried out for Alanis Morissette’s band...
Mike: That’s true – I actually auditioned for Alanis Morissette’s band when I was like 17, before she got really big. I was just like, "Oh, this girl is singing these songs"... and then a few months later she was on the radio, and I was like, "What? Damn, I should’ve tried harder!"
Brandon, you paint, write books, take photographs: What is your artistic pursuit?
Brandon: Wow, that’s a really good question. I didn’t even know that I wanted to be in a band, to tell you the truth. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in a band up until five years ago – and we’ve been in this band for 11 years. For most my life, it’s been the drawing – painting pictures and drawing. And then when I turned about 13, it started turning into writing and drawing, and then when I turned 15, my best friends in the world picked up instruments, so it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to do to accompany them the only way I knew how. Actually, I really didn’t know how to do it, but I thought I did at the time, and that was to sing.
So, what is fulfillment for Brandon Boyd?
Brandon: The reason I stay now, is because it is fulfilling in me something that I started and set out to do a long time ago, which was to live a life purely of creativity, to live a life where my main objective is to create.