“I have a night off tonight – in Miami of all places – we’re right in the very middle of our US tour,” says Boyd. “It’s been a lot of fun so far, the crowds have just been amazing, the response has been really wonderful, I can’t say enough about our fans. We’re very blessed in this band to have people over the years that have paid attention and continually come back to what we’re doing.
“I don’t take that lightly,” he continues. “I know how hard it is to keep someone’s attention, because it’s hard for bands to keep my attention! I feel like I’ll be really into a band then somehow lose interest and it’s like I break up with them – and I’m sure that’s happened with people over the years with us – but I think some people have broken up with us but others keep coming back.”
For those that haven’t been paying attention, listening to Incubus circa 2011 might be a bit like Heston crash-landing on the Planet Of The Apes – glimpses of familiarity strewn through a brave new world. But take each album in the context of the previous, and a logical (although maybe not linear) progression begins to emerge. You can’t stay 17 forever, and as dreadlocks were shorn and turntables were used to build soundscapes rather than scratching vinyl, the band shook off their aggressive funk metal origins and tackled their later years with experimentation and maturity.
“This is now our 20th year as a band, and I think there are tendencies on this record that we’ve been hinting at since our first record. I’d be really surprised if, this time two years from now we were talking and Incubus had just put out a country rock record, but one of the cool things about being in this band is that there’s not really a ceiling on what we’re allowed to do.
“We’ve never been one of those bands where you can describe them based on one song, and if I’m being totally honest I actually have pride about that,” he proclaims as our conversation draws to a close. “If people ask what we sound like, I’m more inclined to give them a CD of music as opposed to saying ‘go check out this one song’. Of course, if someone was really interested, I would say to come to a concert!”
