A piece newly published over at Metal Hammer finds Incubus vocalist Brandon Boyd looking back at their scrappy formative years. While the piece centers around the origins of their first breakout track, “A Certain Shade Of Green“, it also including anecdotes from their mid-90s European tour with Korn, building up their chops on the road ahead of “S.C.I.E.N.C.E.“, and their general dislike of being lumped in with nü-metal.
Given Incubus‘ close proximity to the stars of the scene at the time, the latter association was an easy one to make. That Incubus were also signed to Immortal/Epic Records by Paul Pontius, the man who had locked in nü-metal pioneers Korn to that label, also kept them close to the heart of the then burgeoning musical movement.
Speaking to Metal Hammer now of sharing the road with Korn in early 1997, Boyd recalled the generosity of the latter, stating:
“We did a two-month run with them. It never felt like anyone was trying to hold us back – it felt like we had support. They would see us going to our van, sometimes limping to the show as the van coughed its way to the parking lot. We weren’t necessarily supposed to partake in the catering, but they would see us show up malnourished and under-slept and be like, ‘Have you eaten?’ We’d say, ‘Nuh-huh.’ And they’d order: ‘Go get some food!’
We weren’t supposed to even get a dressing room… They’d give us a dressing room. Stuff like that sticks with me a lot. So much of the music from that era was so heavy and macho and sometimes even negative, and you get it in your head that these guys would be mean and unsupportive. But it was exactly the opposite.”
It was during that tour that Incubus had been been road-testing material from their as-yet unrecorded major label debut, “S.C.I.E.N.C.E.“. An interstellar blend of funk, metal and rap, that record has remained a dividing line among the group’s fanbase over the years due to the creative divergence that followed it.
And while the songs they came up during that era possessed distinct hallmarks of nü-metal, Boyd was quick to shoot down that being an intentional decision, instead feeling it was more the band being a victim of circumstance. He told Metal Hammer in this chat:
“We weren’t trying to fit into a particular niche at a particular time. We were just kids being influenced by a small handful of bands that we grew up with. Just to name a few we were collectively obsessed with: Primus, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mr. Bungle, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Firehose… some other obscure bands we were discovering because of going to shows.”
Reflecting back now on the legacy of nü-metal and Incubus being pigeonholed into the scene, Boyd stated:
“I thought it was terrible. I didn’t like it. Honestly, I thought it was stupid. I know a lot of people love it, but being called ‘nü-metal’ kinda hurt my feelings. If we made one record that fits into that genre, then so be it, but I never heard it in our music myself.”
Incubus‘ struggles in escaping being painted by the nü-metal brush weren’t that far removed from that of alternative metal trailblazers Deftones. But while Deftones went in another direction with 2000’s “White Pony“, Incubus had already veered off for melodic pursuits with their 1999 effort “Make Yourself“.
By the time 2001 hit, Incubus‘ found themselves in full revolt against nü-metal, as proven in this early 2000s interview, in which Incubus guitarist Mike Einziger stated, “the whole world of rap-metal is just pathetically ridiculous. It makes me wanna throw up. It’s a horrible place to be and we’ve turned our backs on it completely.”
