If you’re having a discussion about the lasting legacy of musicians without mentioning Incubus – you’re not having a serious discussion.
Since 1991’s Fungus Amongus, the Calabasas cosmic crooners have released songs that didn’t just define their career, but the lives of fans. The type of person who doesn’t have a stirring nostalgic response to the opening strums of ‘Drive’ isn’t the type of person I want to meet. If you didn’t find new parts of yourself during the first spin of ‘Aqueous Transmission’; I have some homework for you and if ‘Megalomanic’ hasn’t been semi stuck in your head for the past two decades, well, you’ve truly missed out.
The moments don’t stop there, they continue throughout the bands oeuvre right through to 2017’s 8, each indicative of a band who’s legacy won’t just be lasting, but eternal.
Ahead of their return to Australia, and as the release of Morning View XXIII, BLUNT spoke with Mike Einziger.
Incubus shows in Australia are a famously special time. I know as part of your job you have to say you love everywhere play, but is it safe to say Australia has a special place in the heart of Incubus?
Mike: We’re very appreciative of our fans in Australia and we’re really excited to be coming back. And it’s not like I’m not saying it because I’m supposed to or as my job or whatever. I mean, we’ve been playing concerts in Australia for a really long time now. I don’t even remember what year it was the first time we came. It must have been like 2001. We’ve seen our audience grow from playing in these little small venues all the way up through big arenas. So yeah, of course we have a connection. And we have a lot of friends too, some of our really close friends that we got to know through playing these shows early in our career are some of our best friends now.
So, it goes beyond our music and beyond just playing the shows.
You’ve spoken to how crazy the early days were, and I imagine those first Australian shows were no exemption. Of course now, you have so many albums and moments from your career to honour in your shows – is it becoming easier, or harder to be Incubus with time?
Mike: It’s both easier and it’s harder because it’s, like you said, we have a lot more music, but at the same time, our fans are very vocal about what they like and what they want to hear. So we kind of try to keep it interesting for us as well while playing songs. I mean, we feel like we’re so lucky that here we are decades and decades later after writing music that is still important to people. So we absolutely want to be able to share that with them. And so yes, it’s challenging to figure out what songs to play, but I don’t know, they’re good challenges to have. We’re really thankful for that.
You tried to get here sooner, but the pandemic got in the way. I’ve spoken to other touring artists post-lockdown who say that they feel a new purpose to touring. Do you feel as though that you are sort of almost ambassador almost of culture? Is that something that you’ve sort of percolated with as an artist?
Mike: Now that things are back on track, we have just a new perspective about traveling and playing shows, especially on the opposite side of the world from where we live. It is a privilege to be able to do it. From my perspective, from the musician artists on stage perspective, the pandemic made me more aware of just how lucky we all are to be able to have the opportunity to travel around the world and play music with our friends. What’s more fun than that? And that’s our life. That’s what we get to do. I think that staying away from playing shows for a couple of years and not just staying away from playing shows, but not being able to play shows for a couple of years, I think for all of us, it was kind of like, wow, okay, this really is our life.
You’ve got all these new albums, but you’re also digging back into the past and you’re revisiting all these old sessions for Morning View XXIII. Is that a weird place to be in, creatively?
Mike: It is been really fun, to be honest. I think my perspective at first may have been more something along the lines of why would we do that? I would’ve probably been opposed to it if it had happened earlier or sooner. But as we got into the process of re-recording the songs, it was actually just a lot of fun and a new way to revisit something that played a very crucial role in the development of our music, of our identity as a band. And just sit inside of that as a 47 now, soon to be 48-year-old something guy. We wrote all that music in our early twenties. So it’s just totally different headspace, totally different everything.
But wow, what a reminder of what an incredible journey it’s been.
Incubus Australian tour dates
Lookout Festival
Saturday, 13th April
Mornington Racecourse, VIC
Tickets: Ticketmaster
Saturday, 20th April
Whitfords Nodes Park, WA
Tickets: Ticketmaster
Additional tour dates:
Wednesday, 10th April
The Hodern Pavillion, Sydney
Tickets: Ticketmaster
Thursday 11th April – SOLD OUT
The Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Tickets: Ticketmaster
Sunday, 14th April – SOLD OUT
Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne VIC
Tickets: Ticketmaster
Wednesday 17th April
The Drive, Adelaide
Tickets: Ticketmaster
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