"Pop is an easy way for evil business people to make a lot of money.
But I find myself humming a Christina Aguilera song every once in a while." - Brandon
On Chuck "He exists in the heart of every young person in America." --Brandon "If he's in anything such as a suitcase don't go anywhere near it." -Mike
"We used the name Incubus since the beginning and we've been trying to get rid of it ever since!"-Mike
The coolest thing in the world is being on the Ozzfest in the middle of the day, with 10,000 sweaty people drinking beer, singing along to [our cover of Madonna's] "Like a Virgin." -Brandon Boyd
"Most people are not just angry all the time. There's definitely a time and place where a lot of that music can seem relevant in your life. I can go to that place sometimes, but [most] of the day I'm pretty happy. We all seem to be doing OK, so it's hard to be pissed all the time. Sometimes music like that can come across as insincere when you know that somebody else's life is actually going really good and all they're talking about is how it is tough to be them." -Alex Katunich
"Most of our evolutions as a band have been very natural. A lot of what [makes] a band heavy is guitar distortion. I know Michael has been slowly drifting away from that metallic sound, even though we never really considered ourselves to be a heavy metal band. His guitar tones have become a lot more warm, as opposed to crunchy. Also, I think that we've just been getting better at writing songs as a group. We were very young when we started this band. We're still learning our art." -Brandon Body
"I find it quite annoying. But I don't really pay it that much mind because I know how fickle it is. I know that it's a door that swings both ways. If the focal point is on me at the moment, I will also be the one who's going to be sh-- upon by everyone when the time comes. I stress the word 'when.'" -Brandon Boyd on getting all the band's attention
"I think we should kick Brandon out of the band and get some really big, fat, ugly guy. Then the critics will like us." -Mike Einziger
"People slowly destroy themselves doing what they think they have to do to make ends meet. I like what I do. I love being able to express and create. But I also see it as a means to allow me to do [more internal work] without having worldly distractions like a nine-to-five job. I always want to be able to read and have the time to draw." -Brandon Boyd
"There's pressure to be a heavy band in this whole scene, and we just really turned our backs on it completley. I think the world or rap-metal is just pathetically ridiculous. In my opinion, it's a very horrible place to be. We don't want to be part of anyone's little bullshit scene." -Mike Einziger
"Our fans are a bit militant, God bless 'em. That someone could give us a glowing review, make a factual mistake and our fans could glom on to that like a fucking piece of meat in a pihrana-infested pool, that's crazy. I gotta take that as some sort of dysfunctional compliment." - Brandon
"Don’t let a grade decide your self-worth. Personally, in my opinion, someone should gauge their self-worth on what they’ve accomplished that makes them feel good….not in the hedonist aspect, but in the sense of personal accomplishment, as far as what they’ve accomplished for them, as far as their self development and creativity is concerned." -Brandon Boyd
"I think freedom of speech is important, but coupled with responsibility"-Brandon Boyd
"My neighbor was Steven Adler from Guns N'Roses. He used to live right behind me, so I'd hear him playing the drums at like four in the morning and the whole neighborhood was actually listening to these drums. Everyone was completely irate. Well, all of his neighbors except for me. That kinda just sparked interest in drum playing for me."-Jose Pasillas
"I’ve met kids who come because they can identify with the things I’m writing about. I know there’s a bunch of kids that come because they worship Michael’s guitar playing. I know there are kids that come because they love the way that Dirk plays bass, so on and so forth, kids who are into turntablism. And I love the fact that there’s not really a core identity of the band. I want it to remain sort of nebulous like that. The fact that a whole bunch of different people from different walks of life can come. I meet parents all the time who are into us and they introduce their kids who are like 15 to us and the kids like it too and they come together and it becomes a family thing."-Brandon Boyd
"...as far as our point of view and where I'm coming from and where my band's coming from, we definitely bring a positive outlook. If we are influencing people I hope it is in a positive way, because we're doing something we love. But as far as Brandon's lyrics, he's definitely talking about positive things as opposed to negative things, which is just bursting out these days, a lot of angst ridden angry music. Just in general I think our music is more up beat and positive, but I don't think it's an obligation for us, it just depends on the person and their personality. If someone's very melancholy and depressed, and they're in the limelight, they're gonna bring that out because that's their personality. It depends on the artist, and this is a form of expression, so you're giving what is in you, but it varies from each artist I believe."-Jose Pasillas
"We're all pretty happy guys. We enjoy walking on this earth, and I think that shows in your music."-Chris Kilmore
"I was a black kid adopted into a white family in central Pennsylvania and there was a lot of KKK activity in the area and one night my dad got a tip that the KKK was going to come by. So he sent everybody out of the house, but me to stay with my grandparents and in the middle of the night, there was this loud commotion outside and it was the KKK, being classical KKK; yelling obscenities, yelling racist comments and burning stuff. That’s really all there was to it. They didn’t break into the house or anything like that, nobody got hurt. But growing up as a kid and seeing that, you learn really quick how the world really is and that not everybody thinks like you. That’s what I took from it. Other people might get all mad and angry about it, but I rarely get angry about it because there are other people out there I have to watch out for."-Chris Kilmore
"I’ve been in encounters with people who are very, very keen to prejudge me, based on the way I look. I think I look a little bit more normal at the moment. I feel a lot less normal, but I like to contradict myself like that. Like when I was growing up, I had dreads for quite a long time, I didn’t shave and I rarely bathed either. But I was very conscious, as I am a very conscious person. I would find that police officers were much, much more apt to basically fuck with me when I looked that way. I was obviously probably one of the most annoying things anyone can ever come into contact with, but once they would search me down and take the gun away from my head, they’d be like, "Alright, go." And you’d feel kind of empty, like, "What the fuck was that for? Give me a ticket or something. Let me have some piece of something." But I’ve been relatively lucky actually; I haven’t really come into too much contact with it. I’ve had friends of different ethnic persuasions who have had less fortunate situations and that always saddens me."-Brandon Boyd
"I actually auditioned for Alanis (Morisette)'s band when I was like 17, before she got really big. I was just like, Oh, this girl singing these songs . . . and then a few months later it was on the radio, and I was like, What? Damn, I should've tried harder!" -Mike Einziger
"No regrets. Never never any regrets. Everything has been an experience and has led me to now. Everything has been important and essential. Fear... I’m afraid of what people, including myself, are capable of, but it also excites me. I’m afraid of the atrocities that we are capable of and the things that can happen if everyone makes decisions based on fear..."-Brandon Boyd on his biggest fears/regrets
"We named our new CD Make Yourself because there is an on going theme throughout the songs and the album in general. The general theme being, be your own self, think for yourself, and don’t let others bring you down. You don't have to take all the crap that everybody is bombarded with every day in everyday life. Autonomy basically."-Jose Pasillas
"People, like large groups of people, are stupid. Individuals are smart and can deal with things and can make things last and work, but when people get together in big crowds they’re stupid. They turn into sheep, then you have major situations."-Brandon Boyd
"[Selling out] its kinda a weird term, because the first CD that we pressed on an independent label is basically selling out, you know what I mean? you do what you do because you love it, and there's noting else besides that, then you know, basically, the term 'selling out' is having no significance or meaning in our vocabulary."-Jose Pasillas
"I think that the Internet is a very exciting, dangerous, scary, beautiful, thing that is really just starting to rear its head. It’s so new and so untapped that people are just really beginning to really discover its capabilities. I love it personally because it allows me to communicate with my loved ones and my friends and family...to get information in a split second, instantaneously from anything that you could ever imagine. As far as an information resource I think it’s brilliant...it’s dangerous because it is a marketing person’s dream. It will only further our decent into consumer culture, but I think it’s beautiful because there are not huge censorship laws on it yet. We have very dangerous information, which is good as far as I am concerned, right at our fingertips if we know where to look. For bands, it allows bands to become noticed sometimes without the help of a record label. So it can be dangerous for the record label too. Once again, it’s another tool for marketing and promotion for the record label. For me, as far as I am concerned, it is a really good thing. I’m very excited about it."-Brandon Boyd
"People have figured out, in the last couple of years, that we actually do know what we're doing, and we're probably best left to our own devices to do it. There's actually never been anybody breathing down our shoulders when it comes to making records. They just need to provide the tools, and we'll take care of it on our own. " - Dirk Lance
"We didn’t do anything to it. We just left it as is. It sucks. You can’t make fruit salad out of horse shit, so we figured we’d just bite the bullet. It’s our musical adolescence captured in all of its digital glory. We did it when we were 16, and our fans really wanted us to release it, so we did." - Mike (when asked about fungus amongus)
FHM: Your singer Brandon's abs seem to get loads of press. If you guys
had to step into the fitness equipment infomercial business, what kind of
device would you sell?
Mike: "Definitely the Ab Roller. That's something Brandon uses a lot while we're on
tour. He tries to make us all use it, but it's hopeless. That's why his abs
look the best. But it's really hard to travel with-
sometimes he'll check it in for a flight and it'll come
out in like three different pieces. I guess if you want great abs, that's the
price you pay."
"Some guys, like Kid Rock, get the girls who just want to sleep with the band," Lance had said earlier that night, "but we get the girls who want to talk intensely about the music. And then you feel bad if you want to sleep with them, because they're there for the music." Sure, but shouldn't he feel lucky that these women are actually into the art of it all as opposed to the pretty-boy pop glamour? "Yes, that's true," Lance admitted, "but sometimes you just want a girl who will sit on a bottle."
"I've been in situations where a girl will be looking at me, and I'll approach her and I'm a little nervous. So I'll make motions and get so nervous it's a lost cause. I almost feel like apologizing. Maybe I weird girls out. Maybe I should stop talking about quantum theory in a bar." - Brandon
"I'm at a point right now where I'm afraid to feel those feelings for a while," he says. "It was a very vivid, difficult experience, because I was honest with her. I didn't cheat on her, I didn't push her away. I would like to learn a lot more about myself and my limitations before I enter again into a relationship, because I have a feeling the next one I enter into will hopefully be the one that lasts." - Brandon Boyd (about his ex-long time girl friend)
"Never underestimate a dumb question." - Brandon Boyd
What is your first memory?
Dirk: That’s a dream that I had when I was little: a little man came out of a plug and tried to grab me, but because he was of electricity, I would get a shock every time.
" It’s frustrating to lose to artists who don’t even write their own songs. Our video for 'Drive' was nominated, but the Brittney's and the boy bands always win the awards. It would be great if there were awards for the artists who write their own songs and for the artists who sing songs from other people but who are good at performing.. Because let’s be honest: Brittney would perform our songs better than us!" - Dirk Lance
"We were playing at a festival in the States with heavy metal bands and we didn’t like it that much. Just to annoy the audience, we decided to sing 'Like A Virgin'. We thought that all those heavy metal fans would go insane, but they liked it and halfway the song everyone was singing along!" - Dirk Lance