Naked Lunch

An artist’s craft, I would think, has something to do with the search for truth. In a philosophical sense, a musician is no different per se, than a writer, a painter or a street mime, for in their pursuit of the true vision of the beauty they see inside themselves they all must delve into what might be described as the ‘creative spirit.’

William S. Burroughs knew this. And though much of what he wrote was colored by an incurable lust for a dangerous opiate, he still had a definite vision of the beauty in his art when he said things like, "An addict regards his body more or less impersonally…merely as an instrument to absorb the medium in which it lives." For I believe he could have been talking about much more than just the addiction he knew in the literal sense. It is my belief that he could have meant an addict of life, an addict of the sense of possibility, the beauty of being alive.

In talking to Brandon Boyd, the lead singer of Incubus, I found it perhaps even more apparent that he may have understood a little of what this fellow artist—Burroughs—was talking about. I got the feeling, in discussing some of the driving emotions behind their new album, aptly titled Make Yourself, that Mr. Boyd the artist is feeling fine, and in his soft spoken, calm way, is in a definite search for The Truth.

Well, we have been on tour with Primus for the past month and then we’re going to be doing just three shows, one of them is in Chico, as you know, and then were home for the holidays. After that we’re going to do Sno-Core. The current lineup so far is us, System Of A Down and RUN DMC.

Yeah, I’m very excited about going out with System Of A Down again, those are good friends of ours and we haven’t been on tour with them in over a year, and RUN DMC should be amazing. We borrow samples from them occasionally.

I’ve given that advice before. [laughs] I’d say, don’t stress out too much. 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.

I would say that, for me, as far as my personal success meter is concerned, I’d consider myself successful because I have been lucky enough to pursue a career that makes me very happy. It makes me feel fulfilled, and that’s creating and making music, and painting and stuff like that. And the fact that I have been able to do that and stay above ground and not to have to go get a job at McDonald’s makes me successful. I haven’t sold a million records, but that’s okay.

Definitely favorite authors—Robert Anton Wilson, big favorite of mine…

Probably what he’s most famous for is a book called The Illuminatus Trilogy written with Robert Shea. It was a huge, cult, sci-fi hit in the mid ‘70s. He is now basically considered a futuristic [writer], and I would consider him that. He considers himself a ‘guerrilla anthologist,’ which is quite funny. I am a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut.

Wow, I would imagine if you’d like that guy, I was going to ask you about Kurt Vonnegut next.

Yeah, I love it. I love his stuff.

Great book, huh. Did you read Cat’s Cradle?

That’s an awesome book…Galapagos is really good too.

Yeah, with um, what’s his name?…the Die Hard guy….

Yeah, I’ve seen all the previews for it but I can’t find it anywhere down here. I’m a big fan of Tom Robbins. I got on this Bukowski kick for awhile. He’s a different type of writer than all those guys but he’s a good read.

I love Burroughs as well. I actually found, it was about a year ago, I think I was in Kansas, there was this used bookstore, and I found a pristine hardback copy of Queer and it’s in like perfect condition even with like the plastic on…it’s insane. I love his stuff. Actually, I have some spoken word CDs of him with some really cool electronic artists making beats behind his spoken word.

I think it’s a really good idea. I think it’s an idea that has to sort of work it’s glitches out because every form of technology has to go through an adolescence before it can really be seen for its advantages and I think that the mp3 movement is probably still in its adolescence, possibly its infancy. I think it’s a great idea, and it’s exciting, but it is doing certain things to take away from sometimes, the impact of a new album from a band or things like that. You know what I’m saying?

Like, the new ‘something’ comes out—the new Rage Against The Machine or the new Korn is about to come out, and everybody is anticipating it, and it’s like Christmas morning and you know? Already ten thousand people have heard it from mp3 bootlegs and it sort of loses its impact. And you get, like, a not-as-good version of it, like you get half the song from these pirate copies. The same thing happened with us before this record came out. There were people who got a hold of—I don’t know how—they got a hold of copies of the record and they were downloading it, and they were advertising it on certain web sites where you could go get it, and it’s amazingly flattering that people would like to hear it before it comes out. But it’s like, let the cook finish it, his recipe, before you dive into the cookie batter. You know? I think it’s mostly good. It just needs to work itself out a little bit more.

We are basically just trying to write good music, and we’d like to continue writing good music. For some reason, on this new record there’s been more interest from the radio / TV aspects of things to bring us into that limelight a little bit more, which is surprising, but nonetheless flattering and exciting. We want to delve further into the video-making process as well, because it proved to be very exciting and creative. We just finished our first video, which will be airing on 120 minutes this Sunday at midnight, so that’s exciting. I dunno, I’d like to be able to do this as long as possible because it sort of allows me and the other guys in the band to pursue other creative endeavors as well.

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