Brandon Boyd, Jose Pasillas and Mike Einziger met their original bassist, Alex Katunich, while at Calabasas High. In 1991, as Incubus, the band began playing at parties in their neighbourhood. For the next few years, Incubus continued to play live and write music, which cumulated in their first demo recording released in 1994, titled Closet Cultivation.
On January 7th, 1995, the demo tape Incubus was released, featuring songs that would later appear on their first album, Fungus Amongus, and their EP, Enjoy Incubus. On November 1st, 1995, Fungus Amongus was released on the band's own label, "Stopuglynailfungus Music on Chillum".
Between that release and their 1997 major label debut EP, Enjoy Incubus, the band acquired DJ Lyfe, who intorduced hip-hop sounds to the band, but would later be replaced by Kilmore. Enjoy Incubus was released on Immortal Records on January 7th that year, exactly two years after the band's second demo.
Incubus collaborated with DJ Greyboy to produce the song "Familiar" for the Spawn movie soundtrack in 1997. S.C.I.E.N.C.E., was released on September 9th, 1997.
In February 1998, DJ Lyfe was asked to leave, and Chris Kilmore was brought in to fill the (now fairly esteemed) position. The band then continued to tour, playing in Europe and America with the likes of Sugar Ray, 311, Far, One Minute Silence, Cold, Limp Bizkit, (hed) p.e, Snot Soulfly, System of a Down, Korn, Papa Roach, as well as playing the Warped Tour for three dates, the Ozzfest and the Family Values tour in the summer and fall of 1998. A live recording of the song "New Skin" appeared on the Family Values compilation CD.
After touring with Black Sabbath, Incubus began recording Make Yourself, which was released on October 26th, 1999. Immediately they went out on tour again, this time with Primus. "Pardon Me" was released as a single and -- as MTV began playing the video -- the band began to gain a mainstream following.
"Stellar" was the second single released from Make Yourself, and the video was played on MTV and TRL. After playing the Ozzfest tour again, a six song EP, When Incubus Attacks Volume 1, was released. In the first week of its release (August 22nd, 2000), When Incubus Attacks... sold almost 40,000 copies, and reached number 41 on the US Billboard Album Charts.
During the year 2000, Incubus toured with Queen Adreena, 311, Deftones and Taproot and played the Ozzfest again. Fungus Amongus was re-released on November 7th, 2000, as a response to demand for the independently released album.
2001 was a busy year: Incubus went on the road with Hundred Reasons in the summer and played the Area One Festival before their Make Yourself went Double Platinum, selling two million copies. The band also played in Australia and Japan, before touring with Hoobastank in the United States. The "Drive" video was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award in the category Best Group Video, but the award went to N'Sync.
The "Wish You Were Here" single was released on August 21st, 2001, and reached number two in the US. At the end of September the video for "Wish You Were Here" was released, after being re-cut in order to make it more "viewable" in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th.
"Wish You Were Here" was the first single from Incubus' third major label album, Morning View, with was released on October 23rd, 2001. This album was recorded in a mansion on the Pacific coast of California, and the sound of the record is generally seen as a reflection of that environment, as opposed to the basement where S.C.I.E.N.C.E. was recorded. The house was located on a street named "Morning View"; hence the name. In interviews, the band all appeared very positive about their latest release; as Brandon Boyd puts it, "we all moved into a magnificent, Malibu mansion, set up our gear in the living room with a view of the ocean, and began creating what would be our most free-flowing work to date." [1]
Discography
External links