In the last seven years, Incubus have only released two studio albums. (During that time, they also put out the compilation Monuments and Melodies.) But those hoping that the band will get back into the studio for the follow-up to 2011's If Not Not, When? won't be happy to hear that a lengthy hiatus might be in store for the group.
That was the major takeaway from a conference call that Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd gave last week. According to Billboard, Boyd said, "We have no plans, to tell you the truth, at the moment. I have been tinkering around, potentially, with a second solo record. That's probably the most likely scenario. But as far as Incubus right now, we'll probably take another break."
Boyd's first solo album was 2010's The Wild Trapeze, which was produced by Dave Fridmann, best known for his work with the Flaming Lips. The album failed to make much of a dent on the charts or on rock radio.
If Not Now, When? featured the singles "Adolescents" and "Promises, Promises," but the album was something of a disappointment commercially, becoming the first Incubus record in more than 15 years not to at least go gold. When Boyd talked about the album before its release, he explained the anguish that inspired its lyrics. "The past couple of years were, I'll just say, educational," he said at the time. "I went through pretty weird and wild health scares where my body was kind of shutting down in certain ways. I went through a great deal of physical pain, and the way I decided to look at it was sort of a late rite of passage. As a result, a lot of the lyrics on this record have been dealing a lot with pain and transcendence." But it appears that the album's reception proved as painful for him as those health issues had been. According to Boyd, personnel changes at their label, Epic, caused If Not Now, When? to fall through the cracks.
"There was a lot of changing of the guard sort of going on," Boyd said last week. "There was a real lack of direction and leadership when we kind of needed it most. It was hard and it was frustrating, but it was also very telling for us and perhaps educational because we were forced into ingenuity... It forced us into thinking outside of that normal music industry paradigm we had gotten so accustomed to." Their relationship with Epic is now over, and Boyd suggested that Incubus aren't sure if they'll release future music by themselves or through a label.
In the meantime, Incubus will be heading off on a tour with Linkin Park in a few days. After that, well, it all sounds very uncertain. "[W]hat we'd like to do is arrive with the best of intentions and try to create music from a sense of urgency as well as purity and not necessarily based on a schedule," Boyd said during the conference call about the possibility of future Incubus albums. "I know that can be frustrating for our listeners and stuff, but I think we'll make better music as a result." Only time will tell.
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