Incubus have set a February 10 release date for their fifth studio album, but one of the new songs is available now.
A live version of “Pistola” is featured on Live at Lollapalooza 2003, the first in a new series of sanctioned bootleg CDs available only at www.incubusbootlegs.com. All profits from the bootlegs will go toward the band’s new Make Yourself Foundation, which will disperse funds each year to charities such as the Painted Turtle and Surfrider foundations.
“It’s something all of us have been musing about for the last couple of years, because we’ve all been interested in different charities that revolve around friends of ours, people that we know,” singer Brandon Boyd explained. “We started feeling like instead of doing little tiny bits personally here and there, why don’t we all band together and make something out of it and try to raise money.”
Incubus, who will also contribute concert revenue to the foundation, are hoping to raise $1 million next year. “We’re excited about it and very confident we can reach our first goal,” Boyd said.
Live at Lollapalooza 2003 was recorded at one show and features hits like “Wish You Were Here” and “Stellar” along with covers of Lionel Richie’s “Hello” and Shudder to Think’s “X-French Tee Shirt.” Jurassic 5’s Cut Chemist and DJ Nu-Mark are featured on “Battlestar Scralatchtica.”
Unfortunately, the album will not include some of Boyd’s most memorable Lollapalooza performances, which happened backstage.
“On a couple of occasions there’d be a room with gear set up, a couple of microphones and a bunch of bored bands waiting for their sets,” Boyd recalled. “I did ‘Number of the Beast’ by Iron Maiden with Steve Perkins and Chris Chaney from Jane’s Addiction and our guitar tech. I sang ‘Highway to Hell’ with Chris Cornell with all the bands watching and jumping around. So there was like this mini dream concert backstage going on. Those were things I was hoping would happen.”
As for the still-untitled new album, Incubus have 16 songs written (the most the band has ever had going into production) and will travel to Atlanta this month to begin recording with Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine).
“Everybody is in a wonderfully frenetic place,” Boyd said. “We’re all very excited. We sort of feel this freshness that has come into the fold. A lot of it has to do with [new bassist] Ben [Kenney], but a lot of it as well has to do with the fact that we haven’t written new music in two years. So we started writing songs, and they were coming out so quickly. And literally, they’re fast. The tempos are quick. There are a few down-tempo numbers, but the majority of the record has got this heated thing going on.”
Along with “Pistola,” the new studio album will include another song Incubus played during Lollapalooza, “Megalomaniac.”
“I write about anything I experience, from sitting in traffic to being in love to not being in love, disputes with people close in life, observations of the world,” Boyd said. “I would hope that people listening to it would read the lyrics and gauge their own interpretations.”
Incubus plan to finish the album before the holidays and then launch a world tour in January, with North American dates beginning in the spring. At least 18 months of touring is projected.
“We’ll be on the road with the same frequency as last time,” guitarist Mike Einziger said. “We love touring. That’s what we do.”
The band will play one U.S. show this fall, Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit near San Francisco on October 25.