INCUBUS

Incubus is an American rock band from Calabasas, California. The band was formed in 1991 by vocalist Brandon Boyd, lead guitarist Mike Einziger, and drummer Jose Pasillas while enrolled in Calabasas High School and later expanded to include bassist Alex "Dirk Lance" Katunich, and Gavin "DJ Lyfe" Koppell; both of whom were eventually replaced by bassist Ben Kenney and DJ Kilmore respectively.

Incubus has attained commercial success, reaching multi-platinum sales, as well as releasing several successful singles. The band earned mainstream recognition with the release of their 1999 album Make Yourself which spawned the popular singles "Pardon Me" and "Stellar". In 2001, Incubus became even more successful with the single "Drive" and their follow-up album Morning View which included the popular hits "Wish You Were Here", "Nice to Know You" and "Warning". Their sixth studio album, Light Grenades, debuted at No. 1 in 2006 and has received Gold certification in the U.S. Incubus released their first greatest hits album Monuments and Melodies in June 2009, accompanied by a tour of the United States, Japan and Canada. The band's most recent album, If Not Now, When?, was released on July 12, 2011. Incubus also released the EP Trust Fall Side A in 2015 and has plans to release their, as yet untitled, eighth studio album in 2017. Incubus has sold over 23 million albums worldwide.

Over the course of their career, Incubus has incorporated elements from a variety of genres and styles, including alternative metal, alternative rock, art rock, heavy metal, electro, funk, funk metal, jazz, hip hop, nu metal, pop, rap metal, techno, thrash metal, post-grunge, and trip hop. With many critics praising the band's ambition, it has also made them difficult to correctly classify. The band has used a wide variety of instruments in their music that are not traditionally associated with use in rock music, including a djembe, sitar, didgeridoo, and bongos on many of their earlier tracks and during live performances, and with the use of a pipa given to the band by rock musician Steve Vai which is played by Einziger in the song "Aqueous Transmission".

Prior to finding mainstream success in the early 2000s, Incubus were often grouped in with the nu/alternative metal movement of the 1990s, alongside other Californian bands such as Korn and the Deftones. When asked about his thoughts on the scene in a 2013 interview, Brandon Boyd reflected "Something I know that separated us from nu-metal was a lot of those bands had misogynist lyrics, and we never wrote stuff like that. I never wrote lyrics like that. I guess there were similarities in some of my musical and vocal stylings, but then we came off tour for S.C.I.E.N.C.E. around early ’99, and wrote Make Yourself, which was a vastly different album but we were still the same band. We don’t try and create any kind of album really. I don’t attempt to write any kind of music, this is just what comes out."

Their Influences include Faith No More, Mr. Bungle,[56] Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alice in Chains, Ani DiFranco, Stone Temple Pilots, Primus, Fishbone, Suicidal Tendencies, Beastie Boys, Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine, The Police and Jane's Addiction.