We caught up with the lead guitarist of Incubus, Mike Einziger ahead of the band’s concert in KL this weekend. The Harvard scholar (did you know he went to Harvard?) talks to us about the band's new album and jumping off the Petronas Twin Towers.
What was it like getting back to the studio after five years?
I think when we took some time away and reunited in the studio, we all felt re-energised. Time spent away from the band was good for everybody.
Have your inspirations changed as musicians after five years of not being in the studio?
I spent a lot of time studying different areas of science that I’m interested in like human evolutionary biology, history and philosophy of science, quantum physics and Einstein’s work. I guess studying the great mysteries of life really perked me up.
You cried when you first heard Brandon’s lyrics on the ‘If Not Now, When?’ album. What gave you the courage?
First of all, I think I’m the luckiest person in the world to be able to play in a band with somebody who I think is the best singer of our generation. But I’ve never seen Brandon write such straight-forward material before. It’s definitely the most simple, the most concise, the most eloquent stuff I’ve ever heard from him.
Your new single, ‘Adolescence’ takes us back to a vintage Incubus sound. What can we expect from the new album?
It’s tough for me to answer the question, because I live so inside the music. I don’t see it objectively the way our fans do. But compared to the other songs in the album, ‘Adolescence’ is really nothing like the others. This will be a challenging album for our fans.
Of all your seven studio albums, which one connects to you the most?
They all mean so much to me and they’re all like our children. It’s like having to pick your favourite child. I can’t pick a favourite child! But I can say that our favourite album will always be our newest one. Because if it weren’t, it would kinda suck to be like ‘Yeah, we’re gonna put this new album out but we don’t think it’s quite as good as the last one’. We’ll only put an album out if we think it’s the best album we’ve ever made or could possibly make so that’s what we’ve got now.
If you guys were given a chance to bungee jump off the Petronas Twin Towers, would you do it?
That would be really fun, but you should think about whether or not you want us to have a concert [laughs].
What can we expect at the concert this time around?
I’m sure we’re gonna play some new music here in KL, we’ll also play a lot of music we know that our fans want to hear, music from all of our albums. We’re gonna do our best to bring a really great set.
Incubus plays Stadium Negara on July 23. Click here for the full event listing.
