It’s been 20 years since Make Yourself turned Incubus from a funky, alt-metal oddity into mainstream rock stars, thanks to hits like Drive, Stellar, and Pardon Me. But for frontman Brandon Boyd, the record’s success wasn’t some calculated move. “We weren’t identifying with that heavier, macho rock thing happening at the time,” he recalls. “It felt like those bases were already covered. So we just followed our instincts, brought in new influences, and ended up with something that felt like us.”
Boyd credits a long stint touring Europe before Make Yourself for exposing the band to new sounds. “We were obsessed with drum and bass, jungle, and UK underground stuff,” he says. “That influence seeped in. You can hear it on Nowhere Fast and Pardon Me—those fast, syncopated rhythms came from what we were hearing on tour.”
Despite its genre-bending approach, Make Yourself was already doing well when Drive hit the airwaves and sent Incubus stratospheric. The ironic part? They were done with the album cycle by the time it took off. “We were already home, writing Morning View in this big, empty house in Malibu,” Boyd says. “Then Drive blew up, and we were watching it happen from the outside. It was kind of perfect—we got to enjoy it without the pressure.”
While some artists struggle with the weight of a monster hit, Incubus saw Drive as a blessing. “It kept us in the spotlight without us having to force it,” Boyd says. “It was weirdly effortless.”
For all of Make Yourself’s success, it wasn’t smooth sailing behind the scenes. At one point, the band even tried therapy. “Fame and fortune don’t fix your problems—they finance them,” Boyd laughs. “We were experiencing the classic band tensions, so we tried seeing a therapist. We went twice. It… didn’t really do much.”
Now, two decades later, Incubus is gearing up to celebrate Make Yourself on tour—but not in a strict, play-the-whole-album way. “We want to honor it without turning it into a nostalgia act,” bassist Ben Kenney says. “Some songs will be exactly as they were, some might get reworked. We want to drain the record of everything it has to offer.”
For some fans, the tour will also provide a new way to experience the music—literally. Incubus is using MixHalo, a technology guitarist Mike Einziger co-created, that lets fans stream the live soundboard mix straight to their headphones. “You’re not getting the venue’s echo or weird acoustics—you’re hearing what we hear,” Kenney explains.
Incubus isn’t just looking backward. They’ve already debuted Into the Summer, an ’80s-inspired track that Boyd describes as a “fun, weird, knowingly retro” jam. And there’s more where that came from. “We’ve been writing constantly,” Boyd says. “We’ve got a bunch of new material, and we’re just figuring out how we want to release it.”
Kenney, meanwhile, has his own solo record ready to go. “I finished it a few months ago,” he says. “Now it’s just a matter of when to put it out.”
So, does Make Yourself still hold up? Absolutely. “It’s wild to listen back and realize how complete those songs feel,” Kenney says. “They weren’t trying to fit in—they were just themselves. And that’s why they still resonate today.”
Listen to the interview above and check out the video below!
