Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd has been keeping busy during lockdown...
Brandon Boyd is the latest musician to reveal he's been putting COVID's enforced downtime to good use by recording material for a proposed solo release. Rather than his own tunes, however, the Incubus frontman is putting together a selection of cover songs "mostly by female artists", played on acoustic guitar with accompanying keys, reinterpreting them in his own way.
“The covers – and this was unintentional – are almost all written by women," he told NME. "I think maybe it’s a voice thing. I think my voice is more in that range than it is when trying to emulate most male singers. There are so many songs that I would love to cover but they are so complete on their own.
"Like, there’s certain Leonard Cohen songs that I’ve always wanted to cover, there’s certain Jeff Buckley songs I’ve always wanted to cover, but those songs do not need reinterpretation. If someone does it’s usually kind of insulting. You’re like, ‘Why did you do this?’
Though he hasn't named any of the song's he's been tackling, he went on to explain how he selected the material and what he wanted to do with it.
"I’ve been looking for songs to reinterpret that almost feel unrealised," he said. "They’re beautiful but there’s something about them that the artist themselves weren’t fully aware of so I’m trying to see it through a different pair of eyes.”
As for new Incubus stuff, there's plans for a follow up to 2017's 8 but... COVID, innit?
"We’re definitely gonna make more records," Brandon confirmed. "It’s just the coronavirus situation has kept us from being in a room together. Our band room is sitting there disinfected and just pregnant with potential, but we haven’t been able to get in there yet. So as soon as we can get in there, we are going to be very excitedly writing because there’s a whole universe of things to write about.”
