Tennessean.com
Saturday,
Incubus offers no apologies
By JASON MOON WILKINS
Incubus wasn't really trying to rock the boat
or the vote in 2004 when the band released its acclaimed new album, A Crow Left
of the Murder, but in this extremely reactionary election year, its hit single
Megalomaniac has become a rallying cry and a bull's-eye for people on both
sides of the presidential campaign.
For those who oppose the incumbent, the
message of Megalomaniac is as clear as its chorus is coarse: ''Hey
megalomaniac/You're no Jesus/Yeah you're no (expletive) Elvis . . . Step down.
Step down.'' Musically, it is equally confrontational with a monstrous rhythm
attack and a riotous fist-pumping melody that quakes with sincere ferocity.
People who were expecting something a little
lighter from the band that piled up platinum success primarily due to its
sensitive rock ballads were certainly blown out of their chairs upon hearing
this one. But Brandon Boyd, Incubus' lead singer, was equally taken aback by
the backlash to the single and its even more controversial video (which paired
images of Hitler and Stalin with a Bush-like character flanked by slogans such
as ''Heroes Don't Ask Why'').
''When we wrote this song and did the video,
in no way was it a lash out against George W. Bush,'' Boyd says. ''I was
thinking specifically, in mind, about a person whose (identity) is
inconsequential and, for lack of a better term, inappropriate. But I think that
it's a beautiful thing that people have attached their own idea en masse to the
song. It will probably go down in history as that 'anti-Bush rock song.' ''
''It's funny because Floria (Sigismondi), the
woman who directed the video, wasn't even making an anti-Bush video,'' Boyd
recalls. ''When she cast that guy, who looks a little bit like George W. Bush,
and this is coming straight from her mouth, 'That's a friend of mine who I
thought looked like a good businessman with big ears.' But it has reflected the
cultural perspective or outlook on things. But the song wasn't a lash out at
him, it was just, like, 'What do you see in this ink blot?' And I saw one thing
and everybody else saw something else.''
Regardless of intention, Incubus and Boyd
certainly haven't shied away from politics, and Boyd is quick to unashamedly
share his views, unafraid of the backlash that has beset artists such as The
Dixie Chicks and Linda Ronstadt.
''The people who are bashing human beings,
American citizens, for their opinions, those are the most un-American people
out there,'' Boyd says. ''When people start allowing that kind of behavior,
that's when we start walking back into the dark ages. That's like saying we
should only let politicians elect the president. (Laughs) Well, in a lot of
ways that's how it works with the Electoral College.
''I applaud The Dixie Chicks and Linda
Ronstadt. I applaud anybody who has the courage to do that because they have
the right to do it, and if you're not exercising your basic rights, you're
basically just handing them off to somebody else who will probably end up using
them against you.
''I think this
is our generation's struggle. There are a lot of bands coming out and writing
songs about (politics) for the first time since the '60s and rock is finally
correlating their efforts again. It's funny. I saw this thing on the cover of a
German magazine that said, 'Thank you, George Bush.' They were thanking him
because all these bands were writing all these great songs about him.''