By Jason Wolford

Incubus have managed to keep their fans in tact after scoring success with "Pardon Me" from their second LP "Make Yourself." The band will be returning to the road next to reunite with 311 for a tour through the end of June. From there, the band will join Ozzfest 2000 as a mainstage headliner. Expect to hear and see their next single "Stellar" soon.

Jose: Hey Jason how's it goin?

Shoutweb: Going great. What have you been up to?

Jose: Been getting some earplugs. I had had some before but they're small so they're easy to loose. So, I had to get refitted and get that taken care of.

Shoutweb: So, you guys are gonna be on Ozzfest this year.

Jose: That's correct.

Shoutweb: What's it feel like to get invited to play main stage at something like Ozzfest?

Jose: It's cool, you know, to me it's like the best festival tour put together. It's done so professionally and you have nothing to worry about. Things pretty much run on time, which is rare when your dealing with any sort of music or entertainment stuff never comes on time. But you know they 're very professional and Sharon Osbourne is the coolest woman. It's just fun, it's like a two month barbeque. But it's cool I'm excited for it you know?

Shoutweb: Do you know Sharon Osbourne well?

Jose: Yeah. You know we did the Ozzfest before, and they're from LA, so we see them a lot. We see her and Jack and all the kids and stuff, like we were hanging out with them and all the kids and stuff. It's pretty cool.

Shoutweb: So who are you looking forward to playing with the most?

Jose: On that tour?

Shoutweb: Yeah, Ozzfest.

Jose: I've obviously heard of a lot of the music, but I'm not really into it. It'll be cool to meet them and hang out with them, but I'm actually really looking forward to second stage, to see what new music's coming out. It'll be nice to see what new cool stuff is coming out. It's been a while since I've found anything that I really liked that's about something cool.. But I'm just looking forward to the whole touring thing and I'm sure we're gonna make a whole lot of cool friends.

Shoutweb: Which do you find more rewarding, headlining club shows or playing big shows like Ozzfest?

Jose: That's almost like trying to ask what's your favorite band. I have a hundred favorite bands. They're both my favorite for different reasons. Obviously it's rewarding playing your own headlining tour because you get to play longer and play a unique set and have a lot of variety in our music, which we have. So, it's cool to play a whole set. And all the kids are there 100% for you. So, Obviously that's very rewarding. But at the same time playing big festivals is fun. You play in front of more people, and you have more room on stage. They both have qualities that only they possess, it's cool to go from one to the other, and get the best of both worlds.

Shoutweb: So, now that your last tour is over do you have any plans for your break?

Jose: Yeah, my plan is to do absolutely nothing. (laughs) I'm really gonna just take it easy and get reacquainted with my drums. I feel like I don't get to practice on tour. I feel like I loose some of my flair.

Shoutweb: Really?

Jose: Yeah you get to a moment where you're just playing the same songs everyday. And you don't really get a chance to just free flow and jam. I mean we do have a lot of elements in our music where that's what we do is just jam, but you know it's tough to do it when you're supporting. Usually it 's punks that are older and they're more relaxed and funky. And when we're doin' Ozzfest we kinda cater to what kind of crowd it's gonna be. But you know I'm just spending time by myself and getting reacquainted with my kit. Hopefully I'll try and get some surfing and some golf, sort of relax basically. No big plans.

Shoutweb: So, are you glad to be home or are you anxious to get back on the road?

Jose: I'm not anxious quite yet, In another week I think I will be. We were out for like three months and we've been off for about four or five days. I'm just starting to get settled in my house, but give me another two weeks and I'll be rejuvenated and ready to go again.

Shoutweb: What do you guys do to pass time on the tour bus?

Jose: Oh man, we have a lot of time to pass. We do the same things pretty much every day. We read a lot, we're all avid readers. And we watch a lot of movies. There's about three or four movies that are in perpetual motion. It's like Office Space, Friday, Half Baked and probably a couple others. I do a lot of drawing on the road, and we also have a playstation, just basically enything and everything to occupy time. You can only read for so many hours, and you can only play video games for so many hours, and you can only draw for so many hours. But we do a pretty good job at killing time.

Shoutweb: What books have you been reading lately?

Jose: I got into a couple of new authors this last tour. I got this French novelist Albert Camus. He wrote The Plague. That's a classic. And I've been getting into Tom Robins a little bit more. I picked up a couple of his books I haven't read. It's just funny.

Shoutweb: Are you into comedy?

Jose: Yeah kinda, I'm into Kurt Vonnegut, he's very cynical. Just his smart-ass way of looking at things. It's cool and refreshing. There's not really one author that I'm really in to. I ask my friends about good authors to read. I like Hemmingway, Anne Rice, a lot of the beat generation like Alan Ginsberg, Kurt Vonnegut you know that kind of stuff.

Shoutweb: So, what kind of music do you guys listen to?

Jose: Lately it's kinda weird, 'cause I've been listening to some of my earlier influences a lot more. Like I've been finishing my collection of Police albums, Primus albums, I've been listening to Phish once again. There hasn't really been any good new music that's come out that's really caught my attention. So, you know, I've found myself going back to older stuff, and just kind of get reacquainted with that. It's been a while, and I have so many albums that I haven't listened to in so long. There's bands like Foo Fighters that I've followed everything they do. I've been getting some new roots albums, some new Hip-Hop stuff. We all listen to any jazz, any Hip-Hop, just a variety of stuff.

Shoutweb: Have you guys picked your next single yet?

Jose: Yeah we have actually, it's gonna be "Stellar". We're just kinda going through the motions, picking a date to release it, and as far as videos and stuff like that, we're trying to get our party organized, but just kinda putting that thing in motion.

Shoutweb: Are there any plans for the video?

Jose: We're going over director roles, hopefully we'll figure that out over the next couple days. We're gonna just try and get concepts and directors.

Shoutweb: Do you have any possible directors?

Jose: Nothings for sure right now, we're just kinda waiting, but you know it's changing everyday. Only time will tell.

Shoutweb: What other songs on the album are you guys considering for a single?

Jose: I don't know. We were considering "Make Yourself", like a harder song. But every time we come around to deciding what kind of single we want it changes. We take 'em one at a time. Everyone has their own opinions on what it should be so there's always battles and arguments, but I think "Drive" is definitely gonna be a single, maybe even "The Warmth". I think we got a good selection to choose from, but right now "Stellar" is our next one.

Shoutweb: How did the acoustic version of "Pardon Me" come into being?

Jose: Starting with the Snow Core tour Mike and Brandon had been going to radio stations. And most of the songs on our album can be played with just an acoustic guitar. So a radio station asked once if we could do it, and it was a cool idea. We were like, "Yeah definitely" So Brandon and Mike started going to these radio stations and playing acoustically, and it just started picking up. A lot of stations just kept calling and requesting it, and a lot of stations were recording them, and it just kinda took a whole life of it's own. So, it totally came out on a whim, and it's done really well. It happened really randomly ya know?

Shoutweb: What's your personal background in music? What made you decide to start playing drums?

Jose: When I was growing up I was a little skate punk, so I listened to a lot of punk music like Black Flag and Firehose and stuff like that, but it was even before when I was thinking about playing drums. My neighbor was Steven Adler from Guns N'Roses. He used to live right behind me, so I'd hear him playing the drums at like four in the morning and the whole neighborhood was actually listening to these drums. Everyone was completely irate. Well, all of his neighbors except for me. That kinda just sparked interest in drum playing for me. Everything I listened to from there on in I kinda picked up on the drum pieces and all the drum parts. And I was totally intrigued by it, so after a couple of years of playing air drums, I hooked up with Mike who I had been friends with for seven or eight years.. well not that long, but a few years. We were both surfing and skateboarding together and we had a lot of time to kill, so he brought over this old drum kit that he had, and we just started jamin', and we hooked up with Al, he had jammed with Al a couple times, or Dirk, and we all started collaborating, doing cover songs and stuff. Doing Nirvana and Metalica and stuff. It just progressed from there. Brandon came a few months later and we started writing our own original music from there on in. When I started playing drums I was listening to a lot of Primus and Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Those were the bands that were immediately influencing me, cause I was just starting to play and those were the bands that I was totally into. You know it's funny, it's a lot of the modern rock music from when I was growing up. I never really got into any older stuff like Led Zeppelin or jazz or anything like that. It was five or six years after I started playing that I started getting into all that music.

Shoutweb: So what kind of stuff were you guys writing when you first got together?

Jose: It's always been like funk-metal I guess you could say. Sort of always funky, slap bass, and funky beats, but we like heavy music too, so we put 'em together. It's always been like that, but each album varies greatly from the previous one. Our older stuff is more funky, and then later stuff became a little more harder edge. Now it's found a little more melodicness to it, we try to just change it every album. But the old stuff was just really funky.

Shoutweb: I've got a curveball for ya. Do you feel that a musician or actor or anyone in the public view has a responsibility to set a positive example for the younger generation?

Jose: That's a good question. It's kinda hard to tell if they have an obligation, I mean they're just doin' what they wanna do. I don't think they should cater their personality to what society thinks they should be like. But as far as our point of view and where I'm coming from and where my band's coming from, we definitely bring a positive outlook. If we are influencing people I hope it is in a positive way, because we're doing something we love. But as far as Brandon's lyrics, he's definitely talking about positive things as opposed to negative things, which is just bursting out these days, a lot of angst ridden angry music. Just in general I think our music is more up beat and positive, but I don't think it's an obligation for us, it just depends on the person and their personality. If someone's very melancholy and depressed, and they're in the limelight, they're gonna bring that out because that's their personality. It depends on the artist, and this is a form of expression, so you're giving what is in you, but it varies from each artist I believe.

Shoutweb: In reference to your earlier statement about angst filled music, which has been a subject of debate recently, do you feel there is a connection between violent music and violent actions?

Jose: No. I don't think so. I think violent actions are done by people who are pretty radical and extreme. They may be drawn to angry music, but I think whether or not music has influenced them, they're gonna do it anyways. If someone who is not violent or radical listens to it, it's not gonna make them take that leap into crazy actions. It's gonna already be in that person from the beginning, and music may inspire that to be more radical, but I don't think it'll change anybody to be that way. It's a good thing because people can use (violent music) as an outlet that they may not have. A lot of bands are expressing a lot of anger and that can be good for people who share those feelings. They can relate, and it's almost like they're living vicariously through them and their music. They might feel better because of it. I don't think that one has to do with the other. People try to blame violent acts on music and movies and stuff like that, it's pretty ridiculous, it's a scapegoat as far as I'm concerned.

Shoutweb: That is the best answer to that question I have ever heard!

Jose: (laughs) Cool.

Shoutweb: I have a couple of questions from some of your fans here. One of them wanted to know when your birthday was. She's into astrology.

Jose: My birthday is the 26th of this month (April) so probably in about 2 weeks. I'm a Taurus and I like to take long walks on the beach.

Shoutweb: Someone else wanted to know if you were gonna come to Australia anytime soon?

Jose: We hope so. Hopefully this year sometime. We have yet to go to Australia and Japan. From what I hear usually when you do one you do the other. We've definitely been doing okay on record sales and radio over there, so hopefully we'll get that chance. We're as anxious to go there as kids are to see us there. So hopefully that'll connect this year.