After two decades of writing and performing with multiplatinum L.A. rock band Incubus, vocalist Brandon Boyd had been looking for a new artistic challenge. The 37-year-old previously released a solo album, “The Wild Trapeze,” in 2010, in between Incubus’ 2006 album, “Light Grenades,” and the group’s seventh studio effort, 2011’s “If Not Now, When?” But he never toured in support of it, nor stepped in front of a live audience to perform it.
Last year, with his band on hiatus following a lengthy global trek, Boyd hooked up with longtime collaborator and producer Brendan O’Brien to work on a fresh project the duo dubbed Sons of the Sea. O’Brien had helmed the last three Incubus works, including “A Crow Left of the Murder …” in 2004, during which time the pair discussed someday embarking on an offbeat venture. With the timing just right, they huddled into the studio and wrote new material.
“One of the things that I always appreciated about (O’Brien) was what he was always able to bring a lot to the table creatively,” Boyd says during a phone interview late last month. “Among other things, he’s a fantastic musician, but he was the first producer who was truly willing to challenge me as a singer and as a writer. I enjoyed working with him for many reasons, but that was the thing — he had a lot of courage. And so after 10 years of making records with him, we just thought we’d try putting on a different suit.”
With Incubus, Boyd has entertained millions in large amphitheaters, stadiums, arenas and at major festivals before as many as 80,000 people. But he admits to being extremely nervous about hopping back into smaller clubs and concert halls to share songs off Sons of the Sea’s self-titled debut, released last September.
At the time of our interview, he was preparing to “see the whites of the audience’s eyes” with his new outfit at a club in Washington, D.C., a gig that kicked off his solo jaunt on Jan. 27. It makes three stops in his native California next week, including House of Blues San Diego on Tuesday, the Glass House in Pomona on Wednesday and L.A.’s Belasco Theater on Thursday.
Boyd describes the experience so far as “revealing and also different,” seeing as he never thought most of this material would ever come to light.
“It’s great because I get to play with these amazing musicians that are really talented, but it’s interesting because it’s also made me appreciate the strengths of being in Incubus,” he shares. “Just the way that my friends in Incubus play music and attack their instruments, or don’t attack them — this is a whole new thing for me.”
The singer doesn’t fare well with idle hands. Too much free time and pent-up creative energy can spiral him into madness, he explains, which is why he has woven a variety of art forms into his repertoire: photography, drawing, short poems, lyric ideas. He has issued three books: “White Fluffy Clouds” (2003), “From the Murks of the Sultry Abyss” (2007) and last year’s “So the Echo,” all of which spotlight samplings of his passions.
“During the hardest times of my life, all of that tends to sort of spill out at the same time,” he says. “Then I go through periods of drought and I try not to get down about it. I just watch movies, read books or go surfing, and when the flood comes back, I welcome it very open-heartedly.”
His aspiration for Sons of the Sea is that the project eventually becomes more of a collective supporting a variety of players and ideas while sustaining a “revolving-door sort of policy.” Once his mini-tour concludes in San Francisco on Feb. 15, he will return to working on his art and might reunite with members of Incubus. That band remains more or less on an extended break, though it did regroup for a quick series of South American dates in December. Boyd insists there are no concrete plans or deadlines for a new album.
“That tour of South America was an amazing trip and we were reminded of how much fun it is to play concerts and make music together,” he says. “There is this indefinite holding period, but we’re still very excited about the band. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some kind of stirring from Incubus in the not-so-distant future.”
Brandon Boyd and Sons of the Sea
SAN DIEGO: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, House of Blues, 1055 5th St., $25
POMONA: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, The Glass House, 200 W. Second St., Pomona, $30
LOS ANGELES: 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13, The Belasco Theater, 1050 S. Hill St., Los Angeles, $29.50
INFORMATION: theglasshouse.us, ticketfly.com, ticketmaster.com, houseofblues.com
