Incubus and Existentialism
I just finished writing a paper entitled "Incubus and Existentialism." I haven't proof read it, or even read it straight through since I finished. Here is the completely unedited version. Feel free to message me with any criticisms, comments, corrections, etc. I am also not sure how my copy/paste is going to format here:
The terms “existential” and “existentialist” have been used to label many thinkers and artists throughout history on account of the broad context that these labels are afforded by even broader definitions. In essence, existentialism is a philosophical movement that responds to questions regarding the absurdity and ambiguity of our lives with notions of freedom, responsibility and subsequent affirmation of meaning. As Jean-Paul Sartre[1] states in his play, The Flies, “…life begins on the far side of despair” (Sartre 1989, 119), meaning we are always forced to make choices and decisions that are founded upon nothing other than ourselves, and it is not until we act that we have a notion of what it means for a particular self to be. So when we think of existential works of art, they tend to force recognition of the ambiguity of our particular situation and call for a meaningful context to perceive that situation within, effectively motivating our decisions, actions and subsequently, who we are.
The music of Incubus, an alternative-rock group formed in Calabasas, California in 1991 is a prime example of artistry that falls under the “existentialist” umbrella. No matter the stage of their musical progression and artistic development, the defining concepts ubiquitous to all existential works pervade the journey of mood and lyrical poetry the band has produced. Starting with lead vocalist Brandon Boyd, guitarist Mike Einziger, bassist Alex Katunich, and drummer Jose Pasillas, the band had not given themselves a title until playing at a backyard party and was faced with the exigency of doing so,[2] which is congruous with the Sartrean observation that we remain in constant transcendence of our current situation making it difficult to label or categorize the human individual (or in this case, the band collectively made of human individuals). Despite their current title as Incubus, the group sought to continually create without having the need of definitive identification; and especially now, after going through the musical evolution that they have, their name and genre hold no limitations for the group’s creativity.
After adding Gavin Koppell (also known as DJ Lyfe) to the group, Incubus released their debut album Fungus Amongus in 1995, and even in this early stage their affinity with existentialist ideas are evident. Starting with the first track, You Will Be a Hot Dancer, there is a tension between their funky and hard rock sounds along with the concomitant lyrics, which suggest an individual’s desire to be something but fearing the ridicule of the crowd. One of Sartre’s most famous lines, Hell – is other people! (Sartre 1989, 45), depicts the struggle of an individual wanting to create his or herself and be perceived by others in a certain light but having no control over that perception. In this case, although the individual in question is being “egged on” to join the party, one cannot escape the sense of dread expressed in the lyric “Don’t you make fun of me!” spoken in aggressive vocals over heavier instrumentals than the rest of the song.
On their second studio release after being signed to Immortal Records (now known as Epic Records), the evolution of Incubus’s existentialist undertones becomes increasingly apparent. Fungus Amongus and their first major-labor release, Enjoy Incubus, were the beginnings of the band’s musical life and shared the aforementioned lyrics with more playfully venturesome views and behavior. S.C.I.E.N.C.E., however, put forth more assertive statements on individuality and self-creation. “Redefine” calls us to imagine our minds like canisters of ink and our bodies as ink pens, creating whatever we desire to manifest and not limiting ourselves based on what others want us to imagine. The line “We've painted a picture, now we're drowning in paint. Let’s figure out what […] it's about before the picture we painted chews us up and spits us out,” is reminiscent of Herbert Marcuse’s take on society in his essay The Aesthetic Dimension, explaining that we are the creators of our social world and it is up to us to change it when its conditions become subjugating.[3]
As S.C.I.E.N.C.E. moves forward in tracks, it increasingly becomes a critique of the existentialist notion of bad faith – the denial that we, as individuals, are both facticity (in the form of our past and our current limitations to what we can and cannot do) and transcendence (in the form of our future possibilities, since again, we are always transcending our current situation). For a less technical description, bad faith can also be understood as the opposite of authenticity. Turning back to Sartre and his reading of Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time, he states:
Authenticity and individuality have to be earned: I shall be my own authenticity only if under the influence of the call of conscience I launch out toward my own most peculiar possibility. At this moment I reveal myself to myself in authenticity, and I raise others along with myself toward the authentic. (Sartre 1956, 332)
In this analysis, Sartre is telling us that in order for us to live authentically we must break from the “they,” the herd of people moving in unison through the perpetual motions of everyday life. With songs such as “Vitamin” and “Idiot Box,” and lyrics like “T.V., what do I need? Tell me who to believe! What's the use of autonomy when a button does it all?” and “I'm born. I'm alive. I breathe. In a moment or two I realize that the sphere upon which I reside is asleep on its feet,” stating we’re living in “A zombified, somnambulist society,” it’s easy to find continuity with the social critique of the collectively inauthentic other in the form of Heidegger’s[4] “they."
After replacing Koppel with Chris Kilmore (DJ Kilmore), Incubus went on to produce their first platinum album in 1999 with the existential title, Make Yourself. Evolving from heavily funk and metal of the previous albums, Make Yourself is a melodic discovery of the self. Starting with “Privilege” we are taken on a journey of becoming self-aware and affirming one’s individualism in the face of the crowd. “Privilege” has us imagining ourselves dragging our feet in a line of others and experiencing the gift of existence as a chore, but suddenly recognizing our freedom and looking for a “backdoor” within ourselves – a way to escape the herd and exist the way we choose.
Upon this self-realization and break from the herd, “Nowhere Fast” leaves us with the Sisyphean question of whether there is a goal that we are actually working towards, if we would recognize it once we got there, and if we would even care. Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus immediately comes to mind, telling the tale of Sisyphus, the king condemned by the Gods to roll a rock up a hill for eternity, just to watch it roll back down to the bottom once he reached the top. Camus’s essay frames this story within the question of whether our lives truly emulate such an absurd and meaningless existence, and if they do, why do we not commit suicide? His answer is what categorizes him as an existentialist: the fact that we are able to commit ourselves to life and our projects despite the apparent “absurdity” of the world attests to the fact that we have the ability to affirm meaning in some way. I choose to live because I value living, but let us not get too far ahead of ourselves.
Moving forward, the following tracks increasingly make clear our relation to the world and the contingency of our lives. “Consequence” tells us that, despite thinking we have a firm grasp on our actions and the consequences that will unfold due to those actions, once you blink “You think everything's been augmented,” and “that you have been left so far behind.” After “Consequence,” “The Warmth” begins with the lyrics “I'd like to close my eyes and go numb, but there's a cold wind coming from the top of the highest high rise today,” which shares continuity with the idea of Sisyphus watching his boulder roll down to the bottom of the hill after reaching the top. Later in the song, however, we are told “So don't let the world bring you down. Not everyone here is that […] cold. Remember why you came and while you're alive, experience the warmth before you grow old.” Camus’s prescription for overcoming the absurd is a change of perception, which is, in essence, the existentialist notion of freedom. Because the only thing necessary, to the existentialists, is that we are in a situation, the fact that the details of our lives are left to the interpretation of how those details are related and meaningful to us means thatfreedom is our ability to change our perception of a particular situation. In the case of Sisyphus, he was able to find comfort in the recognition of the situation being his own, allowing him to accept it. Where Camus differs from other existentialists such as Sartre, is in the other existentialist’s understanding that the interpretation of one’s situation motivates acts, and it is those acts that defines the individual.
With this recognition of freedom being the interpretation of our situation comes the risk of other’s attempting to control that freedom with their own ideas and projections of meaning on to one’s life and worldview. “When It Comes” warns of this risk and temptation to charge like a bull to a matador taunting one with his or her reddest red cloth. The song “Make Yourself,” which shares the title of the album, is the pivotal recognition that the individual is his or her own foundation. Summed up in the lyrics:
If I hadn't made me, I would've been made somehow
If I hadn't assembled myself, I'd have fallen apart by now
If I hadn't made me, I'd be more inclined to bow
Powers that be, would have swallowed me up
But that's more than I can allow
You should make amends with you
If only for better health, better health
But if you really want to live
Why not try, and make yourself
Although the lyrics state if one does not “make oneself” then another would, they also tell us that it is something to be allowed, reaffirming the self to be its own foundation. Following this comes “Drive,” asking if we can find the courage to “drive” ourselves, despite seeing that the norm seems to be allowing others to take the wheel out of fear. In the same lyric is an affirmation of taking control of one’s own life, “whatever tomorrow brings.”
To the existentialists, a recognition of oneself is often accompanied, if nor required by, a recognition of the Other, and “Clean” and “Pardon Me” again highlight the individual-Other struggle discussed earlier in this paper with the mention of Sartre’s quote, “Hell – is other people!” To clarify, however, Sartre does not mean that all relations with people are “hellish.” To give an explicit account of this, he states:
“Hell is other people” is only one side of the coin. The other side, which no one seems to mention, is also “Heaven is each other”. Hell is separateness, uncommunicability, self-centeredness, lust for power, for riches, for fame. Heaven on the other hand is very simple, and very hard: caring about your fellow beings. And that’s possible on a sustained basis only in collectivity. (Gerassi 2009, 130) [edited]
This view is starting to become apparent on the last track of Make Yourself in “Out from Under,” where we are called to “resist and multiply” in rebellion against any attempt to stifle our freedom, which is what Sartre hints to as the overcoming of the individual-Other struggle; a collective valuing of freedom in-itself rather than the attempt to be recognized as the individual we are attempting to affirm.[5]
Following their double platinum Make Yourself, the next double platinum was released in 2001 under the title Morning View. Here the band’s focus shifts from different conditions of existence and freedom to that of relationships, whether it be a romantic or existential relationship with another, or a loving relationship with oneself. The album does, however, retain its existentialist undertones in songs such as “Just a Phase,” which questions the authenticity of an individual’s actions with lines like “Who are you?” and “…sooner than later they'll be throwing quarters at you on the stage.” It is also here where the concept of sight becomes introduced, which is pertinent to understanding the fundamental, ontological relation between the self and the Other.
Sartre tells us that we encounter the other through the look, making me fully aware of myself through the eyes of the Other and destroying my possibilities in the form of rendering the world of my experience objective. To recite the infamous “keyhole” example, if I am peeping through a keyhole to spy on whoever is on the other side of the door and I hear a creak in the floor behind me, I immediately become aware of myself and feel ashamed. I am no longer the individual I may want to believe myself to be, but see myself as I expect to be seen by the Other. Even if I turn around and no one is there, just the idea of another’s gaze upon me is enough to motivate a reflective act, forcing me to face my relation to the world that is populated with others than myself. Therefore, instead of being able to passively live life while selectively attributing to myself desirable characteristics, I am forced to recognize myself as others see me, which may then lead me to question those desirable characteristics, and in an effort to affirm them, attempt to convince the Other that I am the individual who I think myself to be; thus, better understanding that line once again at the end of No Exit.[6] Coming back to Morning View, “Echo” offers us the lyric, “There’s something about the look in your eyes. Something I noticed when the light was just right. It reminded me twice that I was alive.” “Under my Umbrella” also states “I refuse to kneel before the sights you choose to see,” congruous with the idea of our keyhole analysis.
After replacing bassist Katunich with Ben Kenney in 2002, the group went on to release their studio album, A Crow Left of the Murder…, on February 3, 2004. Upon recognition of the self and one’s freedom in addition to the resolution of the self-other relationship in collectivity, progression would naturally dictate rebellion against the current status quo, which seems to be the main theme of this release. A group of crows is called a murder, and the title can refer to a number of metaphors, such as an individual with politically “leftist” leanings outside the realm of the political powers, or just an individual outside of the crowd. In any case, it is difficult to deny that the album itself is politically charged, with its first track, “Megalomaniac,” stating “If I met you in a scissors fight I’d cut off your wings on principle alone,” or “…all of us are heaven sent. There was never meant to be only one,” followed by the frequent line “step down, step down.” The wings could easily be referring to the parties in office, and the song as a whole seems call for a more truly democratic government. The second track that shares its title with the album tells us to “Look, find, free,” or in other words, examine what’s before you and free yourself from the bias of the possible fictions of others. On the other side of rebellion, though, is fear and avoidance, which is the theme of “Agoraphobia,” caused by the obscure rhetoric that is often attributed to politicians and newscasters. The tracks progress with “Beware! Criminal!” and “Sick Sad Little World,” creating a more elaborate narrative that paints a portrait of what occurs if we allow ourselves to fall into that mode of fear and avoidance – a 1984.
Returning to the tone of rebellion, “Pistola” shows us that our words – especially our writings – are a powerful weapon against this type of tyranny, with lyrics like “My secret arsenal is an infinite ageless inkwell. It's a fountain of youth and a patriot's weapon of choice.” Most of the songs that follow continue this type of political critique, and the notion that words and ideas are the way to overcoming superficial and oppressive rule is through ideas moves to become the core of their next album, Light and Grenades. Light and Grenades debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 Charts in 2006, and when asked about the title, lead vocalist Boyd answered:
There is a song called "Light Grenades," and if I were going to sum up that song conceptually it's the idea that most significant change in culture and humanity have happened as a result of advances in weaponry, which is interesting and devastatingly predictable as well. I would like to see a re-definition of what true change can be, so throwing weapons that are intellectually based as opposed to weapons that destroy. So it's like throwing ideas that explode with light, consciousness, truth and evolution. So were lobbing Light Grenades and they burst with the truth.
As a band we believe in Art as a force for change. (Taliaferro )
The latest studio album release from the band, If Not Now, When? became available July 12, 2011. It marks a new phase in the group’s development, thought, and creativity. As is implied in the title, this album is a reflection on time with a realization of modernity. Boyd writes:
“Tomorrow’s Food” was written about two years ago. Making it the first song penned for this album. Here Michael shows us once again how deep his musical well runs. A vibrant, sonic quilt is wrapped around us and we are lulled by its choices and its warmth. Lyrically I am specifically referencing Philosopher Ken Wilbur’s quote from A Brief History Of Everything, “No epoch is finally privileged. We are all tomorrow’s food. The process continues. And spirit is found in the process itself, not in any particular epoch, or time, or place.” No one had ever put so succinctly and eloquently into words how I felt about growing up. About reaching my mid-thirties. After reading this quote, and witnessing the vast push and pull at play between the old and the new, the young and the not so young, I saw the inherent beauty and wisdom in the process of it all. And consequently, wrote a song about it. It is in this reporter’s opinion that we are in the midst of a massive shift. Culturally, ethically, artistically, technologically, intellectually, philosophically and spiritually. Almost of the “-ally’s”. This shift has occurred before; with different details and end results of course. And this shift will happen again. (Firecloud April 14, 2013)
After years of artistic meditation and creative expression, Incubus’s work, whether directly or indirectly, is a precise reflection of existentialist thought. From the early years of Fungus Amongus all the way through If Not Now, When?, we see a collective consciousness evolve from the stages of reflection and discovery to rebellion against the tyrannical other and a fluid acceptance and excitement of the future and all the projects it has to offer. After all, existentialism does not just make us aware of the conditions of our existence; it is the existentialists that give us a way to transcend the initial confrontation with absurdity by prescribing a passionate commitment to creating oneself by choosing one’s way of life through projects. Incubus embodies these ideals, and I look forward to all that is yet to come.
Firecloud, Johnny. Antiquiet, "Brandon Boyd Details New Incubus Album." Last modified April 13, 14. Accessed September 22, 2013. http://www.antiquiet.com/news/2011/04/incubus-brandon-boyd-message-if-not-now- when/.
Gerassi, John. Talking with Sartre: Conversations and Debates. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology. Edited by Hazel Barnes. New York: Citadel Press, 1956.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. The Flies. No Exit and Three Other Plays. Edited by Stuart Gilbert. New York: Vintage International, 1989.
Taliaferro, Patrick. Men's Fitness, "Incubus' Brandon Boyd." Accessed September 22, 2013. http://www.mensfitness.com/leisure/entertainment/incubus-brandon-boyd.
[1] The 20th-century French philosopher who was one of the most influential advocates for the existentialist movement.
[2] See the 1998 House of Blues interview on Incubus’s YouTube channel, IncubustTV.
[3] See The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics, by Herbert Marcuse
[4] I am not claiming that Heidegger was an existentialist, but he did have a significant influence on 20th-centry existentialist thought.
[5] See David Detmer’s Freedom as a Value: A Critique of the Ethical Theory of Jean-Paul Sartre.
[6] “Hell – is other people!”
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