Brandon Boyd has shared a new animated video for his latest single, ‘A Better Universe’ – you can watch it below.
Produced by John Congleton, the rousing new track is the fourth to be lifted from the Incubus frontman’s upcoming new solo album, ‘Echoes And Cocoons’.
In a statement explaining the inspiration behind ‘A Better Universe’, Boyd said: “Did you ever encounter someone so far gone in their malignant narcissism and self aggrandizing, self assured egomania that all you could do was take a deep breath and walk away? Of course you have, you see a potential ‘them’ in the mirror each day.
“Have you ever wished that that ‘someone’ would die? Would that even solve the problem? For if they found an audience so eager and ready to glutton themselves on the message, could it not be argued that there will be yet another wolf in wolf’s clothing waiting in the wings to rush in and fill that void? I found myself in the teeth of this dilemma recently and I struggled with the ethical problem that was clinging to its heels. Then, shortly after locking horns with this philosophical bull, I met the person whom I’d come to this unfortunate impasse with in a dream.”
Boyd then went on to quote some of the song’s lyrics: “I met you in a dream, and in the dream you died/ I slow danced on your grave, and I got all teary eyed/ I woke up with a smile, wiped the tears away/ I wished that it were real/ So it goes, so I’ll say, I’m sorry but it’s a better universe without you in it/ Did you read the book or did you just see the movie?/ Every breath you take is just a waste of air.”
“Do I wish ill upon my fomenter? I do not. I can say that with confidence,” he continued. “But what if they met an untimely demise in a liminal, imaginary space? Say, for instance, in a detailed dream, a house carried by some spinning storm from the Great Plains fell upon my striped socked tormentor, crushing the breath out of them forever…what then? Then, inside the relatively safe confines of said dream-scape, I’d weep a single tear from each eye, mourning the unfortunate feeling of cosmic gratitude and my internal glee at said tornado’s impeccable aim. I’d wipe the tears away and dance a slow but celebratory jig on the place where this imaginary beast was buried…all to the sounds of a song entitled ‘A Better Universe’.”
The track comes alongside an epic, animated video that sees a cartoon Boyd take on a Wizard Of Oz style witch – complete with flying monkeys – in a battle for his heart.
Reminiscent of the same aesthetic and artistic approach taken by Gorillaz in some of their music videos, Boyd’s stunning new visuals are directed by Alex Sarzosa, produced by Tristan Zammit, and include additional artwork from Planet Hell Animation Studio, Part Time Seagull, iana1, and Rodrigo Silveira. You can watch it above.
‘A Better Universe’ follows the singles ‘Pocket Knife’, ‘Petrichor’ and ‘Dime In My Dryer’, all three of which are set to appear on ‘Echoes And Cocoons’, the follow-up to Boyd’s last solo project, 2013’s ‘Sons Of The Sea’. The LP – which is due out March 11 – is produced by Grammy Award-winning producer and engineer John Congleton.
Discussing his upcoming album in a recent interview with NME, Boyd said: “It’s really cool. It’s a very different record for me.”
“What I’m going to do is put out a single every five or six weeks and then hopefully drop the actual album sometime in February,” he explained.
As for Incubus, the band’s most recent project was last year’s ‘Trust Fall (Side B)’ EP, released via ADA Worldwide. Asked about the progress of the band’s next album, the follow-up to 2017’s ‘8’, Boyd said the band hope to have something out by spring next year.
“We went out and did some shows and we’re all rehearsed up and ready to play,” said Boyd. “Our intention is to put together a new group of songs, whether it’ll be an EP or an LP, I’m not sure, but we’re hoping to have that done sometime by spring – but there’s a lot of hope in that statement.”
In October, Incubus celebrated the 20th anniversary of their seminal fourth album ‘Morning View’ with a livestream concert of the record performed in its entirety at the Malibu beach house it was originally recorded in.
Speaking on the initial decision to record the album in the house on Morning View Drive in Malibu, Boyd talked to NME about the making of the record and how they wanted to be free from distractions during the recording process.
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