Mike Einziger: Oh, yeah! It's so rare. We hardly ever tour in SoCal. It's great to get a chance to play here.

VOX: You guys must love to tour.

ME: Yeah, it's a lot of fun. We've done over 300 shows in the last 2 to 2 1/2 years. We get off on the energy and that's the reason we formed this band - we love seeing the fans, the people.

VOX: How did the band come together?

ME: Well, we started off in high school, really just screwing around. I think it was out of boredom more than anything. You know how it is - when you're a kid you want to play in a band, though I don't think we had any plans to make it a career. We were all sort of into other things. But things can take on a life of their own, and we just let it happen.

VOX: There aren't too many other things going on out in Calabasas (California, where the band members grew up).

ME: Calabasas is really a great place to have grown up. I can't say anything bad about it. It was close enough to the valley…LA, close enough to head to beach and get some surfing in - Malibu isn't that far away - but it's also far enough away that we could enjoy our time growing up. It's really a place where a kid can be a kid and not worry too much about getting in all kinds of trouble.

VOX: Where does the Incubus name come from?

ME: We were jamming for a few months, and we were going to play a party, and we needed a name. We really just stuck our finger in a thesaurus and that's what we ended up with, without even knowing what it meant. We thought we would change it eventually, but we just never did. Luckily it's worked for us.

VOX: What do you think of the LA music scene?

ME: There's not really a music scene here that I know of. There's a bunch of bands out of LA, but there isn't much of a music scene here. You know, people here don't go to a club to see the hot local bands and lend their support. You can't just go out in LA on any given night to the clubs and check it out like you can in other places - it's jaded here, much more spoiled, because every tour comes through here. It's not like the people in some small town in the Midwest who may head into the city for a show that's important to them, but normally they go and support the local bands. I don't think people here say, "Hey, it's Thursday, let's head on down to the Troubadour and see what's up."

VOX: This album really sets you apart from the other bands in the genre. Was that a conscious effort?

ME: Yes and no. There is always a conscious effort to create something special. S.C.I.E.N.C.E. was by far the heaviest stuff we had written, and we were looking to do something different. Generally speaking, though, it's partially a reflection of what we have been listening to - Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Korn, Limp Bizkit, 311, the Foo Fighters and so on, and even though we may not realize it, it influences what we put out.

VOX: Have you found yourselves having a different perspective on things as you get older?

ME: Completely. Having traveled the world a few times, you see a lot, and you grow from it. Every time we go back to do something new, we apply it all - all the stuff we've taken in. You get put in a different mindset.

VOX: What does most of your musical inspiration come from?

ME: To me, Nirvana is the best band in the whole fucking world. They are, and will always be, the best. But we're a different kind of band, and we wanted to be more funky. I think we we're different, but we ended up playing with lots of ska bands or other bands, like Blink 182, that we didn't necessarily fit with. We felt like the redheaded stepchild. Shit, now everyone has a DJ.

But, you know, I also like drum and bass, some jazz, The Police, Bjork, jazz vocalists…there's such a world of music out there - different styles and types, and I've made a conscious effort to branch off from the standard.

VOX: All right, who is the porn star-looking dude with the moustache?

ME: That's Charles Mulholland! He's actually an astronaut. That dude has done some major stuff, like working on the Hubble Telescope and shit like that. He's not really a fan, but Brandon found some pictures of him in his parent's garage, and we just went with it. He's been very cool.

VOX: How do you guys get on with each other?

ME: We balance each other out. Every healthy organization has obstacles to overcome, and I'm not going to say it's been perfect the whole time, but I think we do just fine.

VOX: What can we expect from you tonight?

ME: Hmmm…a very cool, interesting show. We'll play some old stuff and some new. It should be a real good vibe, a good time.

VOX: What's next for Incubus?