S.C.I.E.N.C.E.

S.C.I.E.N.C.E. is the second studio album by American rock band Incubus. It was released on September 9, 1997, by Epic and Immortal Records. The album was certified gold by the RIAA, and is the second and final release to feature Gavin Koppel (known as DJ Lyfe), who first appeared on the 1997 Enjoy Incubus EP. It has been occasionally considered the band's proper debut album, due to the nature of their independent release Fungus Amongus.

Background and recording After recording their independent debut album Fungus Amongus (1995), Incubus signed a seven-record deal with Epic/Sony-affiliated Immortal Records in 1996. An EP titled Enjoy Incubus was released by Epic/Immortal at the beginning of 1997, and Incubus would go on a European tour with labelmates Korn and The Urge for the next few months. With Enjoy Incubus, the label's strategy was to build the band's fanbase through touring rather than radio airplay. One of the first things the band had done after getting signed was buying new instruments, which would be used on future recordings. Drummer José Pasillas said that the band's old instruments were "falling apart". Guitarist Mike Einziger had previously been using an Ibanez RG570, and spent his money from the record company to purchase a Paul Reed Smith guitar. The four founding band members were in their early 20s at this point, and dropped out of school once getting signed, with Pasillas recalling "before then, each one of us were enrolled in schools because there was part of us that wanted to appease our parents. Getting signed was our okay to drop out of school." DJ Lyfe was older than the other four members and originally joined Incubus in late 1995, following the release of Fungus Amongus. Lyfe had first met Incubus at a live show in Hollywood, where he approached them about incorporating his music into the band, claiming that it might add an interesting dimension to their sound.

According to singer Brandon Boyd, "S.C.I.E.N.C.E. was done in six weeks at 4th Street Recording, a very small, charming studio in Santa Monica. Very different experience, but very important on this band's existence." While the single "New Skin" originated a few years prior, Pasillas claimed in 2002 that for other songs they had two months to write the music. He added, "it was cool for us, because we had a lot of ideas and it was a pretty compressed amount of time. The circumstances weren't ideal — we were working in a dingy little rehearsal room — but at that time we didn't care. We were playing music for a living."Modern Drummer: MD. (2002). United States: Modern Drummer Publications. According to Pasillas, they wrote 14 songs for S.C.I.E.N.C.E. in total.

Unlike with later Incubus albums, the songs were recorded to tape, and the band wanted to avoid creating music that they wouldn't be able to perform live. During the recording, the band utilized older analogue gear that they described as having "phat sounds and spider webs." Incubus chose Jim Wirt to produce the album, since he had worked with them on earlier recordings. Einziger believed that Wirt helped encourage their creativity during the recording of S.C.I.E.N.C.E., saying in 1997, "he helps us come up with strange stuff and he likes it when we do. He doesn't try to change what we do, he tries to enhance it." Einziger added in the same interview, "when we signed our record deal and started working on this album, we were worried that someone would come along and tell us to hold back, and try and make our songs a little more palatable. But that never happened. They kinda just said, 'do whatever you want'. With that kind of support, we just let everything kind of run wild." Pasillas similarly noted the lack of outside influence in 2017, saying "we didn’t have label people coming in hovering above us making sure we weren't wasting money. We were left to our own devices and we worked well that way." In a 2018 interview with Australian magazine HEAVY, Boyd remembered "when we wrote S.C.I.E.N.C.E. we didn't know about any songwriting rules. It was like a chopped salad, schizophrenic album put together and we did it because we just didn’t know any better. We were just having a good time." He also believes that Incubus still hadn't found a distinct voice of their own yet, saying in 2022 that they sounded like the offspring from a "crazy orgy" between Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Björk and other artists. Einziger told Guitar World in 2011 that the band developed more of their own sound on later albums since they had experienced more of the world through touring by then, and that on S.C.I.E.N.C.E. "[we sounded] like what we had been listening to."

For the liner notes, every member except DJ Lyfe and bassist Alex Katunich used a pseudonym made specifically for the album, with Boyd's being "Cornelius", Einziger's being "Jawa" and Pasillas's being "Badmammajamma".Liner notes for S.C.I.E.N.C.E. (Epic/Immortal, 1997) The concept of using pseudonyms was carried over from Fungus Amongus and Enjoy Incubus, where the members had been using several different ones created specifically for those releases, including the pseudonyms "Happy Knappy" and "Brandon of the Jungle" (used by Boyd), and the pseudonyms "Fabio" and "Dynamike" (used by Einziger).Liner notes for Fungus Amongus (Chillum, 1995)Liner notes for Enjoy Incubus (Epic/Immortal, 1997). Katunich used the pseudonym "Dirk Lance" for all three of these releases, while DJ Lyfe used the pseudonym "Kid Lyfe" for Enjoy Incubus, before deciding to use his regular stage name for S.C.I.E.N.C.E..

Mastering work was done at Larrabee West Studios in Hollywood, California. When S.C.I.E.N.C.E. was in the process of being recorded and mastered, the band went on some local mini-tours, in addition to appearing on the soundtrack for the movie Spawn. The soundtrack was released on July 29, 1997, by Epic/Immortal, and featured a collaboration with DJ Greyboy called "Familiar". This song also briefly appeared in the movie itself, which was released to theaters on August 1, 1997. It samples the 1960 song "Theme for Doris", by jazz musician Tina Brooks. Boyd claimed in a 1997 Kerrang! interview that he had seen the Spawn movie, and described it as "a really shitty movie" with "a great soundtrack". That year, the song "Glass" was also featured on a 7-inch vinyl single with the song "Water & Solutions", by Epic/Immortal labelmates Far. "Water & Solutions" was taken from the album of the same name, which was recorded around the same time as S.C.I.E.N.C.E., but not released until March 1998. Incubus later toured with Far, and on promotional photos for 2001's Morning View, Einziger can be seen wearing a hoodie with the cover of their 1997 EP Soon.

Musical style and influences Musically, S.C.I.E.N.C.E. has been described as nu metal, alternative metal, funk metal, and rap metal. The album incorporates elements of multiple genres, including jazz, heavy metal, funk, hip-hop, techno, and electro. It was labelled as "schizo funk/jazz/metal" by Spin in 2001. In September 1997, Hits magazine called the album's lighter songs "loungey" and "almost reminiscent of Jamiroquai". "Magic Medicine", described as a trip hop track, samples a recorded reading of a children's book. Paul Elliot of Kerrang! wrote in May 1998 that "at their lightest — on 'Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)' for example — Incubus are deliciously, irresistibly funky. And at their heaviest — notably on the frantic 'Favorite Things' — they're reminiscent of Faith No More at their wildest."Kerrang! (699). May 16, 1998. Elliot added that people who were upset about the split of Faith No More "[should go along] to an Incubus gig." The Daily Nebraskan referred to them as a "funk-heavy foursome" in 1998, while Billboard labelled them a funk rock band in December 1997. According to Rolling Stone writer Rob Kemp, S.C.I.E.N.C.E. "links funk metal to the rap-metal". Though sometimes retrospectively associated with it, the term nu metal was not yet in usage when S.C.I.E.N.C.E. was released, but rather terms such as alternative metal, funk metal and rap metal. In 1997, Boyd said "people are real quick to put labels on music, so I'm sure they're going to do that with us. But we think we're doing something cool, and judging from the responses that we've gotten from all over the world, others do too." Einziger has since stated that Incubus were not part of the same Southern Californian scene as bands like Korn and System of a Down during their independent years, despite having similar influences. In interviews from the late 2010s and 2020s, Boyd has said that he dislikes the nu metal label and doesn't consider the band's early work to be part of the movement. In a 2022 Metal Hammer interview, he remarked, "we weren’t trying to fit into a particular niche at a particular time. We were just kids being influenced by a small handful of bands that we grew up with."

Revolver describe Brandon Boyd as vocally "drawing on the eccentric funk-rap" of Faith No More, Primus and Red Hot Chili Peppers. They consider him to have a "goofy yet also badass presence" on S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Boyd has cited Faith No More's vocalist Mike Patton as being an influence from since he was an early teenager, as well as Patton's side project Mr. Bungle, who were similarly known for mixing a wide array of genres. Through Mr. Bungle, Boyd also went on to become a fan of avant-garde musician John Zorn, who produced their 1991 debut album.2000 Brandon Boyd interview, via In a 2003 interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Boyd said that around this period, both he and Einziger gravitated towards more experimental artists that "you'll never hear on the radio". Alex Katunich uses a slap bass playing style on the album, and has said he was influenced by funk music since he was a young child, and got an album of Disney songs done in disco style. When he became a teenager, he said Faith No More's 1989 album The Real Thing began influencing him, in addition to becoming influenced by Mr. Bungle and other funk metal bands, such as Infectious Grooves, Primus and Red Hot Chili Peppers.Katunich, Alex (2024). The SBL Podcast. In a 1998 interview, Boyd was asked about whether Incubus was influenced by Faith No More, who had broken up in April of that year, and he commented, "there's a definite influence from Faith No More. All of us have been listening to that band since when we were really young. We were like 14 or something when that album [The Real Thing] came out. They were an awesome band, they did some really groundbreaking things in their time, and it's kind of a bummer to hear that they broke up." Boyd also noted in October 1997 that they were frequently compared to both Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, saying "when people do try and compare us, it's usually with those two bands."