Brandon Boyd
Brandon Boyd is the frontman and a founding member of Incubus.
In the band's early years Boyd, coming from a family steeped in the entertainment business, designed their concert flyers. He went on to publish White Fluffy Clouds: Found Inspiration Moving Forward in '03. It consisted of his writings, artwork, photography and Incubus song lyrics. Four years later Boyd finished another volume, From The Murks Of The Sultry Abyss. And the following year he had a solo show of his artwork, mostly paintings, at a gallery in L.A.
All this went on while Incubus was active. But when the band took a break so members could pursue other creative avenues, Boyd took his acoustic guitar and wrote songs for his '10 debut album "The Wild Trapeze," containing the single "Runaway Train."
The album was released digitally in July and sold 11,000 copies on iTunes in its first week of release to land at #33 on the Billboard album chart. A CD version dropped a month later.
It's the worst when a frontman releases a solo album that sounds like a pale replica of his popular band (singers in unpopular bands don't usually get to do solo albums). Almost as bad is when the solo album is little more than a laidback exercise in shoe gazing. "The Wild Trapeze" is neither and remains a healthy distance from anything recognizably Incubus. Boyd should be given points just for that.
On "The Wild Trapeze" Boyd comes across as an acoustic leaning Prog Rocker. He displays Eastern influences but it doesn't become overpowering or distracting. Rather they are thoughtful embellishments to songs that are more than structure and style.
The title cut, "Here Comes Everyone" (which sounds vaguely like "1979" - the Smashing Pumpkins song, not the year), "Dance While The Devil Sleeps" "Runaway Train" and "All Ears Avow!" are the impact tracks.