INCUBUS frontman, Brandon Boyd, is an accomplished multi-disciplinary artist – painter, author, game-designer, philanthropist, songwriter, and vocalist. His new solo single, “Pocket Knife,” combines his talents, with the evocative single art painted by Boyd and the song co-written by Boyd and producer, John Congleton (Sigur Ros, Phoebe Bridgers, Lana Del Ray).
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“Pocket Knife” is a harbinger of things to come on Boyd’s upcoming full-length release. The upcoming album will be titled ECHOES & COCOONS and will be released via Wit Hustle / The Orchard in Spring of 2022. The music video for the track, directed by Daniel Prakopcyk, will premiere at 9pm PT / Midnight ET on Thursday night.
Of the song’s meaning, Boyd explains: “I used to have nightmares as a child, so much so that I was losing sleep over it. I would pry myself awake out of them because they were quite terrifying to me as a kid. My mother finally started to tell me about what she’d read in Carlos Castaneda’s work, she wouldn’t refer to him explicitly as I was too young to know or understand, but she’d essentially teach me what she’d gleaned from his work around dreaming. She told me to look at my hands when I was in a bad dream, open them and close them and control my hands and that would give me some agency over the content of my Dreamtime. It worked like a charm and along with some other techniques I picked up along the way I rarely, if ever, have nightmares.” He continues,“As an adult I’ve come to understand what she showed me were like little dream “totems” or devices that can give one a modicum of control or agency in the foggy, feisty world of Dreamtime. So I used that as the device in the song. I’m essentially becoming the bearer of the totem to a younger person or version of myself that is suffering in Dreamtime.” “I offer an older totem, in this case an antique pocket knife, that worked well for me. And I’m inviting them to hold this thing under their pillow as they fall asleep in hopes of keeping it as they fall into their oldest and darkest dream. Then potentially using it to cut a window out of the dark and letting in light. The second verse offers yet another totem of sorts but this one is even more specific in its metaphoric potential as a way to invite in more love in general.”
Boyd has had a productive year! In 2021 he also founded Moonlight Arts Collective, a community of art enthusiasts who appreciate the creative output of cultural icons who ‘moonlight’ as visual artists. This collective features his paintings, in addition to those of friends like Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo) and actresses Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), Melissa Villaseñor (Saturday Night Live) and Heart Evangelista (I Left My Heart In Sorsogon) as well as noted photographer, Brian Bowen Smith.
Stay tuned for more music to come, leading up to the release of ECHOES & COCOONS.
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