Why you might see Incubus floating down the Little Miami River

Nearly 30 years since its debut, the band Incubus remains one of the few continued successes of the early 2000s band-with-a-DJ renaissance. The multi-platinum-selling group includes founding members Brandon Boyd on vocals, guitarist Mike Einzinger and drummer José Pasillas, and includes former The Roots bassist Ben Kenney (Nicole Row, backer of Miley Cyrus and Panic! at the Disco, subs for this tour) and DJ Chris Kilmore (aka Kil).

I recently asked Kil about turntablism’s unique contribution to rock music, including his personal choices of samples and arrangement, and about the challenges involved in scratching over a live band.

Q: Do you have any stories of touring through Cincinnati?

A: Yeah, tons of stories. If we have a day off, we'll go to this place called Morgan's. It's a campground on the Little (Miami) River. We'll take the whole touring party. We chill out in the campsite, and we float down the river and just do our thing and relax. We've done that multiple times and become friends with the owners. We do a midnight booze cruise. It's just a good time.

Q: You grew up in Dillsburg, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Was there something about that town that pushed you toward music making, and specifically turntablism?

A: In that era, everybody was listening to hair bands and punk music. I'm black and white and adopted, and that town is very white. So I stuck out by the way I looked there, so I didn't really fit in.

I was looking for music that spoke to me. At the time, it was early hip-hop. I would hear crazy scratching sounds. I'm like, what is this? So obviously as a curious 13-year-old kid – I was like, okay, I got to learn how to do that. I would go record shopping and align myself with people that were into hip-hop, and started learning how to scratch. I was just trying to be different from what was all around me.

Q: You have a specific style that goes well with the alternative rock sound. You're usually playing fills or background sounds. How do you create those samples?

A: I used to walk around with a handheld recorder. A lot of those sounds are in "Make Yourself." Brakes of a bus are the same note as a song – it fits in. There's a coffee grinder in there. It was just figuring out what weird sounds fit into the music. Luckily enough for me, the rest of the band was cool about it, especially Mike. He'd bring a guitar and have all these pedals. We'd record random noises. I turned all those sounds into a scratch record and then we’d use it in the music.

I learned early on that if you're scratching, it's like a guitar solo. It sticks out ahead of all the music because it's so different, especially in a different genre. I don't want to hear a guitar solo the whole song, I want to hear the complete song. I learned to use atmospheric sounds, background and layers to blend in.

In the late '90s and early 2000s, there were all these DJs and rock bands. I'm trying to pick out the vocals versus the scratching and they're both noise to me a lot of the time. I'm not saying that these DJs are bad, they just didn't get the concept that I was trying to do. I think that's what gave me the longevity to realize you have to expand and use the turntable differently.

Q: My memory of the early 2000s is that there were a few major rock bands with DJs. It was Incubus, Lincoln Park, Limp Bizkit.

A: And Sugar Ray – the list goes on – young bands that I couldn't name, or aren't around anymore. They all had DJs.

Q: It seems like a logical evolution as hip-hop became mainstream. But I don't see turntablists in new bands anymore. They're typically reaching for a sampler.

A: I think the DJ – hip-hop in general – got super exploited. You couldn't get in an elevator and not hear scratching. It was everywhere. That's one of the reasons why I had to expand and play some keys and evolve – it got played out. It's sad for me to say because it's my first love in music. If I had to choose one thing, I would choose the turntable.

Technology is also probably a reason. It's easier to press a button from a sample than actually learn how to scratch. You just download the sample and then you trigger it.

Q: What are the challenges of DJing with a live band? Are there timing issues that you run up against?

A: There are some songs where we add an extra beat at the end of the bar, or we'll turn the click off. Our drummer uses an old DR Boss drum machine – from the 1930s, it seems. He dials in the tempo and hits play, and then he clicks it off. We don't run anything to a track – everything's live.

There are cool elements of that – and there are downfalls. When we're in the recording studio, if a bridge seems like it's dragging, we'll bump the tempo up a little bit. If I’m throwing on background vocals or a double guitar riff or something, and it’s a different tempo than we’re playing, that's where my DJ skills come in. We're really unlimited on how we can change our songs live.

Q: You've been touring with Incubus for 25 years now. How do you personally stay healthy and keep your energy up while you're out on the road?

A: I try to get in as best shape as possible before we go out on the road. I still drink, I still smoke weed. I'm not crazy excessive with it or anything, but none of the other guys drink that much anymore. Brandon is really conscious about it – always working out, not eating anything bad. The hardest thing to do on tour is sleep on the bus. I'd say the greatest invention ever is the rumble strip. The bus goes over one and you instantly are awake. It does its job.

Incubus with Badflower and Paris Jackson

When: 7 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 1.

Where: The Andrew J. Brady Music Center, 25 Race St., Downtown.

Tickets: $45-$99.50.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Incubus became one of the last remaining bands of its kind