Incubus has released Morning View XXIII, a rerecorded version of their 2001 album, Morning View. Speaking with ABC Audio, drummer José Pasillas shares that the reaction to Morning View XXIII has been positive, save for a few detractors who maybe didn't understand the premise of the project.
"You always get your hardcore critics out there saying, you know, 'Your voice has changed, that part's different! This is different!'" Pasillas says. "Which is kind of the point the remake."
"We're sort of not trying to mimic what we did," he continues. "But sort of show the progression and evolution in its small little subtle ways.
Those changes, Pasillas says, reflect the journey the Morning Views songs took from being recorded for the album to being played live for more than 20 years.
"When you start playing those live, they kinda take [on] a life of its own," Pasillas explains. "Things do sort of change and evolve and sort of progress, and nothing drastic, just maybe little notations here and there or a little movement. So actually to rerecord it with those things is pretty awesome."
One of the biggest differences between Morning View and Morning View XXIII is an extended half-time and doom-influenced outro to the song "Circles," which Incubus has long been playing live. Pasillas credits that change to former bassist Ben Kenney and his love of metal.
"I remember [being] in rehearsals getting ready to tour, and [Kenney's] like, 'What if we half-timed this?'" Pasillas recalls. "Once we started playing it, we were like, 'Yeah.'"
Pasillas describes the "Circles" outro as a "sniffing the mustache, head-rocking sort of vibe."
"We were sold," he laughs. "It's super fun."
Incubus will be playing Morning View in full on a U.S. tour launching in August.