Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd has dropped “Petrichor,” the latest preview of his upcoming album ECHOES & COCOONS. Stream it below.
A bombastic, stadium-ready track, “Petrichor” addresses the idea of finding happiness after processing the darker side of life first. “Rain comes, senses fed,” Boyd sings. “Petrichor/ Wash away all your/ Pain/ From heart and head.”
In a statement, Boyd spoke about how rain in Southern California almost feels like being invited to embrace the darkness and emerge clean of any emotional baggage. “I come from a place in the world where the sun is almost always shining, and as wonderful as that is, it does carry with it a kind of bias towards happiness and a constant stress around well being,” he explained. “The irony, of course, is that it’ll drive you crazy trying to be happy all of the time.”
He continued, “There is wisdom in sadness and grief, the kind of things we glean from ‘walking through the valley’ can’t be replicated by merely speaking or reading about them, we need to be sad sometimes and enter darkened spaces in order to be more fully realized people. Then there is the pure olfactory bliss of that moment when the rain first hits the ground and the inimitable smell it produces, petrichor, and all that it suggests. Once again, coming from a place that doesn’t see much rain, I’ve come to see those moments when it finally arrives as a performance we so desperately had been waiting for.”
In November, Boyd shared the previous single “Pocket Knife.” ECHOES & COCOONS is out March 2022 via Wit Hustle/The Orchard. He released his first solo album The Wild Trapeze way back in 2010, which he then followed up in 2013 with Sons of the Sea, a collaboration with producer Brendan O’Brien.
Incubus’ latest studio album was 2017’s 8. The veteran alt rockers are headed out on a short run of shows the same month Boyd’s solo project drops. Pick up your tickets here.
