It’s said that when you release a piece of art out into the world, it no longer belongs to you, but rather to all the people who respond and attach their own meaning to it. The Incubus song “Drive,” for example, means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, including soundtracking the moment a penguin learned how to surf.
“Drive” was prominently used in the 2007 animated movie Surf’s Up about surfing penguins. Frontman Brandon Boyd went to go see Surf’s Up in theaters when it was first released, however, as he tells ABC Audio, he’d “forgotten that we’d approved” the use of “Drive” for the film.
“I went with a former girlfriend of mine, we rode our bikes to a local movie theater,” Boyd recalls. “We were just like, ‘Oh, let’s watch this movie about surfing penguins.'”
While watching the film, a scene occurred in which, as Boyd describes in, the protagonist “was, like, kinda figuring out how surfing can be this sort of connective experience.”
“And then ‘Drive’ comes on, and I was truly surprised,” Boyd laughs. “I was already enjoying the movie.”
Since Surf’s Up, Incubus’ music has continued to pop up in movies and TV shows, such as in the 2023 series Beef.
“Those types of things are really cool when they get to happen,” Boyd says.
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