Incubus’ Brandon Boyd reflects on Coachella debut: ‘The audience was super cool’

While Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd has attended Coachella a number of times, he played the famed festival for the first time when the “Drive” rockers joined DJ and producer Zedd during his 2025 second weekend set.

When Zedd pitched Boyd the idea, his first thought was “Zedd’s music is so the other direction from what we do.”

“It was so far in the other direction that it made sense again,” Boyd tells ABC Audio.

In addition to figuring out the logistics of the live collaboration, Boyd had just tweaked his back days before the performance.

“I was moving very slowly,” he laughs. “So I was walking onstage at Coachella going, like, ‘Please God don’t let my back go out onstage at Coachella!'”

Beyond that specific prayer being answered, Boyd had a fun time during the performance.

“The audience was super cool,” Boyd says. “It was the first time we’ve ever had any kind of, like, pyrotechnics in front of us, which is also interesting.”

Zedd also played drums along with the band, marking the first time Incubus has performed with two drummers.

“We had our Grateful Dead moment,” Boyd says.

Now that he’s finally performed at Coachella, Boyd is hoping to return.

“Hopefully it’s one of those festivals that will have us back and have us do our own set,” he says. “Maybe we’ll have Zedd onstage with us at that point.” 

Meanwhile, Incubus has been working on a new album, the follow-up to 2017’s 8.

While Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd has attended Coachella a number of times, he played the famed festival for the first time when the “Drive” rockers joined DJ and producer Zedd during his 2025 second weekend set.

When Zedd pitched Boyd the idea, his first thought was “Zedd’s music is so the other direction from what we do.”

“It was so far in the other direction that it made sense again,” Boyd tells ABC Audio.

In addition to figuring out the logistics of the live collaboration, Boyd had just tweaked his back days before the performance.

“I was moving very slowly,” he laughs. “So I was walking onstage at Coachella going, like, ‘Please God don’t let my back go out onstage at Coachella!'”

Beyond that specific prayer being answered, Boyd had a fun time during the performance.

“The audience was super cool,” Boyd says. “It was the first time we’ve ever had any kind of, like, pyrotechnics in front of us, which is also interesting.”

Zedd also played drums along with the band, marking the first time Incubus has performed with two drummers.

“We had our Grateful Dead moment,” Boyd says.

Now that he’s finally performed at Coachella, Boyd is hoping to return.

“Hopefully it’s one of those festivals that will have us back and have us do our own set,” he says. “Maybe we’ll have Zedd onstage with us at that point.” 

Meanwhile, Incubus has been working on a new album, the follow-up to 2017’s 8.