Incubus’ Brandon Boyd – HuffPost 7.29.13

Mike Ragogna: Hey, what advice do you have for new artists?

Brandon Boyd: That’s a wonderful question. In coming up as a young artist, there was a lot of advice flying around from other bands and industry people and managers and things like that, and I learned early on that it would probably behoove my creative spirit to be wary of advice. That’s what I always tell people when they’re like, “Do you have any advice for me?” “Yeah. Be wary of advice.” In other words, follow your inner compass. Only you know what the right thing to do is. Everybody’s path is just a little bit different at the very least, and sometimes, drastically different. Even if one of your heroes is giving you advice and it could sound like really great advice and it could be coming from a really pure place–coming from the voice of your hero–but everyone’s path is different. So definitely follow your inner compass and be wary of advice.

MR: Cool Now what do you think was the best advice ever given to you?

BB: Lighten up. [laughs] Don’t take this s**t too seriously, not just in the music industry, but probably life in general. There is a time and a place but most of the time you should probably lighten up. That’s definitely been some good advice for me.