Eventually, an invitation came from Incubus, who were looking for a replacement for Gavin Koppel. That mind opening led to invitations to join rock bands, who were adding DJs to the sound mix in the “nu metal” movement. “I’m like, ‘We’re a band,’” he remembered. “We’d make beats and things like that live together.” As the DJs collaborated and melded their sound, Kilmore had a revelation. “We would link all of our turntables together,” he said.

and moved to Los Angeles, where he became part of the Jedi Knights DJ crew. “At that moment, I was like, ‘Man, I want to try to do that.’” He started DJing at 13, continued through high school and college in Washington D.C. “I saw Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince when I was young and Jazzy Jeff blew my mind,” Kilmore said. He played the keyboards, which he picked up later in life, studied music theory, and, of course, furthered the turntable skills and sounds he’s been making since he was a preteen growing up in Pennsylvania. Kilmore spent the past couple of years honing his musicianship at home. “We’re riding on this really cool tour bus and somebody just slams the brake on and says, ‘Okay, you’re done. “It felt like somebody just slammed the brakes on,” Kilmore said. Getting kicked off the road by COVID was a shock to the system for Incubus, whose bread and butter is touring, year after year after year. Their return to live music includes a stop at West Valley’s USANA Amphitheatre on Aug.

So, Kilmore said, he expects the veteran alternative rockers to create a bunch of new songs this summer and fall as they go out on their first tour since 2019. “So after sound check, we might say ‘oh, that was a cool idea’ and go back and revisit it and then work on it for a couple days.” From this initial improvisation, band members add their own ideas and the loose jam session shapes into a fully-formed song. “So over the years, once we get our sound check straight on stage, we just start jamming and we always record,” he said. We didn’t really have much time other than when we stepped off the tour bus to write a record real quick. “There was a period of time where all we did was tour, almost 10 years straight. “A lot of new music ideas that we have actually come from sound checks when we’re on tour,” said turntablist Chris Kilmore in a phone interview. Sound checks are generally just part of a band’s daily routine-get to the venue, play a few songs to dial in the sound, then get out until the show hours later.

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