Before Incubus takes the Convocation Center stage Friday for its third Illinois concert this year, guitarist Mike Einziger chatted with Weekender for a 10-minute interview. The show is presented by the Campus Activity Board and is slated to begin at 7:30 p.m.

Weekender: You guys started out touring around campuses. Now you’re doing it again. Granted, you’re at arenas instead of bars, but does it seem like you’ve come full circle and do you like playing at colleges?

Mike Einziger: It’s really cool. It’s the closest thing any of us have gotten to being students. It’s great to talk with students and hear about what they are studying and what they have learned in college. We’re not much older than a lot of these kids. It kind of makes us nostalgic and a bit excited to hear what life is like now for students.

WE: Do you ever think about going back?

ME: Yes. I do plan to someday, but I don’t know when I’ll be able to. I don’t see it in my immediate foreseeable future.

WE: How has this tour been?

ME: This has been a really amazing tour. It has been tiring and the most travel-intensive year we’ve ever had. Usually we would do lots of shorter tours. But in the last four months alone, we’ve done 75 U.S. dates. Not to mention over 30 dates in Europe, which is the most we’ve ever done. Plus, we’ve played places like the Philippines and Malaysia.

WE: What about when this tour is over?

ME: Right now, we plan to take some time off. It has been such a hectic year. We haven’t been able to write much on the road. We need time to recoup and get our situation together.

WE: You mentioned Malaysia; talk about the official bootlegs you have been releasing – much like the one from your show there.

ME: Well, people have been taping our shows anyway. And since the quality of what they had probably wasn’t that great, but they listened anyway, we figured we could release certain shows with studio-like quality. And we can make some money off of the sales of these shows for our charity.

WE: What is the Make Yourself Foundation?

ME: We started it at the end of last year. We receive so many requests to play benefits for charities. Actually, it’s a bit overwhelming, the amount of charities and charitable organizations that need money and need people to help their cause. We figured the best thing to do was to start a charity of our own. At the end of each calender year we take all the money raised for our charity and give it directly to several charities that are important to us.

WE: What charities are those?

ME: There is a school of music started by Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Also, there is an organization in Malibu, where we are from, that takes care of the pollution in the ocean.

WE: This interview is taking place before the election, but it’s going to run after Nov. 2. I can’t imagine doing something artistic without being affected by the country’s situation. Do you plan to vote?

ME: Yes.

WE: You’re really involved with organizations like Rock The Vote, but doesn’t it seem like, until this year, that musicians have been less politically active than artists were during the ‘60s and ’70s?

ME: Times have changed politically and musically since the ’60s and ’70s. I think the landscape has changed. There are some parallels, but I think overall, it’s different. I know that I feel more passionately this year about voting than I ever have before. I know a few of my friends feel that way too. I still think that the percentage of voters is too low, even if the overall voter-turnout is higher this year among younger voters. But really, if people would get off of their ass and vote, the turnout would be interesting and probably different.