Progressive Evolution

The gracious and grateful Intronaut Grows with Habitual Levitations

Los Angeles based “progressive” metal band Intronaut has spent the last seven years making a name for itself among the metal community, touring as much as possible, including numerous treks across North America, once in Europe and even a music festival in India. The band’s hard work ethic, precise, hypnotizing studio albums and dedication to an atmospheric, thunderous live set have paid off. The band is now beginning to see success, having toured with acts such as Mastodon, High On Fire, Helmet and even Tool.

Guitarist Dave Timnick, recently spoke with CULTURE, during the band’s current cross-country tour with Meshuggah and Animals as Leaders.

According to Timnick, the band—which also includes guitarist/vocalist Sacha Dunable, bass player Joe Lester and drummer Danny Walker—is having a blast, and this tour has been a humbling experience. “It’s just good to see over the years more people getting into our music coming to our shows and buying our merch,” Timnick says. “With the last few tours, Mastodon, Tool and now Meshuggah, we’ve been spoiled.”

But, Timnick assures fans that Intronaut has not forgotten its roots. “For years we’ve been used to playing shitty shows in dive bars, Thai restaurant kitchens, basements and places without monitors or a stage. But now, it’s very humbling and rewarding to have sound checks, big stage production, and a lot of people in the crowd when we play, even if we are the first band; we couldn’t be happier.”

With Intronaut’s fourth studio album, Habitual Levitations (due out on March 19 on Century Media), Timnick says it was a collaborative effort between all band members, to write and record, this time around. “It was just all of our individual ideas; then we got together, practiced tons, jammed whatever worked and took out whatever didn’t,” he says.

Timnick says that the Intronaut is not influenced or concerned with being labeled or categorized into any genre or subgenre and instead just focusing on the music. “We really don’t pay much mind when people ask us what type of music we are, we just say we’re a progressive rock band,” he says. “There are so many different genres and sub genres, I don’t even know what half of them mean anymore. Within the band there are strong backgrounds in jazz, classical, and we all love prog rock from the ’70s, like King Crimson, Rush, Yes. We spent a lot of hard work hammering out songs for this latest album; and we hope the fans like it and hope that it shows our evolution as musicians as song writers.”

With a sound that many consider to be abstract, one has to wonder if the band is 420-friendly and up to date on current cannabis-related legislation. “Joe and I are the heavier smokers in the band,” Timnick says. “. . . We know about Washington and Colorado’s recent decriminalization and we couldn’t be happier, but we haven’t been there since the laws were passed.”

www.facebook.com/Intronaut

The Reign of the Red Royalty

The 1970s British band, King Crimson is thought of to be one of the founding fathers of progressive rock, influencing bands like Mars Volta and the Mystery Jets, as well as Intronaut. The recent revival of interest in King Crimson is partly due to the popularity of online file-sharing; however, King Crimson has also been featured in many popular television and movie soundtracks as well. Christina Ricci strangely dances to the song “Moonchild” in Buffalo 66 (1998), “The Court of the Crimson King” appears in Children of Men (2006), “Starless” shows up in TV series The Eight (2006-2007), “21st Century Schizoid Man” makes an appearance in Guitar Hero 5 and in The Brain Man (2013).