RosebudMag.com: Is this your first headlining tour?

Sacha Dunable: It’s our first proper headlining tour. We’ve headlined strings of shows out to start other tours, but this our first real headliner.

RM: Do you put together a set that do you do nightly, or do you mix it up?

SD: We’ll be mixing it up. We’ll be playing about an hour, maybe a little more. I personally can’t sit through any band that plays longer than an hour.

RM: From the beginning Intronaut has pushed at musical boundaries. Do you guys feel like you’ve settle into a sound, or are you continuing to push even the band’s own boundaries?

SD: Personally, I like to always keep pushing. That’s the point. We consider ourselves to be a progressive rock band, so that’s the point - to always be evolving, doing something fresh.

RM: So what were your goals with the new album?

SD: I feel like the last record might have been a bit lighter feeling than this one. Everyone in the band writes, but my personal goal was to make this one a bit darker, weird, ominous, and maybe spooky sounding. And then to go abit heavier, too. I don’t know if that happened or not, but that was the direction I was pushing in for this one.

RM: Do you give thought to trying to push yourselves as musicians too or is that secondary to the tone or vibe that you’re trying to produce?

SD: I think Danny (Walker) is a perfect example. Everybody tries to grow as a musician, but I think Danny, from the last record to this one, you could tell he was really making a conscious effort to make himself a better drummer. Joe (Lester), too. There was a phase where he really sat down and worked out his parts for this record. There are definitely people in this band who consider themselves to be real musicians.

RM: You speak about them as if you’re not one of those people.

SD: I’m not necessarily one of those people. I do consider myself to be a musician I guess, but I’m not a guitar player’s guitar player by any means. I don’t sit at home and practice my chops or anything like that. I brush up on theory here and there, and my technique improves by taking a lesson once in a while or learning some song that’s outside of my comfort zone. But it’s never been my goal to be some kind of a guitar hero or something. For me it’s more about the whole band creating something bigger than a sum of its parts.

RM: So how does your approach compliment what some of those more serious musicians in the band are trying to do?

SD: My contribution is usually coming up with something out of nowhere. I sit at home and jam, and come up with something, and present it to the band, and then they make it into something way more awesome.

RM: We’ve talked about pushing boundaries musically. What about lyrically?

SD: I think that was even less of the goal on this record. Dave (Timnick) actually wrote most of the lyrics, but this was the first record in a couple of records that we haven’t had a unifying concept of them for the lyrics. I haven’t really asked him much about the meaning of these lyrics. I’m afraid to ask.

RM: How’s the reaction to the record so far?

SD: It’s pretty positive. There have always been and will always be people who don’t like the next record we’re doing because we’re always changing things up, and I get that. I remember when Slayer did Diabolus in Musica, I thought it sounded like Nu Metal and I hated it. If there had been the internet back then I would have been on message boards talking shit about it, even though now I think it’s a pretty good record.

I know how it is for fans to be let down because they don’t like the new record. It’s just something you have to deal with.

RM: Alright, let's go out on a little bit of pop culture stuff. Can you tell me about some movies, TV shows, or other entertainment you’re enjoying right now?

SD: Eastboud and Down. I can’t stop watching that show. We also watch the usual: South Park, Family Guy, Law & Order. We also love Workaholics.

RM: What music do you listen to?

SD: In my Spotify today this is what I added: Sleep – Jerusalem, D’Angelo – Voodoo, and some live Erykah Badu records. Steely Dan – Aja is always in rotation. Nick Bartsch, his project called Ronin. I thought that last Gojira record was probably the best metal record I’d heard in a while.

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