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There’s a strange dichotomy in the world of metal that could surely be explained by the boots in the trenches who consume the stuff daily but may not be known to initiates or the uninformed: It’s hard as hell to tell a lot of it apart. Bands who wished to evolve once seemed content to journey further into darkness, but there’s an oft-overlooked option made possible by maturing fans whose musical tastes have grown more intelligent alongside the passing of the years—to make the stuff more nuanced. Enter Los Angeles quartet Intronaut, a band that somehow melds elements of jazz, math, prog and sludge into a focused package that is all at once familiar yet challenging and always evolving. Intronaut is currently touring in support of their fifth studio effort, The Direction of Last Things, and will appear at Skylight on Dec. 21. Guitarist/vocalist Dave Timnick was nice enough to chat from someplace on the road:
Everybody wants to label Intronaut as prog or jazz. Any thoughts on that?
Everybody has a different way for how they describe the music. I guess progressive makes sense because it's a broad, vague way of describing something that's forward thinking. As far as jazz metal, we use elements of jazz chords and changes, but it's not really jazz. Jazz, by its definition, is based in improvisation, and our stuff is definitely planned out.
The new album has been described as both a new step and a return to your roots. Which is it?
When people hear anything, they usually have to equate it to one of two things. It's either getting back to the old shit or it's somehow completely different, and it's neither of those things. It's just the next step for us. We're never thinking, Let's get back to our roots! Sometimes things happen, but we really do exactly what we want to do, and the more we do that, the more risks we take with our music. We can do whatever we want as long as we like it, and we're all feeling more creative than ever. People ask if we're trying to reinvent the wheel, but we're just trying to evolve as musicians and as songwriters.
It's a collaborative writing process?
We practice a lot together, so a lot of [the songs] are a combination of a completely organic jam, wherein we create something from absolutely nothing. Often it's an idea or a skeleton of a song that's one person's idea, and by the time everybody else learns it, the parts become their own. We're all in this together. It's a democracy. Like, if three guys like something and one guy doesn't, that shit's going in. Sometimes it's two against two, and it's almost like a courtroom where we have to present our ideas. Everybody comes from different backgrounds, musically speaking, so there are a lot of ideas going into the songs.
Are you one of the more musically studied members?
I played guitar for fun and by ear, but mostly I had studied drums and tabla for a really long time. Honestly, everyone in this band has some kind of formal training. Danny [Walker], for example…I think a lot of musicians, when they get established or older and put out a few records, keep playing but stop practicing. Danny, who I think is as good as it gets when it comes to metal drumming, he was going bonkers learning all these new styles and techniques.
Intronaut has changed a lot from record to record. Why do you think some bands, Metallica, for instance, are crucified for that kind of thing, but your band is celebrated?
I think it's because our evolution has been very organic. Metallica's change didn't seem organic. Maybe they were cashing in. I don't want to put my opinion in on that, and it isn't to say that fans or criticizers are always right about why a band can sound different. When people are into what you're doing, even when they don't love the next step of the evolution, they'll at least respect it. More often than not, fans embrace a band's finding new ways to be creative, as long as it's genuine. We have taken criticism, like when we started doing clean vocals, I think people were like, "Oh, here we go," but if you believe in what you're doing, it shouldn't matter. We're fortunate in that a lot of our fans have been really into our evolution.
Intronaut with Fields of Elysium,
Future Scars and Devil's Throne
8 pm Monday, Dec. 21. $10.
Skylight,
139 W San Francisco St.
982-0775
Santa Fe Reporter