Caveman’s Matthew Iwasuna new project RIP Dunes has announced the release of his self-titled debut album.
Due to be released on March 1st, the record paints a lush sonic landscape, featuring effortless melodies and senses of euphoria, accompanied by pangs foreboding mystery and darkness. Iwanusa cites Echo and the Bunnymen, The Church, and The Cure as influences for his new endeavor.
Along with the album announcement, Iwanusa has shared the new single & video “I Dare“. Speaking about it, he says:
“I was messing around with a sampler and started making weird nonsense words and sounds into it and got those weird delayed vocal sounds in the beginning.”
Of the video, directed and animated by Haoyan of America, he added:
“We decided to go off of a little Grand Theft Auto feel for this while keeping it in AI since it seems the world is going to be only AI one day. You’ll see some familiar faces like T-1000 from Terminator 2, Hatsune Miku, Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot dog, Some random GTA players, NPC’s from other zombie and post apocalypse games. I think it turned out pretty great.”
Pre-order the album here and watch the video for “I Dare” below.
As evidenced by his work in Caveman, Iwanusa has always loved synths—but he wanted to move away from that as a driving force this time around. His work on RIP Dunes kicked off right before the pandemic, sparked in part by the purchase of a 12-string guitar. A growing love of a new instrument paired with an inability to leave the house opened up a new avenue into songwriting for him.
Upcoming Tour Dates
FEBRUARY
01 – New York, NY @ Knitting Factory
MARCH
06 – New York, NY @ New Colossus Festival
11-16 – Austin, TX @ SXSW
20 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Festival
Photo Credit: James Christopher Egan III
