{"id":18602,"date":"2012-02-24T21:40:50","date_gmt":"2012-02-25T02:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=18602"},"modified":"2013-02-05T17:53:44","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T22:53:44","slug":"pushing-boundaries-with-devin-townsend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/pushing-boundaries-with-devin-townsend\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing Boundaries With Devin Townsend"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Cameron Edney<\/span>
\nGuest Staff Writer —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Devin Townsend is one of the most intriguing men in metal music and he\u2019s back in Australia this week to take part in the Soundwave Festival. Best known as the front-man for Strapping Young Lad, Devin Townsend has continued to push musical boundaries releasing albums that showcase his versatility as a musician from the more extreme forms of metal to folk. His most recent albums Ki<\/em>, Addicted<\/em>, Deconstruction<\/em> and Ghost<\/em> certainly appealed to a large audience resulting in all four albums being packaged together last year in a box set tiled Contain Us<\/em> which also featured bonus tracks, a DVD as well as other goodies for fans!<\/p>\n

No stranger to touring Australia Devin Townsend has a strong and dedicated fan-base down under and as a long time fan myself it was fantastic to catch up with Devin to talk about his love for Australia his devoted and sometimes angry fans, the new album Devin\u2019s working on Epicloud<\/em> and much more. Kick back as Devin tells us just how it is!<\/p>\n

\"DevinHardrock Haven: Hey Devin, great to be speaking with you today mate, how\u2019s everything going?<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: It\u2019s really good, my life, career and music are in a place now that is just really humbling and flattering. I\u2019m really excited and it\u2019s just a lot of fun man and for the first time ever in my career I\u2019m able to say this is really cool man and I\u2019m digging it!<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: That\u2019s great to hear mate! It\u2019s awesome to see you back in Australia for the Soundwave Festival; you\u2019ve played here so many times now it must feel like visiting a second home!<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: In a way, I think my connection to different cultures a lot of times comes down to humor. You find that there are some cultures that just gel well together and Canada and Australia have certain things in common and I get it. My friends that I\u2019ve got in Australia, we have a good laugh together and I think that makes it a lot easier to like work. It\u2019s the same in the UK actually, I was basically breast fed Monty Python when I was a kid so that defines it. In Australia I\u2019ve had some great experiences man! <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Having played here so many times over the years both solo and with Strapping Young Lad, what fond memories come to mind when you look back over previous Australian visits\u2026<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: I remember the first tour we did with AJ, we did it in a splitter van driving thirty hours between gigs and playing Wagga Wagga, that was intense man. Later on I remember doing these incredibly elaborate tours and the last one that we just did. It\u2019s been many years since I\u2019ve done drugs or drank but I remember being high as fuck somewhere down there and thinking to myself that I was going to die and then communicating with a moth or something stupid, all those things kind of play into your whole tapestry of memories, the ultimate vibe that I get as a result of all those things is pretty cool!<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: The Soundwave Festival line-up is incredible, there are plenty of killer bands on the bill, who are you looking forward to seeing most, will you be spending much time in the crowd or side of stage watching the other acts?<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: There\u2019s a lot of people that I know that are going to be there and I\u2019ll definitely looking forward to seeing a lot of them. I haven\u2019t spent too much time thinking about that element of it, I\u2019ve been so busy trying to finish up the work that\u2019s been going on in my life with family I figure that I will make them decisions once I\u2019m there but I have to admit I\u2019m really excited about renting a bike and just farting around the town cause I do like riding bikes.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: It is a great way to see the sights that\u2019s for sure! You are certainly no stranger to playing large festival bills, are you personally a fan of festival shows or would you much rather the smaller more intimate club shows?<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: I would do festival shows over club shows almost every time. I love it, I think there\u2019s definitely something to be said for your headlining show and it\u2019s a real casual set up and you get to sound check, but I think I find it easier to perform in front of larger audiences then I do in front of smaller ones. It\u2019s less intimate in a way, intimacy has never really been a strong suit for me, I\u2019ve been married for a lot of years but I\u2019m not very comfortable with intimacy. I\u2019m not a very huggy person, it\u2019s not really my deal so bigger shows I find easier to be a character, to perform cause it\u2019s less about Devin the person and more about Devin the performer.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: With the festivals there\u2019s always that element of the challenge when you\u2019re playing to a wider audience that may not be familiar with your work, to grab them and bring them in to what you do for that forty minute slot!<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: Yeah and I think for me, I\u2019m banking I guess on the reason people get sucked into what I do is because we\u2019re into it! I\u2019ve definitely never in my career gone out of my way to try and convince people to like what I do, it doesn\u2019t matter to me, I like having shows and it\u2019s nice to pay the bills but the value of my music that I write is not based on whether or not it\u2019s accepted by fuckin’ anybody, but because I do like it, I think that\u2019s what draws people in, when you\u2019re legitimately into it, it really shows! <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Devin, late last year you released an amazing box set titled Contain Us<\/em>\u2026 it featured the four Devin Townsend Project albums as well as some bonus discs and DVD material also, it\u2019s a great looking box set, why did you decide to put the package out this way?<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: Well I think that a lot of what\u2019s been going on for a lot of my career in the past twenty years to be fair has been not taking that next step and a lot of that has been my fault. I\u2019ve been afraid to take that next step but I\u2019ve also been with different managers that in my opinion were great people, as hard as they worked for me I don\u2019t think they understood what to do with me. I parted ways with my previous management about a year and a half ago and I have since hooked up with Andy Farrow from UK and he gets it! Andy\u2019s been very proactive in trying to make up for lost time and a lot of what that entails is piggy backing off of one experience to another. In the past what would happen was we would do something that was significant in terms of my career or history but then we wouldn\u2019t do anything after that; it would be like there\u2019d be a bench mark that we\u2019d reach and then it would just die off, then we\u2019d do another benchmark and it would die off again. What we\u2019re finding now is that we do a benchmark and then we announce something else. The ultimate goal of that is to get to the point where I can make this Ziltoid musical that I want to do with the backing and the musicians and the right way to do it. With the Box set there\u2019s definitely an element of the fan base that gets upset saying well you\u2019re taking advantage of the people that supports you, but my reaction to that is that I don\u2019t want to take advantage of anybody and id be more than happy for you to just download it all. I don\u2019t want what I do to make you feel uncomfortable, I have to sell shit, the industry\u2019s in a way here that in order for me to reach these goals and bands on salary I have to sell shit, it\u2019s stupid not to. We\u2019re trying to make the product as good as we can so it\u2019s worth buying however, somebody said to me on twitter \u201cI need you to convince me as to why I should buy your shit\u201d and I said \u201cNo, don\u2019t buy it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Those are the kinds of fans where you can think to yourself\u2026 just f#*k off, don\u2019t waste my time and don\u2019t buy it!<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: That\u2019s it, right! I found out the hard way that telling a fan to fuck off specifically on the internet doesn\u2019t go over so well. So you have to say it in a nice way without saying fuck off right! <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: [Laughs] That\u2019s a good point!<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: If you don\u2019t very much mind, would you do me the extreme pleasure of fucking right off\u2026<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: [Laughs] <\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: Somebody else is saying \u201cyou\u2019re charging two hundred bucks for this VIP thing at the retinal circus why would you do that?\u201d and I\u2019m like \u201cwell, the management suggested it, it really helps sell cause it\u2019s like a really expensive proposition and you don\u2019t have to come cause I\u2019m going to hang out after the show anyway!\u201d Sometimes I find there is a certain fraction of the fan-base that is looking for reasons to be angry and I think that, that is fully understandable cause there\u2019s a lot of labels that just re-issue shit as a cash-grab. Anytime I get an opportunity to be involved and make it better then it could be I do. <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Mate you must be one of the busiest men in metal, every time I turn around you\u2019re writing new material, and getting ready to release something new! After so many years, creating such great music do you find it harder or easier to come up with fresh sounding material as time goes on?<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: Well it\u2019s a little bit of both, it\u2019s easier to come up with material but what sounds fresh to me now\u2026 the things that appeal to me most now with music a lot of times wouldn\u2019t fit in with what we\u2019re doing now. There has to be these moments where you reconnect with the band and fortunately I still have this vision with Devin Townsend Project where that inspiration is still to be found by doing that. I remember towards the end of Strapping [Young Lad] I was looking for inspiration to make Strapping like material everywhere and I couldn\u2019t find it anywhere. Nothing was inspiring me to do this! With Devin Townsend Project what comes naturally to me at this point in my life whether or not it\u2019s just a phase is very quiet, folk, country sounding stuff. If I start doing that with this after setting all of this up, glowing logos and all this shit\u2026 \u201cI hope you like our new direction\u201d people will be like \u201cyeah we don\u2019t.\u201d It doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m not gonna do it, I\u2019m still working on it.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: [Laughs] It would be a fantastic way to upset some of those fans again! <\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: I\u2019ll tell ya what, I upset everybody basically every time I put out a record and then when I put out the next one it\u2019s just about the time that they\u2019ve become used to the one before, then they\u2019re pissed off that you\u2019re changing again.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: I\u2019ve always felt that it\u2019s great to have diversity in music and that\u2019s one thing that you\u2019re great with, you will do an acoustic show, record some folk type material and of course the more extreme metal styles also, have you always thought for yourself that it was important to be well rounded with your musical choices and the way you put it all together?<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: It\u2019s never been a conscious decision, I get bored easily so once I finish one thing I\u2019ll be damned if I want to do that again. That\u2019s it more than anything else, again there\u2019s a lot of times when people are talking about my process and music and it sounds so much more romantic then it probably actually is. I get bored easily, I like a lot of different styles of music I was never part of any click, so there\u2019s no real reason to adhere to any click and I think you put all those things together with a capacity to for learning and you\u2019re gonna get some weird music, that\u2019s just what I do! <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Mate, I believe you\u2019re already working on the next album Epicloud<\/em> scheduled for release this year\u2026 how far into the writing are you?<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: Basically because Deconstruction<\/em> and Ghost<\/em> were so complicated I just said fuck it, I just want to write something that\u2019s big, shiny, aggressive hard rock with a lot of beauty and a lot of melancholy. It\u2019s simple with big choruses and its relatively accessible and its going to piss off people who liked Deconstruction<\/em> and then by the time they start thinking wow that\u2019s really cool then I\u2019m going to release Ziltoid the Omniscient 2<\/em> and piss them off again!<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: [Laughs] Sounds like a great plan! Mate in this industry you\u2019re constantly learning whether it\u2019s on tour, or in the studio or the all important business side of things! Knowing there are so many different lessons along the way what do you feel has been the most important lesson you\u2019ve learnt thus far?<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: To not take it as seriously as you\u2019re inclined to because when the gigs get big and the press room becomes to the point where it seems like what you\u2019re doing is really important, because you\u2019ve got people running around and there\u2019s money that\u2019s being spent on things you\u2019ve got managers and lawyers it\u2019s really hard to sometimes keep in check that it may seem important but it\u2019s not! I think that if you can learn to take it with a grain of salt it doesn\u2019t matter how big it gets man, it will just be fun! It will be \u201cwow isn\u2019t that cool\u201d vs \u201coh my god this is a defining moment for me.\u201d If you can keep it fun rather than with a sense of self importance then you\u2019re golden man!<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Devin thanks again for your time today, it\u2019s been a true pleasure. Do you have any last words for our readers?<\/p>\n

Devin Townsend: Worst shit has happened to better people! <\/p>\n

Devin Townsend will be performing at the 2012 Soundwave Festival and selected sideshows. Don\u2019t miss the mayhem kicking off today in Brisbane!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Cameron Edney Guest Staff Writer — Devin Townsend is one of the most intriguing men in metal music and he\u2019s back in Australia this week to take part in the Soundwave Festival. Best known […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6817],"tags":[4647,203,3990],"class_list":{"0":"post-18602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcint2012","7":"tag-devin-townsend","8":"tag-interview","9":"tag-soundwave-festival"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}