'People Are People'

We think he's crazy and we think he is a genious! Devin is already 37, but has so manyВ things to say.В The idea was to talk about his latest release -'Addicted' but it turned to be a pretty long conversation! And an interesting one....

an interview conducted by Vassil Varbanov

HELLO CRAZY CANUCK, HOW ARE YOU?
Ha ha, not crazy. How are you?

I’M GOOD. SO TELL US WHAT YOU’RE UP TO THESE DAYS?
I am doing multitudes of interviews. I just finishedВ  signing many many covers of the 'Addicted' record, I am cleaning my garage, I am fighting the good fight and I am trying to exerciseВ  when I can.

COULD YOU PLEASE SHED SOME LIGHT ON THE ADDICTED COVER – THE GREEN THING LOOKS LIKE A PENCIL, BUT OBVIOUSLY IT’S NOT.
I think that basically I’ve always dealt with metaphor and the cover for 'Addicted' is no different. Basically it’s a metaphor for my musical career and in that the red crayon on the left hand side is supposed to represent Strapping Young Lad in that it’s been used and it’s kind of worn down, the blue crayon on the right hand side is supposed to represent the Devin Townsend Band, which was new and whole, but got broken somewhere along the line and the green crayon in the middle is supposed to be a metaphor for this current four-record project that I’m doing called the Devin Townsend Project and if you notice on the left hand side of the cover there’s a purple smudge of crayon and that is supposed to represent the fight between Strapping Young Lad and the Devin Townsend Band, or the blue and the red.

THE BLUE ONE LOOKS LIKE IT’S HALFWAY THROUGH A PROCESS OF GROWTH.
I think so. The blue one again is supposed to represent my other band, which was called the Devin Townsend Band and it was very much the antithesis to Strapping Young Lad. So just to be clear, I had two bands – Strapping Young Lad and the Devin Townsend Band and neither of them were ever a completely accurate version of what I wanted to say, so there was always a struggle between the two. So what I’m hoping is that this new four-record project I’m working on now will, in some way, cover all the spaces.

OK, WE’LL GET BACK TO THE NEW ALBUM LATER, BUT SEEING THIS METAPHOR, THERE SEEMS TO BE NO TRACE OF WHAT YOU DID SIXTEEN YEARS AGO – WHICH IS WHEN I PERSONALLY HEARD OF YOU FOR THE FIRST TIME. I AM, OF COURSE, REFERRING TO STEVE VAI’S SEX & RELIGION.
Well, I am only two records into this four-record project. So I think that there still are two records left and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised if that’s what you’re looking for metaphorically.

The next record I’m doing is called 'Deconstruction' and it basically goes into my more symphonic nature and the real heavy nature of Strapping Young Lad or Ziltoid and I’ve been working in terms of taking lessons and discussing composition with Steve Vai, who’s a good friend. So there’s gonna be a lot of symphonic elements on the next record, as well as guitar work.

So I think the metaphor on 'Addicted' with the cover is only a metaphor that comprises everything up to the end of the second part of the four-record process. So I think that when the whole thing is done, I’m assuming and I’m hoping that the fanbase will be able to have a very comprehensive view of everything of my career and what I currently represent. 

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Devin, photo: Erich Saide

FOLLOWING YOUR STUFF AND SOME INTERVIEWS THROUGH THE YEARS, I STILL REMEMBER THAT FUNNY EPISODE WHEN YOU AND FEAR FACTORY WERE MUCKING ABOUT BY A SWIMMING POOL AND YOU DRANK DINO CAZARES’ SPIT...
Ho ho..

I ALWAYS HAD THE IMPRESSION THAT YOU’RE A GUY WITH A VERY GOOD SENSE OF HUMOUR AND IF I WAS A COMEDIAN I’D BE NERVOUS ABOUT WHETHER I’M ACTUALLY GOOD ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU LAUGH.
You know what, everything makes me laugh. Here’s my point of view – stupidity and silliness is the last refuge of the damned. I would rather laugh with a friend of mine about farts than listen to the biggest philosopher in the world trying to tell me how the universe was created.

I mean, really, I’m a human and I’m fairly intelligent and I’m fairly creative and I’m fairly talented, but there’s always gonna be people that are more talented or less talented, smarter and less smart, but the things that make me happiest are the simple things. I’m not elitist in what makes me laugh – if someone’s trying to make me laugh and it’s funny, I laugh my ass off.

There’s no “well that’s not quite as funny as it could be”. Basically humour is the thing that allows us to connect with each other. With the amount of war and chaos and murder and death and religion and all this shit that we get bombarded with every day, the thing that I wanna do in my spare time is laugh.

I don’t want to watch a drama – I mean, sure I watch a drama, but I don’t want to push it any further into that realm of being glum than I have to be. I mean, I like humour and I think the nature of humour and the nature of my relationship with my close friends are “let’s just have a good time” you know. I think everybody should have a good time.

BEARING THIS IN MIND, DO YOU FIND THE MONTY PYTHON SERIES TO BE ONE OF THE GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE FIELD OF COMEDY?
Oh yeah, of course, Monty Python, of course. But you know, I had a friend send me a picture yesterday, from the Internet that just killed me and it was a picture of the Queen of England and she was sitting with a bunch of Royal Guards all looking real serious, and the guy sitting beside her, his kilt was too high and his cock and balls are hanging out, and they had taken the photo, and dude, I laughed and laughed for 10 minutes.

It was awesome because he had no idea and everybody was super serious in the picture and here’s the Queen with a guy with his balls hanging out beside her.

I mean, who knows what makes me laugh, sometimes people will say “check this out, this is super fun” and it doesn’t make me laugh…I don’t really spend too much time thinking about what makes me laugh and what doesn’t, it’s all relative, it’s all perspective. It’s all mood too, because there’s some days when…there’s a publication in America called 'The Onion', it’s like a satirical newspaper and some days I’ll open 'The Onion' and I’ll laugh at every single article.

And then other days, I’ll read it and every article will depress me because it’s too real. It all depends on your mood and I think that, again it’s like having people in your life and situations in your life that will allow you to break that tension is great. 
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NOW THAT YOU MENTION THE QUEEN, I KNOW THAT THE CANADIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM IS 'O CANADA'. BUT DO YOU STILL SING 'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN' FROM TIME TO TIME? I’M ASKING YOU BECAUSE I HAVEN’T REALLY KEPT TRACK WITH CANADA’S RECENT HISTORY.
Oh, I don’t want to give the impression that I have the knowledge of how the world works either, cause I really don’t and I don’t think I’ve even sang the national Canadian anthem in 30 years.

I mean humans are humans, whether they’re from Canada, America or Belgium or Australia, people are people, you’ve got good people and you’ve got idiots. I hate to put it into such simple terms, but I certainly don’t sing the anthem when I wake up in the morning.

'PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE'– THAT’S A SONG BY DEPECHE MODE. IN THAT RESPECT WE HEARD THAT YOUR NEW RECORD ADDICTED IS MEANT TO BE MORE MELODIC AND DANCEABLE – IS THAT ON PURPOSE OR DID IT COME ABOUT NATURALLY?
I don’t really spend too much time premeditating what my music is going to be. Each record I do is essentially a reaction to the one before it, so the record before 'Addicted' was 'Ki', which was a kind of quiet and odd record. I loved it, but when I finished it, I was like “well, I’m done with that, time for something new and different”.

When I started writing 'Addicted' it was never like, a conscious “let’s write something that’s danceable”, it was just the things that interested me at that time, for example I maybe had a techno record that I was interested in that I looked into a lot, or maybe I liked certain colour schemes and maybe there are certain elements of a philosophy that I was intrigued by.

So when I start putting the puzzle together, all these elements end up contributing to the current vision. And when that’s purged, when that’s finished, when 'Addicted’s' finished or whatever, then it’s not like I’m no longer interested in those things, but I’ve kind of worn myself out on them and the nature of my personality makes me find that there’s things that all of a sudden I’m interested in that are different. And then the next record becomes a product of the next series of interests and as a result of that the music remains a real cathartic release and I think that, as is exemplified by this next record I’m working on now, called 'Deconstruction', it’s a complete polar opposite to 'Addicted', so I think the root of it is the roots.

As an artist am I connecting to something that’s honest, am I connecting to something that’s passionate? And if so, it really doesn’t matter what the aesthetic is, it could be dancey, it could be death metal, it could be country, because it’s always just gonna be me, right? So 'Addicted' is essentially just another flavour of the same thing that I’ve been doing for twenty years.

YOU’VE ALWAYS GIVEN ME THE IMPRESSION OF BEING A VERY HYPERACTIVE PERSON. WHAT DRUGS ARE YOU INTO THESE DAYS?
About three years ago I quit everything. I quit smoking marijuana, I quit drinking booze, I quit caffeine, I quit pornography, I quit everything. I wouldn’t say that everybody should do this or that beer is bad. It’s got nothing to do with that. It’s more self-preservation.

I found that my personal habits were a cover-up for things I needed to deal with and as a result of that what started as being a release or an escape, ended up being a real contributing factor to personal paranoia and a lack of control over not only myself, but my creative process.

So what are my addictions now? I don’t know… pomegranates… I’m on the Internet a lot… I like hot baths, I like going to the beach, I’m a pretty boring dude, man. And in terms of being hyperactive, well, I’m not really…

When I do an interview like this one, I definitely have to turn myself on because you’re accountable for everything you say and with the Internet if I say something to you without thinking about it, the next thing you know some website is going to print it and I’m going to feel stupid about it, so I definitely have to be “on” when I do an interview. But in my day-to-day life, I like watching TV and I hang out…

Devin, photo: Erich Saide

YEAH,В FAITH NO MORE DESCRIBED IT VERY WELL SOME YEARS AGO, IN A SONG CALLED 'MIDLIFE CRISIS'.
Haha, well I’m definitely not having a midlife crisis yet. I mean, I’ve got one planned, but I’m not having one yet. I guess that what I realized through quitting alcohol and drugs is that without it my life is fine.

I’M ONLY ASKING YOU THIS BECAUSE I DID A SIMILAR THING, I QUIT BOOZE ABOUT FIVE MONTHS AGO AND I FEEL MUCH BETTER FOR IT.
Oh yeah, my God, yeah. And you probably look younger and it’s easier to get your day done. Again it comes back to self-preservation – there are some people that are always trying to use being sober as some sort of leverage point, where they say to other people “well look at me, look at these great things I’ve done and you should do it too” and all that.

But really everybody dances to a different drummer. Ultimately if what your world is, is making you feel bad about yourself, making your artistic process something that people don’t relate to, then really you have to evaluate why you’re doing it in the first place and a lot of times with alcohol, people are using it because there’s either some childhood trauma, or some unresolved personal issues that it’s easy to forget when you use alcohol.

I think there’s a certain fear of having to confront yourself that makes a lot of people not want to do it. But then again there’s a lot of people that drink wine with dinner because they like it and that’s fine. Again, it’s different for everyone.

AND THE GOOD THING ABOUT DRINKING, ESPECIALLY WINE, IS THAT IT HELPS YOU SOCIALIZE. THERE’S A VERY FUNNY ENGLISH PROVERB THAT SAYS “I DRINK TO MAKE OTHER PEOPLE INTERESTING”.
I also think there’s something to be said for moderation versus abstinence. If you’re drunk, then you’re drunk – that’s easy. You wake up in the morning and have a drink and then you get more booze and you drink and you drink and you drink.

Being abstinent is also easy. I mean, sure, there’s the detox and stuff, but when it’s cut and dry and you don’t drink, it’s easy. If someone offers you a drink, you say “no”, there’s your answer.

What’s difficult is moderation, because to be moderate that means you have to know yourself, you have to know your limits. And for me, I don’t. If someone says “let’s have a glass of wine”, I’ll say “ok, I’ve had a long day, I’ve looked at lots of stuff, my head hurts, I’m stressed, so, sure – I’ll have a drink”. So I’ll have a glass of wine and then the next thing you know, I’ve drunk a bottle. And then the next day I drink another bottle. And then three months down the road I’m in exactly the same place.

So it’s very obvious to me that I am not a moderate personality and I’ve got a long way to go before, if ever, I’m able to be moderate. So I think that, drinking to make other people interesting… I mean, sure, but you can also say “it was just the tip that I put in, so it doesn’t count”.

I think there are justifications for almost anything and really you’ve got to know that as much as some people say “I drink to make other people interesting”, I find that drunks in general are not very interesting to hang out with. I think that when you do quit drinking or doing drugs, there’s a period when you have no social life, you have no social network and the parties are no longer fun and whatever, but over time you meet other people who are sober and they are fun, and what I’ve found is that what you do get from this newfound sense of self-confidence or whatever, is that you learn that there are options.

I think that what I am able to do sober, is infinitely more productive than when I was stoned or drunk, because I’m not second-guessing myself and a lot of things that come with self-confidence. There will be a lot of people that won’t like the music I do as much as the music I did when I was drunk and stoned, because that’s how they got to know me and I appreciate that. However, there’s gonna be a lot of people that I’m gonna find who appreciate the new me, so it’s all perspective.

LET ME FINALLY ASK YOU ABOUT THE 'ADDICTED' RECORD. I KNOW THAT YOU RE-RECORDED THE 'HYPERDRIVE!” TRACK THAT YOU HAD ON THE ZILTOID ALBUM. THE QUESTION IS – WHY?
I think that when I was writing Ziltoid, that whole period of my life really was a result of a lot of chaos, personal change and drama., all the typical shit that goes along with making a record. But during that whole period of personal catharsis, 'Hyperdrive!' was written.

And I remember that when I wrote it, it never really belonged with the other 'Ziltoid' tracks. I found a way within the 'Ziltoid' record to make it work and I thought it worked well, you know, kind of like that transition period where the character’s flying through the universe.

However I was always left with a sense of wishing that I had included 'Hyperdrive!' in a group of songs that were similar to it. But I kind of put it out of my head. And then when Anneke came into my world – it’s funny how she did, she sent me an email out of the blue, saying “My name is Anneke and here’s me, singing Hyperdrive live with my band. Give me a call if you’re interested in working together.”

And I don’t know if I believe in fate, but it seemed like a very interesting coincidence that the one song from 'Ziltoid' that I had wished could have been presented in a different scenario – not to say that I didn’t like what happened with the Ziltoid version, because that’s a unique version. In fact the Ziltoid version is what the original vision was.

But hearing Anneke do it again, I thought “wow, maybe this will be an opportunity for me to do it with real drums”. And I think that when people re-do a song they re-do it similar, but with Anneke it was such a different version that I thought it would be a great idea to do it.

HERE COMES A SENSITIVE QUESTION. WE KNOW THAT YOU’RE VERY CLOSE TO FEAR FACTORY. DID YOU HAPPEN TO GET AN INVITATION FROM DINO AND BURTON TO JOIN THEM, BECAUSE NOWADAYS GENE HOGLAN IS THEIR DRUMMER…
Well this is what I have to say about Fear Factory: Number one – I love Strapping Young Lad, I love Gene. In my opinion he’s probably the most incredible drummer on the planet. Byron – I love him, Jed is incredible, love the guys. I had my reasons for Strapping Young Lad breaking up, I’ve explained them over and over again, so I won’t go there. But I love those guys.
And Fear Factory? I’ve been a fan since 'Soul of a New Machine'. Now I don’t talk shit about anybody, but I will say what I do believe and this is what I believe – I think Dino is an incredible guitar player, I think that Dino’s style as a guitar player – he’s got sound in his right hand that has influenced me for years. So to hear Dino play Fear Factory riffs again is awesome. Burton and Dino together sound like Fear Factory, right?

Raymond and Christian are great, I mean they were a great part of Fear Factory – Christian’s got a great guitar style and Raymond’s drumming is very identifiable. However, I heard the new Fear Factory song 'Powershifter', I heard it last night and the night before, I think it’s fucking awesome. So I don’t know what to say.

I’d like to be able to say negative things about everything, but, man, it sounds like Fear Factory with Gene Hoglan and Byron Stroud – how much better can you get?

BUT DID THEY INVITE YOU TO JOIN THEM?
Oh no, no, no. I mean, there is no way I could sing for Fear Factory. Number one I don’t have as guttural a voice as Burton and he sounds like Fear Factory. They never invited me and honestly there’s no way I would, not because I wouldn’t be flattered, but just because I’ve got so much stuff to do on my own.

But I used your question to answer differently, for which I apologize. I just wanted to say that I think their new stuff is awesome and I really wish them a ton of success.

I WAS JUST THINKING THAT YOU’D BE IDEAL TO PRODUCE THEM, BUT YOU ALREADY SAID YOU’RE FAR TOO BUSY WITH OTHER STUFF…
I can produce, but when I hear their new record, they certainly don’t need me. So they make the right decisions that they need and so do I.

rights Tangra Mega RockВ