“…there’s going to always be a faction of people that seem to support but are much more connected to certain timelines of my work and I get that! I think the biggest thing for me to say is that I respect the audience, I respect everybody’s right and decision to like and dislike things, but, I would also suggest that maybe the reason why I’ve had such a loyal fanbase for so long is because they know that I can’t not do what I feel like I need to do. That’s it! At the very least, it’s not full of shit!”
My love and adoration for Devin Townsend has been exhaustively well documented throughout these last thirty years and my extremely long career (if one could call it that!) doing metal press, radio and now podcasting.
Truly, anyone who is aware of metal in any facet has a vague idea of Townsend’s existence. He’s released twenty-three studio albums, a shit ton of live albums and even an autobiography! I would challenge anyone to find a harder-working musician and artist. Throughout the pandemic lockdowns, he did a ton of live-streaming specials, mini-concerts and the like just to keep himself busy and sane during the exhaustive state of isolation we’ve all endured.
I asked Devin how he feels coming out the other side of lockdown, being so busy and productive, how he managed to keep positive considering his well-documented mental health issues and also who is that man Devin away from the microphone, his monstrous work ethic and fanbase;
“Hopefully similar,” he laughed. “I would like to think that I am a more exaggerated version of who I am from day to day. It’s like anything, I don’t think that you can control much, but you can control your reactions (or at least) try to control your reactions and I felt that over the course of that final year of the pandemic and continuing on to now, the situations that we were presented with were just so difficult and challenging to deal with psychologically, that I felt like in a sense the most extreme act of rebellion that I could think of at the time was to not let it take me in that direction! So I consciously went out of my way to try and keep myself balanced to some degree.”
Continuing on, Townsend explains how he managed to keep himself positive and overcome any setbacks presented to him.
“Whether or not that was through what I ate or exercise or meditation or any number of things,” he explained. “There was a certain point in my life where I got to recognise that a lot of me blowing bananas over things that I can’t do anything about is just absurd! Knowing that there’s such situations that I’m obsessing about and going crazy over that I have zero control over you start thinking to yourself “Dude what am I doing to myself here?”…So regardless of what I do in the future, regardless of what the content is like after this, the statement that I made with Lightwork represents me saying that I’m not going to let this drag me down and it didn’t so – Hooray, I’m tired though…”Holy Shit!”.
“The nature of the record and why it is the way it is, is a coping mechanism for me. When I was younger my coping mechanism was to scream, but then I just found that after a certain amount of time it was like “UGH”, just exhausting and this is what I needed to do at this time. The “Call Of The Void” is essentially, not letting go!”
As with a lot of his previous releases Devin has alongside the official release, with special editions added an accompanying, somewhat complementary disc. ie: City / Ocean Machine, Epicloud / Epiclouder, Z² – Dark Matters / Sky Blue to name but a few. These can be seen as a light vs. dark concept. Some material being too dark or too light to go on a particular Devin idea he’s trying to convey, so he opts to release two albums (generally as two separate entities whether it be a special edition or stand alone album) I mention this to him as Lightwork is no exception to past releases featuring the accompanying Nightwork disc. I ask if this was a conscious thing considering his past offerings.
“Not really, the goal is to evolve for me on some level, and it’s pretty fluid right,” he answered, “like the way I was a couple of years back there is certainly elements of it there, but you learn things as you move on, and I think being moderate with those type of thoughts is a lot more efficient for me now. I think the fact that there is kind of like a “dark thing” and a “light thing” is less indicative of anything other than just being more at peace with my own humanity cos that’s what humans are right? I think you run into this issue where you try and block any semblance of the other side it right – Like if you’re really invested in darkness and then all of a sudden you see a puppy that you like and you think “Oh I have to keep that shit down low” because that’s in opposition to this persona! And I think conversely it’s the same thing if you’re trying to do positive music, in my experience over the last year, to sort of, help me cope!”
Elaborating further, Devin gives us an interesting analogy.
”It’s not that I don’t write heavy stuff,” he measured, “it’s not that I don’t feel the heavy stuff – it’s like going to a restaurant and certain things are in season!”
Listening to the podcast in full Mr. Townsend continues to delve deeper into his philosophy of light opposing but complimenting dark and how it gives oneself clarity and justifies one’s personality by facing and accepting those parts of ourselves definitively both internally and externally.
Listen to “Devin Townsend Beckons Us All To Follow His Light” on Spreaker.
There are many of us so called – DEV HEADS that have been following his journey and growth as both a young upstart human and artist since the beginning. Whether it was Steve Vai’s – Sex & Religion or Strapping Young Lad’s incredibly brutal and magnificent debut Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing.
For one reason or another, his subsequent releases have risen and fallen from the incredibly insane to the calming cathartic – Ocean Machine, Infinity to SYL’s City. Whatever your Townsend poison maybe I put it to Devin that, being an artist, he for all intents and purposes doesn’t need to give a shit about his fans (to which he meaningfully interjects – “Oh but I do!”), and not particularly having to write exclusively for the fans or with them in mind. Case in point, having heard the upcoming new Dev album Lightwork, being a longtime champion of all that he has released, this time around on my first few listens it just didn’t click with me instantly like pretty much every other album he’s given us. I, without fear of retribution, explained my rationale to Devin, he graciously listened and understood then gave this thoughtful response to whether he considers us fans walking this path with him.
“You can care up to a point,” he offered, “and then after that point you’ve got to be true to yourself and I think that the identity of what I do is so fluid, like since months prior I put out The Puzzle which was what completely what it needed to be for me at the time and then after Lightwork I’ll go in a different direction…I care about it because I…”, here Townsend pauses for reflection: “don’t feel like I underestimate the audience. There’s a lot of people I know who when they talk about the audience, it’s the impression that the audience are a bunch of idiots! It’s (they’re) like – “Ah we’ll just throw this out, and we’ll do this and no-one will ever know…I don’t feel that way because the people who support it are the same ones that allow me to continue going. However, I’ve made a habit over the past, however many records, of apologising prior to every record saying – “Listen I had to do this because it was really important to me, I highly recommend that you don’t buy it until you hear it because I don’t want anybody to feel like I’m throwing it in their face! However…I can’t do it unless people continue to support it, so I appreciate the support. But…”
Here we hear Devin delve deeper inside himself and articulate.
“At the same time, I also had to make peace with the fact this year that I can’t just apologise for things that I wanna do! It seems like that level of insecurity doesn’t help me, AT ALL!”
Here Devin’s artistic persona rises above the frustration and turmoil of so many facets of being true to himself and what he gift’s to the world, explaining further;
“So every time I do sometimes I’m like “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry!” And there’s going to always be a faction of people that seem to support but are much more connected to certain timelines of my work, and I get that! I think the biggest thing for me to say is that I respect the audience, I respect everybody’s right and decision to like and dislike things, but, I would also suggest that maybe the reason why I’ve had such a loyal fanbase for so long is because they know that I can’t not do what I feel like I need to do. That’s it! At the very least, it’s not full of shit!”
Devin’s obvious analysis of himself, his career, artistic endeavours, personal life and the challenges of evolving plus accepting his age and honest output that guides his journey in life is self-described aptly with.
“The older I get, I feel that we’re being asked in society to have hard opinions on everything. “You’re either right or you’re left…You’re either with us or against us!” Whatever this contentious issue in society is, you have to pick a side!…Everything is so nuanced. I feel that with social media, I’ve got other artists and colleagues saying “you need to use your voice, you need to say this, and you need to do that!” and I just don’t understand it. It’s so complex. The Moonpeople (Lightwork‘s first single release) idea is people who are in the background…watching these things play out. And that acts as a mission statement for the record.”
To get deeper into the heart of the new Devin Townsend album Lightwork, your full attention is required by listening to the interview in full, which includes some poignant tracks that have shaped his musical career.
Lightwork will be released on November 4th courtesy of InsideOut
