I've been a workaholic for many years, but at the same time, I do it because I love it.
Devin Townsend
I'm really into music, I'm really into art, and I want to keep that fire alive.
As a drummer, I'm rhythmically so disabled that it's hilarious.
'Epicloud' is the first record that I felt confident enough to include all those things on one record, so it goes between melodic hard rock to schizophrenic heavy metal to country to really ambient stuff, and it's all in one place.
For me, the one thing I've got going for me in terms of my attributes as a musician is vision.
I think live stuff is certainly stuff I enjoy doing. I do like performing for people and bringing it to people.
I make music for people to hear it, so get it however you want!
I've always loved the sound of female vocals.
It's really hard to foster self-love; it really is. I think a lot of people who claim that they do have a definite lack of self-loathing are either lying or just in a place that I don't relate to.
I think when music, specifically heavy music, the motivation for it is other than truly feeling it, that's when it becomes really difficult for me.
I come from a blue collar background.
I've always been into easy music. When I was 15, the record for me was 'Hysteria' by Def Leppard.
I think that religion is incredibly cruel, and I think that my biggest problem with being vegetarian, usually, is other vegetarians.
I guess I'm not really into female vocals that sound masculine, I guess. A lot of times, the heavy female vocalists always end up sounding like they're screaming or whatever.
It's like... to make a good record - I don't care who you are - it takes a long time and a lot of passion and a lot of attention to detail, right?
Music is so important to me that that's got to be the only way I can do it. In the purest possible way.
I like Canada for a number of reasons, politics and people and all that stuff aside. I was raised there, and I write music best when I'm in situations that I'm surrounded by nature, and when there's seasons.
I think that the world is full of really, really good musicians, but that's not necessarily my motivation for having people involved. It's more how they contribute to the scene as a person.
My lineage is partially Irish.
I don't think anything that I have done has been forced by commerce exclusively.
If you think meet-and-greets are fundamentally stupid, then you're never not gonna think that.
The risk a lot of times, in my mind - and I may be incorrect - the risk of challenging people directly with their beliefs is that society is such that there's too many of us, so a direct challenge automatically engages people's defenses.
The reason Strapping Young Lad was such a good band was we were honest about what we were doing.
Enya was a huge deal for me. That kind of woman vocals and how wide those productions were.
Strapping Young Lad is a vehicle for me to be wild and extroverted and ridiculous. It gives me the chance to say, 'Look at me. I'm a heavy metal guy. I'm Rob Halford or Bruce Dickinson or whoever.'
For me, the opportunity to express myself in this way is something I don't take for granted.
I know that I'm often perceived as this odd guy who's a bit out there, and I've probably, once in a while, reinforced that image, but I'm really not that person, and, in a way, I want even less so to be seen like that.
To have the opportunity to be creative and clarify the nature of that creativity, there are definitely some long days, some 18-20 hour days with interviews or computer work, but I have a friend who is every bit as intelligent and creative as me who works at the mill.
I have a real hard time with inter-personal relationships. I find it really taxing. Especially, like, friendships and being in bands.
I don't deal with conflict well, so sometimes things will happen that will make me feel sort of powerless. But instead of being able to actually deal with the problem, I just suck it up - that's the way I was raised. Music, then, becomes my one avenue for letting things go, and when I get the chance, I let it rip. It's like therapy in that way.
As a vocalist, I can scream, and I've got a really good singing voice, but I can't do the really heavy vocals.
With 'Epicloud,' I wanted something catchy as the flu but with a sentiment that is romantic, positive, and beautiful. Spiritual without religion and set to heavy music.
If you're making music strictly to make money, you might as well find another job.
I love Strapping Young Lad. I'm incredibly proud of that band; I'm incredibly proud of everything we did.
I tend to find in my musical world people end up appearing, and I'm pretty good at being able to discern right away whether or not they are going to be appropriate based on their personality.
A lot of people are upset when you work out your anger issues, but there's a big industry for music which is furious and angry because, in my opinion, the world is looking for a justification to feel the same way.
The reason why everything I do is so different is not because I'm trying to be provocative; it's simply a reflection of whatever was happening to me at the time I wrote that particular record.
As Devin, the person, I'm very different from my artistic self.
In Strapping, I had experimented with a creative catharsis under the assumption that art doesn't need to be accountable for itself, but I found out in very practical ways that you are accountable for everything you say. Everything you write, everything you do becomes not only your identity but your world resonates with it.
The bottom line is music, for me, is an exhaust port for life, and if I have a chaotic year, then I'm gonna write a chaotic record, and that's what happened with 'Ziltoid,' with 'Z2.'
I really like female singers; I've got zero interest in working with male singers. Any male voice I need to do, I can do.
I'm not a big fan of options, to be honest. The more options that I have, the less time that I spend actually completing things... ultimately, I think, if you have endless choices, I mean, the tendency to just choose endlessly is there, and that doesn't do anything for anybody, really.
As someone whose music is connected to his personal growth, I feel an obligation to follow this muse wherever it leads.
I'll be the first to admit when I'm influenced by something.
One thing that's really important for me to be creatively motivated is to find an angle. Some people refer to that as a concept, which it is, in a sense, but not overtly. It's just something I need to focus and hone in on, and the trajectory of what might be seen as a 'concept' gives me creative momentum.
People talk about the Ozzfest and what it can do for your career, and I guess I'm just oblivious to it.
The records I make, I'm there from the writing of the first note through the click tracks to the miking of the drums to the editing of everything to the production to the vocals to the artwork.
I have a job - it's a great job, and I love doing it - but I can't not work. That's not psychological; that's practical.
The way that I write is I just write a ton of music in the background of my life, and then I just bring it into rehearsal. It's, like, 'Okay, guys. It goes like this. Let's smooth it out.'
Because I have been so pigheaded and so selfish about so many things for so many years, I've spent a lot of time being, like, 'That person needs to change. This person needs to change.'
