Interrogating Devin Townsend Part 1: The Road To 'Sky Blue'

The bane of prog purists the world over and a totem for the bizarre, Devin Townsend has enjoyed a career brimming with variety. After all, who else could release a country album and a space opera about farts and aliens within five months of one another?

Hevy Devy is a unique, fad-defying example of artistic vision. Since releasing the 'Casualties Of Cool' record following a very successful Pledge drive earlier this year - read 546% of its target - Townsend has been marching towards the unveiling of a sequel to 2007's completely bonkers 'Ziltoid The Omniscient'.

That sequel is now a matter of days from arriving. 'Z²' is a double-disc behemoth comprising two parts: 'Sky Blue', a Devin Townsend Project record, and 'Dark Matters', which is all about Ziltoid. While the album has ended up being, well, completely fucking brilliant, it seems that the road to its release was a rocky one, a path beset with obstacles and planets that probably ended up being smashed (by Herman, the Planet Smasher, of course). 'Sky Blue', certainly, began life as one thing and became something else along the way.

“The thing is, 'Sky Blue' was an unintentional part of this record,” Townsend said. “When it started, my whole reason for doing this was I wanted to do Ziltoid. That was where the next step was for me. But it's so expensive to do Ziltoid, man. It's stupid. You blow all this money on farting alien puppets and orchestras and TV shows and comic books that cost a fortune, so a lot of the people in my life – business wise – were like: 'If you're gonna do that, would you mind recording some of the other stuff you have kicking around?'

“At first it started as a sort of compromise, like: 'If I give you some of that material is it cool if I do Ziltoid?' Luckily, it turned into something that was a very personal and very important record for me, but in the beginning it was just like: 'If I do this for you, then you do this for me'.”

Hearing Townsend talk about ‘Sky Blue’, there’s a sense of a fatherly relationship that’s nevertheless a little love/hate. It’s clear, though, that the album’s power took him aback once it coalesced into a reflection of his recent creative process.

“The reality of it is I've been putting out records with such ferocity – just record after record after record – that I don't think I had enough time to reinvent the wheel with regards to 'Sky Blue’,” he said. “I'm proud of it because it sings about things that were really important to me and it's coming from a place of honesty, but it is a continuation and it's nowhere near as bold as 'Epicloud'.

“What I think it does bring to the table is a melancholy take on that record, and 'Z²' in general was just a monstrous amount of work and stress, and I think now it's concluded, it's gonna be a long time before I do another record. I've kinda recognised that you can't keep doing it so quickly without starting to repeat yourself, right? That's me being perfectly honest, but the end result of 'Sky Blue', regardless of whether it's anything brand new, is that it's an important record and it says a whole lot about this period and this process. Hopefully people can see that in it.”

People will see that in it. ' Z²', and, more specifically, 'Sky Blue', is one of the most accomplished works in the Townsend canon to date. Taking the pop sensibilities of 'Epicloud' and blending them with the progressive elements of 'Terria' and the sublime nuances of 'Ki', it is really a multi-faceted beast. There is even a track, Silent Militia, that sounds like the opening riff could have been lifted from a latter-day Prodigy record.

“That was just a Will.i.am song my kid was playing, and I was like: 'Oh, that beat! I'll try that one out,” he laughed. “I mean, the whole process of 'Sky Blue' was so challenging. At first, when it was proposed I do it so as to do Ziltoid, I thought: 'Man, this is gonna be easy – I've got a tonne of songs like that'. 'Epicloud' came really naturally to me at the time. 

“When I started writing for 'Sky Blue', I just thought I could do a bunch of things like 'Epicloud', but it just didn't work and my head wasn't there. What I had was a bunch of songs that were kinda like 'Epicloud' but not as engaging, right? Even the emotional component – it's hard to pretend you're in this 'Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!' frame of mind if you're not – was really difficult.

“There's 30 songs I've got on my hard drive that were just never recorded because I kept writing and thinking: 'That's not right'. It became clear to me that it wasn't right because that's not where I'm at; I'm not in that frame of mind any more, so I just had to follow it wherever it went. It was a kinda grim time, to be honest, so the music on 'Sky Blue' ended up reflecting that melancholy aspect. But I think the success of the record comes from the fact that I worked through it. Emotionally, it says something to me now it's complete, and I learned a whole lot from it. It sounds like I'm just rambling about it, but it's good for me to actually say it out loud.”

And, that’s one thing about Townsend: he's as honest as they come, ready to admit when he's taken a misstep. Knee-deep in new projects most of the time, he recently let slip another idea, an ambient release presumed to be in the same vein as 'Devlab' and 'the Hummer' tentatively titled 'Garden Music'. But, given recent pressures, he’s tight-lipped regarding future endeavours.

“Hopefully, I should learn from my own process,” he said. “And with 'Z²', by my own hand, I put myself in a situation where I was between the Pledge, 'Z²', Casualties Of Cool, touring and family. The chaos of this scenario was too much. It really was. I managed to finish it and I'm very satisfied with it, but by the skin of my teeth.

“It's getting to the point where that lack of foresight is going to be a real problem for me both creatively and personally if I'm not careful, so I've made a decision to not talk about my future in interviews. I shouldn't talk about all these ideas – just put a lid on it. Inevitably, what happens is I get overly excited about my work, and then committing to all these things causes me nothing but anxiety and problems. 'Garden Music', yeah! Symphony, yeah! Orchestra, yeah! They're all things I'd love to roll out on, but I have to be careful. So long story long: 'Garden Music' is one of the things I'll hold off talking about.”

Given his previous propensity for spilling the beans, there are naturally some projects that never saw the light of day. A bonus disc to 2011's 'Ghost' album, 'Ghost II', remains unreleased and is represented in the wider world only in the form of songs scattered across the internet and a re-recording on the 'Casualties Of Cool' bonus disc.

“'Ghost II' was interesting, because it was finished and I wanted to just put it out for free, I didn't care,” he said. “I had tonnes of extra music. A lot of times, however, because the music industry is the way it is, it isn't just your decision as an artist, there's a lot of people who decide when it's a good or bad time to put out music. People want to monetise everything you do, so the label were saying: 'Let's put it out later!' I was saying: 'It's not good enough to put out later!’ It's the b-sides to something I was once in the frame of mind for.

“To not finish it then just made it unfinishable. When I revisited it, I wasn't in the same frame of mind and I didn't remember what it was supposed to be. By not putting it out when I had the opportunity, none of the songs resonated with me any more and I couldn't remember how the record was supposed to play out. But if you look at that as a learning experience, then that allowed me to put out a second disc for 'Casualties of Cool'. That's all demos, and it's not meant to be its own CD. As a bonus disc, it works really well. It puts a cap on that period and all that music is now exorcised.”

Speaking of Casualties, it's obvious how much Townsend enjoyed recording and playing on that album. Also, while we're at it, the band's accompanying show at London's Union Chapel was a truly sublime experience.

“Now that was a beautiful thing for me,” he said. “Casualties Of Cool is a new project for me, and I really enjoyed that. I enjoy the music and the live element to it. That was only the second show we ever played, and I think there's a lot of potential in Casualties. It's something I'd love to pursue, but who knows what fate holds? If you want to subscribe to fate.

“Maybe people will think that element of what I do is what I should do. Maybe that's what I will think and what my next move will be. But that experience in the UK with Casualties was just wonderful. The Ziltoid thing was my honesty tourettes – possibly a liability for me - and DTP is also an element of me that I think I'm adept at, but it's much less where I'm at as a person. That's where I am with Casualties.

“I love being in that position where I don't have to speak, and I like improv and Strats and Teles. That's something I'm drawn to, and maybe I'll pursue it once the smoke's cleared. Ziltoid, on the other hand, is fun. It's not like pulling teeth. It's wicked guitars, loud stuff, puppets and creative avenues that are very free. There was still gas in the tank for 'Z²', but going forward and seeing how I feel will be interesting. The CPU is defragging and I have no idea where I'm at, but Ziltoid and DTP come less naturally to me now than Casualties does. We'll see.”

Could Casualties Of Cool be that new catalyst? Could he spend the remainder of his days twiddling with a banjo while chewing on a stalk of wheat? Who knows? The man himself struggled to find a suitable answer, but we can rest safe in the knowledge that he appears content...for now.

“I appreciate being able to tell you how I feel instead of trying to sell you on shit – I put a tonne of effort into this project and I'm so proud of it,” he said. “What do I want to do with music and my career right now? I just like playing clean guitar. I love playing dark, quiet stuff. I'd love to play bass for somebody, but maybe that's just a reaction to this. Maybe it's all just fatigue-based.

“Maybe when it all clears up, I'll want to do a symphony with 40 cannons and a thousand people singing or something. It's too early to tell, but I love what I do. I can't overestimate or overstate how honoured I am to do this for people. It's a journey and I'm perpetually confused, so thanks for paying attention.”

Head here as we talk Ziltoid in part two of our Devin Townsend interrogation!

Devin Townsend Project Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:

Sun March 29 2015 - BRISTOL O2 Academy Bristol
Mon March 30 2015 - GLASGOW O2 ABC
Tue March 31 2015 - MANCHESTER Academy
Mon April 13 2015 - LONDON Royal Albert Hall

Click here to compare & buy Devin Townsend Project Tickets at Stereoboard.com.

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