Stereoboard Talks To Devin Townsend, The Man Who Does Not Stop, At Damnation 2011 (Interview)
Monday, 21 November 2011
Written by Ben Bland
Somehow Devin managed to find time during his insanely busy schedule for a chat, with both his Damnation show and the performances of each Devin Townsend Project album in London coming up. In this interview Devin reveals the difficult of the immense challenges he has faced in his quest to be…well, totally fucking awesome.
So Devin, how happy are you to be here headlining Damnation…something you apparently found out about on Twitter?
Yeah I’m really happy. It’s the first show after our trip back over to Europe. I am still adapting to being here of course but this is a really cool festival. The bands are great and I am a fan of many of them so yeah it is very cool to be here.
You have your quadrology Devin Townsend Project shows to play…
Holy shit I know…
How are you feeling about those?
Completely ready (laughs).
Great. Let’s move on then…
No, it is a very difficult thing. “Deconstruction” in particular. It is going to be great and propelled by the people there but it has been a lot of fucking hard work and the fact that there is a different band for each record means it has been pretty much impossible because I have been on tour. Just learning to play “Deconstruction” is more than challenging enough. I’ve been sitting in the back of the bus trying to figure all this shit out. Hopefully the metal gods will be smiling on us. We’ve tried to go the extra mile with the limited budget and time that we have had. It will be killer though…don’t worry. Everybody has been working their arses off over this.
I feel sorry for you.
Dude, so do I!
Which of the four DTP records are you most looking forward to playing?
Well, I mean, all of them because there is something interesting about them all. I love all those four records. When we heard from the management that they wanted us to play all four of the albums and then when we heard they were sold out and all that…it was like “well, these CAN’T suck”. They have to be good. Then I was asking about rehearsal time and it was like, there isn’t any. Plus it is being filmed of course and that means there is less of a budget for doing other special things…and, I mean in some ways it has been a bit of a nightmare I suppose. The only way we have managed to avert it from being destined for a complete clusterfuck of an attempt is to have everyone individually doing homework. It is going to be awesome and exciting but I have no idea what to expect. Hopefully it will be the greatest thing ever and people are talking about it for years to come.
With the “Ghost” record especially I suppose it is going to be very different…
Well, we kinda did a “Ghost” show because we had four days of rehearsal and we did sort of twelve hour days. We did a small sort of show as well…trial by fire. It will be great but I’m still really nervous about it a week ahead, it is just such a big thing with each record. It feels like there have been things like this time after time, what with the Ziltoid stuff we did and the Tuska thing…there are just all these immense challenges. Now it’s been announced that we’re going to be doing a circus in London next November at the Roundhouse and, I’m just like “what…?”
It’s only a circus…
Well, I mean we have a year to prepare for this one which is good but yeah, that is something to think about…another massive challenge.
You’re certainly treating your UK fans well.
Yeah, well the UK is a huge deal for me. The people here have always been so supportive over here. Probably something like 75% of my biggest influences are from here as well so it means a hell of a lot to me to be accepted here. I want it to be fucking awesome, not just good. Trying to make something awesome with your hands tied has been really fucking intense.
Looking back on the four Devin Townsend Project records, which one would you say you were most proud of…if I had a gun to your head and was making you choose…
I’d choose “Ghost”, just because it has such a nice sentiment and with seven billion people in the world rushing over everything…it is nice to have something peaceful there. Everyone seems so concerned with dominating everyone else. It’s like “oh, you’re a cage fighter…great…you don’t take shit from anybody…great!” It’s a fucking insane world. So “Ghost” because it sort of lies on its belly and just goes “whatever you guys wanna do, man”. Having spent so much of my life fighting it feels good to have a record out there that didn’t need to be fought out. It’s the type of music I really enjoy. Having said that, I put so much effort into all of them so they are all equal in that sense. Nobody can accuse me of phoning these records in. I’m hoping the quadrology shows will be good ways to commemorate the effort that went into these albums. I mean, it’s different every time we try to play it as well man. There is one riff in “The Mighty Masturbator” that is just driving me insane sometimes and some of the singing and playing at the same time I have to do…like in “Poltergeist” or “Masturbator” again is really tricky as well. There are hurdles but it shall go down as fucking legendary!
To make things easier on yourself you are playing some more acoustic shows as well while you are over here. What are those like for you?
It started as me playing a bunch of mellow songs but it turned into venues of hammered friends and me doing “Deconstruction” songs on acoustic. Those shows are dictated by the audiences really. It’s all good.
You also have this mammoth Devin Townsend Project box set coming out…
Right, that was a fuck load of work as well but we got it done. It’s really cool though. I wanted to go the extra mile with it so that it didn’t just seem like a cash grab. A lot of the time things like this are just sort of “here’s the same record you already own…on vinyl!” for fifty bucks. I made four more discs and DVDs and stuff and put all the photos on there and made a story. My motivation for doing that though is that I wanted to thank the people who support me. I don’t want to milk them for money. Everything will be the best I can fucking do. I don’t take support lightly because I make fucking weird ass music right. These last few days I have basically shat myself several times for you, my fans. That is fucking dedication, right there!
Turning to the future, which I am sure you have thought of at least a bit…what are you thinking?
Solid bowel movements are my aim. I have so many different directions I could go in. There’s like a Ziltoid musical and Ziltoid TV and a really fun, melodic record…essentially I could do pretty much anything in a way. I think I will let the label and the management help me decide what the best route will be. I am happy doing any of these things so I will do whichever one it is felt makes most sense. It is going to be one of several things but all great and all very exciting.
Finally, at Bloodstock I met someone who described you as a “metal superhero”. Therefore, I thought to round off the interview I would ask you what superhero power you would choose as your own…
Haha, that is a tricky one actually. I would probably choose the ability to make a ton of burritos really, really quickly. Then I would just make burritos for all my buddies and I’d be able to do it in a blink of an eye too. That would be great. I’d be “burrito guy”. Actually no I would be “solid bowel movement man”. It would look good on a cape too. I could take a perfect dump in the blink of an eye.
Devin Townsend Project play London’s Roundhouse on 27th October 2012 in ‘The Retinal Circus’. We’re not sure what that entails either. Tickets are on sale now though.
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Yeah, well the UK is a huge deal for me. The people here have always been so supportive over here. Probably something like 75% of my biggest influences are from here as well so it means a hell of a lot to me to be accepted here. I want it to be fucking awesome, not just good. Trying to make something awesome with your hands tied has been really fucking intense. 
