DEVIN TOWNSEND: an interview with Musica Metal

MusicaMetal - Ok, I think we can start with the first question. It's about the title of the album (which is called "Addicted", I hope you are aware of this..!)...
Devin - [laugh]
MusicaMetal - ... does the title have anything to do with your announcement, some time ago, of having given up drugs and alcohol?
Devin - Well, I think in some way.. in an obvious way, that's what it's been inspired by, but the context of the record has more to do with the nature of what "addicted" means to you: we need to deal with fear, pain or external things such as drugs, alcohol, internet, pornography.. something that allow us to feed the essential weaknesses.. and I sense that the nature of being addicted is a state of mind, rather than what you need from a human perspective, of how to get away from yourself. We have included so much female vocals on "Addicted" because being addicted is not gender specific..

MusicaMetal - It sure isn't.. ok from the title of the album, let me ask you something about the songs' titles: is there a specific reason why all your tracks end with an exclamation mark? "Awake" even has 2 of them!...
Devin - Ahah, that is a tough one! You know.. basically each record I do has a very specific energy, it has more to do with a state of mind than a story. In Addicted I tried to empathize this state of mind and that's why I put those exclamation mark.

MusicaMetal - Okay, then I'd like to ask something about those songs, two of them, in particular: I noticed that the song "Ih Ah" (which is my favourite one, by the way) ...
Devin - Thank you!
MusicaMetal - ... that song would blend perfectly well also on "Ki", your previous album, which had a different sound and mood. Is there a reason why you put it here on Addicted, on an album you defined "commercial, yet heavy"?
Devin - You know, I recall what a friend of mine told me yesterday: "if you make a record with many songs like this one, you can make millions of dollars". And the thing is, I would if I could: but I can't. That's because when I write.. you know, I technically don't know how to write a song and you know, they just.. appear! And I do them. And when this one came out I was dreaming and when I woke up I said "woah, that will be my favourite song on the record" then I got up and wrote it down. They come to me, and I don't really have much control over the style of music that I'm writing.
I do understand what people mean, when they say I should write ten songs like "Bend It Like Bender" or "Ih Ah" - I would if I could but I can't! "Ih Ah" is just an example of a song that appeared to me one morning and.. voilà!
MusicaMetal - .. So we thank those dreams and those mornings..
Devin - [laugh] yeah, and to answer the first part of the question, I didn't put it on Ki because I wrote it too late, much after the release of Ki: this song "appeared" to me at the very end of the writing process of Addicted.

MusicaMetal - The other song I'd like to ask you about is "Hyperdrive!", taken from your previous album "Ziltoid", and here rearranged and sung by Anneke; should we expect other self-covers from your past, maybe from Strapping?
Devin - I don't know if there will be any recreations of my old music, the reason I did "Hyperdrive" again, is because that song in particular, when I wrote Ziltoid it appeared to me the same way "Ih Ah" did for Addicted, in the middle of this kinda complicated Ziltoid's material and I liked this song so much that I decided to include it on Ziltoid. But I've always kinda knew that that song had potential beyond what was recorded on Ziltoid: in the back of my head I was thinking "perhaps it's a shame that I've never got a chance to do it, for example, with real drums", and in the same time Anneke sent me an email asking if we could work together and she included a version of Hyperdrive played with her band.. and I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to reinvent that song. I wouldn't be repeating myself with "another version" of meplaying this song, but it would be a very different theme, a different energy.
MusicaMetal - And I'm happy you decided to do it, because that's a great song.
Devin - Yeah.

MusicaMetal - By the way.. What happened to Ziltoid? when it came out you said that from that moment on you would release only ziltoid-related albums, and most people in the world shivered in horror..
Devin - Well, Ziltoid - the second album - will be the next thing I'll do after this "Devin Townsend Project", I think both of the next albums will come out at the same time, probably next summer.. and then the next Ziltoid record, which is called "Z2" will be the next project after that.

MusicaMetal - In your albums you often cooperate with various musicians, What qualities do you usually look for, when you call someone asking to work with you on a track..
Devin - I think it depends on my mood - you know, every record has a very specific energy and THAT energy is what it's important to me. For example, with "Ki", what I was looking for was clean sounds, different styles of music, and obviously the personality is very important. And for "Addicted", which is a more exciting record, I tried to find people with energy, because they bring that to me.

MusicaMetal - And now the same question reversed: when you are asked to produce someone or to collaborate with some band on their album, what do you look for in particular?
Devin - Well, I don't really produce anymore but I always looked for what could produce income: you know I put a lot of money on that. There's really not a lot of criteria other than my manager offering me a lot of options and me choosing the one i'll prefer to work with. Now I'm not working as a producer anymore, because I'm finding that kind of job more difficult to me. It's a learning experience and I put in my music everything I learn.

MusicaMetal - Do you recall of any collaboration regretting doing? If the answer is yes obviously you don't need to give me names (even if I'd be curious about it)
Devin - You know... the past is the past: I'm satisfied with what I'm doing now and if any of the past experience weren't there I wouldn't be what I am today [laugh].

Devin - You have to be very lucky to be a professional musician. With the Internet, the downloading.. those are not evil but you know, there are a lot of negative aspects in the life of a rockstar. when I wake up in the morning, I have to write some songs.. or play some shows: it's a hard work, you know there's a lot of people that think being a musician is not like having a real job. But it's a good job, and if you are able to find a way of being a musician, you are very lucky. And being on the other side of the barricade you see many people complaining: and you don't have to be like this, you should be thankful.

MusicaMetal - From your wide discography (which you keep increasing regularly with great albums like Addicted) is there something you're particularly proud of (or not so proud of) and that you still listen to today with pleasure?
Devin - I think that "Ki" is the album i'm very proud of, "Ziltoid" of course, I love "City" by Strapping Young Lad.. and you know, basically, every record I do is a very honorable representation of what I do and what I am at that exact point of my life, so there's obviously something better than the other, but everytime I try to do put my best effort into each record i am working on. There are, by the way, moments of my life that I enjoyed more than others, for example when I did "Physicist" I was in a very happy state of mind and that record is a very autobiographic representation of that time of my life. You know technically you do what you do and you do it at the best of your ability and if you have a vision of what your music should sound like and you get to achieve your vision, in the end people feel that very same thing that you feel.. well that's a success, no matter how it's perceived by the public.

MusicaMetal - Are there some specific musical genres you follow with interest or new bands you particularly like?
Devin - Oh you know there are always a couple of bands I have an eye on - my friend's bands, like "Fear Factory", "Meshuggah". I keep track of people that I know and, well, my music world is very wide, not specifically just metal, and I receive so many songs and often I get to like many of them, even if I don't know the name of the band, or the album. Not even the song's title! Well, I love music, I love listening to it!

MusicaMetal - With all the good cds you've been putting out lately, some people consider you a genius, a GOD. How does that make you feel? And, do you still rest the seventh day?
Devin - Ah. You know, I barely believe in miracles, in the spirit of nature, I don't believe in spirituality nor in karma.. I think that each human is a god and a devil, you have to know yourself in order to do what's right.
Each human is a result of the life he leads and all those religious things, are just for people who do things differently, who try to be god-like and I apologize if that sort out to be like a life question but I definetely don't consider myself a genious, I definetely don't consider myself a god and definetely don't consider myself a demon. I'm an artist and I'm honoured to do what I like - maybe the reason why I turn out to look like a god in people's eyes it's because I do things that are different.

MusicaMetal - Wow, this was supposed to be a stupid question and you replied it with a great answer...
Devin - [laugh] Well there have also been great questions that I replied with a stupid answer
MusicaMetal - You know? I really don't think so..
Devin - [laugh]

MusicaMetal - Ok the last question is another stupid one..
Devin - ok!
MusicaMetal - It is about your look: for many people, you were skullet's last hero, do you think they are crying, now that your head is fully shaved?
Devin - Yeah, many people are, but let me say this: I cut the skullet off and kept it in a box, this box is in my garage and for the next Ziltoid record I'm making a new puppet and he's getting that hair. Yeah. Ziltoid will be the next hero of the skullet, the real one!