Devin Townsend is a musical genius. He has achieved more at a young age than most veteran musicians. From his early days as the vocalist on Steve Vai’s Sex and Religion album to heading up the industrial thrash scene with his band Strapping Young Lad, to an endless array of new projects, Devin is one of, if not the most respected man in modern metal. After getting through a very bad period in his life around 1999-2000, Devin is back on the scene with his latest release "Physicist" and the upcoming opus "Terria". I was lucky enough to catch up with him mid-way through his Foot in Mouth European Tour 2001 in Bochum, Germany. And he had this to say:

Michael 'XCase'

How’s the tour been going so far? You played some big festivals here in Europe over the past week, how were they?

Both of the festivals went really well, The With Full Force festival [in Leipzig, Germany] was really quite superior and we did a really good job of that one.

Do you feel at home while you are on tour?

Oh yeah, definitely. It’s a life to its own and definitely something to become accustomed too. But, when you haven’t done it for a while you really start to miss it. For myself I find that whatever I am doing I kind of want to be doing the opposite for a little while, its like for the first month or the first 2 weeks I’m in the studio, I’m totally happy to be in the studio, but come the third week I kind of want to be on tour. It’s the same thing with touring, the first two weeks that we are out I’m totally happy, but come about the third week I’d like to be recording again.

Have you been working on any new material since hitting the road?

No, not since "Terria". I finished "Terria" and that just totally drained me.

I heard the tracks 'Mountain' and 'Canada' from "Terria", they are both incredible...

Thank you man, I really appreciate it

... 'Mountain' is seriously heavy.

[laughs] Yeah, 'Mountain' is one of my favourite ones on that record and it seems to be that one that confuses people the most...

...because of all the changes?

...yeah, the whole idea with it is to sort of go on a bit of a journey, its kind of stupid sounding but what I wanted to do is when your listening to it with headphones or something, it's like whoa!...hey...whoa! sending you up and down. Some people have said to me "It sounds a little bit choppy, there’s too many parts" and I’m like "that’s the whole point".

How was the recording of "Terria", a little better than past experiences?

Um,...easier. Every record is stressful, but with "Terria" I think it was easier than the other ones because I didn’t force it, I wrote what I wanted to write when I wanted to write it. When I went to record I took my time, if I didn’t feel like recording I took a week off and as a result it came out sounding like "there it is"...you know what I mean?

What can we expect from the rest of the album?

Well its very lush, it's really big, but there is an intensity that was on "Infinity" and "Ocean Machine" that isn’t on "Terria". "Terria" sounds a lot more ‘come what may’ you know what I mean? Like whatever happens, happens...where "Infinity" was like "God! This is going on now! This is the beginning! This is the ending! aaahhhhh" "Infinity" was full on, but "Terria" isn’t. Even though its heavy, it’s a lot more relaxing, but there is enough ‘heavy’ on there to be heavy enough. It’s a pretty well rounded record, and there’s a lot of things in it, like a lot of noises and sounds and shit like that.

Coming to "Physicist", that was a major turning point in your life...

Yeah, yeah..."Physicist" was a hard one for me. The recording and the writing and the mixing and everything on "Physicist" was done at a time of my life when I was in a really bad state of mind. I’ve been in a bad state of mind for "City" [Strapping Young Lad] and "Infinity" and "Ocean Machine" but with "Physicist" it was like kind of hopeless, I didn’t feel like recording, I didn’t feel like writing, so I think with that in mind the record succeeds on the level that it sounds like that, it sounds hopeless...but, as far as technically and musically there’s problems that I have with it. But I think I made up for it with "Terria". "Physicist" was like "holy fuck, ok", its great for playing video games to, it’s a pretty heavy record, it's great, it sounds great, it's got cool layout...it’s a cool record. I’m pretty egotistical about my own music and sometimes I think "that’s a real classic record", and "Physicist" was a good record, but "Terria" is a classic.

Would you say you are a different person from when say, "City" was released?

Oh yeah, totally. I’m on a fistful of medication every morning now as well...

...and you’re cool with that?

...yeah absolutely. At first it was a little strange because you’re whole way of thinking changes, but what I found what it did was streamlined the way I think to the point where it gave me some kind of control over what I was doing. "Terria" as a result has a lot of songs that are very much like "that’s what I think", whereas with "Infinity" it was like "what do I think?".

Going back to your time with Steve Vai, are you proud of the work you did?

...I’m proud of the singing I did...yeah

...you were totally restricted musically at that time, was that what spawned Strapping Young Lad?

The "Sex and Religion" record was directly responsible for Strapping. Before "Sex and Religion" the music I was writing was like "Ocean Machine" and "Terria". When I came out of the "Sex and Religion" era of my life it was just like, singing someone else’s lyrics, singing to someone else’s music, I was on the cover of the record. They did a video for me, well we did two video’s...but in one of them they tried to make me look like a sex symbol, but I just don’t exude sex. Its like some people when they dance you’re like "he’s got a sexy thing about him right"...but I don’t. As a result of that and being portrayed in a video like I’m supposed to be like that made me feel like a fucking fool. So I came out of that situation like "I hate it, I hate everything, I hate you, I hate you..." And that was Strapping. So Strapping was like an accident...

...like a progression?

...yeah, but it's like a progression that I have been working against for a long time because I don’t want to be 50 years old and being represented by something that was an accident when I was 23.

A lot of fans want to know the future of Strapping...

Well, what we are doing at this point, because it's been 3 years since we’ve toured, this tour is specifically designed to say "Hey, we’re still alive"...still same musicians. It is a mixture of "Physicist" and Strapping and "Infinity" and "Ocean Machine", but there is more Strapping primarily because there’s three records to choose from, but who knows what will happen in the future? There are options being thrown around everywhere, but at this point we are still playing a rather heavy set.

Are "Infinity" and "Ocean Machine" one-off projects? Or do you have plans for new releases?

"Infinity" is definitely a one-off, there will never be another "Infinity"...as for "Ocean Machine" I don’t want to ruin it by doing another one. It’s the same way I feel about Strapping, unless I can do something that is better I’ll just do it under a different name.

What types of music did you listen to growing up? Who were the biggest inspirations?

Everything. I grew up in a musical family, there were a lot of musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar and Cats. My Mom and Dad were into Blue Grass and folk music, but at the same time we had stuff like The Moody Blues and Jimi Hendrix. When I hit about 12-13 I started listening to Slade and the Eurhythmics, then when I hit about 16 Judas Priest’s "Defender’s of the Faith" came out and I was just like Whoa!...that got me into W.A.S.P and Iron Maiden. It was the mainstream power metal scene that I was into at the time. I really got into Jane’s Addiction when I was about 18, him [Perry Farrell] and Björk were my biggest vocal inspirations. Then when I was working with Steve [Vai] I got really into experimental like ambient music, like noise music. Then toward the end of Steve when my anger started building up I started listening to Fear Factory, I think they were about the first band that introduced me to Thrash, so from there I got into Carcass and some Black Metal stuff. It just got progressively heavier, I was trying to find the heaviest music possible. But then things changed and for instance last year I got really into that group Ween and The Young Gods and Miles Davis...stuff like that. Everything. But it's all been dependent on my mood, sometimes I was solely into this and other times solely into that, because I get so obsessed with the music I listen to, I think the music I write is pretty authentic. Even though I wasn’t raised with the idea of Thrash Metal I think that "City" specifically was legitimately a good Thrash record because I was so into it at the time.

With the music you write, you don’t seem to care about fitting in to any genres. Is that ever a concern to you during the writing process? Or do you just do what you want?

Yeah, that’s the only way I can do it. I find myself to be a slave to whatever is going on in my head. I think that one of the only reasons I have a career is because of that, because I’m like "fuck it", I’m going to do what I want to do. It does confuses people, but I think eventually the people who like me will be like "ok, well we expect that" For the people who don’t know or like me and what I do I’m sure its confusing as fuck, but I guess I’m not writing the music for them anyway! [laughs]

Now that I have the opportunity I like to tell you that you are a major influence on myself and musicians all over the world. Do you ever think of yourself like that?

Thank you man, that’s cool, but I don’t think you can think of yourself like that. I think a lot of it has to do with a pretty selfish attitude, like when I’m out on tour I’m meeting people all the time and I’m like "yeah hi, how are you going?", but at the end of the day I’m still very aware of where I am good and bad as a person and so keeping that in mind I don’t think I could ever fool myself into thinking I’m something I’m not. Like when someone comes up to me and gives me a really heavy compliment, the compliment you gave me is great but if somebody comes up to me and says "your this" or "your that" I’m like "no I’m not". Please understand I’m just a fucking musician. I think it's great that I’m influencing young musicians like yourself, but for myself I just follow what happens for however long that lasts...I guess we’ll see what happens.

On your website [www.hevydevy.com] you mentioned you were interested in joining a pre-existing band. Did that ever come to fruition?

Well, yesterday I thought I wanted to be a monk [laughs]...

...[laughs] I guess that pretty much sums that one up

...yeah

You started HevyDevy Records to take control of your own projects...

Yeah, I did it for a lot of reasons, number one by having my own record label I make a lot more money per disk than if I was signed to a label. That does mean there is a lot more work to be done, but by making more money per disk I don’t have to sell that much in order to facilitate what I want to do, and that’s more important to me than selling a lot of records.

...are you planning to sign other bands to HevyDevy?

I produce bands, and the bands that I produce we sell on the internet through HevyDevy, but as far as being responsible for another band it doesn’t interest me at all because I know how I felt towards record companies. It all comes down to money. If you don’t have the money to support a band to the level they need to be at then I don’t think it's even worth trying, because all you are going to do is fuck things up. To a large degree that happened with certain projects of mine.

So you are in control of all your own projects now?

Yeah, except for Strapping.

Strapping’s owned by Century Media?

Yeah, and always will be. That can’t change. They own the publishing. But because I went through this supposed ‘mental illness’ and went back onto these medications, I just can’t do it and if I can’t do a record then I’m just not going to do it. There’re aware of that. Its like "I’m sorry man, but that’s how it is. You got three records". If they try to force me to write another record I’ll just fart on a cassette for fucking 45 minutes or something and give it to them [laughs]

So whats the next step for you from here?

I don’t have a clue [laughs]

...just here today and that’s about it? [laughs]

Pretty much [laughs] I don’t have a memory so I don’t care. I just try to go with the flow.

Thank you very much for your time, I really appreciate it.

No problem man, thank you.

With Leper Colony Marc Grewe (ex-Morgoth, Insidious Disease) together with Rogga Johannsson has brought a flawless old school death metal album, which (at least for me) is already one of the highlights of the year. It was reason enough to chat with him a bit about the band and the album via cell phone and not only concerning Leper Colony but also some other cool bands he's in, which will release new albums this year (or later) and one or the other will probably provide a big surprise (but I won't tell you more). I hope you'll have as much fun reading this as I had during the interview!!!

Michael

Hi Marc, how are you?

Hi, I'm doing well so far (laughs). However, in the first half of this year there is quite a lot happening with me, I just released an album with Leper Colony and what is coming are all albums that I recorded in Pandemic. All the record companies of course want to release it all now and so unfortunately almost everything comes out in parallel. Besides Leper Colony, which was released in January, Discreation is coming out at the end of March and then I have another thrash metal project called Deimo's Dawn. That's being released through MDD Records, which is a label in southern Germany. That album is also coming out in mid-April and then I'm going into the studio with Insidious Disease starting in April and I have another project called As In Hell, for that I'm going to Denmark this weekend and recording something. So I'm a bit tied up at the moment and I'm still active professionally as a social worker and then I'm also a family man with two relatively young children. So there is a lot to do at the moment (laughs).

If you look at the whole thing over the course of the year all the bands are more like a full-time job, or does it happen on the side?

Marc Wüstenhagen has a studio named "Daily Hero Recordings" in Berlin and he's a buddy of mine and I record a lot of stuff with him. I also often get requests for guest vocal contributions and if I like that, then I like to do that. I always do that at Mike's place, which is kind of my house and home studio for vocal recordings in Berlin. During the pandemic there were a few more things, for example with Rogga (Johannsson; M.), who had written to me and with whom I have been in contact for several years. We've talked a lot about how cool it would be to do an album together and I had already done guest vocals for Paganizer and he asked me if I was interested in doing it. He wrote the songs for me, like he said (laughs), it's not the typical Paganizer death metal that he composed, it's a bit different than what you know from him. That was then a thing that has emerged in 2020/21 and by the fact that now everything relaxes again, now also be released.

The album has become quite old-school and reminds me a lot of old Morgoth, Death and newer Slayer like on "Perdition's End" - did he really tailor it to your voice?

Yes, the guitars are not tuned quite as low as in his other projects, by the fact that I simply do not growl as low as other death metal singers, but I would say that my voice is a bit higher. Accordingly, he put the guitars a little higher. Many have written that it is more death thrash. In the 90s they would have said it's flawless death metal, nowadays they say it's death thrash. Due to the fact that the guitars have been tuned lower and lower over the last 20 years, it's probably considered that way (laughs). Of course, the parallels to the late 80's and early 90's death metal bands are also intentional and therefore also somehow a homage to that time, I would say.

Haha, yes, if In Flames is death metal....

Haha, yes, I always have to smile, what is death metal nowadays. In Flames were never death metal for me, that was always more Iron Maiden with heavier vocals. For me death metal is old school death metal and it stays that way! There are so many pigeonholes nowadays, you can't see through them anymore. But I'm probably too old to get it right.

Were you involved in the songwriting?

Musically he did it all, but the vocal melodies are of course mine. There were no guidelines as to how I should sing on it and so it's our collaborative work, but of course I didn't write any riffs or make any suggestions as to what could be done, but he came around the corner relatively quickly with songs where I said it's all pretty good already. I don't know if, before I even said yes, he was already working on it and already suspected that. At first the plan was that it would just be an EP, but then everyone including the label liked it so much and then they asked if you could make a full-length album out of it and then within two weeks there were three or four more songs (laughs). So he has quite a pace in terms of songwriting, you can say what you want about him, but what he does is really quality, he's really fast and has a good nose for songwriting. I think the songs all have a hand and a foot and aren't anything where you think they're too long or too short, it's all to the point. The record is only a little over 30 minutes long, but it's a punch in the face and done. You don't have to artificially add three songs to it so you have 45 minutes, it's a short statement and that's how it should be (laughs).

Was this just a one-time project, or can we expect more?

No, we've already talked about it, that it's not a one-time thing, but it's also not like we're going to put out the next album next year. We like to do something again, but when is not yet exactly defined. We have in any case both are down for it and therefore there will also be a repetition.

When I hear your voice, it still sounds as aggressive and fresh as it did at the beginning of your career. Is it hard for you to still put that power into it, or is it rather easy for you?

I have to say that it has actually become easier over time (laughs), because on the one hand I have more experience and on the other hand I have acquired the singing technique over the years. When you used to drag me to the studio, I remember on "Cursed" for example, I couldn't talk for two weeks afterwards. That's not the case today at all. I think the important thing was that in the mid-90s I had 3 years of singing lessons with a teacher in Essen who did jazz. I went there every week and internalized intonation, breathing exercises and so on. The teacher sang a lot on many Century Media releases in the 90s, after I told them I knew a jazz teacher who could also sing well on some Moonspell or Tiamat stuff. Birgit Zacher.

Oh, that one. Yes, she sang along with Moonspell's "Irreligious"!

Yeah, I then got her into this Century Media bubble after I had the vocal lessons with her. She taught me a lot and since then, I have to say, I've never had any great problems with the voice, it's really amazing. You used to think that you should scream and yell and be done, but if you have a good technique and know what you can put your voice through, then that definitely helps. I also don't think, when I compare it, that my voice has changed a lot, I think I can still reproduce what I put on record in earlier years. But it's probably also due to the fact that I've trained my voice over the years in such a way that I can continue to do that without any problems.

You are also the new singer in Discreation - how did that come about?

That came more or less through a mutual acquaintance of ours, Dani (Lipka; M.) from RockHard. She is a good friend and neighbor in Berlin. She asked me once and said that Sebastian Schilling, who also writes for the RockHard, was probably looking for a new singer and if she should suggest me. I told her that she could do that and that's how it came about. He then wrote to me at some point and sent me the songs they had and it reminded me of really old Morgoth stuff from the demo days. I thought that was cool and interesting and then I said we'll give it a try.

In March "Iron Times", your debut with the guys, will be released - so can we expect some old Morgoth stuff?

I don't know if that's the case. It reminded me of it, but I don't know if other people see it that way. Nowadays you would probably say that it's even black metal riffs on there, but when we started with Morgoth, for me it was rudimentary thrash riffs (laughs). Today a lot of people say it's more blackened thrash. Anyway, for me it was something like Morgoth used to be and that's why I said I want to try this and the guys were really into it.

I also read the other day that Insidious Disease is writing new stuff - can you tell us more about that?

There will be a new album and the new songs will be a bit, progressive is always a difficult word, but some will have a middle part where you think it's rather a bit unusual. In the meantime we have 10 songs that we are recording in England with Russ Russell starting in April. When the album will be released is not yet clear, but the recordings start in mid-April at Parlour Studio, where the last Memoriam was recorded, Napalm Death and so also record there, so this is a connection that we also had with the last album and the first album was also mixed by Russ.

Let's go back to the beginning - you come from a very quiet town in the Sauerland. How did people react to you back then? It's always a thing in the village, I know that from my own youth....

Being a metal fan in the Sauerland in the 80s was something absolutely antisocial and (laughs) disgusting. At that time I did my first apprenticeship as a wholesale and foreign trade merchant and that was a wholesaler for plumbing and electrical. When I then had to stand in for the fancy truck driver from time to time with my young 18 years, drive with a 7.5 ton truck through the Sauerland and distribute the toilet bowls to the sanitary retailers and was sometimes subjected to slogans, something like "we don't let a gay long-haired girl deliver any goods to us!" or was called up at the boss, what kind of guy that was, who delivered the goods and where I think that you could report such guys for discrimination nowadays. Then the boss came in the morning and said that tomorrow my hair had to come off or I would be fired. But then I also said that I wouldn't do that, then I'd just be fired...but then he didn't dare do that either. But that was the time. Meschede has about 30000 inhabitants and I come from a village that is much smaller, with about 200 inhabitants. So we were with Morgoth at that time the only metal fans and then there were a handful of punks and we were at that time virtually the lepers of the Meschede society (laughs). With our black clothes, T-shirts and hair. Not everyone was like that, but Meschede is quite a CDU (a conservative party; M.) stronghold and creatures like us were eyed suspiciously.

Can we see you live with any of the bands soon? I know Discreation will play at End Of Days in Oberhausen this year....

I already told you, Deimo's Dawn, they are buddies from Berlin and with them I recorded a thrash album, the whole thing was produced by Andy Brings, the ex-Sodom guitarist, and with them I play at the Nord or the Turock Open Air in Essen, I don't know exactly at which one. But I think that I will be seen live with the band more often. Then the thing, "As In Hell", which I'm recording in Denmark, I think that will also cause a bit of a stir, because that's with musicians you don't expect to hear a death metal album. So I think the album will come out in the fall and surprise some people!

Cool, I'm curious about that! Thank you very much for the interview!

Thank you too!