Devin Townsend Quotes

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Devin Townsend

Profession : Musician

Birth : May 5, 1972

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.'

Devin Townsend

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.

Devin Townsend

As someone whose music is connected to his personal growth, I feel an obligation to follow this muse wherever it leads.

Devin Townsend

I just go where it feels the most honest to go; then I deal with people thinking it's weird afterwards.

Devin Townsend

Basically, when I did 'Infinity' in 1997, I had thoughts in my head that left me with a lot of questions. I've gone to certain personal limits with 'Infinity' that, at the end of it, I think, scared me. And I've made a lot of really kinda bad mistakes as a result of that.

Devin Townsend

I think that, as well as Strapping Young Lad kind of having the name for themselves based on brutality and aggression, I think there's also something to be said to the fact that every Strapping record is different. They're all different.

Devin Townsend

Sometimes I'll be writing something, and I say to myself, 'Okay, that's definitely DTB,' or, 'It's definitely Strapping.'

Devin Townsend

When I was going to high school, in the high school band we would play these kind of hour-long concerts for our parents. All the parents would come to the gymnasium, and the band would play an hour-long kind of orchestra piece. 'Synchestra' is supposed to be similar, like a high school band orchestra piece.

Devin Townsend

I'm doing this record called 'Epicloud.' Over the course of the full record, there's sort of new agey stuff, jazzy stuff, really heavy stuff. We basically cover the gamut.

Devin Townsend

'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.

Devin Townsend

I really like the art of music, the way that you can express yourself through music.

Devin Townsend

I'm really into music, I'm really into art, and I want to keep that fire alive.

Devin Townsend

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?

Devin Townsend

After Strapping, the amount of things in my life had changed were more than I'd ever had to process in any one time, and as a result of that, I found that my writing was veering off in four - sometimes even more - directions.

Devin Townsend

I'm good at what I do but, to be honest, not a whole hell of a lot else!

Devin Townsend

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.

Devin Townsend

The identity of each band is what's important for me production-wise.

Devin Townsend

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.

Devin Townsend

The reason Strapping came to an end is because I'm no longer in my mid-20s.

Devin Townsend

I love people; don't get me wrong. Individually, I love that interaction between people, and I'm not an ogre or something; but huge crowds of people, huge groups of people who seemingly have endless access to you - as I get older, I'm not really into that.

Devin Townsend