This interview went to air in April, 1997 on 3RRR FM Melbourne (102.7 FM) with Strapping Young Lad's Devin Townsend interviewed by Tony.

Tony: On the line from home in Vancouver, we have possibly one of the

most interesting young artists to emerge in the nineties, a man by the name

of Devin Townsend, main man from Strapping Young Lad, Devin how ya

doing?

Devin: Doing fine thanks. First time I've actually been introduced as a man

in quite a long time, I'm feeling quite good about that, thank you.

Tony: Well if you want I can change that around for you.

Devin: First time for everything, I'm happy to sort of roll it out for now.

Tony: So how you doing then kid?

Devin: I'm doing fine thank you very much.

Tony: Tell me what you've been up to of late buddy?

Devin: There's been quite a few things, we're right in the middle of the

throes of rehearsing for this European tour with Strapping Young Lad. We're

rehearsing in Vancouver. We just did a video for a song on the new record

called "Detox" and we leave to do the "Full Of Hate" festivals throughout

Europe, ending up in England in about two...two some odd weeks, apart

from that I just finished a record called "Ocean Machines" which is another

sort of side project thing and I'm getting ready to another project called

"Hell", so its been rather frantic.

Tony: Well I'm sure we'll get into all your side projects a little later on mate,

'cause you do definately have a few of them going through a couple of your

bios and stuff like press releases and things, keep yourself very busy. Tell

me, you said you have been rehearsing for your up and coming shows now,

you've just recruited Gene Hoglan I believe, on drums - the great man

himself.

Devin: Yeah, he's a stormer, I tell ya, if there's ever any doubts on his

playing abilities, you've just got to see him play live you know. A lot of times

when we did press during Europe a couple of weeks back and some of the

people were like "You know, we know for a fact that you were re-doing

these drums and, you know, that's a computer playing, that's not Gene" and

all I can say is God you've got to see this guy playing man, he's a beast.

Tony: Yeah he definately is isn't he?

Devin: Yeah definately, a big beast too.

Tony: Now, let's get onto the new album "City" which was released thru

Century Media through Shock locally. Why don't you tell me about this album

mate, I personally thought it was a little more melodic, it had its fair share of

melody if you compare it to "Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing", and the songs

seem to be a lot more structured, there's a lot more going on which I

possibly couldn't comprehend or didn't think that you could have any more

going on than your first album.

Devin: God, all I can say is that you could probably dissect this record and

make six normal rock records out of the parts, you know what I mean, it's

pretty dense. Monty from Roadrunner the A & R guy up at Road runner ,

heard it we got the nominations for [BEEP BEEP BEEP] that he's ever

heard. So that's a bit of a compliment. There is a lot more structure to it,

there's a lot more melody to it, but it was a concious decision for this one, it

was all written at one time as opposed to the first one which is a bit more

schizophrenic in the way it was put together. That was basically a collection

of demos that were remixed, parts were added onto it, plus a couple of new

songs, but I didn't really get a chance to write a record as a concise

statement, right, and with this one, I was living in a particular environment

that was condusive to the lyrical content of a lot of the songs and it just

came out. When I actually moved down to Los Angeles, I moved down with

the intention of finishing up the Ocean Machine record, but because of the

lack of money and a bunch of other circumstances it came out of my

headspace as shit did towards this sort of a vibe and the record sort of just

came out and I was like - where did that come from?

Tony: Now I guess "Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing" had a kind of a vibe

about it of the great outdoors and that sort of stuff with a lot of the tracks

and you, I guess that was you in the sleeve at one with nature there...

Devin: ...right...

Tony: ...how about with the new album "City", is there any sort of theme as

such as that?

Devin: Yeah there's some major themes. I mean, I live in Canada and I think

a lot of people get Canada and America confused and let me go on record

as say they are two entirely different beasts. There's only 25 million of us in

Canada, we've got the largest land mass in the world, so were sort of

isolated by ourselves up here. Unfortunately, we're sort of dubiously blessed

with an American sounding accent so people sort of get confused. But

where I live, we live in a rainforest and Vancouver is surrounded by

mountains, and I grew up in that environment and I figure no matter what

type of music you're writing as long as your writing about something your

feel sincerely it's O.K. and with the new record, if I can explain it, its the

same sort of a vibe, the whole Great Outdoors thing that you mentioned, its

still there but this time it's sort of to do with the city and how you just

become as anonymous in a city as you do if you're just walking around in a

field somewhere, because your dealing with the same thing, its just that one

of them is man made and one of them is made by forces of nature, you

know...that's sounds fairly pretentious, that'll work.

Tony: I guess that explains all the inner sleeve photos which look like

they've been taken in Japan, would that be right?

Devin: Yeah, I actually do quite a bit of work in Japan and most of the time

I end up doing all this work because I've really got a short attention span,

you know what I mean, and generally the best time for me is when I'm just

sort of alone, being able to think or whatever, and so I've done a lot of work

just cruising around all these countries by myself, and even since I was a kid

there was something about these massive cities that just struck a nerve, just

sort of that...the grit of it, you know what I mean. It had been touched on

before, like a guy named Foetus, Jim Foetus, he released an album called

"Gash" a couple of years back that a couple of songs on it that were just

amazing, you know what I mean. There's a song on "City" which is a cover

of a Cop Shoot Cop song, they had a record that came out... "White Noise"

was a big influence as well , 'cause I just heard that and all of a sudden just

heard that sound, almost like the sound of the city, and with this record, the

theme is all just based around all that, all the topics just loosely revolve

around that.

Tony: How about an interesting track, track one, "Velvet Kevorkian", there's

a lot of bands very interested in what he's doing at the moment, good ol', is

it Dr. Jack Kevorkian I believe?

Devin: Yeah, I know nothing about him, I know the name which implies, you

know, this whole Dr. Death sort of a situation and the idea of the city and

also "Velvet Kevorkian" its sort of like a really sugar coated way of killing

yourself, you know what I mean, and I think, just the sprawl that cities are

creating and what we're sort of creating for ourselves is just that, you know.

Getting into lyrics is sort of a risky thing because I really don't have too

much to say, you know, I don't wanna come across as like [mimics old

person preaching] "And here this...", you know what I mean, if I could be so

bold. That's basically what that whole scene is about, but you're right I've

seen a lot of bands with this whole "Jack Kevorkian - Dr. Death", if it's got

death in the name, then usually you're gonna find a metal band somewhere

that writes a song about it.

Tony: Naah, there's nothing wrong with it is there....

Devin: [laughs] ...as long as its fanatic I'm O.K.

Tony: [mimics British accent]: It's all metal...Can you tell me a little bit about

the album cover mate, I had a really, really good look at it, I've studied it for

probably an hour, I'm trying to work out exactly what it is, it looks like some

sort of injector system for maybe a diesel or something like that...

Devin: Good eye.

Tony: It is an injector system for a diesel...

Devin: Yeah it is, the whole thing I was looking for with that was... I actually

got the idea for that when I was flying into Los Angeles one day, and it was

like midnight...ironic, flying in one day and it was midnight...but when you're

looking out the window of the plane, and you look at that sprawl, it's rather

similar to an engine from that sort of a look, and also, when you think of how

a city works, you can draw some parallels. But again, I guess with that

being said, you can weed metaphors into just about anything.

Tony: I guess something opened and another thing closes doesn't it.

Devin: Totally and it all sort of relies on itself to function, its sort of like a

self contained system... and you could look at that as being a city, you can

look at an engine being a city, you can look at an engine as being your mind,

you could look at a mind as being a city... everything is sort of a microsm of

everything else. This is what I call the sign of somebody whose spent way

to much time without the benefit of having people to talk to 'cause you end

up drawing these ridiculous things out you know. You get stuck vapourizing

and disappearing up your own arse, you go "Gosh...look at how

introspective and heady I am".

Tony: I guess that's what the charcoal canister is for here isn't it?

Devin: [laughs] Thats it.

Tony: Now, an interesting thing I heard, I guess, a couple of months back,

you were asked to take Rob Halford's spot in Judas Priest, what happened

buddy, you just..er.. couldn't do it?

Devin: Gosh, this is my whole viewpoint on the whole thing, and as much as

this is makes me sound like a dick I don't really care too much about it. I

mean, they gave me a call and said "Hey, we know about you blah blah blah

we want to fly you out so you can audition" right? My biggest thing is, when I

was a kid, we're talk about ten or thirteen years old or whatever, I mean,

Judas Priest was my favourite band at the time, and you know, "Unleashed

From The East" I thought was amazing and blah blah blah and KK Downing

had cool hair and the whole works...

Tony: ...I don't know about that...

Devin: ...When I got a chance to start doing it, it's like I think any artist or

for the lack of a better word, artist, likes to hear themselves playing songs

they really like when they were a kid and so I kept on doing all these Priest

covers and blah blah blah... No-one would want to see Devin Townsend

singing for Judas Priest, I mean its ridiculous. Whoever's gets that gig is

going to look like a fool, you know what I mean, Ripper Owens or whatever

the guy's name is, I mean I wish him luck and I'm sure he's a good singer

but ...God, I don't know if Judas Priest are like, prepared to take over the

youth of today with a new metal onslaught, their demographic is going to be

based around people from 25 to 40 years old you know, and their not gonna

give a shit about some kid coming in and singing, you know, and I wouldn't

go into Judas Priest trying to be Rob Halford, I'd go in there doing what I do

and it would look ridiculous, you know. I also figure, it's like the whole...I'd

have way more respect for those guys as musicians if they, ...as much as I

thought Fight sucked, you know,...

Tony: ...agreed...

Devin: ...at least he was doing something that was not sort of trodding on

the same horse, you know, it sort of struck me as at least he was trying to

be something different, you know... And the whole idea of Motley Crue

coming back together and Kiss, although I went and saw the concert and it

was pretty good...it sort of strikes me as sort of being more of a cash grab

than a legitimate "they've got something to say"...

Tony: I actually just saw Kiss...I'd probably have to say two or three weeks

ago...

Devin: ...and they were great right?

Tony: To be quite honest with you, I personally think that it was something,

it happened, the magic was not there, I mean you know, I missed out, I've

never really been a big Kiss fan myself, but I've missed out on the magic,

and the I guess the sense of not knowing who's behind the paint, and all that

sort of thing, behind those masks and all that. I mean to me it was very

corny, very cheesy, very boring too.

Devin: I think it has a lot to do with... musically...I mean..., the guitar player

in Strapping, the other guy, Jed, he's 33 years old and he was there, you

know, at the inception of Kiss and so he gets all bleary eyed when you start

talking about it. But for me you know, I'm 24 years old, I mean the first Kiss

record I ever heard was "Animalize" you know, so I think the reason I got off

on the show so much was just the fact that there's all these people that are

just die-hard, you know, just going off, and I'm watching 'em going, God, the

energy of this show, not coming from the stage, 'cause it looked like my

father on stage wearing makeup, you know what I mean, but I mean, as far

as just the people, the audience just diggin' it so much, I found that sort of

cool.

Tony: Yeah, definately. Can you tell me how the whole Strapping Young

Lad thing came together?

Devin: Well, you know I actually had this conversation with the bass player

today because we were talking about the aggression of everything. I mean

everybody in the band you know, as not humble as this may sound, we're all

fairly intelligent human beings right? And one always wonders how come

they would feel so much aggression, you know...I've got a stable family

background, I've got a good relationship with my parents, and all this but ...

Strapping is just... you know, what can I say, I'm a Taurus, I've got a bad

temper, you know and I'm also a very uncomfortable person and i think

that's just where it came from and doing the Steve Vai thing and everything

was really difficult as well. It was a great experience but, you know, you've

got to realize I was 18 when I first started and I was doing music like

Strapping, or akin to it, before I got the call from Steve. When I went into

the situation with Steve Vai, all of a sudden I'm thrown into this whole world I

was just NOT familiar with you know, like having a committee of people to

decide on what kind of pants your gonna wear or you know or whether or

not the kids of today are going to groove on the fact that you've shaved your

eyebrows or any of that, you know what I mean. Granted, there's reasons

why it's like that because they've got bills to pay and empires to maintain

with that particular type of music but for me I was just going, why don't we

just rock, why don't we just go out and do something stupid, why do we

have to sing about you know, sex and chick songs and...why are we doing

that? Why don't we try something different? Right? And no offence to the

music because I do think the album is good that I did with Steve, and I think

he's a really talented musician, but all during that time I was just like I want

to do something that is just EXTREME, I want to do something that just

makes me go yeah that feels great you know, whatever the consequences.

And so when it came time, i was in a group in England called The Wildhearts

and I got a phone call from Century Media Records, ahh from Roadrunner

records actually who said, we want to sign you to the Strapping YOung Lad

thing. And then, I guess the owner of Roadrunner heard the demos and as

much as the A&R guy liked it the owner said it was just noise, I'm not going

to sign it. And I was like O.K., great, you know. And so when Century Media

phoned up and said here we're going to give you some money, make us

some extreme albums, it just went from there. ...yeah so that's how it went

through it was just a massive blur, it just happened, you know.

Tony: The Wildhearts then, that would've been an interesting time over

there in England.

Devin: Yeah it was, it was definately. Even though it's a different type of

music from what I'm doing, or what I'm choosing to do at this point I think

that the Wildhearts are amazing. I think they're brilliant, you know. And even

though they're fairly pop, I think that just musically, I think they've just got

some amazing stuff going on and it was a total pleasure to be involved with

it.

Tony: Now, as you were saying, you've got two other side... well, I guess

well at least that I know of, 2 other side projects or three actually, IR8 with

Jason Newsted and Tom Hunting I believe from Exodus...and Punky

Brewster and Ocean Machines. What can you tell us about all three of

them?

Devin: Well, IR8 - Jason and I we've got a good relationship. He wears

Strapping shirts in some photos and that's O.K. for me. ... We also did

another project a year later with Dale from the Melvins and Scott Reeder

from Kyuss... and that was called "Tree Of The Sun" and it's really sort of

Sabbathy sounding stuff, you know what I mean. And then we got together

a year later and did a project with the drummer from the [can't understand

the name of this band] band and Jason's a great guy man, and he's a

metalhead and he's above and beyond the fact that he's a multi-millionaire in

this insanely big group. He's fairly stable, you know what I mean, and he's

fun to jam with...I've got a bunch of little side projects....Punky Brewsters is

just about a death metal band...it's actually a concept record, stupid little

stories and everything, about a death metal band that weren't making any

money so they shedded all their goth paint makeup and turned into a Green

Day style band and win a grammy and all that sort of thing.

Tony: Yeah well, that's happening in Europe at the moment isn't it?

Devin: Pretty well.

Tony: A lot of those bands in the late eighties and early nineties that were

all death metal have...

Devin: They're all denying their heavy metal roots. They're like "No...Iron

Maiden...no I never used to listen to them...I was into D.O.A. from the

beginning man, I'm hardcore" and I'm just like "So you got a linking chain

hanging from your pants, that chain is how I think of you, that's right pal".

But as much as I think Korn is a cool band or whatever, that whole

A.D.I.D.A.S. thing is just a joke to me.

Tony: I couldn't agree with you more there buddy. Especially with the fur or

whatever that is on the shoulders on that singer.

Devin: I mean it's a fashion show, for fucks sake, I'm like "What can you

do?". It lends steam to what I do because it gives me fuel to write about,

you know. God, I buy one pair of pants a year, my Grandparents give me

shoes at Christmas and my shirts are all like swagged from bands or

whatever so, you know, I'm going bald and really couldn't care less about it.

Tony: Well you might have to go the old "yeah yeah" Advanced hair

transplant buddy.

Devin: That's gotta be what happened, they can take a skin graft of my

arse, that'll cover me.

Tony: O.K. why not, how about Ocean Machines, I understand that you're

going to release that on a very interesting label that you've got set up called

Heavy Devy Records?

Devin: Yep, HDR, but if Heavy Devy seems to egocentric you can call it

either Hot Diggity Records or Humungous Dink Records or something...but

Ocean Machine is sort of like the brother to the Strapping record, it's really,

really commercial, it's really, really melodic but it's also very experimental,

it's great, it's just a different style, it's singing, it's, you know, a lot of

ambience, but also there's another a project I was gonna say as well called

Hell which I start as soon as I get back from the Strapping record. The

Strapping record to me, as much as I love it, sounds too confined to me

sometimes, like it's not aggressive enough, it's not chaotic enough. I need to

get something out of my system that's just Hell. I want to make Hell. I want

to make four bass guitars, a wall of noise, distorted crap, orchestras, you

know what I mean, just Hell. I want to make the biggest wall of sonic Hell

that I can possibly make and I'm going to start that when I get back from the

Strapping tour. I mean Strapping is great, but it is still riff-orientated, you

know what I mean.

Tony: Yeah, it's still got the metal...sound to it I guess.

Devin: Flying the metal flag mightily, you know.

Tony: Mate, I tell you what, you are, and you're doing it pretty well too.

Devin: Thank you.

Tony: Now you signed the Ocean Machine to Virgin in Japan, Virgin

Records, would that be right?

Devin: Yeah, Virgin Publishing and Sony Records.

Tony: How big are you guys in Japan? I mean, everyone goes in insane

over there over any band I suppose, but how big are you guys over there?

How you finding it?

Devin: Jesus, as well, I mean it's like, Punky Brewster was No. 3 on the

charts over there and Strapping, the first week the first record was out in

Japan it sold like 10,000 copies in the first week. But I guess also, it's also

riding on the fact that the Steve Vai record went Gold over there and we did

a tour there and everything. Japan is amazing, it's like going to a different

planet, ...you look from the point of view like, your slugging it out in

Vancouver and you're doing these tours in the back of a van and blah, blah,

blah, and then all of sudden you go to Japan and you're staying in Five Star

Hotels, you know and all this shit and you're playing to thousands of people.

Like literally thousands of people a night and you're sitting here going, "Why

would you want to do anything else?"

Tony: Well, exactly. I guess you get back home to Vancouver and it's back

to reality in a big way.

Devin: Yeah, I mean Japan is always like a treat, you know what I mean,

because it's not real, you can't really base yourself, because I mean also,

as much as the Japanese fans are really cool and everything, you look in the

charts and you go "Strapping is charting high on these polls or whatever",

but you're like right beside a Ratt reunion or something, you know what I

mean? Or like a re-issue of a Whitesnake record and you're going "Well I

don't know...".

Tony: God help you if you're in Japan and there's a Ratt reunion in town at

that time...

Devin: ...we'd be on the bill I tell ya.

Tony: Yeah, but would you enjoy yourself, that's the bottom line? Would you

want to be on the bill is the question?

Devin: Oh Jesus, we went and saw W.A.S.P., a W.A.S.P reunion like a

couple of months ago.

Tony: Yeah, and how was that?

Devin: Holy Christ it was horrible!

Tony: Oh really?

Devin: It was like laughable, I couldn't believe it, I was like going "Holy

God". He had like vocals on tape...not like background vocals or anything

but lead vocals, right, I was going...I was thinking to myself "God, Blackie,

you're like 50 pounds overweight. He used to be king of the headspin too,

the whoosh...whoosh...whoosh...whoosh...[headspinning noise]. Chris

Holmes was there and everything and he held on for like two songs and then

lapsed into a coma on the side of the stage. Pretty bad I have to say.

Tony: Who actually lapsed into a coma, Chris?

Devin: It looked like it, yeah Chris Holmes the guitar player...and he was

like jumping around and everything, but I guess he hasn't been on stage in a

while so, you know, 2 songs into it he was just toast.

Tony: Yeah, I could imagine with the amount of alcohol he'd consume

before a show too.

This interview from THE HARD REPORT OFFICIAL WEBSITE

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