HEVYDEVY FORUMS

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=558631

if you know swedish, or if youve a swedish friend whos kind enough to translate stuff for you, you WILL NOT like this

Tease.

"I give the finger to the music industry"

He's been one of the most creative forces in hard rock the last ten years, both with Strapping Young Lad and solo. But now Devin Townsend has had enough, and he takes a break from music.

- I don't know if it's gonna be six months or 5 years. I'm tired of music, I've been doing it for so long. I might not have had enough (swedish people! is this right?) but I've had it with the whole industry.

Devin Townsend is known for being very energetic, funny and with a sharp tongue. The humour is still there, as is the tongue, but the voice coming from the phone from Germany, where Strapping Young Lad is preparing for another gig on their tour in Europe, sound tired and very disappointed.

- I'm tired of it all, says Devin. The whole rock scene is a lie. People who think they're rock stars, being a part of the industry, lotsa drugs, lotsa violence, lotsa lies, lotsa shit that has nothing to do with art. But you're pulled into it as a musician. So fuck you, fuck the industry and fuck the music. "You suck!"

"You suck" is one of the songs on the forthcoming album "The new black". The whole album is one big punch in the face of the industry the band themselves has been a part of for ten years.

- Everybody sucks. You, me, everybody. Strapping started as one big finger to everything and now when the music industry has started appreciating us in small scale I wanna give the big finger to it.

The new album won't chill him down:

- It's good. People who dig Strapping can like it or not, but the best album is still "City". It has nothing to do with me liking or not liking the new album, it's a fact. Slayer's never gonna do "Reign in blood" again, right? So why fight it? It doesn't mean you can't do new albums, but you have to be true to yourself.

The tour before and after "The new black" is released is limited to rockfestivals in Europe before it's time for USA and Ozzfest. Another tour won't be done in a long time. The fact that "The new black" is easier to get into than the ones before it - in the Strapping Young Lad-way of course - was not on purpose according to Devin.

- It just turned out that way. I had very little time to put together this album and thought that det most honest thing I could do was to write what came naturally. And naturally means more direct. It probably had something to do with us playing all the mainstream-festivals and do Ozzfest and everything. So I wanted a more direct way of saying what I've always said. Say it and then leave!

Of course playing big festivals introduces another audience than the regular clubtours to Strapping Young lad, but Devin doesn't think it means a greater breakthrough.

- We've done what we do for ten years now and if the masses wanted to grab our thing ithey would have did so by now.

Even if Strapping Young Lad has been his main project the last years Devin Townsend has managed to do numerous albums and tours with the much mellower Devin Townsend Band during the same time. Just a few months ago "Synchestra" was released, the latest album under his own name.

- I had two months free between craszy tours with Strapping and in those months I did "Synchestra" really fast. I'm pretty good at feeling pretty extreme feelings and having the opportunity to record it has been a blessing. Now it's no more of the insane recording of several albums a year, a subject Devin comes back to all the time. He's going to be a father for the first time this autumn and could do with producing other people's music in the nearest future.

- I haven't had a private life since 1993. It's just braindead. I've done too much and I'm tired of it, music isn't everything in life.





There might be several mistakes in here, but I'm tired and I can't be bothered with it.

Devin angry

grrrr

What's so upsetting about this? It just goes to show that Devin continues to rule the world. And of course, his claim to be ending the band has already been debunked.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the last time Dev was in a mood like this, didn't he stick a microphone in his ass? Seems to me like the cycle has come back around again..and from it we got the Dev we enjoy today. The man is too smart and has too much integrity to be a part of the music machine and not get upset, and too much of an artist to stop having to be a part of the machine. What a vicious cycle...but, I am grateful that he still slogs it out for us. (Well, maybe not for us, but the fringe benefits are awesome!)

...aren't eleven year cycles supposed to be important for those who care about that sort of stuff...? numerology etc.

Well, Scott Walker releases an album once every 11 years - I'm not sure if it's intentional or not. Either way, it's pretty mystifying.

If Dev's serious about quitting for awhile, I completely understand.
I can imagine you just get so burnt out and tired of the "yes" men kissing ass thinking you're gonna be the next big thing, but yet you realize that you've already been doing this for a long time and you feel your best albums are behind you. If you were going to bust out, you'd have done it by now.....then, you're gonna have an actual family and a child, so you have to take into consideration of if you really want to bust out into the mainstream and be a part of a BS scene while your personal life suffers.

Some people just want to make music and put it out at their leisure without having to worry about the politics of the deal....but if you're a extremely exceptional musician and visionary like Dev, it's hard to keep things small and personal....so when it looks like you might get too popular, your hobby starts to look like a pain in the ass job because you feel like you have to have an album out every X months and make X amount of money.....I feel for Dev. If he'd burnt out, by all means, stay home with your wife and enjoy life, be with your child....the music industry can wait or fuck off.

I'm just surprised he's lasted as long as he has. I'd never be able to keep up with his "schedule". Not enough down-time.

It says he was in Germany at the time. Back when he said SYL might be over, than Gene cleared it up. Devin just needs to rest for 3 years, at the least and enjoy the fruits of fatherhood with his new baby.

He has made some very great albums, and produced albums that I love and admire. Everything from SYL to Zimmer's Hole even (Which he produced). Mind you, I love Zimmer's Hole alot Of course he deserves break, he needs it.

Devin Townsend is my hero. Bottom line. Sorry for going on, its late at night, and I'm feeling shitty and had to let that out