Mmmm...cool.

Running is good! It's the only time (apart from sleeping) where my mind doesn't race 400 miles an hour. Running along the beach with no music or anything just clears my mind. Best of all I think my body appreciates it as I always feel great a couple of hours later. See if you can get into a routine Dev, that will help heaps. Good luck

this is a good opportunity to show people that I'm no hack. I'm pretty legato, so it's lots of that and heavy rhythms.

I think you underestimate the guitar community's opinion of you. You're a legato god

Tim Yeung? That is hawt. And fast.

obvious post is obvious, but what about Gene?

You know him better than anyone on these boards - so correct me, but listening through City and Tenet the other day, he's got precision (aint the 'Atomic Clock' for nothing), attack and he knows when to pull back behind the beat and when to come back on and beat the shit out the kit. He knows how you work. My drummer reads my mind now we've been playing a year solidly, im sure you two have some of that and some more. Is he busy with FF? (have i missed a post?)

Out of curiousity, what made you prefer legato over a more picking dominated style and any of your own little tricks or mental notes to improve it?

Well I have always believed personally that the more you "try" to do something the harder it becomes.
It seems we as humans put so much emphasis on attempting to control our minds and bodies that we've forgotten certain connections between both. Trying to force our will on parts of ourselves we don't really understand thus affecting their natural abilities. Am I making any sense?

I just figure our minds are much more powerful than we can comprehend at this point in our evolution, and the more we try to interfere by analysing, examining and "concentrating" the more we hinder ourselves.

I've found this to be the case with many things ranging from dancing to excercise from playing music to playing Guitar Hero. The more I push, the more I concentrate on what it is I'm trying to do the less effective I become.

Of course this could just be my own subjective take on events.

Either way Dev, you always seem to know just what kind of ideas to throw out in these pre-release posts to get me even more excited about the forth-coming album. For I all I care your next album could be you farting on a snare drum. Heh heh, and I'll give a cookie to whoever gets that reference.
But seriously though, go for it man. Whatever you feel should be on this record you just let rip. Or indeed chill out if need be for for wee while. As I've always said and you always prove you can't have true insanity without something calm to compare and emphasize it with.

Plus I can pretty much guarantee, if I know myself and my tastes at all, for every fan you "alienate" my own love of your music will multiply ten fold. At this point I would gladly pay over the odds for a Devin Townsend, Gypsy Beats album.

Actually that would fucking rule. Heh heh. Do it bud! You know you want to.
All Jewish melodies played with traditional musicians playing proper traditional instruments and Dev standing among them all with his beautiful Peavey 7-String.

Devin Townend and Fanfare Ciocarlia present Zilberg the Omniscient!
With John Zorn conducting the Warsaw Philharmonic.

Total ear-gasm!!!

Yeah the rant master is back, sorry 'bout that.

there have been MANY posts about why he's not using Gene...

seriously its getting very tiring reading the same posts over and over again

there have been MANY posts about why he's not using Gene...

seriously its getting very tiring reading the same posts over and over again

oh well, just don't look at em.

Mmmm...cool.

Running is good! It's the only time (apart from sleeping) where my mind doesn't race 400 miles an hour. Running along the beach with no music or anything just clears my mind. Best of all I think my body appreciates it as I always feel great a couple of hours later. See if you can get into a routine Dev, that will help heaps. Good luck

i hear ya on the running without music thing, generally when i do actually run, i run with music, but often with changing tempos it can become a pest and distracting.

Oh, fretless bass. That makes me feel all warm & fuzzy. <3

Oh, fretless bass. That makes me feel all warm & fuzzy. <3

Heh heh, I know the feeling.
Perhaps some slap Bass on future releases?

Gotta love da funk.

Dev, is Gene not in consideration at all? Or was he too obvious to mention?

If I may refer to some past posts in relation to Gene and Deconstruction for anyone new who hasn't seen:

viewtopic.php?f=49&t=8370&p=202834

And again, for those who 'insist' that Gene plays on this record, I say again: I want to try a new flavor of drummer for this album. In all honesty, the parts are not as much written with his style in mind as much as the older (syl) type material. Yes, Gene is an incredible drummer and theres no doubt he could play this, it's just that I need to make a distinction between what I do in a heavy context now, and before.

Please understand as well, that although Deconstruction is a very heavy record it is NOT an syl record by any stretch of the imagination. As I have said before, I don't write that music anymore, I tapped the vein. If I try and write it, I get bored.

viewtopic.php?f=49&t=8370&p=202839

Yes, and I DO NOT want to come off as disrespectful to Gene. How could I say anything more about him?

He has a grace and a power to his playing that I have never encountered before, a circular and punishing attack.

My evaluation of a drummer is usually in the way his stick sounds when he connects to the snare. The personality is in the sound of the snare. Gavin Harrison to Flo Mounier, you can HEAR the person in the snare.

There's some incredible drummers in Australia, to be sure...some real monsters.

The thing is, I'm not trying to REPLACE Gene, You can't...it doesn't make logical sense. When I jam with Gene though, if we start with something quiet and mellow, 99% of the time, it morphs into something brutal, and usually pummeling. That's been the nature of our musical collaboration. We just always seemed to fall into Mach 10. Infinity and Terria were fun, but Deconstruction is actually a little more 'angular' than what I have done with syl, and I am looking for a drummer that is a little different.

I don't want to get a drummer who is just an imitation of Gene. That would make Deconstruction just a imitation of syl.

viewtopic.php?f=49&t=8370&p=202745

I suspect that I will be asked hundreds of times if Gene will be on deconstruction, and I will calmly explain that I believe syl was an amazing band, and it's emotional impact is largely based on the honesty that was reflected during a period of my life (20's, early 30's) where those themes were important. Also, that as a musical form based on catharsis, it was a very important musical step for me to get to where I want to be. To 'resolve' those issues. Also, to continue with a band that is no longer being done for the sake of the muse that made it important in the first place discredits everything that made it unique.

Unless Devin has changed his outlook dramatically since those insights, I would think it's fairly doubtful that Gene will appear. Don't honestly think it's a bad thing, myself. There's tons of Dev and Gene material from the past, it'll be interesting to see what happens with new drummers and styles in the future... Just mah two cents.

The Dev wrote:

"Sometimes I think 6 drummers, sometimes I think 1. I've talked with Brooks W, Bobby J, Ryan VP, Dirk V, Tim Y, maybe all, maybe just one. Really...it doesn't matter...I'm not trying to flex my cock by surrounding myself with 'famous friends' or whatever... there's just 20 different styles needed."



My middle-aged uncle and his family (The O’Neil’s) have played country music in south-central Texas for years, primarily doing gigs for dance halls and private parties. Bobby J has actually played drums with him on numerous occasions for some easy money. Not making this up...when my uncle told me 'about this guy that can do just about anything', and then sent me a video link showing him do studio work (Spastic Ink)...I realized the connection I nearly crapped myself. He said, "Yeah, he used to help out Judas Priest, too. Whenever we had a big private party to gig, we'd snatch him if he was available. We'd give him a drum solo spot and he'd just blow the roof off."

What are the chances?! You prolly won't see these activities in his bio or resume, but given the breadth of what Decon might entail, I thought it was worth mentioning.
You prolly know better than I, but I think Bobby would be able to execute your vision from one extreme to the other with an open mind and as a consummate professional.

V/R,
Justin

I didn't mean to imply that he should be playing, just wondering if (and if not, why) he wasn't being considered.

You answered that inquiry, so thanks for the backstory.

Everything you said sounds very open-ended, like alot of it is still up in the air...which is cool. The less info I have, the harder it will probably kick me in the ass. I should really adopt that philosophy for my own music, but I get so damn excited and wanna show people...mainly just my close friends.