bleauughurgglllagggll!!!!

Deconstruction's lyrical depth has left me speechless.

Haha, but in all seriousness, the album seems super-intense. Planet of the Apes and the title track seem like they're going to be fairly long songs.

[JuZ]

I don't wanna sound like a downer, but all this god talk is making me queezy...I'm not gunna lie, it'll probably make it harder for me to relate to the album.

Have a look at how often "God" and other aspects of what I guess you'd call "spirituality" gets a mention in other albums (including Strapping) and you may be surprised.

It seems to be a significant and ongoing part of what Dev's lyrics are about but at the same time it's only a part of it.

I'm not a Christian, or in any sense a "spiritual" person whatsoever, so I can kinda understand where you're coming from. I have no interest in the lyrical themes of religious music and avoid all that Hillsong-style stuff like the plague. *shudder* Preeeeetty sure they don'y have lyrics about us all praising Satan in them though.

Still... your call. We all likes what we likes.

I don't wanna sound like a downer, but all this god talk is making me queezy...I'm not gunna lie, it'll probably make it harder for me to relate to the album.

Spirituality and whatnot has always been a major theme in pretty much all of Devin's work.

But this seems really religious - like Christian religious. Maybe I'm taking it out of context? No one else sees this?

I noticed. It seems to be a big theme of the album.

These lyrics nailed everything I'm going through right now with my ego death/enlightenment.

I'm still in this state of thinking of theories and reasons for it all and it makes me feel like shit (I'd love to be able to watch 'Arrested Development' without noticing all the infinity metaphors.) and it's all pointless, it's just my ego trying to keep me afraid of enlightenment.

That's pretty amazing if you're free, Devin. I know I'm just supposed to completely let go of everything and just 'be' ("Give it up…your world!") but my ego is putting up a fight; the 'dark night of the soul' is brutal.
Ego doesn't want contentness because that would mean no sex, music, friends, family or fucking humor! Just forever sitting indian style...'being'.
Why do we fear to be content? The ego must always have something to chase.
A year ago this post would've looked insane to me.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I now see my life's purpose:

I AM THE MIGHTY MASTURBATOR!!!

AMEN."
'Me': AHH IT's ALL POINTLESS!

"TAKE YOUR TIME,
TAKE YOUR TIME,
ENJOY THE RIDE...
ALL WE ARE!!!

I AM FREE HOW ABOUT YOU?"

"All is calm, all is well!
A LIFE WORTH WAITING FOR!
ALL is rooted, in INFINITE CHAOS!
CHOOSE YOUR PERSPECTIVE!!!" 'I am': Peace and acceptance. Freedom.

Sorry about the rant, it helps to get it out though.

It's inspiring to see someone who knows about all this stuff and still makes music and appears to live life with joy.
Looking forward to 'Deconstruction' and especially 'Ghost'.

Very cool. And loads of other things. Can't quite tell what.

[swervedriver]

Barely any of it rhymes! This sucks!

[The Dev]

I'm not Christian.

god as a metaphor

no real point to the album, Ghost is the follow up.

[The Dev]

Actually...this has made me think.

The story in Deconstruction is that the 'character' needs to face his fears (it was a dream several years back) and so he goes to 'hell'

There, he meets the 'devil' and realizes that the devil is actually himself.

He decides to move past that, and wants to meet 'god', and to do that, he goes through all manner of chaos and intellectual bullshit until he is presented (by angels, just to be cheeky) the 'face of god' ...and it ends up being a cheeseburger...

the point is that everything is in everything, the cheeseburger is a metaphor for god, god is a metaphor for the unknown, and the ultimate point is that there is nothing but reality... there are no secrets, or illusions.

No god, no devil, just the infinite. But the character needs to solve this for himself. In a way, it's a forced exorcism.

And the next album is called 'Ghost' as almost a shadow of that quest.

The character (right...character) comes to the conclusion at the end of the 4 records that he knows no more than when he started. And that ultimately, at this stage of human development he is too primitive to understand any of the concepts anyways...but no worse for the journey.

So there are no answers, but less questions if that makes any sense.

The theme of god has been through all my work because I can't think of a better word for the concept (infinity?) either way, it's just ruminating, (and never capitalized.)

[swervedriver]

Sounds like Deconstruction takes a very nihilistic viewpoint then, unless I'm misunderstanding this train of thought. And then Ghost is more like "well, hey now, that's not entirely right".

[The Dev]

Deconstruction is not nihilistic I don't think... it's almost:

'Fuck! Everything is beautiful without the need to analyze anything! Why did I feel the need to do this?'

It's almost like a karmic joke.

The last song, 'Poltergeist', is trying to kill the memories, while the last song on Ghost, 'As You Were' is saying 'Might as well marry the ghost'

...make peace with yourself, forgive yourself.

If Deconstruction was the last of the 4, it would end in chaos, but with Ghost, it ends neutral.

I think the whole project neutralizes itself in order to move on. I don't think it's healthy to say 'everything is going to be great!' ...however, it's very important for me to say 'everything is beautiful, even the ugly'.

Thats a pretty insightful way to think about things. I'm often unduly optmistic about stuff...which is not healthy.

I think I get the concept, and it's wonderful. I used to be pretty sure the music itself won't be really my taste, but the lyrics (wow, they're intense!) have made me a lot more curious. Ziltoid is actually heavier than I can bear, yet I love the album... You made it bearable with the cool concept and lyrics. I really really REALLY hope the same happens to Deconstruction!

Dev, can you tell us something about the clean vocals/screamy vocals ratio?





Thanks for the updates, by the way!

I'm just curious Dev...

I'm exactly your age...done my share of spiritual exploration...through Zen, Vedanta, etc. Alot of the Eastern stuff seems to be different ways of approaching the same ideas.

And the whole point of Deconstruction seems very Zen, "The whole world in a grain of sand" "The Whole World in a Cheeseburger."

I actually went to the 3 day version of Vai's Alien Guitar Secrets course, and he was sprinkling alot of this same style of thinking into his talks, and eventually got into his own spiritual practices, which are a bit more over the top than anything I do, or anything I've read about Dev from interviews or youtube or whatnot. But I was curious if there was ever discussion between you two about these subjects?

[The Dev]

My spiritual practices:

Try not to be an asshole.

Try not to think too much.

dev

(failure is imminent on both counts for the most part...)

Wow, some deep stuff here, I especially like Stand (whose intense is felt just by reading it) and Sumeria:

HEY!
ARE WE OBSERVING?? ARE WE THE OBSERVED??
ARE WE DESERVING…OR ARE WE DESERVED?
IF WHAT WE OWE IS ALL WE KNOW!
THEN EVER IN THE PRESENCE OF EVENTS THAT CHANGE US ALL…AND THEN ARE GONE...
IF THEY KNOW, WHAT WE MAY NEVER KNOW…THEN LET THIS BE THE LESSON OF OUR WAYS!

That's powerful!

Also, I know the songs are fairly long, but it seems that Deconstruction has some pretty long lyrics.
And, I also noticed how they lack cohesiveness; not in a bad way, as the messages behind the lyrics really do get through... I guess I'm trying to point out the outbursts of "random" thoughts in lyrics, almost as if like the song is about to explode.
Check out how the capitalized lyrics (screaming presumably) come out seemingly out of the blue. I guess it makes sense in Dev's head but on a first look it comes of chaotic!
Gotta listen to the actual thing to judge it better.

That's my deconstruction of Deconstruction.

Now... get the damned records out!