Issue #70
Hi everyone. The past 2 months of tours have been both gruelling and
gratifying with some great moments. The shows were bigger than the band
expected. Of particular note for Devin were the big festivals, especially
the Gods of Metal in Italy. Sharing a stage with Iron Maiden and Slayer,
playing outside in the afternoon sunshine in front of tens of thousands of
people… It was definitely a teenage dream come true and a career highlight.
I have just received a mail with a web link to a radio recording of the
Waldock Festival that can be found at
http://www.foolsforfortune.com/SYL.htm. Thanks to Marlon for that.
The Sounds of the Underground tour begins June 25. Devin is really happy to
be part of a more mainstream metal festival tour: “Our position on the bill
gives us an opportunity to bring some metal to the more hard-core oriented
fans at the festival who may not have heard us before. I really look forward
to playing with and hooking up with some of the other bands again.â€Â
Following is the updated list of US and Canada tour dates. Most are SOTU
shows but some are headlining and other appearances supporting Opeth. Again,
dates are subject to change and cancellation and it’s not the band’s fault
if they don’t play your town.
June 25 - Lowell, MA, Paul E. Tsongas Arena
June 26 - Philadelphia, PA , Festival Pier
June 27 – Penny Arcade, Rochester, NY
June 28 - Pontiac, MI, Phoenix Plaza Amphitheatre
June 30 - Winston-Salem, NC, Dixie Classic Fairground
July 1 - Portsmouth, VA, Harbor Center Pavilion
July 2 - Sayreville, NJ, Starland Ballroom Parking Lot
July 3 - Montreal, QB, Stade Uniprix
July 4 - Mississauga, ON, Arrow Hall
July 5 - Cleveland, OH, The Scene Pavilion
July 6 – Ten Bells, Grand Rapids, MI
July 7 – Minneapolis, MN, US Band Theater
July 8 - Tinley Park, IL, Tweeter Center Parking Lot
July 9 - Sauget, IL, Pop's Lot
July 10 - Tulsa, OK, Brady Village
July 11 – Headliner’s Music Hall, Louisville KY
July 12 - Atlanta, GA, HI FI Buys Amphitheater Lot
July 13 - Orlando, FL, Tinker Field
July 15 - Dallas, TX, Smirnoff Music Center
July 16 – Corpus Christie, TX, Concrete Street Amphi
July 18 – Dos Amigos, Odessa TX
July 19 - El Paso, TX, El Paso County Coliseum
July 20 - Mesa, AZ, Mesa Amphitheatre
July 22 – Los Angeles, CA, LA Sports Arena Lot
July 23 - Mountain View, CA, Shoreline Amphi. Lot
July 24 - Domino Room, Bend, OR**
July 25 - Seattle, WA, Qwest Field Event Center
July 26 - Vancouver, BC , Pacific Coliseum
July 28 - Edmonton, AB, Rexall Place
July 29 - Saskatoon, SK, SK Credit Union Centre
July 31 - Denver, CO, Universal Lending Pavilion
August 1 – Lo-Fi Café, Salt Lake City, UT**
A bit of a glitch resulted in the booking of an SYL tour simultaneous to a
Fear Factory tour. Therefore, some emergency measures had to be taken. After
July 14 there will be a substitute bass player – Jon Miller from the band
Devil Driver. This knowledge was a quite sudden and there has been very
little time for preparation. They will have to rehearse on the road before
having to go live with material completely new to him. It is a lot pf
pressure. For this reason two of the above dates have ** beside them. It is
unlikely the band will be able to prepare a full headlining set in such a
short amount of time so they will probably be cancelled.
DTB starts recording at the Armory on August 10th. The line-up will be the
same as for Accelerated Evolution (Brian, Mike, Dave and Ryan) and it will
be released early next year, Jan or Feb, with the DTB DVD as a bonus disc.
Tentative track listing: Let it Roll, Hyper Geek, Triumph, The Baby Song,
Vampira, Nail Broth, Pixelate, Judgment, A Simple Lullaby, Chix, Sunshine &
Happiness, Notes From Africa. Yes, that is the same song that was left
unfinished after the Infinity sessions. Let it Roll was also written at that
time.
You may have noticed some changes at the strappingyounglad.com site, mostly
in the merchandise section. The band now has a merchandising agreement with
a company that supplies their tour shirts. Therefore, the “officialâ€Â
merchandise catalogue no longer links directly to HDR and is entirely
separate from us. However, you can still access the HDR site from that link.
We will continue to do what we do here and still supply the CDs from the SYL
site. We also won’t be able to offer the leftover tour shirts like we used
to. These adjustments have also resulted in a delay in the HDR “Alienâ€Â
shirts but they are now ready and available through http://www.hevydevy.com.
You may recall my mentioning some months ago that Devin provided vocals on a
single with Removal, a Vancouver artist. The single is now released on 7â€Â
vinyl only. I searched and found it available at the Scratch Records website
http://usa.scratchrecords.com/moreinfo. ... t_ID=50708. Please contact
them for more information. I don’t know how many they may have as I believe
there only 1000 were made but I do hope that everyone who wants one will be
able to get one. I should also note that we do not endorse this website, I
have never used it, but am only providing the link for information purposes.
And another one that has been a long time coming is the Melvins tribute. The
songs are finally done. Originally there was only supposed to be one song
but while SYL did ‘Zodiac’, Devin and Byron also recorded ‘Joan of Arc’ with
Burton Bell from Fear Factory and Brann Dailor from Mastodon. No idea on a
release date for that one.
New contest… How about we give away two SYL All Access laminates from the
last tour (they are no longer valid so don’t be thinking it will get you
anywhere) along with two SYL guitar picks and possibly a few other items I
can come across - a little collector’s pack for 2 winners. The trivia
question is… SYL has played shows in the past with one of the bands on the
Sounds of the Underground. Which one was it? a) Lamb of God b) Opeth c)
Devil Driver d) Unearth e) All That Remains. Here’s the rules: All entries
with a correct answer to the trivia question will be added to the contest
bucket for lottery draw on August 15, 2005. Please send your answer along
with your mailing address –I cannot accept entries that do not include a
mailing address. You may enter as many times as you like but only one entry
per person allowed by email. Fax, email, and snail mail entries are
permitted but must be received by midnight August 14, 2005.
Now for the answer to last issue’s contest question. It proved to be even
more difficult than I thought but there were those die-hard trivia masters
who managed to get it. Here was the question: Of all of the following, which
band member has known Devin the longest? a) Gene Hoglan b) Byron Stroud
c) Munsesh Sami d) Brian Waddell e) Jed Simon f) Ryan van Poederooyen.
The correct answer is d) Brian Waddell who Devin first jammed with in high
school at age 15. He also taught Brian guitar lessons in the early 1990’s.
The second option was c) Munesh Sami who was a high school friend of Devin’s
sister, Merridith. The rest of the story would be Byron, then Jed who came
along about the same time. Devin did not meet Gene until after the first SYL
album and Ryan was met at an audition for the DTB only a couple of years
ago. The winners are 1) Benjamin, AB, Canada 2) Simon, Germany 3)
Efraim, Sweden 4) Bryan, QC, Canada 5) Kelly, CA, USA. And we’ll give
a bonus one to Dylan in Australia just because we have an extra.
One correction from last issue, the artwork that was included was credited
as Sam Phillips when it was supposed to be Stu Phillips. Apologies to Stu.
Thanks for reading and see you on the Sounds of the Underground!
Tracy
Fan Interview
Is Devin vegetarian? Don't laugh out there, it's an issue of major
importance and I would really like to know the extent of Dev's sensitivity
based on this tiny measure...
Devin - I would like to be more than I am. I think it is the only way to go
but it is really hard to do when you are on tour. My lifestyle makes it
difficult if you don’t have the will power. I have nothing but respect for
vegetarianism but after every tour I stray.
Tracy – He is vegetarian when at home, I am a veggie and won’t cook any meat
dishes but what he does when away is up to him.
Though subtle, your use of electronics hint at the possibility of remixes.
Would you ever consider doing any? (USA)
Devin - I would like to do them and I probably will in the future and I
think I may be good at it. However, “Loveload†[from the Infinity EP]
started as a remix of a Unit 187 song but I just ended up writing a song
over it.
What is your personal favorite (or would be in the case) break up song? And
Devin, which of your songs is closest to this topic? (Slovenia)
Devin - I don’t really have any songs about that. “Soul Driven†is about
separation but there is nothing directly about breaking up. It has been a
long time since I had to deal with that, I don’t remember.
Where filming the DETOX video clip, was it very cold? And I think, you got
trouble with the “SYL†video in 1995 for the TV, where Devin says "Fuck
you"... Devin hates the MTV? (Chile)
Devin - Some shots were very cold. It was filmed in an unheated warehouse in
winter. The video for “SYL†was more for the point of making a video that I
knew wouldn’t be played. It was a good way of starting the belligerent end
of Strapping.
How is Devin right now, is he is happy with his status in the music, or
maybe he say, oh i wanna be more famous.
Devin - I am doing good, I am happy enough, I am famous enough. If I could,
I would slow my career down so I have more time to accomplish what I would
like to.
I want to know what he say about the all shit in Iraq, he is a sensible man
or he say, " man, it is not my problem " (Chile)
Devin - War is a horrible thing but in a way inevitable. I personally don’t
think the music and politics deserve to be together automatically. You have
to know what you are talking about before you sing about it. I only know
what I have to know.
Is that really Devin’s Dad in the song “Friends� He must have been very
angry (Slovenia)
Tracy - Yes, that is Devin's Dad in "Freinds" but all of those messages were
acted. The message about his dog dying is his sister. The others were people
that he worked with (at a restaurant kitchen) who he asked to call and leave
"hate messages" on his machine.
On Terria, in the song Mountain, there’s another song sampled towards the
end of the song. A woman singing something like "Come, underneath the
sea..." I’ve been searching for that song for a while now, and I was
wondering if someone could tell me which song is it...
Devin - That sample came from a commercial on a Vancouver Chinese radio
station.
Any chance we'll see clips of the promos that Dev did for the Osbournes on
the site?
Tracy – No, they are owned by MTV so I think we would get in trouble if we
showed them.
Hi everyone. The past 2 months of tours have been both gruelling and
gratifying with some great moments. The shows were bigger than the band
expected. Of particular note for Devin were the big festivals, especially
the Gods of Metal in Italy. Sharing a stage with Iron Maiden and Slayer,
playing outside in the afternoon sunshine in front of tens of thousands of
people… It was definitely a teenage dream come true and a career highlight.
I have just received a mail with a web link to a radio recording of the
Waldock Festival that can be found at
http://www.foolsforfortune.com/SYL.htm. Thanks to Marlon for that.
The Sounds of the Underground tour begins June 25. Devin is really happy to
be part of a more mainstream metal festival tour: “Our position on the bill
gives us an opportunity to bring some metal to the more hard-core oriented
fans at the festival who may not have heard us before. I really look forward
to playing with and hooking up with some of the other bands again.â€Â
Following is the updated list of US and Canada tour dates. Most are SOTU
shows but some are headlining and other appearances supporting Opeth. Again,
dates are subject to change and cancellation and it’s not the band’s fault
if they don’t play your town.
June 25 - Lowell, MA, Paul E. Tsongas Arena
June 26 - Philadelphia, PA , Festival Pier
June 27 – Penny Arcade, Rochester, NY
June 28 - Pontiac, MI, Phoenix Plaza Amphitheatre
June 30 - Winston-Salem, NC, Dixie Classic Fairground
July 1 - Portsmouth, VA, Harbor Center Pavilion
July 2 - Sayreville, NJ, Starland Ballroom Parking Lot
July 3 - Montreal, QB, Stade Uniprix
July 4 - Mississauga, ON, Arrow Hall
July 5 - Cleveland, OH, The Scene Pavilion
July 6 – Ten Bells, Grand Rapids, MI
July 7 – Minneapolis, MN, US Band Theater
July 8 - Tinley Park, IL, Tweeter Center Parking Lot
July 9 - Sauget, IL, Pop's Lot
July 10 - Tulsa, OK, Brady Village
July 11 – Headliner’s Music Hall, Louisville KY
July 12 - Atlanta, GA, HI FI Buys Amphitheater Lot
July 13 - Orlando, FL, Tinker Field
July 15 - Dallas, TX, Smirnoff Music Center
July 16 – Corpus Christie, TX, Concrete Street Amphi
July 18 – Dos Amigos, Odessa TX
July 19 - El Paso, TX, El Paso County Coliseum
July 20 - Mesa, AZ, Mesa Amphitheatre
July 22 – Los Angeles, CA, LA Sports Arena Lot
July 23 - Mountain View, CA, Shoreline Amphi. Lot
July 24 - Domino Room, Bend, OR**
July 25 - Seattle, WA, Qwest Field Event Center
July 26 - Vancouver, BC , Pacific Coliseum
July 28 - Edmonton, AB, Rexall Place
July 29 - Saskatoon, SK, SK Credit Union Centre
July 31 - Denver, CO, Universal Lending Pavilion
August 1 – Lo-Fi Café, Salt Lake City, UT**
A bit of a glitch resulted in the booking of an SYL tour simultaneous to a
Fear Factory tour. Therefore, some emergency measures had to be taken. After
July 14 there will be a substitute bass player – Jon Miller from the band
Devil Driver. This knowledge was a quite sudden and there has been very
little time for preparation. They will have to rehearse on the road before
having to go live with material completely new to him. It is a lot pf
pressure. For this reason two of the above dates have ** beside them. It is
unlikely the band will be able to prepare a full headlining set in such a
short amount of time so they will probably be cancelled.
DTB starts recording at the Armory on August 10th. The line-up will be the
same as for Accelerated Evolution (Brian, Mike, Dave and Ryan) and it will
be released early next year, Jan or Feb, with the DTB DVD as a bonus disc.
Tentative track listing: Let it Roll, Hyper Geek, Triumph, The Baby Song,
Vampira, Nail Broth, Pixelate, Judgment, A Simple Lullaby, Chix, Sunshine &
Happiness, Notes From Africa. Yes, that is the same song that was left
unfinished after the Infinity sessions. Let it Roll was also written at that
time.
You may have noticed some changes at the strappingyounglad.com site, mostly
in the merchandise section. The band now has a merchandising agreement with
a company that supplies their tour shirts. Therefore, the “officialâ€Â
merchandise catalogue no longer links directly to HDR and is entirely
separate from us. However, you can still access the HDR site from that link.
We will continue to do what we do here and still supply the CDs from the SYL
site. We also won’t be able to offer the leftover tour shirts like we used
to. These adjustments have also resulted in a delay in the HDR “Alienâ€Â
shirts but they are now ready and available through http://www.hevydevy.com.
You may recall my mentioning some months ago that Devin provided vocals on a
single with Removal, a Vancouver artist. The single is now released on 7â€Â
vinyl only. I searched and found it available at the Scratch Records website
http://usa.scratchrecords.com/moreinfo. ... t_ID=50708. Please contact
them for more information. I don’t know how many they may have as I believe
there only 1000 were made but I do hope that everyone who wants one will be
able to get one. I should also note that we do not endorse this website, I
have never used it, but am only providing the link for information purposes.
And another one that has been a long time coming is the Melvins tribute. The
songs are finally done. Originally there was only supposed to be one song
but while SYL did ‘Zodiac’, Devin and Byron also recorded ‘Joan of Arc’ with
Burton Bell from Fear Factory and Brann Dailor from Mastodon. No idea on a
release date for that one.
New contest… How about we give away two SYL All Access laminates from the
last tour (they are no longer valid so don’t be thinking it will get you
anywhere) along with two SYL guitar picks and possibly a few other items I
can come across - a little collector’s pack for 2 winners. The trivia
question is… SYL has played shows in the past with one of the bands on the
Sounds of the Underground. Which one was it? a) Lamb of God b) Opeth c)
Devil Driver d) Unearth e) All That Remains. Here’s the rules: All entries
with a correct answer to the trivia question will be added to the contest
bucket for lottery draw on August 15, 2005. Please send your answer along
with your mailing address –I cannot accept entries that do not include a
mailing address. You may enter as many times as you like but only one entry
per person allowed by email. Fax, email, and snail mail entries are
permitted but must be received by midnight August 14, 2005.
Now for the answer to last issue’s contest question. It proved to be even
more difficult than I thought but there were those die-hard trivia masters
who managed to get it. Here was the question: Of all of the following, which
band member has known Devin the longest? a) Gene Hoglan b) Byron Stroud
c) Munsesh Sami d) Brian Waddell e) Jed Simon f) Ryan van Poederooyen.
The correct answer is d) Brian Waddell who Devin first jammed with in high
school at age 15. He also taught Brian guitar lessons in the early 1990’s.
The second option was c) Munesh Sami who was a high school friend of Devin’s
sister, Merridith. The rest of the story would be Byron, then Jed who came
along about the same time. Devin did not meet Gene until after the first SYL
album and Ryan was met at an audition for the DTB only a couple of years
ago. The winners are 1) Benjamin, AB, Canada 2) Simon, Germany 3)
Efraim, Sweden 4) Bryan, QC, Canada 5) Kelly, CA, USA. And we’ll give
a bonus one to Dylan in Australia just because we have an extra.
One correction from last issue, the artwork that was included was credited
as Sam Phillips when it was supposed to be Stu Phillips. Apologies to Stu.
Thanks for reading and see you on the Sounds of the Underground!
Tracy
Fan Interview
Is Devin vegetarian? Don't laugh out there, it's an issue of major
importance and I would really like to know the extent of Dev's sensitivity
based on this tiny measure...
Devin - I would like to be more than I am. I think it is the only way to go
but it is really hard to do when you are on tour. My lifestyle makes it
difficult if you don’t have the will power. I have nothing but respect for
vegetarianism but after every tour I stray.
Tracy – He is vegetarian when at home, I am a veggie and won’t cook any meat
dishes but what he does when away is up to him.
Though subtle, your use of electronics hint at the possibility of remixes.
Would you ever consider doing any? (USA)
Devin - I would like to do them and I probably will in the future and I
think I may be good at it. However, “Loveload†[from the Infinity EP]
started as a remix of a Unit 187 song but I just ended up writing a song
over it.
What is your personal favorite (or would be in the case) break up song? And
Devin, which of your songs is closest to this topic? (Slovenia)
Devin - I don’t really have any songs about that. “Soul Driven†is about
separation but there is nothing directly about breaking up. It has been a
long time since I had to deal with that, I don’t remember.
Where filming the DETOX video clip, was it very cold? And I think, you got
trouble with the “SYL†video in 1995 for the TV, where Devin says "Fuck
you"... Devin hates the MTV? (Chile)
Devin - Some shots were very cold. It was filmed in an unheated warehouse in
winter. The video for “SYL†was more for the point of making a video that I
knew wouldn’t be played. It was a good way of starting the belligerent end
of Strapping.
How is Devin right now, is he is happy with his status in the music, or
maybe he say, oh i wanna be more famous.
Devin - I am doing good, I am happy enough, I am famous enough. If I could,
I would slow my career down so I have more time to accomplish what I would
like to.
I want to know what he say about the all shit in Iraq, he is a sensible man
or he say, " man, it is not my problem " (Chile)
Devin - War is a horrible thing but in a way inevitable. I personally don’t
think the music and politics deserve to be together automatically. You have
to know what you are talking about before you sing about it. I only know
what I have to know.
Is that really Devin’s Dad in the song “Friends� He must have been very
angry (Slovenia)
Tracy - Yes, that is Devin's Dad in "Freinds" but all of those messages were
acted. The message about his dog dying is his sister. The others were people
that he worked with (at a restaurant kitchen) who he asked to call and leave
"hate messages" on his machine.
On Terria, in the song Mountain, there’s another song sampled towards the
end of the song. A woman singing something like "Come, underneath the
sea..." I’ve been searching for that song for a while now, and I was
wondering if someone could tell me which song is it...
Devin - That sample came from a commercial on a Vancouver Chinese radio
station.
Any chance we'll see clips of the promos that Dev did for the Osbournes on
the site?
Tracy – No, they are owned by MTV so I think we would get in trouble if we
showed them.
see, I knew it was a good day
