It has been said that Devin Townsend is an artist that does what he feels like doing when he feels like doing it. Courtesy of Townsend’s Twitter account, he certainly felt like revealing the ongoing process of his current album. August 16th is when the dam opened, and a veritable flood of tweets were unleashed, refreshingly candid anecdotes surrounding what will eventually become his upcoming album.

Townsend is sparing no expense musically as he expressed excitement over a “phenomenal” bassist that is heavily involved. He also mentioned bringing in a women’s choir and an orchestra in August. He tweeted, “The Music is a collision of basically all I’ve done, which seems like it would be the equivalent of putting ‘all the fountain soda in one cup’ but actually has a real identity I didn’t see coming. For some songs, all three drummers play in different sections,” expressing a real sense of experimentation music-wise, though he noted that little if any thought has been given to the live shows as of yet.

If his musical choices all come off fairly certain, more unsure was the album size, with Townsend noting that he was starting with a roster of 30 songs that would be initially be whittled to 10. But then —

I’ve been struggling with which songs to include as I enjoy a great deal of them, but my enjoyment is juxtaposed by my real dislike of double albums. I always feel like ‘who has that sort of time?’ And ‘could you not have edited this down?’ I always tune them out…

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) August 16, 2018

This tweet was then followed, by a, “would you actually prefer a double album?? … maybe if it wasn’t super bloated it could work.” Finally, “two albums, released simultaneously or close together,” a quick turnaround from the impressions of before.

Townsend revealed the themes of the now double album, expressing the theme, ironically, as twofold: in a society where empathy is often viewed as a weakness, being able to feel the same as others is how you learn compassion.

While the album appears to be a ways away, one last Twitter tidbit was the revelation that a documentary will be filmed which means more behind-the-scenes revelations are sure to follow.

Here’s some of the recording personnel: Mike Keneally https://t.co/8l3bLhz5tR Morgan Agren https://t.co/QQDqCxcBGQ Anup Sastry https://t.co/dgxJA1No4s Samus https://t.co/hJqe8Ut9Ng Nathan Navarro https://t.co/TzTsVI5lNF

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) August 16, 2018

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat