Devin Townsend, of cult fame from The Devin Townsend Band, has sparked an interesting relationship “by chance” with fellow Canadian Chad Kroeger, lead singer of Nickelback. In a recent interview with Heavy Consequence, Townsend shared that he believes Kroeger is “genius.”
Townsend goes on to say of Kroeger,“I think that people don’t realize how clever that guy is. And his success in a lot of ways…I think is his ability to analyze the public and musical structures, and the ways that people react emotionally on a commercial level is such that he is almost more like a scientist than he is a rock musician.”
Townsend is an artist of ecclectic pursuits, starting off as a solo performer under the pseudonym Strapping Young Lad before founding The Devin Townsend Band, and most recently, releasing the collaborative album Empath, of which Kroeger was of great influence. Nickelback is not an inherently loved band, and their schismatic nature is not unknown to Townsend. In an interview with Theprp.com, Townsend shared that Kroeger was such an influence on Empath, “primarily because here’s guy who’s had phenomenal success doing a type of music and being in a band that is clearly divisive—there’s a lot of people that hate that band and hate him.” Townsend went on to say that the album was originally going in the direction of a pop “sell out” record but was talked into a different direction by Kroeger. Nickelback’s frontman also provided the vocals for “Hear Me,” which was featured on Empath.
Devin Townsend is currently on a tour of North America with Avatar, Dance With The Dead and 68’ and is slated to tour in Europe later this summer. He plans to bring different bands that are featured in Empath on different tours over the next couple of years and will finish will a full tour of Empath in 2021.
Photo credit: Raymond Flotat
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