The legendary Canadian singer-songwriter and producer Devin Townsend has offered a few thoughts on his history of writing and producing music of a wide variety of genres and styles. The musician discussed his thoughts in an interview with the YouTuber Belgian Jasper centered around Townsend’s latest album, Lightwork, released on October 28.
When Townsend’s diversity of styles is brought up, the musician notes that he doesn’t do it to be for shock value; Blabbermouth quotes him explaining that “I don’t necessarily do it on purpose to appear like I’m being provocative. And it’s funny: I have heard on several occasions that the interpretation of the fact that I make all these different types of music is indicative of psychosis. But I would argue that doing one thing to the exclusion of everything else, in my opinion, is much more indicative of some sort of lack of balance.”
Instead, Townsend states that he often becomes tired of a genre after spending too much time on one project: “I think, on a practical level, the reason why I tend to do various different styles is the amount of energy that I put into making any one of these albums is, frankly, so much that when I’m finished, I just don’t wanna hear that style anymore.”
He notes that this includes his most recent records, saying that “So what tends to happen is the next thing I do is very different, just because I love music so much and I love to create so much, but I get sick of it. Working ‘Deconstruction’ or ‘Lightwork’ or ‘The Puzzle’ or ‘Ziltoid’ or anything, STRAPPING [YOUNG LAD] or any of that stuff, by the time I’ve finished that record, I wanna be as far away from that sound for the next thing I that do [as I can get].” Watch the full interview with Devin Townsend below.
Along with Lightwork, Devin Townsend has also dropped a companion project Nightwork. Earlier this month, Townsend dropped new video for his track “Heartbreaker.” In August, the singer-songwriter announced a new project entitled Dreampeace, new addition to the Ziltoid universe. Lightwork and Nightwork follow Townsend’s previous 2021 album, The Puzzle.
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
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