The Canadian singer-songwriter Devin Townsend has shared a story about the process of creating his upcoming album Lightwork. In his Twitter thread, the musician explained how he needed to re-record a song after a sample he used was denied.

In his post, Townsend explained that the sample denial occurred three months after the mixing and mastering of the record had been complete; units were already in production and vinyl were in the process of being printed. The artist recalls having “opened my mail in the plane to find a thread of frantic mails from the team essentially saying that a sample I had used in one of the main songs had been denied permission to use.”

He goes on to explain that he was “given three days to record and mix a substitution song, (or we would miss the release date again) which meant pulling it from the demo album (Nightwork) and re recording and mixing it… which also meant re assembling both records, from scratch, through the jet leg.”

Townsend’s thread goes on to detail difficulties in creating the substitution song, including not being able to do “car checks” due to a broken car battery. The artist closes his thread by hoping that the sample may be cleared one day, allowing us to hear the original song, and musing: “You gotta get through these things though… the only constant is change (…he said, wisely)” See Devin Townsend’s full thread below.

Man, one of the most challenging things I’ve been asked to do in some time happened upon landing back in Vancouver after the tour…

— Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) July 18, 2022

In December of 2021, Devin Townsend released his latest album, The Puzzle. Even before the release of The Puzzle, Townsend had a been keeping fans updated on the progress of Lightwork. In June, Townsend announced that Lightwork would be accompanied by the companion album Nightwork. Townsend has previously released a five-part documentary detailing his process for creating The Puzzle.

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat