Quotes by Devin Townsend - Page 2

I guess I'm not really into female vocals that sound masculine, I guess. A lot of times, the heavy female vocalists always end up sounding like they're screaming or whatever.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Female
Heavy
Masculine
Sound
Guess
Screaming
Vocals
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I made 'Epicloud' for the people that have listened to what I've done because I really think that this style of music fits well into my personal daily life and hopefully others.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Daily Life
Life Music Daily
Fits
For The People
Listened
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The bottom line is music, for me, is an exhaust port for life, and if I have a chaotic year, then I'm gonna write a chaotic record, and that's what happened with 'Ziltoid,' with 'Z2.'
Devin Townsend / Musician
Bottom Line
Chaotic
Port
Life Music Me
Exhaust
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Because I have been so pigheaded and so selfish about so many things for so many years, I've spent a lot of time being, like, 'That person needs to change. This person needs to change.'
Devin Townsend / Musician
So Many Years
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The way that I write is I just write a ton of music in the background of my life, and then I just bring it into rehearsal. It's, like, 'Okay, guys. It goes like this. Let's smooth it out.'
Devin Townsend / Musician
Rehearsal
Smooth
Life Music My Life
Ton
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I think that the world is full of really, really good musicians, but that's not necessarily my motivation for having people involved. It's more how they contribute to the scene as a person.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Involved
Scene
Good World People
Contribute
Necessarily
Musicians
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I tend to find in my musical world people end up appearing, and I'm pretty good at being able to discern right away whether or not they are going to be appropriate based on their personality.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Appearing
Appropriate
Discern
Pretty Good
Right Away
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The reason why everything I do is so different is not because I'm trying to be provocative; it's simply a reflection of whatever was happening to me at the time I wrote that particular record.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Provocative
Reflection
Time Me Trying
Time Reflection Me
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The records I make, I'm there from the writing of the first note through the click tracks to the miking of the drums to the editing of everything to the production to the vocals to the artwork.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Artwork
Editing
Click
Drums
Note
Tracks
Vocals
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It's really hard to foster self-love; it really is. I think a lot of people who claim that they do have a definite lack of self-loathing are either lying or just in a place that I don't relate to.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Definite
Lying
Self Loathing
Claim
Foster
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Strapping Young Lad is a vehicle for me to be wild and extroverted and ridiculous. It gives me the chance to say, 'Look at me. I'm a heavy metal guy. I'm Rob Halford or Bruce Dickinson or whoever.'
Devin Townsend / Musician
Heavy
Heavy Metal
Lad
Vehicle
Chance Me Look
Bruce
Wild
Extroverted
Chance Look Me
Rob
Metal
Whoever
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If there's anybody who's new to what I do, who maybe heard 'Liberation' or some of the songs off 'Epicloud' and thought, 'This is really cool, I could get into this,' you're going to hate 'Casualties.'
Devin Townsend / Musician
Casualties
Liberation
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People say, 'Well, why don't you talk about being vegetarian?' And I'm like, 'People will find out.' The people who are interested in what I do and why I do it, being a vegetarian is a big part of that.
Devin Townsend / Musician
People Will Find
Big Part
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I like Canada for a number of reasons, politics and people and all that stuff aside. I was raised there, and I write music best when I'm in situations that I'm surrounded by nature, and when there's seasons.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Canada
Seasons
Aside
Surrounded
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What made Strapping Young Lad important, at least to me, was I was being honest about whatever was important to me at that time. In many ways, that musical process is there to resolve those issues, if you will.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Being Honest
Lad
Resolve
Time Me Process
Time Me Important
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Producing is getting the performances, tracking it, making sure all the parts are there. Mixing is when you take the finished work, and you make sure all the levels are right. It's putting all the parts together.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Finished
Finished Work
Levels
Mixing
Tracking
Performance
Parts
Producing
Putting
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A lot of people are upset when you work out your anger issues, but there's a big industry for music which is furious and angry because, in my opinion, the world is looking for a justification to feel the same way.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Anger
Furious
Justification
Upset
Work Music World
In My Opinion
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I think a lot of the fun of making records, for me, is making each one of them a situation. For example, with 'Ghost,' I found a group of people that had an energy together, and we kind of did it in a cabin somewhere.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Ghost
Cabin
Each One
For Example
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I know that I'm often perceived as this odd guy who's a bit out there, and I've probably, once in a while, reinforced that image, but I'm really not that person, and, in a way, I want even less so to be seen like that.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Odd
Way Person Know
Perceived
Reinforced
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Because I think I am pretty left-brained - more than I gave myself credit for - I think I've managed to really dissect emotions. At least my own. And I've been able to understand what they do, how they do it, and when.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Dissect
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After Strapping, the amount of things in my life had changed were more than I'd ever had to process in any one time, and as a result of that, I found that my writing was veering off in four - sometimes even more - directions.
Devin Townsend / Musician
One Time
Directions
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I think, at the end of the day, that was really what the reward for production is for me, is being allowed to be a part of somebody else's musical vision for a while. Like Gwar. I got to do a Gwar record, right? That was great.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Reward
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I think that the pivotal point of me in terms of the choral stuff is that I was involved in this provincial choir at 16 or 17. We went and played in churches and convention centres. The music we got to do was so inspiring for me.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Inspiring
Choir
Pivotal
Churches
Convention
Provincial
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'Epicloud' is the first record that I felt confident enough to include all those things on one record, so it goes between melodic hard rock to schizophrenic heavy metal to country to really ambient stuff, and it's all in one place.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Ambient
Hard Rock
Heavy
Heavy Metal
Schizophrenic
Include
Melodic
Metal
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The risk a lot of times, in my mind - and I may be incorrect - the risk of challenging people directly with their beliefs is that society is such that there's too many of us, so a direct challenge automatically engages people's defenses.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Automatically
Beliefs
Directly
Incorrect
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I think that, as well as Strapping Young Lad kind of having the name for themselves based on brutality and aggression, I think there's also something to be said to the fact that every Strapping record is different. They're all different.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Aggression
Lad
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The album 'Physicist,' I erased all the work that I had done halfway through. I think that's probably why that contributed to that album being sort of sub-par for me, just because by the time I had to go back and do it, I was just over it.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Halfway
Over It
Physicist
Time Work Done
By The Time
Erased
Work Time Me
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There is no way I'll ever write an album for Avril Lavigne or Christina Aguilera. I just couldn't do it. There is no way I could ever do it because my musical process is about being directly involved with whatever I'm going through in life.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Aguilera
Directly
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I love people; don't get me wrong. Individually, I love that interaction between people, and I'm not an ogre or something; but huge crowds of people, huge groups of people who seemingly have endless access to you - as I get older, I'm not really into that.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Crowds
Love Me People
Individually
Ogre
Seemingly
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To have the opportunity to be creative and clarify the nature of that creativity, there are definitely some long days, some 18-20 hour days with interviews or computer work, but I have a friend who is every bit as intelligent and creative as me who works at the mill.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Intelligent
Clarify
Mill
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Basically, when I did 'Infinity' in 1997, I had thoughts in my head that left me with a lot of questions. I've gone to certain personal limits with 'Infinity' that, at the end of it, I think, scared me. And I've made a lot of really kinda bad mistakes as a result of that.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Infinity
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The thing that kills me is all these bands that use huge words in their lyrics, 'I'm swimming in a vortex of apathy.' I'm like, 'What?' I don't walk up to a friend and go 'That's a stylin' looking vortex of apathy you've got there pal. I was swimming up a river of deceit myself.'
Devin Townsend / Musician
Apathy
Rivers
Swimming
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I spent a great deal of my career willingly ignoring the fact that people are participating in it, because it allows me to function without second-guessing it, without thinking, 'Oh, I wonder what people are gonna think of this,' or, 'I wonder what people aren't gonna think of this.'
Devin Townsend / Musician
Function
Participating
Great Thinking Me
Great Deal
Ignoring
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I'm not a big fan of options, to be honest. The more options that I have, the less time that I spend actually completing things... ultimately, I think, if you have endless choices, I mean, the tendency to just choose endlessly is there, and that doesn't do anything for anybody, really.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Completing
Big Fan
Endlessly
Less Time
Options
Tendency
To Be Honest
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While I was recording 'Ziltoid,' the movie 'Mars Attacks' came on TV, I think, six times in one week. So I don't know if there's any direct references or anything, but the aesthetics of that movie was definitely around while I was creating the music, so I'd be lying if I said it wasn't part of it.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Aesthetic
Creating
Direct
Lying
Mars
Six
Tv
Attacks
Definitely
Music Know Anything
Recording
References
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One thing that's really important for me to be creatively motivated is to find an angle. Some people refer to that as a concept, which it is, in a sense, but not overtly. It's just something I need to focus and hone in on, and the trajectory of what might be seen as a 'concept' gives me creative momentum.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Angle
Momentum
Trajectory
Focus Me People
Focus Me Important
Creatively
Hone
Just Something
Refer
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When I was going to high school, in the high school band we would play these kind of hour-long concerts for our parents. All the parents would come to the gymnasium, and the band would play an hour-long kind of orchestra piece. 'Synchestra' is supposed to be similar, like a high school band orchestra piece.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Band
Concerts
High School
Orchestra
School
School High School High
High
Gymnasium
Parents
Piece
Similar
Supposed
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In Strapping, I had experimented with a creative catharsis under the assumption that art doesn't need to be accountable for itself, but I found out in very practical ways that you are accountable for everything you say. Everything you write, everything you do becomes not only your identity but your world resonates with it.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Assumption
Catharsis
Accountable
Practical
Resonates
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I don't deal with conflict well, so sometimes things will happen that will make me feel sort of powerless. But instead of being able to actually deal with the problem, I just suck it up - that's the way I was raised. Music, then, becomes my one avenue for letting things go, and when I get the chance, I let it rip. It's like therapy in that way.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Conflict
Powerless
Rip
Therapy
Music Chance Me
Avenue
Letting
Suck
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I'd be lying if I said I went into any project with any premeditated ideas of what's gonna happen or what's gonna be perceived as a result of it. I just kinda work on autopilot and then, when it's done, it's done and I have more of an internal sense of when that is. And then I leave it up to the audience to decide if one's better than the other.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Done
Ideas
Lying
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I started to see human beings as little lonesome, water based, pink meat, life forms pushing air through themselves and making noises that the other little pieces of meat seemed to understand. I was thinking to myself, 'There's five billion people here but we've never been more isolated.' The only result of the aggressive individualism we pursue is that you lose sight of your compassion and we go to bed at night thinking, 'Is this all there is?' because we don't feel fulfilled.
Devin Townsend / Musician
Compassion
Night
Thinking
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Devin Townsend Quotes - Page 2

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