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Devin Townsend > Discography
Devin Townsend > Biography
DEVIN TOWNSEND
Devin Townsend is a Canadian musician who at 30 years old, has a long and colourful history. Chosen by guitar virtuoso Steve Vai, a 19 year old Devin performed vocals and guitar opposite Vai on his album Sex & Religion and accompanying world tour. This exposure led to offers from prominent musicians world-wide. Stints with Jason Newsted of Metallica, industrial band Front Line Assembly, the Wildhearts in England and appearances on several tribute records gave Devin the confidence in 1995 to release his first album himself under the name Strapping Young Lad.
The first Strapping Young Lad CD gained attention for having a distinctive sound and brought metal to a new level of heaviness. Devin produced, sang and played most of the instruments on the first album, Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing. Two albums followed: the highly acclaimed City which added veteran metal drummer Gene Hoglan (Dark Angel, Death) and band members Jed Simon and Byron Stroud, then No Sleep Till Bedtime recorded live in Australia (Century Media Records).
Following the desire to experiment musically and frustrated by the limitations of being signed to a label, in 1997 Devin decided to begin his own label called HevyDevy Records. His first solo release, Ocean Machine, won rave reviews for its epic, lush, prog-hard-rock-ambient compositions and began to establish Devin as a strong creative force on the metal scene. Infinity followed in 1998 with a collection of songs inspired by Broadway musicals and exhibited Devin’s talent for composition as well as voice and musicianship. The year 2000 came with the release of Physicist which has been described as “speed-metal pop songs” and reflected the confusion and anticipation of the millennium. His sixth album, Terria, a highly characterized and blend of ambient and progressive metal - self-introspection at its most honest. Now hard at work on a new album, with a new group of musicians, the ‘Devin Townsend Band’ is a collection of futuristic pop metal thatis not afraid to be sensitive – emphasis on heavy.
While very different in style, each album follows a theme inspired by life and documents his emotional state at that phase in his life, like a musical diary that gives you an insight into the many facets of one man’s personality. With his unique approach and creativity, Devin stands poised to establish himself as one of the most prolific, innovative, and extraordinary musicians in the metal genre.
As well as his own projects, Devin is making himself known as a world class Producer Engineer by producing all of the fore mentioned albums, as well as records by Soilwork (Natural Born Chaos - Nuclear Blast Records), December, (The Lament Configuration - Earache Records), Lamb Of God (Metal Blade Records), Stuck Mojo, (Pigwalk - Century Media Records) as well as many unsigned up and coming acts.
Name - Devin Garrett Townsend
Birthdate - May 5, 1972
lace of origin/place of residence - New Westminster, BC / Pitt Meadows, BC
Instruments played - guitar, bass, keys, vocals
Why this instrument - The Monkees and a travelling band that played at our school.
Musical Training - Stage band and choir and a year of guitar lessons.
Gear - Fender Stratocasters, ESP Explorers, Peavey 5150's, Roland effects processors, EMG 81 pickups, Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups, Nuendo, ProTools.
Practise - 2 hours a day
Biggest musical influences - Slade, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Judas Priest
Favourite bands - Mad Capsule Markets, Soul Coughing
Ideal superband - Singer from Krokus, guitar from Britney Fox, bass player from DAD, and Wesley Willis on drums
Music you wouldn't want people to know you listen to - My own stuff
Pets - Michi and Pickles, Fizzy and Spooky
Three favourite non-musical activities - driving, hanging out with Tracy, Iron Chef
Road stories - We got attacked by a pigeon in Europe
Favourite Devy / SYL song - Truth / Last Minute
One wish? - That everyone could get along
All metal, or a little soft underneath - really soft underneath
Favourite books - It's Here Now, Are You? - Bhagavan Dass
Woman of your dreams - Tracy
Favourite food - hit food
Most disgusting habits you don't like to admit - Picking my nose
Favourite flavour of pudding - Pistachio
Dumbest thing done partying - Pulled down my pants and farted on the buffet at a swanky Hollywood party. Didn’t go over well.
Metal band with the best hair - Cannibal Corpse
Favourite comic book character - Groo and the Dirty Pair
Favourite Star Wars film - Attack of the Clones and Empire Strikes Back
Coffee? - Tim Horton's black
Have you ever slept in your car? - Yes, when I got too tired to drive or when I was younger and didn't have anywhere to stay. Made me feel cool.
Weirdest thing you can reveal about yourself - There is nothing that has not already been revealed. I ooze weirdness.
Favourite class in school - Stage Band because I get to play guitar
Most hated class in school - Math and French. They didn't work with my brain.
Characterise all four members in the band by comparing personalities to kitchen equipment
Gene - dishwasher Jed - oven mitts Byron - bread box Ryan - freezer Brian - toaster Make and Dave - Salt and pepper shakers.
Most embarrassing moment on stage - Crapped myself on stage while hitting a high note somewhere in the USA. Not a lot, but enough to be 'ewww... Yucky'.
Most proud moment on stage - The first DTB show and the Korean Busan show on the beach. That was cool.
Favourite type of cheese - Processed or smoked Gouda.
Hair care - wash every 30 days or so, whether I need it or not.
Best thing you can cook - Brown, salty things.
If you were a bean, what kind of bean would you be - has-bean
Describe yourself in a ten-word sentence - Too much information for one stinking little ten-word sentence.
One thing you would change about yourself - Wanting to change everything about myself
Smelliest on tour - We all have our moments
Drugs? - Three prescription and marijuana
Ever thought of saying 'aahh fuck it!' and getting a desk job? - Every day
How does that moment feel onstage when you look down and see everyone going crazy from the music -Detached really, but it's great to see the effect it has on people
What does music mean to you, and why do you do it? - It's
the best means I have of expressing myself
Strangest meeting with a groupie or fan? - When people give you little mementos on tour, some of them can be pretty weird. Those big bags of food are very welcome though.
If you met a prominent world leader, who would it be, and what would you like to say or do? - I would like to be at a point where I could tickle whoever it was. Tickling is a great communicator.
To contact Devin and Hevydevy Records - email: hevydevy@shaw.ca
fax: (604) 460-1263 PO Box 153, Maple Ridge, BC, V2X 7G1, Canada
http://www.strappingyounglad.com
http://www.hevydevy.com
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Last updated 2005-09-08 16:24:16 by: Micke.
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