Top 103 Quotes & Sayings by Devin Townsend

The thing is, I'm equally disgusted by both men and women.

I have a real hard time with inter-personal relationships. I find it really taxing. Especially, like, friendships and being in bands.

People talk about the Ozzfest and what it can do for your career, and I guess I'm just oblivious to it.

I have a job - it's a great job, and I love doing it - but I can't not work. That's not psychological; that's practical.

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.

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.

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.

Not only was it Def Leppard I was into when I was 15, but 'Watermark' by Enya. I loved it.

'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.

I'm doing this record called 'Epicloud.' Over the course of the full record, there's sort of new agey stuff, jazzy stuff, really heavy stuff. We basically cover the gamut.

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.'

Enya was a huge deal for me. That kind of woman vocals and how wide those productions were.

I just go where it feels the most honest to go; then I deal with people thinking it's weird afterwards.

The identity of each band is what's important for me production-wise.

I really like the art of music, the way that you can express yourself through music.

For me, music is about expressing the inexpressible, and as I get older, man, what I feel the need to express becomes less and less poignant to others.

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.

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.

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.

The music industry is really difficult.

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.'

Music is so important to me that that's got to be the only way I can do it. In the purest possible way.

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.

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.

My lineage is partially Irish.

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.'

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.'

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.

I come from a blue collar background.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I like it when it rains; I like it when it snows. I like seasons. I like trees. I like mountains. I like rivers. And with that around me, I write.

The reason Strapping came to an end is because I'm no longer in my mid-20s.

Human beings are gross.

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.

I'm really into music, I'm really into art, and I want to keep that fire alive.

As someone whose music is connected to his personal growth, I feel an obligation to follow this muse wherever it leads.

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.

I'm very creative - making music, making puppets, that's my thing - but mainstream success and the demands that brings? No, not really for me.

For me, the opportunity to express myself in this way is something I don't take for granted.

I've always been into easy music. When I was 15, the record for me was 'Hysteria' by Def Leppard.

As a vocalist, I can scream, and I've got a really good singing voice, but I can't do the really heavy vocals.

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.

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.

Sometimes I'll be writing something, and I say to myself, 'Okay, that's definitely DTB,' or, 'It's definitely Strapping.'

It's like... to make a good record - I don't care who you are - it takes a long time and a lot of passion and a lot of attention to detail, right?

I play keyboards and Pro Tools, if you want to look at it as an instrument.

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.

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.'

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.

I'm just a perpetually confused and terrified person that is trying to be less so all the time, and music is the byproduct of that.

I'm good at what I do but, to be honest, not a whole hell of a lot else!

I think that religion is incredibly cruel, and I think that my biggest problem with being vegetarian, usually, is other vegetarians.

As a drummer, I'm rhythmically so disabled that it's hilarious.

I think when music, specifically heavy music, the motivation for it is other than truly feeling it, that's when it becomes really difficult for me.

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.

I've been a workaholic for many years, but at the same time, I do it because I love it.