Quotes from Devin Townsend

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.

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.

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

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'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 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.

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

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

My dad's side of the family were calm folk from England, but the other side just loved to party. Somewhere between those two factions is me.

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.

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.

If you think meet-and-greets are fundamentally stupid, then you're never not gonna think that.

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.'

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.'

For me, the one thing I've got going for me in terms of my attributes as a musician is vision.

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.

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 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.

Human beings are gross.

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.

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

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.

With 'Epicloud,' I wanted something catchy as the flu but with a sentiment that is romantic, positive, and beautiful. Spiritual without religion and set to heavy music.