DEVIN TOWNSEND: 'I've Made 20 Records In The Past 10 Years And I'm Tired And Old And Unhappy'

Chad Bowar of HeavyMetal.About.com recently conducted an interview with STRAPPING YOUNG LAD mastermind Devin Townsend. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

HeavyMetal.About.com: You produced the ["The New Black"] CD, but Mike Fraser mixed it. How come?

Devin: "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. With this record it was important for us to have somebody else do it. I was definitely there, but having somebody that has the experience Mike has behind the board sped up the process and let us be confident in it as opposed to second guessing ourselves as we have done in the past."

HeavyMetal.About.com: Will you be taking a break from recording and touring after Ozzfest at the end of the summer?

Devin: "Yes. I'm tired. We're having a kid, and I want to spend some time with the kid. There will be time to get out there and do it, but I really need to get away from it for a while because it's becoming a real pain in the ass. The process is becoming secondary to the business. I really like the art of music, the way that you can express yourself through music. It seems to becoming based on the business end, just going out there and performing so we can make money. It's hard to get behind it. I don't want to sound like I'm disrespectful of the situation or unappreciative, I need some time off. I've made 20 records in the past 10 years and I'm tired and old and unhappy. I need to fall in love with it again, and the best way for me to do that it to step away from it for a while."

HeavyMetal.About.com: And I imagine impending fatherhood might make you reassess your goals and place in the world.

Devin: "Absolutely. I've been a workaholic for many years, but at the same time I do it because I love it. Not loving it and still doing it is a pretty ugly situation to find yourself in. I'm really into music, I'm really into art, and I want to keep that fire alive. I'm not a big fan of touring, and I'm finding myself in the situation of constantly having to tour, and that gets a little tedious."

HeavyMetal.About.com: So I suppose you have mixed feeling about touring on Ozzfest all summer long.

Devin: "It has its pros and cons. 20 minutes a day is all we play, and our bass player is going away for a while and we have to bring in someone else. I think that overall it is a cool way to end this cycle before I take a break, but at the same time it's 6 weeks, which is a long time to be away from home at this point in my life. Like any tour you're going to do your best and hope people enjoy it. That's all you can hope for. You can't go into it with any preconceived notions of what it's going to mean or not going to mean."

Read the entire interview at HeavyMetal.About.com.