DEVIN TOWNSEND's CASUALTIES OF COOL: Teaser Photo Released

A teaser photo for the forthcoming CASUALTIES OF COOL project from Canadian multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and producer Devin Townsend can be seen above.

Devin will soon launch a three-month-long crowdfunding campaign on PledgeMusic for CASUALTIES OF COOL since the album will be released without record-label backing.

In a 2013 interview with BluntMag.com.au, Devin stated about CASUALTIES OF COOL: "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. [laughs] I mean, really, it's as opposite of 'Epicloud' as 'Ghost' was to 'Deconstruction'. It's this weird, dark, not evil but verging on it, bluesy, Johnny Cash-y, strange, quiet folk record. But I love it, it's the one record that I've done over the past 10 or 15 years where I can truly say, 'This is where I am right now.'

"You know, the other things that I've done have been as well in their own right, 'Epicloud', 'Deconstruction' and 'Addicted!', but there was an agenda with those, I was trying to say something with them or I was trying to prove a point, make a statement about the past or whatever. CASUALTIES is something that I've done without any pressure, without anybody telling me what to do, without showing it to anyone, it's just what evolved when I wasn't thinking about it. As a result of that, I'm incredibly proud of it, but it remains to be seen whether or not other people will resonate with it. I think they will, man. I think it's fucking awesome, and I mean, I haven't smoked weed in a long time but I can't imagine that it wouldn't be awesome while you're smoking. [laughs]"

Asked where CASUALTIES OF COOL will fit into the Devin Townsend discography in terms of sound — among his more traditional-sounding albums, or a bit more removed like his ambient albums, Devin said: "Somewhere in the middle, you know, somewhere in the middle. It's like, if you took the weird elements of 'Ki' and the weird elements of 'Devlab' and added a vintage sort of vibe.

"My management had a suggestion, which I think is pretty cool, which was, 'You shouldn't call it DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT, you shouldn't even put your name on it, just call it CASUALTIES OF COOL and put it out as its own thing.' It's got a different singer, I sing on like half of it right, but it's got this lady [Vancouver artist Ché Aimee Dorval, who also appears on 'Ki'] who's just this brilliant singer, she's a young, despondent-sounding bluesy vocalist and it's creepy. I think that that might be a way for me to get away with it, putting it out without it being part of the DTP [DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT] or whatever.

"I don't know what to tell you, man. I just go where it feels the most honest to go, then I deal with people thinking it's weird afterwards. [laughs]"

Regarding whether there is a particular atmosphere he wants to create or a story he wants to convey with CASUALTIES OF COOL, Devin said: "Yeah there's a story, definitely. It's going to take a little longer than what we've got for me to explain it, but you'll hear it eventually. I want it to be something you listen to quietly, by yourself, in the middle of the night, with a big old full moon outside. It'll work perfectly."