Devin Townsend

“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.”

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

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

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

“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 reason Strapping Young Lad was such a good band was we were honest about what we were doing.”

“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 don't think anything that I have done has been forced by commerce exclusively.”

“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.”

“I have no interest in being told what to do.”

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

“I really like female singers; I've got zero interest in working with male singers. Any male voice I need to do, I can do.”

“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.”

“For me, music is a byproduct of this process - the human process - and the fact that I've managed to eke out a career with it is a happy accident more than any strategy.”

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

“If you're making music strictly to make money, you might as well find another job.”

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

“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.”

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

“Human beings are gross.”