Page 24 - Metal Hammer Issue 334 - UK (May 2020)

STRAPPING YOUNG LAD

Fancy a Netflix “I HAVE A HORRIBLE
horror binge, Dev?
TIME WITH SADISM

AND GUTS AND GORE”

DEVIN TOWNSEND

these very lovely make up ladies for the
shoot and at one point they came over
and offered to give us all a scalp
massage while we were in our make-
up. I do remember thinking, ‘I guess it’s
not all bad!’ Ha ha!”
As the band went out and toured
the record, Devin eventually began to
come to some sort of realisation and
resolution to his problems post-Alien.
“I definitely learned everything that
I needed to learn and move on with
from that period,” he tells us. “My
behavioural patterns started to change
in the aftermath.”
And we even got one more Strapping
Young Lad album in 2006’s The New
Black before the band did split and
Devin Townsend embarked on his next
set of projects. Still, Love? remains
a song that he is rightfully proud of.
“I love it, it still sounds great to me,”
he nods. “Am I the same person now as
I was then? No. Do I still feel the same
way now as I did then? Definitely not.
But I can still look back at it and see it
for what it was: a snapshot of my life
at that point. And in some ways, that’s
why every song I’ve ever done will
always be as important to me as the
latest one that I have out now. All I can
tell you is, at the time, I did my best.
I couldn’t have done any better.”
You’d think that would wrap the
story up, but not quite. Before we go,
Devin recounts us with a chance
meeting he had with one of the men
that inspired the creation of Love?.
“We did this prog-rock cruise a few
years ago,” he smiles. “And my tour
manager calls me up and said, ‘Jon
Anderson [former Yes frontman]
wants to meet you.’ I was like, ‘Holy
Shit!’ I was just thrilled. We set up
this dinner, and my friends are there,
I’m telling them that one of our heroes
wants to meet me, he walks in, my
tour manager says, ‘Jon, this is Devin’
and Jon Anderson goes, ‘Who is this
guy? That’s not the guy I wanted to
meet!’ Turns out he wanted to meet
Anathema! I busted his ball for that,
but, to be fair to him, he stayed and
chatted with us until Anathema came
down. It was actually a really fun,
funny experience.”

DEVIN TOWNSEND’S EMPATH
IS OUT NOW VIA INSIDEOUT.
HE HEADLINES BLOODSTOCK
OPEN AIR THIS AUGUST GETTY

24 METALHAMMER.COM