“It would be hazy, it’d have blurred edges and yellow on top… There’d be a picture of a sunset but not an actual one, and there’d be one ugly streak across the middle and a solid grey bottom.”

That’s the abstract picture in the Canadian multi-instrumentalist’s head as he sits down for a chat, a true testament to his creative mind never slowing down. This is reflected across his entire career, from founding old-school metal group Strapping Young Lad, to numerous albums with the Devin Townsend Project (DTP) since 2008. He’s also ventured into a country rock sound, dropping a self-titled release two years ago with Ché Aimee Dorval in Casualties of Cool.

The driving force in the way the highly technical musician operates is his sheer efficiency, and Townsend explains that hitting his stride really started after the birth of his son.

“Between changing diapers, cleaning the garage and doing all the things that come with being a dad, and then trying to write a piece of music at the same time… I found that in order for me to get all the things I needed done in life, I had to be a strategic about it, and patterns like waking up and exercising at a certain time really helped with that… With that schedule you can get a lot done, but it requires consistently changing gears, which is the only cross I’ve got to bear (laughs).”

Taking a leap of faith on DTP’s latest record Transcendence however, Townsend managed to shatter the pattern of control that has plagued his entire life, allowing the other guys in the group some breathing room in the album process. Contemplating where that obsessive need has stemmed from, Townsend admits that it “clearly emanates from fear”.

“The need to control things ultimately goes back to the fear of dying. I think there’s a real human fear of the unknown, and that’s manifesting in all sorts of different religions and wars, aggression… To control things is a subconscious analogy for it all.

“It seems so simple, but it’s a massive hurdle, and I think my need to control everything in my life is rooted in the exact same thing. I’m always afraid, as most of us are. By seeing these patterns form over the past 40 odd years, I don’t think it’s doing me any good being afraid. The only way to be less so is to challenge those parts of your world that you never questioned before. In a sense you surrender to it and learn little things, and I would’ve never come to that conclusion if I hadn’t stepped on my own feet over the past few years.

“I think that giving up control to the other guys in the band or the engineers is just an example of doing what I can to let go… I mean we’re talking about 0.001% here, but at least that’s something, right? (laughs)”.

The slight, if still calculated flexibility Townsend has allowed into the making of Transcendence extends to his collaboration with three powerhouse female vocalists. It’s The Gentle Storm’s Anneke van Giersbergen (ex-The Gathering), Ché, and Katrina Natale (vocals on fourth DTP album Ghost) who truly tie the record together.

“I never wanted to be a singer. I just started because everyone who was doing it when I was a kid was a douchebag, and I thought ‘I might as well become that douchebag if I have to deal with one’ (laughs). I remember hearing the Enya album Watermark when I was a kid and going ‘Oh, I love that. Let’s put Metallica under it’ or whatever. So I’ve always looked for female vocalists that I can work with. But it’s challenging to find singers who you relate to, and there’s no relationship weirdness. It’s just people who are smart, have an identity and are able to translate your ideas into sound.”

Townsend consciously set less dangerous parameters for DTP than the angst-ridden Strapping Young Lad, considering this as what he needed at the time. With a slight chuckle, he affirms that more recently he’s felt the urge to re-immerse himself in that mentality.

“I’ve been on such a leash for so long artistically, holy shit. I mean look at Transcendence. It’s a great record, and the process wasn’t safe and I was stepping into the unknown. But the music is for me, it’s the sound that I know and just continue to refine.

“I always felt that whatever I do artistically, the next thing is inevitably going to be the opposite. The leash that I’ve been on since I quit Strapping, especially with having kids, has been so short that there’s a part of me right now that’s really looking forward to losing control. But my hope is that when I do, it will be from a place where I’ve learned what works for me and what doesn’t, rather than self-destruction.”

The darkness permeating Townsend’s music threads through his personality and life experiences, with the musician struggling with bipolar and his initial years of going sober. Yet, what broke through all that heaviness for the musician was his gradual awareness of the fact that “it didn’t all start and end with me”.

“All this existential drama that I instil my world with is of ultimately very little significance. It’s part of something that’s bigger, and the light at the end of the tunnel has always been that being able to recognise that my insignificance is very comforting.”

Grab your own copy of DTP’s brand new album Transcendence here, out now via Inside Out Music/Sony Music Australia.

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