Devin Townsend's Extensive Back Catalogue Can Cause Havoc

There is a great quote from comic actor Jack Black, speaking about long-running Canadian progressive rock legends Rush. He says that the band had an endless well of "rocket sauce" (ie. creativity), and they kept shaking the sauce bottle for decades and the sauce just kept flowing out. The very same could be said about another idiosyncratic but illustrious Canadian progressive rock artist, Devin Townsend.

However, when this is put to him, in his typically self-effacing fashion, he puts a very different shake (no pun intended) on it. "I have to put the bottle on its head more often than I used to," he laughs, "I'm trying not to add water to it, that's the thing.

"The whole shift in your perspective on music comes down to something as simple as 'Maybe it's not sauce you're trying to shake out of it now; maybe it's time to move on to the rice, or to the meat and two veg?' And recognising when it's time to do that is a skillset."

"It's funny, the amount of bands that never get to go to Australia and the amount that I get to go is not lost on me man."

Australian audiences have been deeply fortunate enough to have been witness to that endless creativity in a live sense on a wonderfully regular basis for virtually two decades now, and May sees another return to our shores from the great genius. And it seems he loves us as much as we love him. "I am incredibly fortunate," he enthuses, "it's funny, the amount of bands that never get to go to Australia and the amount that I get to go is not lost on me man, I am absolutely thrilled to come back, every time."

Townsend is extremely happy with the setlist he is bringing Down Under this time around, especially considering he has such an immense and towering back catalogue to pick from and so many people to try to please. "It's a good one, I think it's the best one that we've done," he states confidently, "it's really hard man, we've got 30 records to crowbar a set together from, and check all the boxes between what you want to play, the new record, and what's expected from the audience, what the band wants to play, what represents a good show and what has a good flow, it's hard."

This leads on to Townsend reflecting on what his philosophy regarding live music is, and in particular how it relates to his own show. "Ultimately my objective for music in a live setting is to have people leave feeling like they participated in an experience, and you can guide people's emotions with the songs that you choose, and I think that what we've done on this one is really strong."

And some absolute cream on the top of the next Devin Townsend Aussie tour is the fact that he is taking awesome Sydney-based instrumental post-rock band sleepmakeswaves on the road with him. "I did check them out when I heard they were on the bill, they're great!" he says. "They're all instrumental, yeah? Yep, they're killer, and I can't wait to check them out."