~INTERVIEWS~
THE TAPE RAN OUT
He calls himself and his accomplices in metal Strapping Young Lad. He is the epitome of all that encompasses the heavy, guitar driven musical genre. The Strapping Young Lad, or Devin Townsend, recorded two live shows in October last year at the Hi-Fi bar in Melbourne. It has just been released and has the rather unusual title of No Sleep 'Till Bedtime. I spoke to Devin about the latest Strapping release and also one of his other musical projects named Ocean Machine.
Firstly, why did you record the live album here in
Australia?
"Well, it was one of those things where going to Australia
was a dream I'd had ever since I was a child. And when we got here the
reactions from the crowds were good enough that that, coupled with the
fulfillment of a dream just sort of struck me as an obvious choice. Plus
we (Strapping) were concerned that we would never play to crowds like that
again, so we might as well document it and pretend that Strapping were
rockin' once."
"No Sleep 'Till Bedtime is a homage to the Australian fans because it was just a humbling experience for us to come down there and play to people who are receptive to that type of music."
Having read the press release that accompanies NSTB
it states that SYL played to 1,000 people per show. I was at their Melbourne
show, and knowing this wasn't the case, I asked Devin why his label, Century
Media chose to state this and the reply came;
"A lot of people who get the promos and bios are in
England and America. It's a lot easier to hype when you use things like
press releases and promos. My responsibility ends after I make the music.
If I considered all the little things I'd end up going crazy saying, 'no
it wasn't a thousand people a night, it was a hundred and fifty or seven
hundred and then two hundred.' We played in Wagga Wagga and there were
probably one hundred people there."
I mention to Devin, that regardless of however large
or small the attendance at the Strapping gigs were, the vibe and the intensity
of the crowds equaled a thousand fans all the same. He agrees and adds...
"It's all part of the parody too. Releasing a live
record is a ludicrous thing to do after two albums anyway. Because of that,
perhaps it's sort of apt that we should have said that there were ten thousand
people a night and that would have added to the 'Spinal Tap'-esqueness
of the whole thing."
I asked Devin why there are only seven live tracks on it. (Not counting the two bonus tracks, Japan and Centipede.) And expecting some major relevant explanation, he simply answered, "that's when the tape ran out."
Devin said that Century Media didn't want to release a live record to begin with, so he said to them, "let me do it" as if he doesn't have enough on his plate, producing and writing material for his three different bands. He recorded, mixed and did the overdubs (guitar and keyboards) on NSTB. Devin also said to the label, "If I do it the album will sound good enough that you're going to want to release it in the end." , and that was the case when he presented it to them.
I've heard that Devin has taken a bit of piss out of
the youngsters at the recorded shows to which he affirmed (intro to Far
Beyond Metal?). Strapping and Ocean Machine have just returned from
a combined tour of England. They played at a venue called "The Garage"
where they sold out. He said of the gig....
"All the way through the show there was these kids
that were jumping onstage wearing these big 'Jack' boots and were kicking
people in the face on their way down from stage diving. And so, I was calling
them morons. After the show the English press were saying, 'Hey man, you
can't be insulting your audience like that.' WHAT! Of course you can insult
your audience if they're being idiots. Just because someone has been dubiously
elected into the position of a performing musician you don't have the right
to call people out for being morons. That's also part of the fun. That's
part of what Strapping is about. Being able to say whatever I want."
During our discussion, Devin and I spoke of Strapping and No Sleep plus the debut release of his Ocean Machine project, titled Biomech. The first thing I asked him was to fill us in on this album.
"Biomech was written during the same session
as City. While I was coming up with the demos for City I
would come up with a couple of songs that would not fit into the Strapping
format and they ended up being on the Ocean Machine album."
And alternatively, while Devin wrote Ocean Machine
songs that were more intense, they appear on the City album.
"Ocean Machine is the antithesis to Strapping. A lot of mistakes that people make when they they're reviewing or listening to it is comparing it to Strapping, which is not the way it has to go. It stands on its own as being a completely different style of music." Devin emphasises this by saying, "If you compare the heaviness of Ocean Machine to Strapping then you'll be in for a rude awakening." But he makes mention that both Biomech and City are brothers. "They are equal to one another yet coming from different emotional vantage points."
Devin concludes the interview by mentioning his latest side project named Infinity which has been forming over the last twelve months. He tells us, "If City and Biomech are brothers then Infinity will be the parents." Not a guy that I would call egotistical, Devin does state though that, "you've never heard anything like this Infinity record. There's nothing I've ever done that compares to it."
It's like Devin and all of his various "musical commodities", out of this world.
By Neil Vance
Buzz Magazine, October 1998