Devin Townsend: ‘Heavy Music Is A Defence Mechanism’

 

Devin Townsend

Devin Townsend is seemingly incapable of giving a bad interview and a recent conversation with website Stream of Consciousness keeps the form. Devin made an interesting suggestion, that many people use heavy music as a ‘defence mechanism’. When asked about the heavier edge for forthcoming record Deconstruction he explained some fans reacted negatively to the mellow tones in Ki, his most recent album. That they only liked Devin’s heavier output caused him to question why some people choose to like only heavy music.

 

Honestly, at the root of it, I think humans are really terrified and I think a lot of people who really love heavy music love it because it’s a way for them to protect themselves. If you put this thing forward and are like “I’m going to scare people with my music”, then no one’s going to get to the root of the fact that maybe it’s just you that are terrified and that’s your way of protecting yourself, that’s your defense mechanism. It’s one thing to say, “Oh I’m mad at God”, but maybe you’re really just mad at your father, you know? And I think that all these themes… that’s the thing that’s really interesting to me about heavy music now it’s like yes I love heavy music absolutely, but man to think that’s the only thing that I’m able to offer and that’s the only thing that certain people are willing to accept from me?  You know, it’s not like I’m pissed off about it, but it’s kind of like are you sure you really want to know why you really like this with the exclusion of everything else?

Devin raises a pertinent point and it’s interesting that it is being discussed. It’s worth outlining that he’s not claiming all metal fans like the music due to misplaced anger, only that the more narrow minded elitist may be using it as a barrier and unnecessarily blocking out other music. He explains further: