Chad Bowar: The New Black is still very intense, but it doesn’t sound as dark as Strapping Young Lad's last album, Alien. Is that an accurate characterization?
Devin Townsend: Yes, I would say that's fair. It's still definitely Strapping, but the surface of this record is a little different than what it is after you've sat with it for a while. It gets a little darker the more you listen to it. The most fair thing you can do as a musician is to be honest with your inspiration as it comes to you. It would be stupid to try and do another Alien if that's not where your head is at. You have to go with what your current inspiration is and hope it turns out well.
What does the album title signify?
Gene (Hogland, the band's drummer) came up with the album title. It's a cool title for a record. I'm glad we went with it.
Is there anybody in particular the song "U Suck" is aimed at?
It could be you, me, the band down the street, the record company, everybody. Humans are pretty sick, really. Maybe one on one we're different, but in the big picture we all suck. I figured with this record we could get a bit more attention on it and might as well make it a singalong so everybody can say "U Suck!"
You produced the CD, but Mike Fraser mixed it. How come?
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Producing is getting the performances, tracking it, making sure all the parts are there. Mixing is when you take the finished work and you make sure all the levels are right. It's putting all the parts together. With this record it was important for us to have somebody else do it. I was definitely there, but having somebody that has the experience Mike has behind the board sped up the process and let us be confident in it as opposed to second guessing ourselves as we have done in the past.
Strapping Young Lad had a European tour set for a couple months back, but you ended up canceling it. How come?
We cancelled the European tour because I needed to get this record done.
Will you be taking a break from recording and touring after Ozzfest at the end of the summer?
Yes. I'm tired. We're having a kid, and I want to spend some time with the kid. There will be time to get out there and do it, but I really need to get away from it for a while because it's becoming a real pain in the ass. The process is becoming secondary to the business. I really like the art of music, the way that you can express yourself through music. It seems to becoming based on the business end, just going out there and performing so we can make money. It's hard to get behind it. I don't want to sound like I'm disrespectful of the situation or unappreciative, I need some time off. I've made 20 records in the past 10 years and I'm tired and old and unhappy. I need to fall in love with it again, and the best way for me to do that it to step away from it for a while.
And I imagine impending fatherhood might make you reassess your goals and place in the world.
Absolutely. I've been a workaholic for many years, but at the same time I do it because I love it. Not loving it and still doing it is a pretty ugly situation to find yourself in. I'm really into music, I'm really into art, and I want to keep that fire alive. I'm not a big fan of touring, and I'm finding myself in the situation of constantly having to tour, and that gets a little tedious.
So I suppose you have mixed feeling about touring on Ozzfest all summer long.
It has its pros and cons. 20 minutes a day is all we play, and our bass player is going away for a while and we have to bring in someone else. I think that overall it is a cool way to end this cycle before I take a break, but at the same time it's 6 weeks, which is a long time to be away from home at this point in my life. Like any tour you're going to do your best and hope people enjoy it. That's all you can hope for. You can't go into it with any preconceived notions of what it's going to mean or not going to mean.
