Devin Townsend: Canada’s mad musical scientist.

Devin Townsend is Canada’s mad musical scientist, and a superb and extreme talented musican.

Devin Townsend launces video Call Of The Void taken from the album Lightwork. Devin Townsend  recently announced his forthcoming new album Lightwork, due out 28th October 2022. Following months of hard work finishing the album, as well as an extensive European touring schedule that included 2 nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall, he is very pleased to reveal more new music taken from his much-anticipated studio album.

Devin comments: «The concept of the song is based around the ‘call of the void’ as an analogy for intrusive thoughts. I first heard the term describing ‘the temptation to hurl yourself over the cliff when your driving a car’… or to ‘put your hand in the fire when you know you’ll get burned’ etc… thoughts that you know are wrong, but you fear that you won’t be able to control the impulses to deny it. The point being: often I feel we have a choice, and trying not to lose sight of that was very important to me during recent difficult times».

 In terms of the visuals:

 «All through lockdown, I really fell in love with cabview train journeys that Railway Cowgirl and others were posting on YouTube. Essentially, they are often full, first person journeys to cold and distant places, far from the chaos of the world, with a sense of constant momentum really calmed me. Maybe being on tour for so many years is what made it a comfort to watch during lockdown, but in any event, I started writing with the videos playing in the background in the studio and so I thought it would be appropriate for this video».

Call Of The Void, the second track taken from the album. Continuing the story that started in the clip for Moonpeople, it was once again created by Devin himself.

«Hey all 🙂 this is Devin.  Welcome to my newest album Lightwork The last few years have been a lot, and this is the music that I wrote during that time. I try not to second guess when writing, so sometimes it’s complicated, but then sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it is steady, but often it’s not. Lightwork was the next in line».

 If you’re already familiar with what I do, Lightwork will probably then come as no surprise, though my hope (as always) is that you can enjoy these songs for what they are as opposed to what they aren’t. I find it easy to compare to the last album or any of the other work, but I always get reminded at the end that it was just a different set of circumstances that ultimately required a different approach. Figuring out that approach may be the whole point.

 In essence, Lightwork is a bit more of a ‘song’-oriented album. A bit more direct and simpler than a lot of what I’ve been doing lately. After Empath and The Puzzle, things kind of swung back in the direction of more traditional arrangements for Lightwork. Lyrically, it kind of hints at the struggles of the last few years but with an eye on putting the pieces back together again.

 Lightwork was difficult to make and as well, and it’s also been a struggle to decide on a single song that could summarize the whole experience. I typically write with a complete album in mind, so I feel any one song we release isn’t going to give a great overview as to what the album is supposed to be like.

 However, we chose Moonpeople as the first of three video releases from this project. The three videos share a theme, so I think that’ll work.

 Moonpeople is the first song on Lightwork and acts as a sort of mission statement for the album. Post pandemic… kids are now teens… 50 years old, who am I now? Beyond any platitudes or delusions, who am I now that the smoke is clearing and what do I want to do, and who do I want to be, moving forward?

 The term Moonpeople in my mind, refers to those in society that kind of watc’ things rather than being directly involved in it. Maybe the Moonpeople are more introverted rather than extroverted? In any case, it functions as a song on the album that will set the stage for the dynamic nature of the material that follows it.

When listening to this, I think it’s exactly what it’s supposed to be. I did the best I could during very difficult circumstances, and I think it works very well. I love it. I’m clearly not where I was during the making of Empath or The Puzzle but I feel that looking back on the past few records it seems as if I was ‘looking for the bridge’ (metaphorically) while Lightwork is songs from actually being on it.

 The videos: a few approaches were attempted to make the videos, but in the end, they just kept missing the mark. On a whim, I decided to try and make a video for myself while staying in Spain. My friend there had a good camera and a drone, so he filmed it which then I then edited it on my laptop. Maybe it’s not the world’s best video, but I would say it also doesn’t feel as pretentious as it could have been either.

 Lightwork has an overarching theme of ‘a beacon in the storm’. The central image is a lighthouse, representing anything good in our lives we can hang into during times of upset. I viewed the intention of wanting to make music that helps people in some small way as being something to keep working towards amidst a sea of changes.

 So here you go. Song one.

 Take care of yourselves. I’ll be back on social media soon. I hope you enjoy Lightwork. I think that honestly it may take a bit to get used to, but once you do, my hope is that you’ll love it.

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