Music

Devin Townsend worked with Nickelback's producers and hated every minute of it

by Tyler Munro

Devin Townsend is a wildly talented multi-instrumentalist and singer who, for the past two decades, has endeared himself as one of heavy music’s most dynamic songwriters. With Strapping Young Lad he crafted a relentless blend of industrial thrash and extreme metal that’s as of yet unparalleled, and in the years just prior to (and since) their split, his experimentations have been well documented, from musicals about coffee addicted aliens and cheeseburger-themed existentialist extreme metal to ambient guitar works and lush, expansive soundscapes. But the one thing he’s never quite connected with is radio rock.

Partly, you can chalk it up to early experiences. Before he grew out his skullet and formed Strapping Young Lad, Townsend was the voice of Steve Vai’s remarkably beige Sex & Religion. Still, he gave it a stab recently, and we’re glad for that, if only because of how candid he us about his experiences.

Recently, fearing for the “uncertainty of his future” as a songwriter, Townsend trekked down to Los Angeles to work with a team of super producers responsible for donkey rock hits from Nickelback and Daughtry as well as countless numbers by American Idol winners. And, spoiler alerts, it didn’t go so well.

Telling Decibel that he hated the process and the song it resulted in equally, Townsend said, “There’s no fucking way I’m putting it out.”

He said that even if he doesn’t release the song, he’s still got to pay for it. That’s fair. But more curiously is the process he’s just realized exists to propel songs to radio success.

“To put that out, all of a sudden you have to pay fifty grand to put it on active rock [radio] and then you have to go and do interview and try and sell something you don’t like,” he explained. “With that whole scene, you pay to get a no. 1 song. This is how it works: these are the chords you can use in the summer, these are the chords you can use in the winter, here are the topics that sell…”

Ultimately, he came to a realization that he is where he should be in life, artistically or otherwise.

But for me, music is about expressing the unexpressable, and as I get older, man, what I feel the need to express becomes less and less poignant to others. It’s a shame. When people are like, “Nothing you’ve done is as good as you did when you were younger.” And I’m like, “You may be right.” But what I’m doing now is exactly what I feel like I should be doing. So what do you do? Do you go write a fucking pop song and cash in and then spend the rest of your life thinking, “I could have stuck to my guns but instead I sucked a cock…”