Prog mastermind Devin Townsend recently shared that, after he wraps up some upcoming touring plans, he’ll “come off the road for a couple of years” in order to focus on a project called “The Moth.”
Some artists are under a lot of pressure to take part in constant touring cycles and to release music in-between those tours. Recently, Jeremy Spencer talked about his experience in Five Finger Death Punch and how the constant cycle of releasing records and touring became a lot for him.
With much having gone on in his life over the past few years, along with the pandemic, Townsend says he’s in need of “silence and space” to work on The Moth. While recently talking with Metal Blast, Townsend was asked about his decision to step away from touring. In his reply, Townsend talks about how important it is for him to have time to reflect creatively and have no rush behind The Moth. Speaking about his decision to step away from touring for a couple of years, Townsend shares (as transcribed by Blabbermouth):
“Because I’ve changed, as we all probably have, on a fundamental level over the past few years with the pandemic and everything. And in order for all these disparate pieces of experiences to coagulate into an identity that I can draw from accurately, I need silence and space. It’s as simple as that. We can keep grinding at the wheel and putting out material without any sort of reflection, and I’ve been doing that for years because there hasn’t been these dramatic shifts.
“There’s been shifts, of course, throughout the past 10 years — kids getting older or whatever — but there hasn’t been a fundamental shift in the ways that the pandemic has clearly brought about in society and personally. And I feel maybe it’s a failing on the part of my ability to perceive my environment, or maybe it’s just what it is. But if I don’t have time and space to let that coagulate into an identity that I can very clearly articulate creatively, it’s not gonna be right and it’s just gonna be awkward.”
Townsend goes on to add:
“I’ve always wanted to make a symphony and I’ve always wanted to make an opera. And just the costs of doing it are so prohibitive that if I choose to do it, which I believe I have, which I know I have, I’ve gotta be damn sure that the perspective that I’m coming at it from is in line with my truth, my realizations. And all of these things just — it takes time. And I haven’t had any time for many years by my own hand — just like record, tour, record, tour, record, tour, record, tour. You know what I mean? It’s just like endless.
“And so when I finally did get a chance to stop, two things came to the front. One — I don’t wanna stop making music. I love it. There’s some people I know that [are] just like, ‘Oh, I realized that I don’t wanna make music anymore.’ I saw Godsmack say that — ‘We don’t wanna write music anymore.’ And that’s maybe what their realization was during it. But for me, it’s not an option. It’s not like I can turn it off. It’s what I do. It’s my thing.”