Devin Townsend Quotes

I write the songs, go in and record them, then I listen to everything and decide how it all fits together.

So I'll set a cycle in motion and pop it into record and I'll lay down a drum pattern, a bass line, a keyboard and guitar part, and once the groove is going I launch into the song and sing my song over the top.

I had 25 or 30 songs. Sequencing the record, I left that to the producer. I'm not into doing that stuff.

I sit and write songs alone and then get together with people to help me flesh it out into a recording.

I don't think people realize how much work it takes to make an album.

The producer should decide what kind of music is being made, what it's going to sound like - all of it: the why, when, and how.

Making an album is always a puzzle: you start by seeing a lot of different pieces, and they all need to come together into one picture.

It's a massive undertaking putting an album together... It's not light weight at all.

It really does take a lot of time to make records, to be in the studio and do all that stuff.

I want to make an album with just great beats and big vocals and just amazing lyrics.

I usually make records very quickly. I usually go in and record them and mix them, and I'm done within a couple of weeks.

We'll set up a demo session and try to knock out eight or ten songs and make them sound as close as we can to a record with the money and time we have.

When I listen to a record, or when I'm making a record, I listen to everything. I listen to the drums, the bass, the voice, the arrangement. I listen to the whole piece as an ensemble.

We always record with the whole band. That's key to capturing the feel, especially trying to get a good basic track.

A lot of getting a song done is booking the studio time.

I am always thinking about records I want to make.

For me, it's always just about playing the song and recording it and giving it what it needs as a song.

Creating a record on my own and deciding who plays and how the songs were structured, it was fun to do.

An album takes a lot of work and energy and dedication to make.

Normally when I work with bands I'm trying to refine and improve what's already there.

I like being in a recording studio. I like watching a song go from the simplicity of the original music.

I've got my own studio, so I sit in my studio writing and if I get a great take, that's the take.

I don't like to overcook songs.

When I was recording from '70 to '82, I always played piano and laid the tracks down. But I used to talk to the other musicians while the track was playing.

When I walked into the studio, the chorus of 'Nobody Love' was already set. For me, the challenge was to make it have depth.