Devin Townsend has reiterated that he is not interested in reuniting STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, the influential industrial metal band he led until 2007. Despite numerous inquiries about a possible reunion since the band’s breakup, Townsend has consistently pointed to the mental and physical strain the band caused him, as well as his desire to explore new musical directions.
In a recent interview with Poland’s Teraz Rock, Devin was asked if STRAPPING YOUNG LAD would be the “next big band” to reunite, following the recent comeback announcements from OASIS and LINKIN PARK.
“I don’t think so, no,” he responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “I don’t think so. I don’t talk to anybody in the band anymore. And the person that I am 25 years past that is just I’m a different person. And I don’t want to. I think that’s my answer. And it’s a hard one because that’s tinged with guilt because I know other people want it. But if there’s anything I’ve learned over the past couple of years is that I have to pay attention to my own needs, and I just don’t want to [resurrect STRAPPING] at all.”
When the interviewer remarked that “you can’t please everybody,” Devin added: “Well, no, no. I can’t please anybody, but I can work on myself. And my hope is that anybody who listens to the music will see — maybe one or two people — would see that as inspiring.
“I think there’s a lot of other people who want to please everybody, and for many years my whole personality was based on people pleasing,” he continued. “Like, I just wanna make everybody happy — I wanna make the audience happy, I wanna make my family happy, I wanna make kids happy, I wanna make management happy, I wanna make the label happy — and so you’re always kind of dancing for people.
“But then, after a certain amount of time when you hit a wall and you get burnt out and you f**king crash, like I did, I was, like, who the f**k are you doing this for? Why are you so insecure that your needs are to make everybody like you? It’s not the way forward artistically and it’s not the way forward as a person. And so I do what is right for me now. And it’ll appeal to less people in some way, but it’s what I choose, man, because it’s, like, life is short, and that’s what I want.”
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.