Having put the Devin Townsend Project on indefinite hiatus, Devin Townsend has embarked on a new as-yet-unnamed project. He has posted the following update on Instagram:

 

Been many years since I’ve had complete control over my vision. No label, band, management, anything. It could be a trip up my own ass, but I feel I’ve earned that trip. I think it’s going to be tremendous.

A post shared by Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) on Mar 28, 2018 at 8:51am PDT

 

There’s certainly a value in having a team of people- friends and coworkers - help one be objective about their work. It especially seems to help commercially, but it also becomes a trajectory that is hard to step away from, a treadmill of sorts. I like the hang time so much that I find myself sliding into that role repeatedly until I realize there’s an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with my own identity within that role. Maybe not with the music, but with the process. The idea of the process is to articulate your own trip accurately as it evolves and learn from your missteps. (The above included) I talk a lot of shit, and it’s doubtful that will ever change... but we know our paths subconsciously, so it’s about being creatively assertive enough to allow it to flourish. , it’s about following through and breaking through walls. And cats.

A post shared by Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) on Mar 28, 2018 at 9:24am PDT

 

Also, to be clear: whomever I work with, I want them to be them... I hate telling people what to do, yet hope we’re on the same page enough that it’s unspoken. I think collaboration can occur in many forms... by the way, I use SplitPic, then Elasticam, then snapseed for these weird pics.

A post shared by Devin Townsend (@dvntownsend) on Mar 28, 2018 at 9:57pm PDT

Townsend has also taken to Twitter and offered the fans an update on his current work in a series of tweets. Check out the update below.

March 26th

"I start recording tomorrow. Nice to be working with my friend Morgan on a bunch of this material. We sit in a similar place on the beat and we tend to go pretty deep quite quickly. I like his swing. Lots of talented artists involved in this stuff. It’s an odd phase, but really creative and really personal.

I have about 100 songs in different forms and styles. I'm just going to finish as much of it as budget allows and see what goes where. It's been a change period, similar to between SYL and KI I'd say. I'm hiring people as needed for whatever the song calls for. There will be other drummers too I think. Depends on the track.

I'll be traveling a fair bit to various cities and working with people as I go. Polygamous creativity FTW. I'll certainly keep folks updated as I go, if budget allows, I'll try to do filming of the process.

It seems like much of the material calls for different things. Some orchestral, some metal, some rock, some prog, some bizarre, some funky, some pop, some electronic...I want the best people for what that style needs. I know who I'm interested in working with already, it’s all just about scheduling and budget etc. Everyone is busy all the time :) and that’s a good thing..."

March 27th

"Slowly starting the process today. Its all remote, no 'sessions' per se. Will do a series of videos with @ZimZimY5000 to show the whole process from beginning to end. After a full two years of wanting to get around to it, finally taking the @twonotesaudio Torpedo Studio for a run...pretty damn cool."