Rock Sins recently caught up with Canadian vocalist/guitarist/producer Devin Townsend to discuss his new Z² album. An excerpt is available below:

Townsend: "The Ziltoid story is a terrible story. Horrible story! (laughs) The birth of baby Ziltoid? (Retinal Circus, 2012) I just wanted a giant green vagina onstage! Haha! I had to elbow that in somewhere. It was like 'Ok, Ziltoid has a baby! Put the vagina onstage!' I was just like 'Wouldn’t it be fucking hilarious if we had that?!' I just had to make the story not stupid. I wanted it to have a beginning and an end. It has all these metaphors and quasi-shcizophrenic type of avenues that lose people really quickly. So I was like 'Lets make it like fucking Star Wars. There’s a bad guy and there’s Ziltoid and there’s a bunch of aliens and this happens and this happens and it ends like this.' That’s really hard. It’s not easy because it all has to play ball with the other stuff too."

"All the music was already written so in a way it made sense but then I’ve got this song about a war princess. How does she fit in? She’s the mother of these other characters. By the end of it, it was like 'Now it’s fucked again!' (laughs) It’s not this metaphor. It starts and ends. I was writing Act 1, and I’m not a playwright so the combination of those elements make for a longer gestation period than someone who does it professionally. We have got everything in place for all those things. The movie and the TV show and the live show. My hope is that after this I can write tonnes and tonnes of musicals and not have to fucking perform them! (laughs) That’d be great because I just want to write. I want people that have enough respect for me to tell those fifteen musicians and singers to do this."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Townsend has announced the release of the long-awaited new double-album, Z², on October 28 in North America, and October 27th in Europe. The Z² project will also see him play a landmark show at London's legendary Royal Albert Hall on April 13th, 2015. Tickets are available for this enormous show from Kililive.com.

Says Devin: "Hey all! So it's been years I've been trying to get the energies in line to do another Ziltoid record, and it's finally happened! Z² is my new record, and it's a multimedia event that has taken a ton of people a ton of effort to bring to you! It's a double album, (one side DTP, and one side Ziltoid) and the concept expands on Ziltoid the alien, and his sci-fi adventures in a way that kind of throws back to 50's radio plays... but obviously with complicated, heavy music as its soundtrack. It has taken a great deal of energy to put this all together, and the music is just one of the aspects of it. It's a dream come true in a lot of ways, and I'm excited and honoured to be able to finalize the project with a live version of the entire record at the famous Royal Albert Hall in London on April 13th of next year! (!!) Basically what we did with The Retinal Circus a few years back will be taken to the next level with Z² live.

"At the end of this process, we reached for the stars, and hopefully got to the moon, and after this album cycle, I will be taking some time to recharge my batteries and see what the next chapter holds. I hope you enjoy this record and all its offshoots, as one of my goals is to hopefully inspire folks to reach for unconventional ways to express themselves as well. We couldn't have done it without you! See you at the show?"

Devin Townsend Project have already confirmed US tour dates for later this year, co-headlining with Animals As Leaders and Monuments supporting.

November

17 - Seattle, WA - Studio Seven
18 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
19 - Kelowna, BC - Level Nightclub
21 - Edmonton, AB - Union Hall
22 - Calgary, AB - The Gateway
23 - Saskatoon, SK - O'Brians Event Centre
24 - Winnipeg, MB - The Garrick Centre
25 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue<
26 - Chicago, IL - Metro (Toontrack sponsored with show recording)
28 - Detroit, MI - St. Andrews Hall
29 - Cleveland, OH - House Of Blues
30 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix Concert Theatre

December

1 - Montreal, QC - Club Soda
3 - Baltimore, MD - Rams Head Live
4 - Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero
5 - Worcester, MA - The Palladium
6 - New York, NY - Webster Hall
8 - Atlanta, GA - Center Stage
10 - San Antonio, TX - Backstage Live
11 - Dallas, TX - Gas Monkey Bar N Grill
13 - Englewood, CO - Gothic Theatre
14 - Albuquerque, NM - Sunshine Theater
15 - Mesa, AZ - The Nile Theatre
16 - Los Angeles, CA - The Mayan
17 - San Francisco, CA - The Regency Ballroom

Look out for more information on Z² in the coming weeks.