Devin Townsend recently took on a fan-fuelled Q&A for Metal Hammer. Following is an excerpt.

Q: Which Strapping Young Lad album(s) do you feel more proud of and which are you least proud of?

Devin: "I’m least proud of the self-titled album. Even though I like it, I didn’t do with it what I could, I could’ve gone so much further but I was too busy doing Accelerated Evolution at the same time. City defines Strapping in my mind as it was the best one for me but I think Alien is the one I’m most proud of technically, because Gene (Hoglan / drums) and I had a lot of fun making it. I’m not a huge fan of the final mix but I’m an imperfect perfectionist and nothing is ever right.”

Q: When are you reforming Strapping Young Lad?

Devin: "My favourite part of that question is the word ‘when’, as if there’s been any indication it’ll happen. I’m not reforming Strapping, but the fact that people are so into that band and keep wanting me to do it is a huge honour for me, that’s the biggest possible comment anybody could give to me. I like to think I’ll keep making projects that people will pine for, so thank you so much for caring about it."

Q: Is there any truth to the rumour that the hair on the Ziltoid puppet you used for ZTV is yours?

Devin: "There’s 100% truth! When I was in Strapping, I had shitty dreads because I’d never wash my hair. There’s images of me at Download Festival with snot in those dreads and I didn’t shower after that show, they were a petri dish of self-deprecation and biological horror. So when I cut my hair, I kept them all in a box and when I made Ziltoid, he clearly needed to have my hair. I remember telling my wife that I put my hair on him and she looked at me as if I was wearing her sweater, then we never spoke of it again."

Check out the complete Q&A here.

Strapping Young Lad began in 1994 as a Devin Townsend solo project. The official band line-up, established for SYL's City album released in 1997, included Townsend, Jed Simon (guitars), Byron Stroud (bass) and Gene Hoglan (drums). They released five studio albums before officially disbanding in 2007.