Blistering.com recently caught up with ex-STRAPPING YOUNG LAD frontman Devin Townsend to discuss his new Ki album, recently released under the DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT banner, and the three follow-up albums due later this year. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

Blistering.com: I noticed on the Ki album there are some heavy parts, and you still have that sense of humor. You had to create a character to do it with Strapping Young Lad, but how much of this is your personality?

Townsend: "I don’t know if I created a character, as much as I exaggerated a certain aspect of my personality. There was never a conscious effort to create a character like Marilyn Manson or Alice Cooper; it’s just that you have to maintain that part of your character if you want to do it consistently. There are some days when I don’t want to feel that way. There were some days I didn’t want to feel angry. There were some times I went on stage and felt, 'Right now, I just want to sing!'"

Blistering.com: You just want to dance!

Townsend: "I just want to dance, yo! Then I would get on stage and 'ROAAAR.' There are some people who never want to sing; who never want to dance. They just want to go up on stage and growl. I appreciated that, but for me, it makes me really resentful if I’m not in that mood. There is a certain give and take with that. If you are on tour, you’re gonna have to get on stage and do that when you don’t want to, but I’m talking 11 months out of a year for ten years. Eventually, you’re just like 'ENOUGH, man!' I remember looking around at people in the studio when we were doing the last record, and asking them, 'You actually like this shit? It’s good, but you actually like it?' They said, 'Yeah, and it’s all that we want to listen to.' I said, 'Really, all you want to listen to is this?' This music is pretty toxic. I started thinking about why this is all they want to listen to, so that is why the third record is called Deconstruction because you can take it apart. At the end, it might be a lot different."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Click here for BW&BK;'s recent in-depth interview with Townsend about his return to music.