Devin Townsend recently spoke with BraveWords about his new album, Lightwork, and during the interview he was reminded of  a conversation with us dating back to 1995, where he claimed to "hate" singing. That is clearly not the case when one listens to the vocal textures on Townsend's albums over the last couple decades, but he got a good laugh out of the reminder before explaining his love-hate relationship with his voice.

Townsend: "When my voice works well I really enjoy it, but the physicality of singing is such a crapshoot. When you're on tour for example, and you play guitar, you might have a bad show now and then, but you can physically bash your way through it. But a voice is a thing that, if it decides to go, or if you've got a night where you can't hit certain notes.... it's either you're good or you're sucking shit at the most fundamental level (laughs). There's an embarrassment in that and I've always been aware of it. And I think with the pandemic, the things that are important in life were laid bare. It was pretty clear, so on the last tour I did, I was much less cognizant of whether I was going to embarrass myself, and even if I did there was a part of me that said 'Fuck it.' As a result, my voice got stronger. It's an interesting thing how interconnected your brain and your voice are."

Check out the complete BraveWords interview with Townsend here.

After a few exceptionally long years full of personal change and near manic levels of creative activity, Canadian musician Devin Townsend releases his follow up to 2019’s well received Empath in the form of his new release, Lightwork. Assembled from a barrage of material written during the pandemic, Lightwork (and its companion album of B-sides and demos; Nightwork) represents Devin at this stage of his life, post pandemic, and his reflections on what he (and many of us) have all gone through.

For Lightwork, Devin decided to see what would happen if he included a producer (an experiment he has been excited to attempt for some time) to help guide this selection of material. He chose long-time friend Garth “GGGarth” Richardson to help bring this idea to fruition, and through a difficult (but wonderful) process, the next Devin album have been delivered. The name Lightwork represents the music, as well as the act of creating music, as a kind of ‘light in the dark’ while trying to navigate the seemingly endless challenges that life can often present. When things seem like there’s “no way out” or that a situation becomes seemingly insurmountable, the connection to music, family, and creativity became a light in the dark that is the bedrock of this wonderful album.

Featuring artwork by frequent collaborator Travis Smith, Lightwork arrives in several editions including a Limited Deluxe Orange 3LP+2CD+Blu-ray boxset that includes both Lightwork & its companion album Nightwork on both CD & Vinyl, as well as a Blu-ray including 5.1 surround sound, album commentary & visuals, art-cards & extensive perfect-bound booklet, all contained in a lift-off lid box. There will also be a Limited 2CD+Blu-ray Artbook, Limited 2CD Digipak, Gatefold 180g 2LP+CD, Standard CD Jewelcase and Digital Album.

Order here.

Tracklisting:

"Moonpeople"
"Lightworker"
"Equinox"
"Call Of The Void"
"Heartbreaker"
"Dimensions"
"Celestial Signals"
"Heavy Burden"
"Vacation"
"Children Of God"

"Call Of The Void" video:

"Moonpeople" video: