Don't expect to see Devin Townsend touring after he wraps up this current run with Dream Theater and Animals As Leaders. At least not for a little while.
According to Townsend in an interview with The Rockman Power Hour, he'll be taking a hiatus from touring in the next few years to work on some new material he's been wanting to work on. Townsend also touches on the difference between pre- and post-pandemic touring, and how it's obviously worlds different in terms of production.
"When we have been doing these tours recently — I just came back from a headline run, and then we're going out with Dream Theater — and a lot of how those parameters come together… In the past, they would say, 'What sort of production are we gonna bring?' And we'd say, 'Okay, maybe we'll some video walls or we'll do some '90s-looking screens' or whatever it is that we choose to do. But there was kind of this option ahead of the time. And now they're just, like, 'Okay, so you can have seven carrots over the course of the tour. How are we gonna distribute this?' It's so different.
"I think you can spin things in a lot of ways. One of the ways that you can spin this is be, like, 'We only wanna provide our audience the best possible experience, and because we can't bring pyro, we're not going out.' But there's another part of me that just thinks, 'Maybe they just don't wanna tour.' [Laughs]
"I think that playing shows is important, and I think that if the only way to do it is to pull back on the production, then that's the option. If people don't wanna come to a show because the production is less than it was pre-pandemic, then maybe they're not a fan of the music in the first place. I go see Rammstein because — it doesn't matter what they're playing, even though it's cool. It's just that it's astounding. So if you're just a musician and your trip isn't, 'We have the most pyro of all times,' then you should just work it without that, I guess.
"That being said, just to contradict that, after this next round of touring, I'm gonna come off the road for a couple of years. And not because I won't tour again; it's just that I've got this project in mind that I'm going to write, and I have been writing, that I wanna focus on. Because it hasn't been since maybe early 2000s that I've had actual time to focus on a project.
"It's the cycle that we got caught up in pre-pandemic, is record-tour, record-tour, record-tour. And in order to do that, although I was happy with the majority of what I've done over the past 15 years, there's some of it that I had to force, I had to be, like, 'We need to have a record. So you have to write.' And again, I was satisfied with what I came out with, for the most part, but moving forward, I really wanna try and afford myself the luxury of doing it the way that I used to, 'cause I think I've got something really cool in the pipes that deserves that attention."
Devin Townsend will release his new live album Devolution #3 – Empath Live In America on August 4. Check that out here. Townsend is also on the road with Dream Theater and Animals As Leaders starting this month. Get your tickets here.
6/30 Bridgeport, CT @ Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater
7/1 Philadelphia, PA @ The Met
7/2 Boston, MA @ Leader Bank Pavilion
7/4 Laval, QC @ Place Bell
7/5 Hamilton, ON @ FirstOntario Centre
7/7 Gary, IN @ Hard Rock Casino
7/8 Cleveland, OH @ Jacobs Pavilion
7/9 Newport, KY @ MegaCorp Pavilion
7/11 Detroit, MI @ Masonic
7/12 OshKosh, WI @ OshKosh Arena
7/13 Cedar Rapids, IA @ Alliant Energy Power House
7/15 Denver, CO @ Mission Theater
7/17 Spokane, WA @ First Interstate Center
7/18 Calgary, AB @ Grey Eagle
7/19 Edmonton, AB @ Northern Alberta Jubilee
7/21 Vancouver, BC @ Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre
7/22 Redmond, WA @ Marymoor Live
7/24 San Jose, CA @ San Jose Civic
7/25 Inglewood, CA @ YouTube Theater
7/26 Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre
