Devin Townsend Aimed To Get Over Himself With New Album

(Metal Hammer) Devin Townsend says his upcoming new album Transcendence was his attempt to get over himself as a "controlling prog dude." The dictionary definition of the word transcendence is "the act of rising above something to a superior state," but Townsend insists the seventh Devin Townsend Project album is less about reaching a higher state personally and more about taking onboard the input of his bandmates.

He tells Metal Hammer: "The idea of Transcendence is about getting over myself. Not that I am, but it was about getting over that need to be that controlling prog dude.

"I wrote 50 or 60 songs and kept sending them to everybody, the band, management and label. I asked them to tell me which ones they liked and so we'd start working on that. I narrowed it down to 10 or 11 songs, I took them to the band, and what I did, as opposed to directing every last detail, was start from the beginning, go through each riff and then discuss it.

"A dialogue opened up where everyone was contributing and talking about it, and in a way it moulded it into something where lyrically I could take that process and it became the theme of the album, ultimately." Read more here.