I have no idea what Devin is saying half the time (the technicall stuff), but I love listening to these because I enjoy listening to intelligent people talk.
Wonderful as always Dev. Crying is good for you in so many ways and I hope those tears have helped you healthily through this journey. Much love to you and yours as always. Take care and enjoy your new week. 🤘❤🤘
I am a visual artist and a musician. I have been working on a project that is a 50-piece abstract ink series. The idea was... I needed a new sketchbook, and I have this habit of not fully filling sketchbooks. In 20 years, every single sketchbook I have has extra blank pages in it "just in case". My challenge was to fill every page of this sketchbook, cover to cover. My intuition decided to make these illustrations themed, using an abstract aesthetic that I used to doodle in the margins of my notes and all over my arms and pants in high school and college. This was the genesis of my art outside of art classes as a kid. This was where my original self-expression, my creative impulse, pushed through and demanded to take form, and that was the form it took, so I decided to get back to my roots and immerse myself in that theme. So, over the past year and a half, I had been working on that project in my spare time. This winter, I made it my primary project. I decided to combine it with music and video, time-lapsing the process of drawing and writing original music for each piece. That turned into a routine of recording each drawing in one day, and each song in one day... for months. I just finished the project a few days ago. I only started filming the time-lapses at the 33rd drawing out of 50, so I'm sure many will consider this series incomplete... but the theme of the project is evolution and mutation... and the direction of the project itself evolved as it went along, so... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. When a new person who had never seen my work (from a group on reddit) asked to see what kind of art I make, I sent them a few pieces from the series and some mandalas I've been making. I suddenly realized... this was all abstract art. I majored in painting, I used to do surreal representational art... then I became known for doing realistic nature illustrations in colored pencil, and realistic portraits in mechanical pencil. Representational art was the core foundation of who I was as an artist for decades. I felt like I had to **explain myself** by giving this stranger context. Like "no no no, I don't want you to get the wrong idea, I'm not an abstract artist, I can do *this*, too", and shared some bird illustrations and portraits. It shone a bright light on how pervasive and all-encompassing my social anxiety is, specifically around the idea of people getting "the wrong idea" and feeling like I have to "explain myself". I found it very relatable when you talked about interviews, and preparing to explain yourself that way, and I'm really hoping to work on that compulsion to get people to judge and treat me fairly. Because, it's really all of our own individual jobs to make sure we're judging others fairly, and not our jobs to be influencing the judgments of others, even if our intentions are good. But anxiety and fear have such creative ways of convincing us otherwise, and I think I just need to learn how to be **okay** with other people not "getting it", or not liking it, and trusting them to ask more questions if they don't understand. But god... so few people seem to give a shit enough to ask questions, don't they? I'm very glad you've discovered video games as an art form, as a lifelong gamer I'm actually jealous. You're walking into a completely new multimedia artform for the first time, be prepared to have your mind blown. Some suggestions right off the bat, I really like the in-game art for the game Stellaris, it's a very cool synthesis of painterly high art and sci-fi fantasy nerdiness that scratches a lot of itches for me. And I really can't recommend highly enough the music from Risk of Rain 2, I'm sure you can find the OST on RU-vid. I want to recommend, if you're interested in getting into the rich story and immersive aesthetic of games, try to find a livestreamer on Twitch whose personality meshes with you, maybe one that focuses more on narrative-style streaming, storytelling, rather than skill and high scores and whatnot. That way, you get the aesthetic experience of a video game, the story experience of a narrator (like an audiobook) and it takes a form more like a long-form miniseries than trying to win a game, so you don't need the dexterity or skills to get that experience. The only downside is you don't get the agency of personal choice that playing a game offers, but if that's not very important to you, this might be a very comfy compromise. Something to chew on.
I was just listening to good ol' Ayreon earlier today and I always find a trip that the best sonic representation of literal Rage seems like the chillest dude in music. Thank you for these updates, they've become part of my weekend routine.
I really understand what you mean by what one feels at the end of the project. I call it "completion anxiety" where the last 10% goes slower and you tend to doubt the other 90% and I get a sense of anxiety that the end of the project is near. In software development people also call it the 80/20 rule, the last 20% is 80% is the effort, the first 80% is 20% effort. Art is never complete, just complete enough :D
What kind of a camera do you have that's causing it to overheat? Be careful, Dev! x Also, very cool to see you recognise and appreciate the value of videogames as an artful connective media ❤ 👾
The most difficult thing for me to do when producing, is to know when to stop. Dev's advice and direction has helped me in my everyday life and as an artist. Life is beautiful sometimes Cheers!!
Lately, Dev, your music has inspired me to try to create my own. I got back to playing guitar after a 6-year hiatus, taking lessons, learning basic music theory, how to navigate GarageBand, got a midi keyboard controller to help with learning music as well as getting stuff recorded. But i am way too nervous to write even the smallest of ideas and thoughts that come into my head. The lyrical aspect is just so vulnerable and exposing, but your videos are inspiring and motivating to keep at it and keep trying. Thanks for your hard work and (inadvertently) being an inspiration to me and so many others!
Gonna go ahead and transcript out this little nugget for the comments: "All you can do is do your best, and then hope that your intuition has guided you to an accurate representation of who you were during the point in time in which whatever record you're doing happens, and it becomes a document to the people, the struggles, what you bored of, what you're into and how you were reflecting on your past and future. And if people don't like it, they don't like it." - Devin Townsend
That was a gem for me, thanks Devin! Wish you all the best! And probably all the doubts are also a reason why your records become as "magical" as they are. Never stop! Unless you want to 🤘
Hey Devin!! I don't really have social media or remember my passwords, but I looked at the date and wanted to say Happy Birthday ❤ So happy to hear you're creating and thriving. I'm busy with classes and haven't much time on youtube lately. Hope you have a fantastic day!! Thank you for being you, Dev ❤
I get it man. My music is not near as large and professional as yours. But in the latter stages, hearing the creation come together and trying to sing the parts, the emotion realized creates tears of pure emotion, joy, not sadness i think
Devy, I reconnected with an old friend again mainly because you've been inspiring me to collaborate and socialize. I'm still many steps away from making any real progress but I'm already feeling a little bit better. You're awesome and so are your fans, thank you for these updates and podcasts man 😊
it may be boring to some but I find great value in you speaking of incorporating your master bus into this new atmos world. Personally I’ve got a SSL bus comp i dont want to be stuck with if they become obsolete lol
I have an album I wrote, about an hours worth of music. I wrote maybe around 1 hour and 30 minutes but I ended up cutting the songs that were weak. I started writing these songs in 2021 and finished in late 2023. And I haven't even tracked anything but one. Idk why I can't just commit. I think it's just my chaotic mind and ADHD but, I let that excuse enable me. I'm terrified that if I release it, it'll all just be a waste of time. Not that that's the reason I even started it in the first place but, the music is extremely difficult as a whole. So everything you're saying, I relate to. But I'm impressed you've done it for this long. I'm 25 and I haven't even started lol.
I know Dev didn't write the music, but I'm pretty sure he played guitar on some of the soundtrack to Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. Maybe he forgot lol.
The moth, or DT music as part of a video game make so much sense, Vancouver being a major game developing city as well... A developer need to pick-up on this ;)
A great update Devy the final stages of Power Nerd I love to play Minecraft it's theraputic to me and it's kinda listening to your fave music jus letting it go with the flow xx
I think you’d be a perfect fit for a new Killer Instinct game. Each character has their own theme and different styles of music. If only Microsoft would get to it!
DEV please bring back SYL!!! I know it’ll never happen but we can dream. I AM CANADIAN and MISS SYL! I caught you guys three or four times. Wasn’t enough times dammit!
Hey Dev, you said you were thinking about making a game for The Moth but its to expensive. What you could do is turn it into a collaborative community effort and set up a game jam. Game Jams are like challenge events where developers, hobbyists and pros alike, either solo or in a group, are given a topic and a timeframe to make some kind of game. So you could say "Hey guys, this is what The Moth is supposed to be about - at least to me. Make whatever that inspires you to make! Go be creative! You have 14 days!" There might be silly ones, there might be bad ones, there might be fun ones. You chose the one you like best and they win a signed vinyl of The Moth or whatever.
Games are bigger than Hollywood at this point. You're talking 7 years for some "AAA" games and hundreds of millions. Cast of thousands. BUT.. there are games being made by a single person that are fantastic. The spectrum is HUGE. Not all games are narrative driven, some art skill based or puzzle based etc. It's a hugely diverse medium.
I have yet to hear you sing or play anything that doesn’t sound good. Even the random doodling in this video sounds cooler than anything I heard on the radio today. Maybe have a beer when you catch yourself overthinking?