Devin Townsend - drumtalk [special] 

From Dev's Twitter Interesting to see interviews I’ve been doing recently. I decided to ‘drop the act’ over the past while and just be what I am, and the reaction has often been concern that I’m not doing well. The fact of the matter is I’m doing better than I have in ages...

It's always a wee bit sad hearing Gene or Dev talk about each other, there's always such genuine emotion and connection there. I get why they went their separate ways, they were such good friends and musical soulmates. I'm aware it'll probably never happen again, but to hear Dev and Gene together would be astounding.

Devin Townsend - Marco Minnemann (jazz, swing, death metal, consistent, all of the above)

You are probably the best informed interviewer i've ever seen. Thank you for your work!

aw man... talking about the prospect of Gene doing empath at the end, I was just about tearing up.

You could see the sincerity Dev has when mentioning Gene or like when dude told Dev how long Gene talked about him for. I'd like to see Gene and Dev jam again.

SO much credit to the interviewer. What a great, tasteful interview. One of the best I've seen of Devin.

One of the best interviews ever done with Devin. Thumbs up !

Sounds like Gene was the closest thing Devin has had to a musical soulmate. I ship it.

Wow, never knew he asked Gene for Empath. That would've pushed it over the edge for me to top 3 Devin records for sure - nobody can play metal with groove like Gene does. I can see them playing together again in the future, especially after Gene's Halloween cameo last year. Hopefully they're able to find the common ground emotionally to make something like that happen, because the work they did together can be transcendent.

Always a pleasure to hear this guy talk!

Amazing interview. At times, you could see him really start to well-up and could tell that everything he was saying was coming from the heart. Such an amazing person.

its so cool he interviewed the people Devin has worked with before hand

66samus is amazing

A truly insightful interview. I can't wait for the tour!

Loved this interview ❤️

Best interview I've ever seen with Dev. Well done.

Great interview! It was so fascinating listening to Devin speak about drums, writing mindset, and how open he was with his history with many different drummers. 40 minutes flew by.

Devin Townsend on Drumtalk... oddly makes perfect sense! Woohoo! Thank you :)

The Dev on Drumtalk? Hell yeah !! I can't help but wish Devin chose someone like Marco Minnemann for this "positive" phase of his music :)

This was so nice to watch. The warmth, sincerity and openheartedness from Devin is very inspiring. Looking forward to Empath!

great interview man you did really good with the research and questions!! my god do i love this man....

This is a superb interview, cheers!

An amazing guest. Love him.

An amazing person... Thanks for this

Great interview as always. Devin being a very interesting person adds a lo too.

I'm just now getting around to listening to Dev's music, but as a person, I feel a crazy kinship with him in a way. I really appreciate this interview for reminding me of that. He seems like one of the nicest guys in the world who also happens to be a badass, creative musician who's constantly pushing himself. This is why I love progressive music.

Love this man’s work so much

All in all one of the best interviews I've ever seen. Knowledge/preparation of drumtalk is way beyond the usual and Devin is the perfect interviewee being so honest and open. Now only if we could hear the 38 minutes from Gene about being on the other side of the drums.

Best interview with Devin in a long time! Congratulations!

Devin seems so serene in this interview. It makes me happy.

This is such a great interview, thank you!

This channel is absolutely amazing. You are one of the best interviewers for drums. Keep it up!

Wow what an incredible insight into the Mind of Devin. Definitely inspiring to be more critical of my own drumming and attitude.

Great interview, really love seeing Devin's honesty, especially when it comes to things that weigh on him in such a way as having to giving up part of the creative process in order to actuate his work. He's such a thoughtful, introspective guy and his grace combined with his talent has been a huge draw for me. I hope he finds who he's looking for, but in the meantime I am so stoked to see him again in June for his acoustic show. :)

I love Devin's music and his willingness to share his insights about his creative process, but I must say that above all I love how REAL he is. Fantasic interview and kudos to the interviewer for all the preliminary research he did, that's very inspiring as an aspiring interviewer. :)

I love you Devin. I hope you find who you are looking for and i can't wait to see you again my friend.

Brilliant interview.

Some of my favorite Dev songs are the ones he programmed the drums himself with ez drummer. He knows exactly what he want'a to make the song work. Gene is a damn machine so it's understanding Dev connected with him.

i Haven't even watched the first 10 seconds but it says Devin Townsend so i gave it a like already.

Fantastic interview! Thank you Philip for all your preparation. I like that you incorporated questions pertaining to the human aspect of Devin's experiences in having worked with such a great cast of drummers throughout the years. This interview touched on a lot more that just "drum questions". (Those are great too though- I'm a drummer also.) Devin is thoughtful and honest in his responses. I really appreciate hearing his thoughts and how his overall philosophy and values have developed over the course of his Epic career. He seems very self aware and forthcoming, and, of course- He's an absolutely brilliant and prolific musician. I admire how he's learned to stay grounded while working with so many musicians and their different unique personalities. I would struggle with the difficult personnel decisions that he's been forced to make as a creative director. Fortunately, he's so genuine that I can't imagine anyone harboring a grudge against him no matter how their musical paths have intersected or diverged. Great stuff. It was a joy to listen to this interview. Thanks to you both for making it an enlightening and captivating watch. Mint!

Canadians always dress like they manage a Bass Pro Shop

How can you not love Hevy Devy. Methinks, he is the most important person in metal right now. Truly progressive.

You can see his feelings pour out about Gene, that's deep. I've got a huge amount of respect for that.

fantastic interview, well done

I just love Devin so much, such a cool person!

That's a phenomenal interview. Thank you so much. New subscriber here

This is an amazing interview

Geeez… Before watching I was thinking, do I have time for 40 minutes right now? Now I’m thinking, how the hell was that 40 minutes? It felt like 5!

What an amazing dude! Drum talk never disappoints!

This was unexpected and appreciated.

Morgan Agren is a great choice !! He can play anything.

Interviewing intelligent composers and bandleaders about drummers and drumming is a great idea! Keep 'em coming! I really enjoy this channel :-)

Man, I love your content.

Love this guy!

Fantastic interview! Someone else said that they thought Bobby Jarzombek would be a great choice for Devin's music. I wholeheartedly agree. It would be a perfect match. But I would also love to hear what Kenny Grohowski would do with Devin. That would be interesting!

Awesome video! Really great questions. Devin is one of my absolut favorite musicians. And as a drummer myself, this was very interesting to watch! So thank you. Also, to point out a drummer as well that could do the job: Blake Richardson from BTBAM. In my opinion he is hands down one of the best (if not THE best) drummers in metal and also in the world.

Kai hahto and Romain Goulon are really great for what you need. Romain Goulon he is one of the most versatile, and creative drummer I have ever heard, he can play almost every style of music with a good control and he has a good sense of improvisation.

You did an excellent job Phil! Very very difficult to talk to a musician about an instrument he/she doesn’t play. Super cool. I loved his ability to connect a personality to a snare hit. Very interesting.

Bobby Jarzombek would be a good candidate for his next drummer.

The man you are looking for is Sean Reinert. You're welcome. Also, this man had the opportunity to work with the very best of drummers. Hoglan, Agren, RVP and Dirk, so I can imagine it is becoming harder and harder to find the next one.

Devin is one of the finest people on the planet!

I think i could listen to devin all day! He is a smart guy with an amazing passion. But also the buffoon comes out and is refreshing.

A drummer with a great personality who can improvise inhumanely and handles extreme metal as well. So, Marco Minnemann, basically.

Think Ryan is underrated and he served DTP perfectly - will hope Dev revisits the band one day

Great in depth interview here! It sounds like Devin might benefit from playing with Marco Minneman or Hannes Grossman :)

Empath is brilliant. Brilliant.

The very, very last thing he says here, just encapsulates all that Devin is about, and why his music really is unique and inspiring on multiple levels; it says everything you need to know: "Man, I have got the farts, something wicked, man..." Hah!

Love rvp

I would love to hear Devin wrote a multi drum piece for the all the GOAT.. it would be beyond epic

Hannes Grosmann sound like what he is looking for? Great interview as always!

Would love to see Dev work with Marco Minnemann! Insane blasting and jazzy groove rolled into one of the happiest drummers I've ever seen!

Thank You, All.

Just take 66SAMUS with you everywhere! You guys mesh so well from what we all saw on his vlog. He's got a super prog background along with his blast beats and cuddy, not to mention all the sex with al

Marco Minemann would be the guy Devin is looking for.

oh yurrrrr

Great interview! Dirk falls in place with all those styles but I know he's busy with Megadeth. Surprised to see no mention of Daniel Presland of Ne Obliviscarus, he also encompasses it all. Blake Richardson is also another one that does. Those 3 to me are the best choices. I'd also say Baard Kolstad but on some of the Borknagar live videos I surprisingly saw him be a little sloppy on the extreme fast double bass.

21:14 Singularity intro.... thats a monster of a song, beautiful journey

0:44 - 0 50 He sure is. Very relaxed and down to earth

Matt Garstka, a brilliant drummer for almost every genre

All these comments and not one about Dirk Verbeuren?? Arguably the best modern drummer ever with an insane creativity and timing

im a guitarist, but i love bangin on dem drums when my drummer goes on a smoke break xD generally ill start groove some halo reachesque tom work then some paradiddles lol. you guys have a much more ehhh...primitve instrument then us hoity-toity stringmen but damn is it instantly gratifying to hear all those big booms,clangs,bangs,kas,bapapas, and stuff.

💜💜💜💜💜💜

devin is awesome

Marco Minneman, Travis Orbin, Matt Gartska, Hannes Grossman, Lyle Cooper.

Interesting how he references RVP. It sounds like they really didn't get along musically...like it was a bit of a professional strain. Interesting to me because I always thought they played so well together and RVP's parts were incredibly interesting.

Dev's the man in today's music. There's no one like him.

Maybe I missed it, but how has no one mentioned Flo Mounier as the drummer Devin is looking for? He obviously can blast with the best of them, having become one of the world's most renown death metal drummers in Cryptopsy. He's also an avid jazz drummer in Montreal's jazz scene... He's unique, incredibly technically proficient, has an impeccable sense of timing, smashes his drums HARD, has a great groove in his style and he's easy to work with. He's also one of the most laid back people I've ever met; everyone loves Flo. And he even did a cover of "Oh My Fucking God" with Cryptopsy for Century Media's anniversary... To me, the choice is obvious...

I would love to see what would happen if Devin Townsend and Danny Carey got together on some projects. Even just one song together would probably be super clever.

Devin in brutally honest!

As others have said here, I'd definitely love to see Dev work with Marco Minneman at some point.

I sure hope those drummers Dev is auditioning watch this... its a template for working with him! Also, anyone looking to work with him now knows EXACTLY what to practice on. Good luck, folks!

Has Devin worked with Hannes? I think it's time, if not.

22!

The Orbinator. Perfect match. End of.

I've always really enjoyed Marty Chapman's work on Ocean Machine. Too bad he passed away.

Peter Wildoer. Seriously over looked metal drummer, who is capable of SO MUCH

Morgan Ågren - on Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects and Mats/Morgan Band . . . I think the man is capable ;). I agree that Devin should work with Marco Minnemann, and Mark Zonder as well.

Sebastian Lanser, the drummer for Panzerballett and Obscura would be worth auditioning... He can do alot!

HANNES GROSSMAN! He needs to be on it =p