I'm sure Dev is low key mortified by this clip (and probably many clips of him being forced to be in the public eye as he frequently implies), but I always love his raw states of mind and how he always translates it into music. Absolute crazy hero artist
This video pretty much encapsulates everything I love about Devin Townsend. Unparalleled musicianship, off-the-wall sense of humour and an actual deep philosophy on music.
He's a perfect example of übersarcasm. He has multiple personalities, and combined with his talent, nearly infinite vocal range, and amazing band members regardless of if we're talking aboot SYL, the (incredible) DTP, or just his own crazy ass, he can cover such an insanely mindblowing range of music that its tough to not like him.
Best part about this is how it shows that Dev really is a truly fantastic guitar player, can "wank" with the best of them, but he chooses not to because he'd rather write more meaningful music. Especially impressive is his epic sweep picking while talking about a bunch of random shit at the same time :D
Ok so he starts off with a super reverb-y paul horn inside the taj mahal riffs. Then Devin jumps to weird solo from his song "Away" @1:33 then @1:59 he starts riffing on what would become "Stand" from Deconstruction. Remember this is from 2009 so here's a clear example of him writing something killer and waiting for it to fully ferment into it's final form. 2 years before some of the riffs finally became songs. He clearly works on his stuff for a long time and pulls it together as it comes to him. Patience is a trait of Genius.
Devin Townsend is incredible!! 5:20 - 5:38 I mean, come on... Shreds better, cleaner and with more taste and melody than most shredders and sings better or as good as any singer in any genre. Also composes everything, edits, tracks, arranges, mixes and masters... And yet he doesn't get recognition, while other "artists" appear and they are instant "geniuses", even though most don't compose anything, don't have a clue about producing and don't sing/play propely... It doesn't matter, Devin is the man!!
Wait a minute, I think I remember seeing your name on the videos for Marco Minnemann's 'UA-cam Topic' channel before the comments got turned off. Fellow proggians reunite once again!
This is my all time favorite video on the internet. It makes me laugh and makes me feel seen. "I'm gonna shit myself to death" 😂 Devin is a beautiful soul and we are lucky to share this lifetime with him.
As I've gotten older, I'm starting to relate to what Devin Townsend is saying. I love to hear me some Vai and Satch every now and then, but I've realized it's because they can make the "wanking" work within the context of the song. All this shredding I'm hearing nowadays from these bands just sounds like noise. You hear it a dime a dozen at Guitar Center. It truly is like, "Ok. You can sweep pick 220 BPM's. Now can you write a song?" I'm not even talking about one that will get on the radio, cause we all know the vast majority of radio songs are crap. I mean just a good rock/metal song. I doubt many of these guys can. Just from a guy that can neither shred nor make great songs. I do like writing songs though. And I realized the vast majority of my songs are like Devin's: they don't really work with all that shredding stuff.
I've grown up from my teens with all the metalcore shredders and always wanted to be that guitar player. I'm getting close to 30 and I'm just finding my voice and strengths as a guitar player. I've unconsciously started to realize what Devin has been right. Write a song. Plain and simple. I love to write a riff, add some melody, make the rhythm interesting. and maybe through a quick lead in if the song allows it. I just love to make music and that's all that matters. Dev helped me accept my weaknesses as a guitar player and turn those into strengths. It took a while to accept it though and there is always room to improve.
You are 110% right. I'm one of those people yet I've been really open about it....hell yeah I can shred but honestly it's boring as fuck and just nonsense..."Wanking" now I see it has a term lol. I've always admired song writers and he idea of writing ANY song that could be catchy to someone. Whenever I've tried I'm just so critical of myself and wind up jamming something I've known for a decade haha It really is a whole different breed of musician. Devin said it, I spent probably 5 years strictly learning to shred nonsense and yeah maybe it looked cool to my friends but other than that, neh.
Absolutely agree. I've seen Satch and Vai and Yngwie live, and I honestly couldn't name a single song. Nobody was at that show that wasn't just sitting around waiting for the wankfest.
Loved the wank stuff in my teens and early 20s back in the 1980s but later got bored of this stuff and appreciated more of the singer songwriter aspect of music in the 1990s. I would much rather hear Devin Townsend's music then the music from Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert etc. Hell I would rather even hear the singer songwriter blues based music with rock, Americana, country soul and pop mixed with the blues based music from Samantha Fish then with those mega guitarists from the 1980s.
It's so great to see all the stuff from the records here in this setting. All these riffs that are just seemingly coming off of Devy's head, now mean something to all of us.
I only just found out about Devin. I am pissed that I have spent much time listening to mediocre when I could have been listening to this genius. Arggghhh! Why did I not know about him sooner?!!? He is awesome...
He has, in my personal opinion, one of the cleanest, smoothest and most amazing tones I've ever heard any artist using. But I guess that's why he's touring and I'm not
This should be visible in You Tube homepage forever! Best educational video for any musician to try to top this on any instrument. Guitar is part of Devin Townsend. His attitude shows through in his music more than any guitarist i like to listen (except Ritchie Blackmore).
Damn Devin you are the man. I wonder how many people look at the beginning of this video thinking that you are a shredder. You are the antithesis of shredder. You touch the guitars soul which is lost on only playing meaningless tapping and sweeping exercises. Keep on rocking!
What a amazing man and guitar player Townsend is. He might be quiet an oddball in a goodway, but there is a huge amout of talent and skill inside his head. Keep up the good work DT.
Oh my god, he's so amazing at guitar, but so hilarious. The fact that he can just sit there and spout off random bullshit while laying down some of the best guitar I've ever heard is amazing. Devin is one of my idols
and nowadays is a singre that can sing in moore than five octaves, he play guitar like a demon, and he mix and produces his owns records, and most of all, its a great great composer, like Vai said one time is an undiscover genius
I wish I could shred that well. And if I could do it while talking like he does I would always walk around with a guitar in my hands and a portable amp on my belt so I could supply an awesome soundtrack to my conversations.
Found out it's the title track from the album "Ki" about 4:40 into the song- weird transformation, but then again the writing style is what keeps me coming back- thanks man
so lets see, he reveals his future songs heart baby, stand, and deconstruction in one 7 minute video. Thats one of the perks of having your own record label
oh my friggen gawd, this man is talented. It both scares me and fills me with hope - there needs to be more folks in the world like this guy. Dead set champ.
Do some searches for his live performances and you can see why ppl get so into it. He;s frigging awesome live. He just really really likes to play I think.
He had used a lot of different amplifiers... Mainly Mesa DR Solo Head but he also played on Peavey 5150(i.e. Accelerated Evolution album). Currently he is playing through a Budda Superdrive(not really sure about the type, think it's Superdrive but dunno for sure). And I don't know whether he uses some kind of overdrive stompboxes now. He used to use a Maxon overdrive unit with the Mesa.
Devin Townsend is such an awesome guitarist and a funny, down to earth guy. And I love how he just sweeps around while talking normally. like:"No big deal guys, I just thought sweeping wasn't hard enough on it's own, so I'm talking to you at the same time" lol
He almost always tunes to CGCGCE. It's a great tuning which presents scale patterns on the fretboard like repetitive blocks, and in certain scales, the patterns align in forms that mean blocks of 9 have a semitone break before and after the block of 9. It's quite a lovely tuning. Ever so slightly different to one used by Jimmy Page on The Rain Song (and other Zep classics), but with a high D instead of Devy's E.
by 7:06 I was on the floor, holding my sides. While I play guitar and should look up to Devin for that reason (plus my name is Devin), I really just watch his interviews and videos because he's so damn funny...
To me it sounds like, as if he's playing arpeggios. The technique usually used to do this is called sweep picking, although it's also possible to play arpeggios via tapping (a lot of guitarists do that, actually).
i keep coming back to this for almost ten years now.
Me too man... Me too.
You and I both!
Mee too
@@Opethian86 we should start a club. I've watched this video at least 30 times.
Damn UA-cam recommendations! Stop suggesting me this video, I almost know every note by now, lol
I'm sure Dev is low key mortified by this clip (and probably many clips of him being forced to be in the public eye as he frequently implies), but I always love his raw states of mind and how he always translates it into music. Absolute crazy hero artist
This video pretty much encapsulates everything I love about Devin Townsend. Unparalleled musicianship, off-the-wall sense of humour and an actual deep philosophy on music.
"Oh boy when is he gonna start tapping? Ooh he's tapping! Maybe a slide?" wweeOOWww 😂
He's a perfect example of übersarcasm. He has multiple personalities, and combined with his talent, nearly infinite vocal range, and amazing band members regardless of if we're talking aboot SYL, the (incredible) DTP, or just his own crazy ass, he can cover such an insanely mindblowing range of music that its tough to not like him.
Best thing about this clip is ‘wow a slide’. 😂
this is one of the best extemporaneous musical streams of consciousness in history
Best Comment ever !! Really Devin Townsend ...true legend !!
Best part about this is how it shows that Dev really is a truly fantastic guitar player, can "wank" with the best of them, but he chooses not to because he'd rather write more meaningful music.
Especially impressive is his epic sweep picking while talking about a bunch of random shit at the same time :D
His hat blends into the wall and it looks like he has no head.
Ok so he starts off with a super reverb-y paul horn inside the taj mahal riffs. Then Devin jumps to weird solo from his song "Away" @1:33 then @1:59 he starts riffing on what would become "Stand" from Deconstruction.
Remember this is from 2009 so here's a clear example of him writing something killer and waiting for it to fully ferment into it's final form. 2 years before some of the riffs finally became songs.
He clearly works on his stuff for a long time and pulls it together as it comes to him. Patience is a trait of Genius.
A better video has never been made.
Vikram Shankar - Official (obelix5150) couldn't say it any better...
I submit that Vampira might be a contender. However, this is truly mind blowing.
That riff from ''Stand'' sent shivers down my spine...
Devin Townsend is incredible!!
5:20 - 5:38 I mean, come on...
Shreds better, cleaner and with more taste and melody than most shredders and sings better or as good as any singer in any genre.
Also composes everything, edits, tracks, arranges, mixes and masters...
And yet he doesn't get recognition, while other "artists" appear and they are instant "geniuses", even though most don't compose anything, don't have a clue about producing and don't sing/play propely...
It doesn't matter, Devin is the man!!
And the Arabic sound for Stan is amazing. I like when he uses it for Planter Smasher and N9 as well. It's exciting.
Becaise unfortuantly simplicity is key to popularity
He is solely responsible for letting the censorship guy keep his job.
Wait a minute, I think I remember seeing your name on the videos for Marco Minnemann's 'UA-cam Topic' channel before the comments got turned off. Fellow proggians reunite once again!
He's got some keen insight when he's talking about those sweeping arpeggios. "What compositional void am i filling doing this"?? I love it...
This is my all time favorite video on the internet. It makes me laugh and makes me feel seen. "I'm gonna shit myself to death" 😂 Devin is a beautiful soul and we are lucky to share this lifetime with him.
DTP Excerpts:
0:38 - Heart baby (Ghost)
2:02 - Stand (Deconstruction)
4:54 - Ki (Ki)
5:40 - Deconstruction (Deconstruction)
+Acceleratus maybe 2:59 by your command
Sounds more like the solo in Away from accelerated evolution (skip to 5:30 in that song)
6:56 Heatwave
Yeh... From that great Synchestra Double CD.
oremia I think you mean “Trainfire” from Ki
The foundation of so many creative adventures to be had. He’s never been the most technical guy but god damn does his music have soul to it.
7 years later and I can still appreciate and enjoy this video
Same here at 8 years... :D
I find that the snippets played here are more potent than the finished versions of said songs.
It's interesting seeing him play so many riffs from Deconstruction and Ghost before they were released 2 years later
As I've gotten older, I'm starting to relate to what Devin Townsend is saying. I love to hear me some Vai and Satch every now and then, but I've realized it's because they can make the "wanking" work within the context of the song. All this shredding I'm hearing nowadays from these bands just sounds like noise. You hear it a dime a dozen at Guitar Center. It truly is like, "Ok. You can sweep pick 220 BPM's. Now can you write a song?" I'm not even talking about one that will get on the radio, cause we all know the vast majority of radio songs are crap. I mean just a good rock/metal song. I doubt many of these guys can.
Just from a guy that can neither shred nor make great songs. I do like writing songs though. And I realized the vast majority of my songs are like Devin's: they don't really work with all that shredding stuff.
i gree completly
I've grown up from my teens with all the metalcore shredders and always wanted to be that guitar player. I'm getting close to 30 and I'm just finding my voice and strengths as a guitar player. I've unconsciously started to realize what Devin has been right. Write a song. Plain and simple. I love to write a riff, add some melody, make the rhythm interesting. and maybe through a quick lead in if the song allows it. I just love to make music and that's all that matters. Dev helped me accept my weaknesses as a guitar player and turn those into strengths. It took a while to accept it though and there is always room to improve.
You are 110% right. I'm one of those people yet I've been really open about it....hell yeah I can shred but honestly it's boring as fuck and just nonsense..."Wanking" now I see it has a term lol. I've always admired song writers and he idea of writing ANY song that could be catchy to someone. Whenever I've tried I'm just so critical of myself and wind up jamming something I've known for a decade haha It really is a whole different breed of musician. Devin said it, I spent probably 5 years strictly learning to shred nonsense and yeah maybe it looked cool to my friends but other than that, neh.
Absolutely agree. I've seen Satch and Vai and Yngwie live, and I honestly couldn't name a single song. Nobody was at that show that wasn't just sitting around waiting for the wankfest.
Loved the wank stuff in my teens and early 20s back in the 1980s but later got bored of this stuff and appreciated more of the singer songwriter aspect of music in the 1990s. I would much rather hear Devin Townsend's music then the music from Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert etc. Hell I would rather even hear the singer songwriter blues based music with rock, Americana, country soul and pop mixed with the blues based music from Samantha Fish then with those mega guitarists from the 1980s.
I like that this entire video makes sense to us musically now.
Possibly the most aggressive philosophy and guitar lesson I've ever seen.
It's so great to see all the stuff from the records here in this setting. All these riffs that are just seemingly coming off of Devy's head, now mean something to all of us.
I only just found out about Devin. I am pissed that I have spent much time listening to mediocre when I could have been listening to this genius. Arggghhh! Why did I not know about him sooner?!!? He is awesome...
2:25 is possibly the sickest riff ive heard in a long time, his tone is just so sick man
My friend, please tell me you discovered Stand and the album Deconstruction after this
@@ryanroiz8903 hope he did lol
He can sing while ripping through string skipped arpeggios too. Guy is a ninja.
its deceptively easy. if you play guitar id reccomend trying it because its really fun to play. as long as youre on open c its a breeze
He has, in my personal opinion, one of the cleanest, smoothest and most amazing tones I've ever heard any artist using. But I guess that's why he's touring and I'm not
I watch this once in a while, it brings me joy in some way
This rant... I always go straight from this to cranking Deconstruction. Genius
This should be visible in You Tube homepage forever! Best educational video for any musician to try to top this on any instrument. Guitar is part of Devin Townsend. His attitude shows through in his music more than any guitarist i like to listen (except Ritchie Blackmore).
3:23 it's been almost 12 years and I still keep coming back for this rant that withstands the test of time. Also 7:21
Stream of consciousness chaotic good fortelling the future past. I love this guy.
Damn Devin you are the man. I wonder how many people look at the beginning of this video thinking that you are a shredder. You are the antithesis of shredder. You touch the guitars soul which is lost on only playing meaningless tapping and sweeping exercises. Keep on rocking!
Saw this guy live yesterday, you'd never know he could play like this by seeing him live
this guy is swearing and playing at the same time?!! he is my hero.
i love his unique style and sound, he is so awesome.
He's fucking insane lol
What a amazing man and guitar player Townsend is. He might be quiet an oddball in a goodway, but there is a huge amout of talent and skill inside his head. Keep up the good work DT.
Funny, brilliant, epic, one of my favorite vocalists as well!!!
A decade later, and this is more relevant than ever.
Devin roasting his own music is also *chefs kiss
hes super talented,he starts ranting and dont even look at what hes playin
It's amazing that his voice is LOUDER than his guitar...with NO mic.
This guy is... I dunno what to say i'm speechless.
This guy is a fucken legend
3:10 and forward, rofl.
Oh my god, he's so amazing at guitar, but so hilarious. The fact that he can just sit there and spout off random bullshit while laying down some of the best guitar I've ever heard is amazing. Devin is one of my idols
Striving to be as brilliant as this man
It'll never happen but it's worth a try
Is this Vai's old singer?
yes!
and nowadays is a singre that can sing in moore than five octaves, he play guitar like a demon, and he mix and produces his owns records, and most of all, its a great great composer, like Vai said one time is an undiscover genius
I wish I could shred that well. And if I could do it while talking like he does I would always walk around with a guitar in my hands and a portable amp on my belt so I could supply an awesome soundtrack to my conversations.
Damn that HUGE tone! Captain scrunchy at his best (referring to angled picking) I LOVE IT!!!
Found out it's the title track from the album "Ki" about 4:40 into the song- weird transformation, but then again the writing style is what keeps me coming back- thanks man
The most incredible musician to ever grace heavy music.
i love that he plays Stand at around 2:00. and then deconstruction! and then some Trainfire!
I love how this video accurately sums up Devin in 7 minutes.
My favorite UA-cam video.
I love how he's almost bored with how masterful he is at everything.
so lets see, he reveals his future songs heart baby, stand, and deconstruction in one 7 minute video. Thats one of the perks of having your own record label
oh my friggen gawd, this man is talented. It both scares me and fills me with hope - there needs to be more folks in the world like this guy. Dead set champ.
Just got my copy of Ziltoid. Love it.
Man, this guy is awesome!!
@HelloDailor
Cool. I have to say I am mightily impressed by his vocal guitar play separation. He hand certainly diddle a bit too.
Saw him live last night and was blown away!!
I left the venue early and ended up meeting him!! It was so sick. got to talk to him for a while
talking and shredding at the same time...I mean, talking and real good shredding at the same time...this dude rocks!
Just re-tuned my 7 string to open C yesterday. Gotta master that fretboard badly.
Unleash the Devin!!!
that stand riff is just the fucking greatest
The tones in this video are some of the best I've ever heard. EVER.
the music he creates is like noone else....he is pure and just awesome
My dream is to have him and Buckethead do a collaboration album, It would literally make my head explode.
ok i liked this yonks ago and now listening back and hearing all the songs off deconstruction its pretty epic
It's from Deconstruction (if my memory serves me right, that is), a record he hasn't released yet (but it will be next year)
Oh my god! HEAVY DEVY!
I like how he busts out the "KI" riffs and starts singin, thats killer
I love this guy-he says all the things I wish I had said...
He should have a movie and stand up career as well. As being the greatest Singer in the world. Love you most Co ordinated man in Canada.
Do some searches for his live performances and you can see why ppl get so into it. He;s frigging awesome live. He just really really likes to play I think.
"WHERE MA F*CKIN VOLUME GO!" he's beyond epic
He had used a lot of different amplifiers... Mainly Mesa DR Solo Head but he also played on Peavey 5150(i.e. Accelerated Evolution album). Currently he is playing through a Budda Superdrive(not really sure about the type, think it's Superdrive but dunno for sure). And I don't know whether he uses some kind of overdrive stompboxes now. He used to use a Maxon overdrive unit with the Mesa.
amazing he totally ripping on guitar and rambling about anything and makes it look so easy...im a huge fan a true music genius...SYL!
He's played in many metal bands, even filled-in for a few deathcore ones.
He's still got it.
And will never ever lose it.
Oh the beeps!
I love how the first part is nice, calm and smooth, then he rants as all us geeks and nerds do.
Awesome
Devin Townsend is such an awesome guitarist and a funny, down to earth guy. And I love how he just sweeps around while talking normally. like:"No big deal guys, I just thought sweeping wasn't hard enough on it's own, so I'm talking to you at the same time" lol
Very nice sound!!! Thanks
It's uncanny. He's got the guitar downtuned like mad yet his solos are singing and crystalline up in the stratosphere.
He almost always tunes to CGCGCE.
It's a great tuning which presents scale patterns on the fretboard like repetitive blocks, and in certain scales, the patterns align in forms that mean blocks of 9 have a semitone break before and after the block of 9.
It's quite a lovely tuning.
Ever so slightly different to one used by Jimmy Page on The Rain Song (and other Zep classics), but with a high D instead of Devy's E.
by 7:06 I was on the floor, holding my sides. While I play guitar and should look up to Devin for that reason (plus my name is Devin), I really just watch his interviews and videos because he's so damn funny...
No problem, the song is named "Ki", the part he is playing comes near to the end.
every time i listen to Devin play clean i always wounder if he is a David Gilmour fan. have to imagine he is
Of course. 19-37. Gilmour.
You can tell his time with vai worked to his advantage.
This is the greatest thing I've ever seen.
Well played, sir.
He actually partly composed all 4 records (Ki, Addicted, Deconstruction and Ghost) simultaniously before and during the process of making them...
Possibly the greatest guitarist in the world, not just amazing skill, but such a great character.
I always listen to Ki, at least seven times a week. it's one of my favorite albums, ever! My favorite track is Terminal...it's so, moving...^_^
i need to find what delays and reverbs he is using, coz they sound literally perfect. just like they do on ki
To me it sounds like, as if he's playing arpeggios. The technique usually used to do this is called sweep picking, although it's also possible to play arpeggios via tapping (a lot of guitarists do that, actually).
Devin actually is THE best guitarist to watch and listen to when your hungover or pretty much any other time.