STRAPPING YOUNG LAD - Binge & Purge! Page 4
by Martin Popoff

"Well, technically, the record isn't about much," admits Devin, when quizzed on Alien's lyrics. "Again, it's just about random firings of emotions. The song Shine is a conversation with myself. The song Skeksis is about a math equation that I had an interest in. Shitstorm is just about a mental breakdown. Gosh, Zen is about letting it all flow, so you can go with it. We Ride is... you know, we've all got problems, just put it in gear and get to the next step where we want it to go. So I think each song is about something in a vague sense. On a personal level, I try to keep the lyrics working with each other so there would just be this energetic flow to the record."

Further on Skeksis, Devin says that "the thing is, you're a slave to the muse. I get a song in my head, and that's it. The song Skeksis for example. That song sent me over the f**king top, just because there were so many tight harmonies that I couldn't get out of my head, you know what I mean? I would just turn around and I would hear 'colours relate to numbers,' just everything tighter and tighter and tighter, minor seconds and major sevenths. The only way I can get rid of the songs is by doing them. And it's like... so I do them. And Strapping happens every now and then, and it always has. So I did it."

"I'm extremely happy with it," says Devin on the magnificent storm of voices on that specific track. "Actually, I'm more happy with it than I've been with a lot of my stuff, just because, for better or for worse, it worked. And now that I've got those tight harmonies out, I hear things that are a lot more melodic. And I don't know if I would've had the opportunity to here these things, say in the Devin Townsend Band now (side-project - new record and DVD coming!), that are a little more melodic, had I not had the opportunity to get that out. It's like, until it does come out, it kind of poisons everything else."

STRAPPING YOUNG LAD - Binge & Purge! Page 5