During a recent interview with Australia's Heavy magazine, Devin Townsend discussed at length

his motivations for disbanding the DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT, the five-piece band he fronted
from 2009 until 2018.

"In order to have a touring band, it obviously costs a lot of money to maintain, and in order to
generate that type of money in today's industry, it forces you to not only work continuously, but
also be more cautious about chances that one might take," Devin said. "If we're paying $15,000 a
month for salary and [a] jam spot and all that sort of thing, my ability to sort of be more lenient
with my creativity when it comes to following things that maybe aren't as sellable really gets
neutered in a way. That's just inevitable. I think also, if you're whole reality scheme is touring,
touring, touring, like, eleven months of the year — [which] is what I toured in 2016 — the things
that you are able to draw from creatively end up being very inward on itself. You end up singing
about being in a band, or being on tour, being away from home and all these things. These are all
sort of sidelines to the decision, but they were certainly contributing [factors]."

He continued: "Specifically, the financial thing — to not be able to financially stop for fear of not
being able to pay the bills, and people who are depending on you not being able to get what you
had promised them — was something that propelled me into a period in my work that was just
perversely productive. To be honest, that is something that I was interested in for a while, but
after a certain amount of time, I realized that my nature is highly sensitive to begin with, and that
level of constant flying and interaction with people and being seen and all this was starting to
become really unhealthy. I think the combination of the kind of parameters that a rock band
imposes creatively, not only with being more cautious of what you put out for the sake of money,
but also what a rock band is able to do... it was a great band and a great group of people, but
there are very strict parameters [of what] a five-piece rock band can do, some more than others,
and I was aware of that as well."

Townsend added that entering middle age made him reflect on his career trajectory to date. "I
think that when I got to a certain age, it was important to me to sort of analyze my relationship
with myself and my past," he said. "I had to ask myself some hard questions about the career that
I was in, and whether or not it was going in a direction that I was going to be comfortable with in
ten years. The answer to that was no — I truly didn't want my future to be based on being in a
traveling rock band. That's really what it came down to. I would prefer to make the decision to do
things that were more provocative musically, I suppose — running the risk of the fan base
becoming smaller, yet not being responsible for other people. I managed to give everybody three
months' worth of severance pay, but then after that, I was like, 'Okay, now I'm going to take some
time to myself and really just put the pieces of what has happened over the past ten years
together.' Ultimately, it was undeniable to my creativity, to my family, to my mental health that
this was just going, yet again, in a direction that the writing was on the wall — [it] was something
that I was going to feel trapped by. I left it, and I feel better for it."

Townsend's new solo album, "Empath", will be released on March 29 via InsideOut Music.
Joining Devin on the album is Frank Zappa alumni Mike Keneally as music director, as well
as Morgan Ågren (MATS AND MORGAN, FRANK ZAPPA, FREDRIK THORDENDAL), Anup
Sastry(MONUMENTS, PERIPHERY), Samus Paulicelli (DECREPIT BIRTH, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS), Nathan
Navarro, Elliot Desagnes, Steve Vai, Chad Kroeger, Anneke Van Giersbergen, Ché Aimee
Dorval, Ryan Dhale and the Elektra Women's Choir.