You've said that Ki was quite restrained whereas Addicted is a bit more like a pop album with lots of layers. Can you tell me a bit more about it and more about the ideas behind it?

Devin: Well, you know, it’s a full record project… Basically, it’s supposed to be a story from beginning to end. In a roundabout way it’s not really a minimal story, but I think that this second record here is… god, this is the first interview I’ve done for it, so I’d better try to figure out what the heck it is about. It’s all about trying to figure out, like all of us, what’s our deal here. Like, is there a god? Is there not a god? Is it OK to do certain things and not OK to do other things?

You have a kid and all of a sudden your whole reality seems completely out of proportion. Reality seems to get more and more out of proportion. I always end up thinking, “Well what’s the meaning behind it all?” I think that for many years I’ve been hung up on that question. Just like a real overwhelming sense of needing to know. I had a bunch of people in my life who were very religious and some people are into, like, darker things and some are into lighter things, but ultimately I think it all comes down to the fact that everybody’s afraid of this being it. You know, afraid that maybe there’s nothing more. Maybe we’re just… we have these kind of realities and belief systems just to avoid that incredibly isolated feeling.

But, in a lot of ways, I think what Addicted, this record, is about is, well, say there is nothing more. Say this is it. You know, that there’s this infinite state above us of nothing and all we’ve got is, like, a bunch of other humans. So what’s the ultimate result of that? And for years, my music has been really kind of metaphoric and there’s been a lot of darkness in the music. But that realisation that there may be nothing else was really invigorating to me because I was thinking, “OK. Well if there is nothing else then all we need to have is each other. So what do we want to do? Do we prove to each other that we are right?”

Or, my kind of thing is, well, I just want to make music that’s heavy, but I want people to be able to dance. I want to dance. I want music that’s like fun, that’s refreshing. Good chorus that you can sing along to and that you’re not necessarily singing along to somebody else’s neuroses as much as just like, “Those are cool words. That’s a cool melody, that’s a great beat. And for a long time, I’ve kind of fought with the idea of heavy music only being about my own quest. It was spiritually damaging for me to be playing heavy music. And then I thought, well I’m a white male and I really enjoy that kind of aggression, but I think there’s a distinction to be made between aggressive music and toxic music and I think that they can be mutually exclusive in a lot of ways so what I tried to do with Addicted is make something really heavy.

In a lot of ways it’s heavier than anything I’ve ever done before but I’ve counteracted that by making the lyrics and the message, if you will behind it, neutral but really positive. Like, “Yeah, life is shit in a lot of ways but there’s a lot of great things. We played the record last night and we danced, because there are so many negative things and anaesthesias are so stupid that it’s like we spend too much time thinking about things that we’re never going to solve and we’re just going to end up perpetually depressed. So I just wanted to make a record that was, like, awesome and fun.

YOURBIZARRE IS THE WORLD'S BIGGEST ONLINE COMMUNITY: JOIN FOR FREE NOW AND MEET PEOPLE LIKE YOU!

Why have you used female vocals?

My voice, as well… I can sing, I can scream, I can do my thing, but it also has to be said that a female voice is like the other side of the equation, because obviously humans are either one or the other. So a lady kind of turned up in my life named Anneke, and she used to sing for the band, The Gathering. She sent me a YouTube of her band playing a song off the Ziltoid record and I was looking at it going, “Wow, she’s really good. It’s not a heavy voice, but it’s just so confident that you could sing over the heaviest music and still be clean and beautiful and it’ll work.

And there’s something very cool about that because you know the masculine side of the equation should be the really aggressive sound. I don’t really want to hear the female vocals screaming yet I want to hear a confident female voice.

I had this dream actually that I came to the song ‘Hyperdrive’ it was her voice. Suddenly I was going on instinct and I sent her an email and said, “Well why don’t you come to Vancouver. I have a ton of songs that I was just going to sing, but I love female vocals.” Back when I was a teenager, I loved Enya, I loved Abba, I love anything that’s got that kind of like, clear, confident female vocals. Some choruses you can sing, some verses you can sing. You sing one song by yourself, I’ll sing one song by myself, so when the audience hear it, it’s kind of like the male and female thing, right?

Everybody who’s involved in this record is basically the same age. We’re all around forty, and three out of four of us have kids. When I was in my early twenties, I knew exactly where I was at. I was mad and pissed of and basically, “Fuck the world”. But as you get older, it’s not like that goes away, as much as it just becomes a realisation that maybe what I was mad about was different than what I was prepared to admit to myself.

And now, at this point in my life, not only is it not as important to me, but it’s a drag to be screaming about that shit. I’ve got enough problems in my life without compounding it by getting up on stage and going “arghhhhhhhhh!” So, what actually made me feel better was getting up on stage and singing about things that made me feel awesome. Always, when I was writing the lyrics, there was always the potential to be verging on cream cheese. I always try to avoid overt statements like, “I have the answers” because what I have to say isn’t even in the ballpark. I have my answers, but even those change daily. I think the thing with a positive heavy record is the lyrics have to be sometimes neutral, sometimes stupid.

There’s the song, ‘Addicted’ and the chorus goes, “You’re addicted”, but the last chorus is like, “We’re addicted too.” It’s not like anybody knows. I think the cool thing about this song is just being a human. There’s like this level of reality where we almost get to share our stupidity. In a lot of ways that’s what defines us – our inability to figure out why the heck we’re here. So this record is essentially not about all that but about more about...with the knowledge of that, let’s party. That’s it. So I got some people, much older folks really, and Robert’s an incredible drummer, but he’s a strong dude. He’s not like a flake, he’s a responsible dude, he’s a dad and he exercises! He’s got a great head on his shoulders and he can play the crap out of the drums.

The guitar and bass player have actually been my closest friends for longer than anybody. I’ve known them for over twenty years and went to high school with the bass player. So they’re the people who know me for the person I am as opposed to this image that I’ve portrayed. When I was in LA putting together this group of people I just wanted to be with people where there’s no B.S. and we can kind of see through each other’s, you know, crap in a lot of ways. Then, added to the female vocals, it just made the most sense because a lot of the time, with female vocals, it’s like a figurehead and it becomes this kind of like…it’s not about a person as much as, you know, like the whole female thing and I remember when I was first talking to Anneke, I was just like, “Let’s just rock. Let’s just be two voices as opposed to some sort of sexist, misogynistic sort of thing. An awesome person and another awesome person singing about awesome things. And let’s make the beat really heavy so when we’re listening to it you kind of want to dance to it.”

Is she featured on all the tracks?

Yeah, pretty much, and there’s one track where it’s all her and I just do background vocals. Then there’s one song that’s all me and she does backgrounds. A lot of times, because the music is so heavy, if it was just me screaming my balls off, the audience would tend to get tired of that. And it’s not because that’s not cool or interesting. It’s just because you shut down after being pummelled with that level of aggression. But the thing that’s really cool about Anneke’s voice is that when it does come in, it’s still over the heavy stuff and it’s like a release. I’ll be screaming and then she’ll come in she’ll be really… I don’t know.

I’ve been trying to figure out a name for it. Idiotcore – how’s that? As things get worse in the world, I figure that I have a choice of going one of two ways. I get people sending emails about conspiracies. Like, “The Government’s going to do this or that.” Well, what can I do about that? And, in all honesty, because I can’t do anything about it, I’d rather spend the last six months of my life happy rather than in hiding. Yeah, life could be harder for everybody, but there’s people being born and dying and horrible things happening to good people and, ultimately, how do you combat that? This record was made completely sober. No drugs, no booze, no nothing, right? And for a lot of people that’s totally worse. My parents love drinking and that’s great. For me, it’s a lot easier to engage in the same energy without all that.

When did you first get into the state of mind in which you found yourself questioning your existence (when you mentioned that after death there may be “nothing there”?)

I think it all had to do with the fact that the past three years of my life have been pretty intense. Two people have died, and two have been born and quitting drugs and booze was a big thing. You think about the universe or whatever and that raises the whole question of faith versus free will. The question: “What do you believe in? Faith or free will?” I think people are afraid to believe in faith because it predisposes them to be a believer of a god of some sort. And a lot of people like free will, and for them, everything is just this big, nebulous thing that we exist and try to get by in. I have to say that I’m of the mind that it’s a little bit of both, in a lot of ways.

I believe very heavily in mathematics and the theory that there was a big bang and that everything started from such a small thing. It’s like a formula in a lot of ways. A formula is perfect so everything does happen exactly as it should, but does that mean that there is a god watching over us? I think you get to choose your own faith, if that makes any sense. The realisation of what we were talking about a second ago came from a bunch of stuff where you’re looking up and you’re like, “Why me? Why is this shit happening to me? You know, I’m being good. I’m paying my taxes, I’m not doing drugs, but still this shit happens.”

Sometimes people think that kind of shit is god’s plan, but on the other hand that might not be the case. What if it’s just happening because it’s happening. So, how do you combat that kind of sense of: “Holy shit! Really, there’s nothing? All this is happening just because?” But in a way, that’s truly liberating because if that is the case, then we’ve got a lot of things to celebrate here.

When we die, and we’re just worm food, should the time that we spend here be spent trying to figure out something that human beings are not wired to figure out? Or hit ourselves with cats o’ nine-tails and live in this perpetual sense of guilt? Or should we just find things that we do enjoy, whatever that is… working on cars, learning a new instrument, whatever. And just hold onto that because you never know when things are going to change so that when it does change then at least you know that, OK things have changed but, I’m glad that up to the point when it changed, that I was able to spend time doing the things that I enjoyed as opposed to worrying about things that I couldn’t help.

So, I think that that’s what Addicted is not about, but influenced by – that kind of thought process. It’s like a spiritual record about atheism. There is this sense of self, a first person perspective that we all share. If we want to believe in god, if we want to believe that that’s something truly important then maybe it’s something different from something that’s external to us. Maybe it is us. Not any one of us in particular, but all of us. We’re all only here a short time, so give me a beat. I don’t want to hear about your problems any more.

It’s cool that you said you were dancing, too. I saw that on your Twitter. How exactly were you dancing when you put the album on?

Oh man, I can’t dance, but I can definitely do what I do, right? You see people who are really good dancers, but I’m like a total geek when I dance, but the question is, do you enjoy it, regardless of whether you look like a geek or not? And if the answer is yes, then just go for it.

It’s like if I was to say that I’m not the best soccer player in the world so I’m not going to play. It’s like, “Well, do you enjoy playing?” because that’s what the point of it is. There was also this realisation a while back that if you die and there is an afterlife and there’s some dude up there or some celestial being. So, I imagine that when you’re questioned, you’d say something like, “Yeah, I’ve been good, man. Totally. I’ve suffered and I’m ready to receive my reward. But the real question is, how much did you actually enjoy yourself? And the answer would be, “Not at all. I’ve spent my whole life feeling bummed and terrified.” Then they’d be, “Well, back you go. Because it’s pretty cool down there and you never enjoyed yourself.”

But, what about all the crap, the wars, the murders and rape? There’s no way I can enjoy myself because humans are too cruel to each other. But there’s a lot to be said for the fact that under all that, there’s the sense that we’re all the same and I think that attention to the dark side of humanity is important. Many times, I was fighting with that side of me that craves dark music and evil music and heavy stuff. And then, when I got away from it, I was chastised in a lot of ways. In my own mind I was like, “How could you do that?” But at the same time I remembered that what makes humanity beautiful is its duality. Like, “Yeah, man. We’re capable of a lot of things.” And exploring that artistically is more of a statement than a definition of you as a person.

I’ve spent time working with Christian bands and satanic bands and in a lot of ways it’s like this war between the two – Satan versus the Christian thing. It’s not that I don’t agree with that because I understand it, but at the same time, all their time is going to be spent fighting over that. And people will ask me to choose a side, but I don’t really agree totally with both but there are bits of both that I think make perfect sense.

But when it comes to my music, I don’t have an answer to that. So I’m going to play what I feel like playing at the time. Sometimes it ends up being really dark and malicious, and sometimes it’s like a celebration. Ultimately, what we do creatively, be it dark or Christian metal, black metal or folk music, is ultimately an extension of us just trying to express ourselves and that’s cool. So, I think another thing with this record is that it’s not about taking sides.

Whatever you’ve got to do to get by, go for it because none of us have any real clue. Out of all the spiritual people I’ve ever met, I’ve never met one person where I’ve thought, “You’ve got it.” They each have something, but they don’t have it. It’s like, “How could you have it?” With that in mind, artistically-speaking, do what you’ve got to do and get it out in the way that suits you, your path and your personality.

You were saying that everybody has something, but nobody really has it. What’s your thing that you have?

Me? Well, I’ve got a big mole on my neck. I do what I do. Musically, I’m able to express myself in a way that is accurate. I’m organised, relatively kind to strangers. Everybody’s got attributes. I’m selfish, and self-deprecating to a fault. I work obsessively because I’m compensating for shit that happened in my childhood.

But, the thing to be clear about on this is that I honestly don’t have a clue – not even an inkling. And that’s the belittling thing for me – that I don’t know. And every time someone tells you that they do know, they’re setting themselves up not only for a fight, but for a fall too. You know, like, “I’m a guru and I have the answers.” Oh really, well what about this? And their answer is something that’s not totally something I can get behind, but you should watch that “I’m a guru thing” because it’s ultimately going to come back to your childhood or something. And also because somebody smarter than you is going to one day call you on that, and the whole would you’ve built around being a guru is going to come crashing down.

The whole human tradition seems to be based around needing to know and then needing to listen to people who believe they know more than we do. And that’s just bullshit because nobody really knows anything, and if they tell you that they do, then I don’t really have time for people like that. And anyone who thinks that a musician knows because they’re louder than other folks, then I don’t have any time for them either. It’s easy for musicians, as actors, to get respect from people and think, “Well, people like what I do so I must know something more.” But they’re all just doing their thing and I think that this record is a testament to that.

Is it the best sounding record in the world? Of course not. Is it the best record in the world? No, of course it isn’t. But the intention behind it was… here you go. Enough of the mental crap. Here’s a good beat, here’s some big vocals, some good choruses. Oh, and by the way, have you heard of these other bands because they’re every bit as good if not better. So, here’s my contribution to that.

There’s your self-deprecating streak surfacing again!

I think there’s a difference between self-deprecation and realism. I think that the self-deprecating thing is where you reach a point when you’re incapable of moving forward because of your lack of self-confidence. I often think, yeah I’m a bald, kind of funky looking dude, but at the same time, I’m better-looking than about sixty per cent of the people I see walking down the street, so fuck you. I think the important thing is to be aware of what you stand for. That process of figuring out what it is that you stand for and I’m 37, 38 now and it’s taken a lot longer than I thought it would.

You mentioned a mole on your neck as well. Does it have any magical powers?

Yeah, if I press it, it just resets me. I use it at the end of each record. The next one’s going to be very different from this one though. It’s going to be very heavy, metaphoric and very dark.

Can you take me through the album title, Addicted? Because, obviously you’ve had addictions in the past. What does it mean to this album? Is it an umbrella term?

It is an umbrella term. I quit smoking weed a while ago, which took a long time actually. But since I stopped smoking weed, I found myself drinking red wine all the time. OK, so I gave that up. Then I ended up drinking such a lot of coffee. Then I realised that I never exercised because all I was doing was working. So the idea of addiction is that you can get addicted to addiction. To working, to keeping your towels pulled in right. It’s more of a mentality.

I’ve concluded that it’s nothing to do with the thing you’re addicted to that’s the problem. It’s the root of why you’ve got that tendency towards addiction that’s the problem. Some people can drink, smoke, eat ribs and the whole works and be much better folk than most of others. But with others, it’s like the tip of the iceberg. Also abstinence is way easier than moderation because with moderation you have to know yourself. With abstinence, it’s very cut and dry. You know, like, no booze, no sex, no drugs, nothing. But to be moderate you have to trust yourself, and I think some people are just genetically predisposed to do that. But when people can do things in moderation, that’s cool because it’s much harder to do.

If you’re addicted to something all the time, then you’re avoiding the bigger picture, which is that there is nothing out there, which is what you’ve just been talking about.

It’s like you’re addicted to pain in a lot of ways… if I just give in to the temptation, but I think those temptations change because you can give in to yourself once you work on some of those problems and find that you don’t need some of the stuff you thought you did.

A while back, I said, “I’ve gone years without a drink. Maybe this whole moderation thing is something I should explore.” So I poured myself a glass of wine, looked at it and thought: Is it a good idea to do this. So I took a sip, maybe a teaspoon and then it hit me and realised that I’d been relying on this clarity for so long that maybe what I was craving is not the booze itself, but the memories I had of being able to put it aside. Because what that teaspoon of wine was doing was making me feel like dumb so I didn’t drink it, but that was a good realisation. Because maybe, in time, what I crave I’ll be able to give into because it’s not anything that’s going to destroy me.

For a long time, what I really craved was drugs and, as a musician, they put you into a different channel. You’re writing music about drugs and those kind of thoughts, fears and those kind of metaphors that, in a lot of ways, don’t otherwise exist if you’re not on them. So you’re almost like the architect of your own destiny by choosing to do those things. So, with that in mind, it’s good to know that, in the future the things that I’ll want to do will be things that are fine for me to do. So, I think that the whole idea of “Addicted” is that perhaps you’re not necessarily addicted to the booze and the drugs. Maybe what you’re addicted to is guilt or pain or something. I need to suffer, not to enjoy. In the future, I need to suffer now. So, what I found with booze was that I was making myself suffer though interpreting that as enjoyment. I’m still trying to figure it out which is something we’re all doing. I’m just kind of getting through it and writing music about the process as we go.

I was looking at your track list on your website and noticed there was a song called ‘Hyperdrive’ on it. Is it the same song as on Ziltoid?

Yeah, it’s the same song. With the Ziltoid version, there was a real kind of melancholy sense to it. It featured a drum machine and really morose vocal style and I remember thinking, “I love this song. There’s something to this.” And I was so excited that I drew it out of the Ziltoid record because I love it so much and I want to hear it properly finished. And within Ziltoid, the song played a very important role, but when Anneka sent me the email, that was the song she was singing and she had made the it more up tempo and lively and all of a sudden I heard the lyrics in a totally different way – it seemed less of a question and more of a statement. Then I thought, I’d love to redo that song with real drums and have her sing it and that’s what we did.

It’s a really high-energy song now as opposed to this dreamy version that was on the Ziltoid record. But don’t get me wrong, I think that’s a cool version, so I think that when we did it on Addiction I went out of my way to make sure I wasn’t simply redoing it. It’s an updated version of the same song, a different interpretation. Some people will prefer the old version and others the new, but at the same time, they’re apple and oranges, right? The new song is even in a different key, so when it comes on, there will be a moment when you’ll have to kind of suspend that memory of what the Ziltoid one means, which is something I had to do. I just kind of embraced it.

A couple of the other tracks had some pretty unusual names like, ‘Bend it Like Bender’

From Bend it Like Beckham, right? When I was thinking of the show Futurama, and although it has some pretty stupid moments, Bender is awesome. There wasn’t really a lot of thought put into that title, no big metaphor behind it. It’s just a total party song. A few dreams inspired this record. One time I was sleeping and could hear a chord progression in my head and I woke up and thought, “What song is that?” Then I thought, “Oh, shit. It hasn’t been written.” So I got up and wrote it.

With ‘Ih-Ah!’ I heard this song in my head when I was asleep and I woke up at 3.30am and I woke up with a jolt because it was this really moving song and I thought it was the coolest song on the record, yet I hadn’t even written it yet. So I literally got out of bed at 3.30 in the morning, begrudgingly because I was so tired, and I made the demo and had the song completed, other than the vocals, by about noon. So it was just a matter of capturing it all before it went away. I remember Paul Young talking about the collective unconscious where he said, “No art doesn’t exist. It’s always been there.” So it’s just a matter of being able to capture that. And in my dream, the chorus is “Ih-Ah!” and I remember thinking, “That’s the stupidest name for a song ever.” But then I thought that if the song wants to be called that, then so be it.

I wondered if it was going to be screamed or not, because it has an exclamation mark in the title, doesn’t it?

Well, that’s actually the ballad track. It’s important that the record wasn’t overwhelmingly heavy. The vibe of optimism and positivity that I wanted for this album could’ve easily been steamrolled by this, like, crushing metal. So it’s good to throw a ballad in between, because it’s almost like taking a breath before the second half of the record.

There’s also a track called ‘Om’ – is that something to do with meditation?

The track listing you’re looking at is an older version. ‘Om’ was a song I’d written about the devil years ago and it’s a really heavy song about that topic. I took that off because I just wanted ten songs on the record. I was trying to make a record for other folks, more so than for myself. For once I thought, “People want to hear certain things and it’s not necessarily that I’m selling out with this record, because it’s actually very complicated.

But I just realised that I love doing that and I think I’ve ignored the fact that I started entertaining because I wanted to entertain people. I think that the whole “artist trip” is cool. You know, that romantic image of somebody, but in another way it’s like you really want to make people excited with music, don’t you? You want people to sing and dance, so why not just write music like that instead of always that back in favour of an artistic statement.

The third and first records were very much like artistic statements, but for this one I thought, “Let’s do what people want” because that comes naturally to me, so it’s not like I’m going out of my way to do that. There’s always one or two songs, like “Life” or “Stagnant” that make people say, “I really like that song. Can you do more stuff like that?” Then I’m like, “No, that would be too easy.” But this time I thought, just go for it. There’s definitely some really complicated stuff on this album and, not only does it come naturally to me, but I love it and other people like it so what’s the problem?

What’s the name of the song you’re tracking on YouTube?

It’s called ‘Supercrush’ just because, when you have a crush on somebody, sometimes it’s like a big one! Like much of the album, it’s based on the idea of spirituality. The chorus is like, “I don’t want to save my soul.” And whatever that metaphor is for saving your soul, its like, I don’t want to surrender to that. There’s this sense that we have to give in to the fact that we’re ignorant or stupid and it implies that we’ve given up. But when you’re looking at some of those Hubble shots you realise that you can’t know, and if you want to spend your whole life on some sort of quest to know, then good luck.

So, ultimately, the third record is about a guy going on a quest and he ends up realising that what he thought he was close to was the meaning of life. And it turns out that it was totally inconsequential. So ‘Supercrush’ is basically about character, trying to figure it out. And the reason why he doesn’t want to give up is ultimately because he’s addicted to that control and the character is ultimately about me, but I’m just like anybody else. So the first person perspective is based on the artistic state, more so than, “It’s a song about me.” Again, the thing that humans share is the first person perspective, so that’s the idea behind that.   

Could you tell me a little about the third record? It’d be cool to know how things are going to progress with your character from here. It’s called Deconstruction isn’t it?

The character decides to deconstruct it after he’s recognised that there’s something underneath it all that needs to be dealt with. So he decides to take himself apart, every element of himself…from the booze, to the sex, to the religion… and just figure out why he does what he does. In some ways the character is convinced that he can figure it out. That he is more important or intelligent than every other human and he wants to try for a very selfish reason. But at the end of Deconstruction he realises that what he’s looking at is a cheeseburger, which is a metaphor for anything.

By trying to figure out what it is, he’s realised that what he’s looking at is something really stupid and inconsequential and he doesn’t even eat cheeseburgers so he’s got a headache. And he realises through that deconstruction that, no matter how far you go into reality or infinity, you’re always in the middle. That’s the nature of infinity – whatever direction you go in, you’re always where you are. So by going in all these crazy directions you get all this information that ultimately just fills your head with noise.

Deconstruction is a really heavy record, a real symphony in a lot of ways, but with heavy musicians from the metal world – friends of mine. I love metal and have listened to it my whole life so I’m just involved with artists from other bands. Specifically death metal vocals, because I can’t really do that. I can fake it, but I can’t do the real guttural thing. So I’m trying to find friends from death metal bands who can play various characters on the album. It’s going to be an absolutely mind-bendingly heavy record. And then, the last record, where the guy figures out that he doesn’t have all the answers, features acoustic, pop sort of folk songs. Really beautiful mellow things.

So what kind of conclusion does he come to?

I think he realises that the whole quest was sort of pointless, because he’s back exactly where he started in the first place. A little worse for wear because my head’s full of all this stuff, but now I’ve realised that I don’t need to do any of that stuff. It’s not really important at all. The things that are important are free. Maybe being an artist is really nothing to do with making a point or a statement. I’m just doing my thing, I’m accountable for it – for example explaining it in interviews. I’m definitely into explaining what the project is about, but it’s not about me. I’m not on some sort of quest or mission, it’s just an art project.

Throughout the ages, it seems that artists have been trying to connect with something bigger than themselves and so this project is just a rendezvous with that kind of energy. It’s like, here’s this metaphor – look at Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or the Divine Comedy. They’re all basically the same, which seems to prove that humans are simple and very similar to each other. I get mails from people saying, “We’re very much the same.” And, you know what, all humans are the same so keep in mind that as a friend, as a person, there’s a good chance that I wouldn’t get along with ninety per cent of the people who think we’re the same.

I have like three or four friends and am a very private person. As Devin the person I’m very different from my artistic self. Everything that I’m saying, in these song and records, as “I” isn’t necessarily me - it’s the character I’ve created. I mean what do I do? I eat chips and watch TV. There’s no profound anything. I like art, and I’m capable enough to do it the way I feel it needs to be done from my perspective and I’m not afraid to do that any more.

Can you tell me which death metal artists you’ll be working with on the next album?

I want people with established fans. I start touring in January so I’m going to see if anyone will be interested that. There’s a lot of cool vocalists that do a lot of different styles and there are a lot of different characters on this record. So I’d like to be able say, “I know that your band are into this, so here’s a character that personifies that.”

The thing to keep in mind that I don’t want to make a record that tries to haul people up on their beliefs. The characters are more observing the things around them and I don’t want to create parodies of these high-profile metal musicians. I truly want to make a record that’s crazy heavy and there are certain things I can’t do. As a vocalist I can scream and I’ve got a really good singing voice, but I can’t do the really heavy vocals. When I write a song, I hear these monstrous death vocals, but every time I try to do it I can’t. So I want somebody who can shake the floor. I’ve got ideas but I haven’t talked to anyone yet so I don’t want to say anything.

Do you have a title for album four yet?

No, I don’t. But the songs are slowly coming together.

Will you be touring in the UK?

Of course. We’ve just started rehearsing and we’re going to be playing stuff from Ki, Infinity and Addicted.

Does your family influence your music when you’re working at home?

Well, I have to make money, so that definitely has an influence. They give me the strength to keep doing what I’m doing because I would have probably quit music altogether if I hadn’t have had a kid. All of a sudden the kid came along and if I didn’t have a family I’d probably end up living in a shack Unabomber-style, making things out of twigs.

But when you have a family, you have to support them and what are you good at other than music? Other than hamburgers, I’m qualified to do shit. So I’m good at music, so why not get involved in that? Once I was terrified of doing it and letting it all hang out, but then I thought, “If you’re going to do it, then do it” and that’s kind of where I’m at right now.

If you had to live in a shack and make things out of sticks, what would you make?

Furniture, I love the idea of driftwood. I think it looks awesome. I’d love to make these really high-tech pieces of furniture that look really ordinary on the surface and when you open it up, there’s like super high-tech shit inside. I think wood is awesome and that manual labour is underrated because it allows you to connect with yourself. It’s a lot more visceral than sitting around and moping. Maybe after this fourth record that’s what I’ll do.

I’ve also heard that you’ve still got your hair. What did you do with it?

Yeah, it’s in a box. I’ll probably give it away or put it on Ebay and see if anyone wants it.

Do you ever try it on?

No way. That stuff is disgusting. I didn’t wash it for three years and I toured a lot so that stuff is full of snot and sweat. When I finally cut it off I was like, “Why are you keeping that hair?” but it’s like my identity. Then I thought, “But it’s disgusting. So your identity is disgusting?” If I got rid of it, I’d have no hair and then what would people think. I thought, “Well, maybe they’d think you were less disgusting.” But that’s all just a defence mechanism because if people don’t think I’m disgusting then I’m just a normal dude, right? So it’s in a box labelled “hair”.

Are you going to make Ziltoid into a film?

I’d love to. In fact I’d love to make a graphic novel. I’m talking to a few people about that and think there’s a lot of potential for that. He’s coming back on the third record, and he’s pissed too. When the Ziltoid record came out, a lot of people thought it was a metaphor and he was bummed about it and he’d been bitching about it to me. So he went back to it and wrote a couple of songs and they’re crazy. He just let it all hang out this time because he feels the need to clarify a few things. He’s always going to be a nerd.

Your username on YouTube is “Poopy Nuggeteer.” Why is that?

I’m so into scatological humour. I think it’s something really cool to think about. Even the most brilliant person still poops. I imagine this scenario where people, who are infinitely more intelligent than you and I, are sitting around in a room talking about secret government masonry and superstructure, but in the middle of it, a guy has to get up to take a shit. That’s something that really connects humans, other than being born and dying. We all shit and fart. So, nothing gets me going better than a good fart joke.

Have you heard of the book Everybody Poos?

Yes. I’ve also got one called, What’s Your Poo Telling You?

Have you got any final messages?

I hope that when this music comes out, people will see it for what it is. There’s no hidden agenda, no bullshit. I do what I do and there it is.      

Read Bizarre's review of Addicted in issue 156