HEVYDEVY FORUMS

I'm sure it happened to most of you, overhearing the same albums and songs over and over and although you still love and praise the artist/band, it gets to a point when you wake up and you just can't listen to it anymore. It happened with Tool, it happened with A Perfect Circle, it happened with Muse. I mean, if any of those bands were to perform near me I would probably shit my pants and cry for a ticket, but it's not the same feeling as before. And now I'm afraid it will happen again with Dev. For the last couple of months I find myself every day trying to listen some random songs and then getting back to Dev's music and I just wonder how long it'll gonna last 'till I get tired and never listen to it again, but I just can't help it. Since I got into syl/dt/dtb/dtp the rest of my music library just seems obsolete and I can't get through a day without listening to Hyperdrive or Awake!! or BilB! or Stagnant or Bastard (etc), so I'm really worried this joy will end soon.

So what should I do? Keep away from my computer for a week? Sell my ipod? Live in a cave for a month? Kill my dog? Plz help.

I see that his music is part of your life, so there is nothing to worry about.

I had the same fear, but it came back to me like a boomerang and I returned to listening after a few short days.

Decon, Ghost and new Ziltoid are on their way, so... Heheh. As you can see it's not going to be that hard.

I thought that might happen to me too, it happened for Ayreon recently, which is a shame.
Devin's music is just so resonant with me that I don't think that I will ever start hating it. One thing my younger brother does which annoys the shit out of me is play ONE song of an entire album and listen to only that ONE song for ages. That kind of ignorance kills a song.

Between Dev solo stuff and SYL, It covers such a huge range of musical genres and styles that I love. Because of that, Dev's music is nowhere near being overheard by me. It's truly amazing. Every other artist I listen to dies after time. But with Dev's music, that just is not the case.

the_s_rabbit wrote:Every other artist I listen to dies after time. But with Dev's music, that just is not the case.

I've thought about this a lot.. I don't think it's the artist becoming old, so much as it is us accepting a change in ourselves and moving on.

Every artist that has ever made me feel something, and I really mean feel something special, has only lasted as long as I was that same person who was listening to the music for the first time. People change, and with that, their tastes evolve, and that's nearly always good. It is difficult to argue that change is a bad thing. Look at Devin. We all love him. He is not the same now as he was 5 years ago, and he was not the same 5 years ago as he was 15 years ago, and fucking hell, I for one am the better for it. God knows what I'd be listening to if he hadn't released Alien, or Terria. Or Ocean Machine. Or Ziltoid. I think in the past 4 years he as accepted change better than a lot of us could.. I mean, having written 15 albums or so, and having to give up something that your musical identity is heavily involved in.

A month ago I was in music college and I felt miserable. I was being taught music from such a mechanical standpoint and I felt myself losing touch with the music I loved most. Because of that, I stopped listening to SYL and DTB and the solo albums, because it was too painful. I was scared that I was already at the stage where I had gotten past Dev's music and it depressed me. After that I quit music school and began my quest to do music my way, and that started with reconnecting with Devin's music. But the problem is when you begin to force something like that, to force your emotions, it all becomes for show and you end up not really feeling anything at all. For that reason, I have only heard to the first 4 tracks of Addicted, because I am busy and don't have the time at the moment to sit down and give it any real attention. I don't want to force it. When I hear it I want it to be casual, so my emotions are flowing freely. I have also never heard Physicist, or Infinity, and I don't want to force myself to listen to Dev's entire discography, because I want it to come naturally. When I want to, I will do it. Until then I've decided I want to keep it a surprise.

In summary, I think fearing the day that we 'get sick' of Devin's music is actually a shortcut to that happening. Be open to new experiences, be open to the fact that there may be better music out there.. if we keep our ears open and listen to lots of stuff, and nothing comes close, then won't that reinvigorate our love of his music? I nearly always find that it does. Or even if there is something truly amazing out there, won't it lend a different view to the 'collective unconscious' which Devin refers to so much, and hence broaden our horizons without diminishing our love for the Dev? I think it almost certainly would.

mrbean667 wrote:One thing my younger brother does which annoys the shit out of me is play ONE song of an entire album and listen to only that ONE song for ages. That kind of ignorance kills a song.

Yeah, that's what happened with RHCP for me. I used to like them but then they released Stadium Arcadium and Snow ((Hey Oh)) was the summer hit of the year and was playing fucking EVERYWHERE I would go. Soon enough I was hating the song and the band and since then I never heard 'em again.

Capillarian wrote:Every artist that has ever made me feel something, and I really mean feel something special, has only lasted as long as I was that same person who was listening to the music for the first time. People change, and with that, their tastes evolve, and that's nearly always good. It is difficult to argue that change is a bad thing. Look at Devin. We all love him. He is not the same now as he was 5 years ago, and he was not the same 5 years ago as he was 15 years ago, and fucking hell, I for one am the better for it. God knows what I'd be listening to if he hadn't released Alien, or Terria. Or Ocean Machine. Or Ziltoid. I think in the past 4 years he as accepted change better than a lot of us could.. I mean, having written 15 albums or so, and having to give up something that your musical identity is heavily involved in.

You got a really good point there. I got into Tool and APC when I was very frustrated and God only knows how much I emotionally connected to The Grudge, Parabola, The Hollow and so on. After I made peace with myself I couldn't listen it anymore, it's not that the songs aren't awesome, it's just that I don't connect to them anymore and I don't wanna go back to that time. Maybe I got into them in the wrong mood but oh well. They still fucking rule and I eagerly await their next albums.

Capillarian wrote:In summary, I think fearing the day that we 'get sick' of Devin's music is actually a shortcut to that happening. Be open to new experiences, be open to the fact that there may be better music out there.. if we keep our ears open and listen to lots of stuff, and nothing comes close, then won't that reinvigorate our love of his music? I nearly always find that it does. Or even if there is something truly amazing out there, won't it lend a different view to the 'collective unconscious' which Devin refers to so much, and hence broaden our horizons without diminishing our love for the Dev? I think it almost certainly would.

That's what I'm saying, I listen to LOTS of different music. From A Silver Mt. Zion to Messhuggah, from Pat Metheny to Zimmers Hole, from Pink Floyd to 65daysofstatic, Opeth, AC/DC, etc... but right now I find myself in a point that when I'm listening some random band I'm just counting the minutes left so I can go listen that Dev's song that's been stuck in my head all day. But yeah, since his catalogue is so long and diverse it fits all kinds of moods, so I guess I won't get tired anytime soon.

going postal wrote:the rest of my music library just seems obsolete

Mr. Townsend makes all music obsolete.

It's all in the song writing. Everyone else tries to one-up their last or best record. Dev's approach is purely cathartic, as he likes to say. I didn't have to learn to accept anything, because I already love all the various styles in his music. The only exceptions are songs that are "shuffle" based. I hate the shuffle. War is Ok, but I have to skip Trainfire. I can't get past the Elvis-ish shuffle shit. It makes me think of corny wedding receptions.

Other than that, I love all of it, and I love that it keeps changing. As long as he doesn't go down the hip-hop road...I'll be happy.

To cut a long story short: Dev has been my number 1 artist for the last... 9 months in fact! I know it's not always gonna stay that way but seriously at the moment a huge chunk of music I like kinda feels ... Less awesome because I'm so "obsessed" with Devin's music.

But even if I do get "bored" of some of it, I think there's a big chance that I can always find something in Devin's catalog that I can connect to.

And it's not like I ALWAYS want to listen to Devin and fortunately there's quite a few good alternatives to be found when you don't feel like Dev is the choice.

Honestly, out of all the music in my library Devin's has had the most staying power. I think it helps that while all of his music has a unique sound to it there's a load of variety there.

If you do get sick of it man, it's not the end of the world, just enjoy the music while you do - it's not like it makes you a bad person or anything. Tastes have a habit of of constantly changing and evolving and sometimes it's nigh on impossible to fight that.

Yeah, I certainly have grown out of bands in my life, but even when I get tired of one album, I can come back to it later and it will sound fresh. Right now, I've reconnected with City, and it hits me harder than the first time I heard it. And the best thing about Dev's music is that has he ages and matures, so will his music. So I think I will always enjoy his music for the rest of my life.

Mamba187 wrote:If you do get sick of it man, it's not the end of the world, just enjoy the music while you do - it's not like it makes you a bad person or anything. Tastes have a habit of of constantly changing and evolving and sometimes it's nigh on impossible to fight that.

A shorter, more eloquent way of saying what I was trying to say .

I get a lot of listening out of Devin's music, because of all the layers. You can listen to most songs over and over, and hear something different every time.

If I get bored of an album though, I just stop listening to it for about a month or so. When I come back to it, it's just as good as it was before.

The Oid wrote:If I get bored of an album though, I just stop listening to it for about a month or so. When I come back to it, it's just as good as it was before.

That happens to everyone of course. You just can't and shouldn't listen to one album for months in a row. Taking breaks makes it fresh again later.