The story behind HYPERDRIVE! – the dream collab between Devin Townsend and Anneke Van Giersbergen.
Originally a Ziltoid deep-cut, Hyperdrive! became a much-loved euphoric anthem with the addition of Anneke on vocals – and would also pave the way for a wonderful partnership
WHEN IT COMES to collaborations, few recent examples have elicited as much unbridled joy as the music Devin Townsend and Anneke van Giersbergen have made together. From the moment we first heard Anneke’s voice soaring over Devin’s glorious riffs on 2009’s Addicted album, it was clear that this Dutch-canadian crossover was, and is, a match made in heaven. Addicted
was an album that revealed a new and disarmingly accessible side to Devin’s music, while showcasing a newly formed partnership that’s since proved to be both enduring and highly productive. Speaking to them both on the now-obligatory Zoom call, Hammer
discovers that their working together seems to have been an inevitability.
“I knew of Anneke and The Gathering because Strapping Young Lad were signing to the same label,” Devin recalls. “I remember being played Mandylion in a car in LA, and thinking, ‘Fuck, that is so good!’
I listened to it over and over and over again. The thing about Annie’s voice that appealed to me so much was it was super-strong, super-pure and super-confident but without having to be anything other than what it was. There was nothing about it that was indirect, and I really, really liked that, because I hadn’t heard that before.”
“I knew Devin from his work with Steve Vai and from Strapping Young Lad, I knew all his work,” Anneke grins. “We went to a concert when he played with Strapping in Nijmegen, and he came into the audience and he walked right past me, but I didn’t dare touch him on the shoulder! Ha ha ha! I was a little bit shy. But that’s way before I started out on my solo career and did a cover of a Ziltoid song…”
Devin and Anneke’s relationship began with a single song: Hyperdrive! Originally released on Devin’s 2007 concept album Ziltoid The Omniscient, it was a feisty and memorable deep cut that added a little depth and emotional heft to what was, in reality, a record about a rubber-faced alien freak with flatulence issues and a dangerous coffee habit. Meanwhile, Anneke had just left The Gathering and embarked on a career as a solo artist. Eager to play live, she was aware that she didn’t have a vast number of her own songs to perform, and so an idea was hatched.
“I didn’t really have an oeuvre yet, so I wanted to have some cool cover songs in the set. I love Devin’s music, so we did Hyperdrive!. We played it on tour in Santiago, Chile, in 2009 and it was our opening song. There was a Youtube clip of it, and I thought, ‘This looks cool because there’s a lot of people there and they’re all cheering! So maybe I could send this to Devin, to let him know that I’m alive and to let him know that I appreciate his music so much.’”
“When I saw the cover she’d done of Hyperdrive!? Well, God hates a coward, right?” Devin laughs. “So I sent her an email, ‘Hey there, my name’s Dev! Wanna come and sing on my shit?’ Like most of us, I try to be as aware of my intuition as possible. I’d like to say it was premeditated in a way that’s more clever than it actually was, but I woke up one day and thought, ‘Wow, she sounds great and she’s singing one of my songs and that means she’s at least aware of me, so what’s her email?’ Ha ha!”
“I remember the first phone call,” says Anneke. “We had a really bad connection because I’d just moved to the middle of nowhere, so I had to stand way out in the garden and Devin was breaking up really terribly! But eventually we got talking, and we were talking about kids and music and family and we had so much in common. Within weeks or months I was travelling to Canada to join him in the studio and that was amazing.”
The second part of a sprawling, fouralbum conceptual extravaganza about a cheeseburger, Addicted was recorded in the summer of 2009 and released that November. It was instantly hailed
as a classic by Devin’s rabid army of admirers, with Anneke’s vocals routinely singled out as one of the album’s most mesmerising selling points. In particular, a new version of Hyperdrive! provided Addicted with a profound moment of hands-in-the-air euphoria; its rousing refrain of ‘Every day’s a new day!’ sounding even more powerful and poignant than before.
“When I wrote it, my wife and I had just had our son, about 15 years ago, and there was a transition period probably similar to what Annie was going through, where I’d left Strapping Young Lad and I was trying to re-evaluate my life,” says Devin. “So the whole idea of ‘Every day’s a new day’ is a bittersweet thing, because on some level you’re starting a new life as a father and into sobriety or whatever your scene is, but you’re leaving behind a whole other life, in a sense. Although it was the healthy thing to do, there is also a sense of melancholy to that, I think, that really underpins it.”
“As a listener, everyone can put their own story into it, but it’s a very positive song,” adds Anneke. “The music really fits the lyrics. The funny thing is, the Ziltoid version is more mellow and soft, and the version we did together is very powerful, but both are uplifting.”
Although Devin has always placed melody front and centre in the vast majority of his music, the succinctness and sweetness of the crushing but catchy tunes on Addicted went down so well that many may have expected him to repeat the trick for the follow-up. Unfortunately, despite being thrilled by what he and Anneke had achieved, the next part of the cheeseburger themed concept quadrilogy – the mutant, extreme prog metal nightmare of 2011’s Deconstruction – was already slithering down the pipeline.
“I wish sometimes I could control how this all works, because then maybe I could follow up an album like Addicted with something similar and start a trajectory that could get some momentum,” Devin shrugs. “Because I remember when Addicted was done, the label and manager were like, ‘That’s great, we’ll take more of that!’
But the next album was Deconstruction,
and when I delivered that, they were like, ‘But we had choruses and now we don’t!’ Ha ha! But I never try to manipulate the flow into a way that’s more commercial. When it becomes clear that there’s a commercial slant to it, then I’m genuinely excited!”
Since recording Addicted, Devin and Anneke have worked and toured together on multiple occasions. In particular, they both point to 2012’s much-praised Epicloud album as a great
“I LOOK UP TO DEVIN BUT I ALSO LOVE HIM AS A FRIEND”
ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN
example of the intense creativity that erupts when they join forces.
“Devin is really fast-working,” Anneke smiles. “When I’m in Canada, we don’t waste any time, so I get there super-jet-lagged, we get coffee and I start singing. We do 12-hour days for four days then I go home and I don’t know who I am anymore! Ha ha! But when I hear it back it always sounds amazing. Devin has a great ear. When he hears me singing, he knows what my range is, what my abilities are. So when he writes parts for me, he knows exactly what I’m able to do. Not a lot of people can do that. It’s great chemistry.”
“Annie does this thing that happens with her voice at a certain range,” Devin interjects. “Not at the top of her range, but at three-quarters of her range, there’s this spot that is so powerful. She does it on Angel from Epicloud. And when she was singing it I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, she’s a warrior! She’s badass!’ When she hit that note, man, you don’t fuck with that. Ever.”
Back in the rubbish here and now, Devin and Anneke are clearly separated by geography for the foreseeable. Nonetheless, the magic that happens when they make music together is undeniable and both insist that they will grab every opportunity to do it all again. After all, every day’s a new day.
“I always learn so much from Devin,” Anneke concludes. “Whenever we meet, I pick his brains about everything, about ways to record music, about production, songwriting, singing and performing. I look up to him but I also love him as a friend. When Devin needs me, he can always ask and I’ll always be there, and vice versa.”
“I think our relationship has evolved in a wonderful way,” adds Devin. “It’s a shame we live on opposite sides of the planet, because it makes the logistics difficult. But she has been involved in some of my most magical moments. Talking about this now, I realise how thankful I am for her participation in my music. It’s been such an honour. To have that voice singing on my dumb songs has been really wonderful.”
ANNEKE’S THE DARKEST SKIES ARE THE BRIGHTEST AND DEVIN’S DEVOLUTION SERIES #1 – ACOUSTICALLY INCLINED
ARE BOTH OUT NOW VIA INSIDEOUT MUSIC
“ANNIE’S VOICE IS SUPERSTRONG, SUPER-PURE AND SUPER-CONFIDENT”
DEVIN TOWNSEND