I had met Ryan of Devin Townsend Project several times before the shooting and when I asked him to be part of drumtalk on their Epic Industrialist tour together with Fear Factory in 2012 at Substage in Karlsruhe/Germany he was enthused immediately. However, he wanted to do a little more than just presenting warm-ups, which led me to conceive the first real episode of drumtalk. Using better equipment than before we set out to board DTP’s nightliner. The bus was stuffed with balloons and a lot of party utensils (who can spot the penis?) because the night before the crew had celebrated Ryan’s fortieth birthday.
Ryan talks about a lot of motivating and thought provoking aspects of drumming which are not just restricted to drumming but aimed to any instrument – especially his “no pressure to perform” approach is appealing to me. He points out that drumming is all about yourself: individuality, positive thinking and patience and the fun you have while playing. And fun we had filming this one, too.