Interview by: Benji Womack for Your Music Magazine and

Sound of the Underground Tour by Benji - Strapping Young Lad

Photography by PhotoGrafiti

Strapping Young Lad interview with frontman Devin Townsend at SOTU

Benji: What major star would you like to hear raving about your band?
Chumpus: Chewbacca.
Benji: If you could ingrain a way of thinking and acting in the minds of young people, what would it be?
Chumpus: It would be rainbows and sunshine so everybody could get along. Honestly, I think people need to talk each other more...so there.
Benji: What do you think about people who dissect music and put it into categories?
Chumpus: People are looking for reasons to do that; I think that the brain wants to do things like that. If you have art that provides you an outlet to do it, it can become an obsession. It’s wise to realize an obsessive mind wants to project into art things that aren’t necessarily there so they feel better about “it” or how it relates to there lives.
Benji: Besides making music, what do you do just for yourself?
Chumpus: I hang out with my wife, I eat, I sleep, I drink lots of coffee, and I drive in my car. Not much really, when I’m not making music I’m thinking about making music.
Benji: Having come from Canada, do you think it gives something more to your music than the bands coming out of America?
Chumpus: I guess it gives us a chance to view it a little differently because we’re not a part of it but we’re so close to it that we’re essentially……like, Canada is essentially America in a lot of ways; right. But we’re still not. So, as a band we are able to say, “this is what we see” as a brother. Which I think is pretty unique.
Benji: What is your favorite part of Sounds of the Underground?
Chumpus: Hanging out with lots of cool people, having B.B.Q.’s, screaming my balls off at 3:00 in the afternoon. It’s been lots of fun, it’s summer, it couldn’t be any better.
Benji: Tell me the feeling you get performing on stage.
Chumpus: It feels like a connection. It’s like everyone’s in on a joke.