List of Devin Townsend's bands members

Strapping Young Lad in 2006, Devin Townsend Project in 2014 and Devin Townsend in 2023

Devin Townsend is a Canadian singer, songwriter and musician who has had a very prolific career, being a member of many projects and releasing 28 albums. He first got exposure when he sang lead vocals on Steve Vai's Sex & Religion album and tour in 1993,^[1] and when he played guitar on The Wildhearts 1994 European tour.^[2] He currently tours under his own name with guitarist and keyboardist Mike Keneally (who first joined in 2019), bassist James Leach and drummer Darby Todd (both since 2021).^[3]

History

While touring with The Wildhearts, he co-founded a short lived thrash metal trio with Jason Newsted (Metallica) on vocals and bass, Townsend on guitar, and Tom Hunting (Exodus) on drums. The trio recorded a couple of songs and then dispanded.^[4] He also provided much of the guitar work on the 1994 album Millennium and the 1995 album Hard Wired by Vancouver industrial band Front Line Assembly.

Townsend began to record material under the pseudonym Strapping Young Lad (SYL), he produced and performed nearly all the instruments on the debut studio album, Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing, which was released in April 1995. Townsend assembled a permanent lineup of Strapping Young Lad to record City, including prolific metal drummer Gene Hoglan (Dark Angel, Death, Testament), along with Townsend's former bandmates Jed Simon on guitar and Byron Stroud on bass.^[5]

After releasing two albums with SYL, and four solo albums, he formed The Devin Townsend Band, which consisted of Brian "Beav" Waddell on guitar, Mike Young on bass, Ryan Van Poederooyen on drums, and Dave Young on keyboards, all of whom contributed to Accelerated Evolution. Both SYL and the DTB disbanded in 2006 when Townsend withdrew from touring to spend time with his family.^[6]^[7]

In 2009, Townsend started the Devin Townsend Project as a four-album series.^[8] After releasing Ki and Addicted in 2009, he returned to the stage in January 2010 with a band including Young on guitar and keyboards, Waddell on bass, Van Poederooyen on drums and Anneke van Giersbergen on female vocals. The DTP continued until 2018, at which point it consisted of Young, Waddell, Van Poederooven and keyboardist Mike St-Jean.^[9]

While the DTP for active, Townsend had a side project with singer Ché Aimee Dorval and drummer Morgan Ågren,^[10] under the name Casualties of Cool who have released one self titled album to date.^[11]

Townsend toured under his own name for the first time in 2019, the line-up included Mike Keneally (guitar, keyboards), Morgan Agren (drums), Nathan Navarro (bass), Che Aimee Dorval (guitars, vocals), Diego Tejeida (keyboards) and Markus Reuter (touch guitar).^[12] He played the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise in January 2020, with guitarist Wes Hauch (ex-The Faceless, Black Crown Initiate), bassist Kyle Konkiel (Bad Wolves), and drummer Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, ex-Soilwork).^[13]

In early 2020 he was joined by guitarist Hauch, bassist Liam Wilson (The Dillinger Escape Plan) and drummer Kerim Lechner (Decapitated, Septicflesh),^[14] however most shows were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later in the year Townsend played a virtual concert with Hauch, Wilson and drummer Samus Paulicelli.^[15] He headlined Bloodstock Open Air in 2021 with drummer Darby Todd, bassist James Leach and guitarist Stephen Platt.^[16] The same musicians also played with Townsend in 2022.^[17] Keneally returned to replace Platt for Townsends 2023 tour.^[3]

Members

Members of current touring band

Name	Years active	Band(s)	Instruments	Release contributions
Devin Townsend	1994–present	All	guitars lead vocals keyboards theremin bass	all releases
Mike Keneally	2019–2020 2023–present	Solo	guitars keyboards backing vocals	Empath (2019) The Puzzle (2021) Lightwork (2022) Empath: Live in America (2023) PowerNerd (2024)
James Leach	2021–present		bass	none to date
Darby Todd	2021–present		drums	Lightwork (2022) PowerNerd (2024)

Former members

Name	Years active	Band(s)	Instruments	Release contributions
Adrian White	1994–1995	Strapping Young Lad	drums	Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing (1995) SYL Cooked on Phonics (1996) City (1997) SYL
Ashley Scribner			bass	Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing (1995) SYL
Mike Sudar			guitars	Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing (1995) SYL
Jed Simon	1995–2007 (guest 2012)		guitars backing vocals	all SYL releases Physicist (2000) The Retinal Circus (2013) The Puzzle (2021)
Byron Stroud	1996–2007		bass backing vocals	all SYL releases, except Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing (1995) Cooked on Phonics (1996) Physicist (2000)
Gene Hoglan	1996–2007		drums	all SYL releases, except Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing (1995) Infinity (1998) Physicist (2000) Terria (2001)
Dave Young	2002–2018	Devin Townsend Band Devin Townsend Project	guitars (2009–2018) keyboards (2002–2014) backing vocals	all DTB releases Alien (2005) SYL Ki (2009) DTP Addicted (2009) DTP Ghost (June 20, 2011) DTP By a Thread: Live in London 2011 (2012) DTP Epicloud (2012) DTP The Retinal Circus (2013) Z² (2014) DTP Transcendence (2016) DTP Ocean Machine - Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv (2018) DTP
Brian "Beav" Waddell			guitars (2002–2006) bass (2009–2018) backing vocals	all DTB releases Addicted (2009) DTP By a Thread: Live in London 2011 (2012) DTP Epicloud (2012) DTP The Retinal Circus (2013) Z² (2014) DTP Transcendence (2016) DTP Ocean Machine - Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv (2018) DTP
Ryan Van Poederooyen			drums	all DTB releases Addicted (2009) DTP Deconstruction (2011) DTP By a Thread: Live in London 2011 (2012) DTP Epicloud (2012) DTP The Retinal Circus (2013) Z² (2014) DTP Transcendence (2016) DTP Ocean Machine - Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv (2018) DTP
Mike Young	2002–2006	Devin Townsend Band	bass	all DTB releases
Anneke van Giersbergen	2009–2017	Devin Townsend Project	additional vocals	Addicted (2009) DTP By a Thread: Live in London 2011 (2012) DTP Epicloud (2012) DTP The Retinal Circus (2013) Z² (2014) DTP Transcendence (2016) DTP The Puzzle (2021) Lightwork (2022)
Mark Cimino	2009		guitars	Addicted (2009) DTP Z² (2014) The Puzzle (2021)
Mike St-Jean	2014–2018		keyboards	Ghost (2011) DTP Casualties of Cool (2014) CoC Z² (2014) DTP Transcendence (2016) DTP Ocean Machine - Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv (2018) DTP The Puzzle (2021)
Ché Aimee Dorval	2014 2019–2020	Casualties of Cool Solo	vocals guitar	Ki (2009) Casualties of Cool (2014) CoC Transcendence (2016) DTP Empath (2019) The Puzzle (2021) Snuggles (2021) Lightwork (2022) Empath: Live in America (2023)
Morgan Ågren	2014 2019–2020	Casualties of Cool Solo	drums percussion	Casualties of Cool (2014) CoC Z² (2014) DTP Empath (2019) The Puzzle (2021) Snuggles (2021) Lightwork (2022) Empath: Live in America (2023)
Nathan Navarro	2019–2020	Solo	bass	Empath (2019) The Puzzle (2021) Snuggles (2021) Lightwork (2022) Empath: Live in America (2023)
Diego Tejeida	2019–2020		keyboards	The Puzzle (2021) Snuggles (2021) Lightwork (2022) Empath: Live in America (2023) PowerNerd (2024)
Arabella Backford	2019		backing vocals	The Puzzle (2021) Snuggles (2021)
Anne Preis
Samantha Preis
Markus Reuter			touch guitars	Snuggles (2021)
Wes Hauch	2020		guitars	Galactic Quarantine (2021)
Dirk Verbeuren	2020 (Metal cruise shows only)		drums	Deconstruction (2011) DTP
Kyle Konkiel	2020 (Metal cruise shows only)		bass	none
Liam Wilson	2020		bass	Galactic Quarantine (2021)
Kerim “Krimh” Lechner			drums	none
Samus Paulicelli			drums	Empath (2019) Galactic Quarantine (2021)
Stephen Platt	2021–2022		guitars	none