Billy Talent

For many years, Billy Talent has been a band that teens across the globe worship and relate to. The four members have been together for more than 17 years, and consider themselves brothers. Just finishing off their recent Canadian Tour, drummer Aaron Solowoniuk said him and the band couldn’t be more excited about their next string of shows, as well as Billy Talent IV.

Aaron, from when you first started playing, and throughout your career, who has been your biggest music inspiration?

My main inspirations would be the drummer Brad Wilk of Rage Against The Machine. However, as a musician, the guys in my band are my biggest music inspiration and always have been. So it’s kind of a combination of both.
 
Your band has been together for 17 years. Did you think you would be playing together for so long when you first started?

Yes, when we started playing it was so constant. We always religiously rehearsed three or four times a week and never thought about doing anything else. I couldn’t see anything happening except playing with them for the rest of my career.
 
Since you have been together for so long, there have obviously been some ups and downs in your relationship. How do you deal with the downs?

We just show respect, give each other space and understand each other. We have been together and known one another for so long, that we’re just brothers. Family members have good times and bad times, just like we do. When we have a down time we talk about it and give it space, it’s really not that hard.
 
The nationwide arena tour must have been amazing for you. What was it like playing arena shows to massive crowds across Canada?

It was really cool playing going to places we’ve never been before. Just being able to travel with such great groups of people was amazing. The day the tour started we had been on the road for weeks already. We got to meet a lot of people. It’s probably the best tour I’ve ever done.
 
How did you choose your supporting bands for this tour?

With this tour, we got to put together a “who do you want wishlist?”. So we put one together and it came true. We had Gallows set to open for us and that was going to be good, but unfortunately in the end they couldn’t play for us.
 
During this past tour, where was your favorite place to play?

For this last tour it was probably Toronto or Montreal. They were both great, great nights. There was something that was so cool about those shows. We had a lot of fun times on this tour. We just hung out and did a lot of other things other aside from playing music.

You must know how much your music has changed the lives and experiences for so many people. Do you have a favorite memory about a fan that you have affected?

I think it’s really cool when you get to meet kids who have tattoos of our lyrics. It’s cool how many people can relate the lyrics to someone or something close to them. So just seeing kids with Billy Talent tattoos is pretty crazy. It’s a life commitment and to see them with that branded on them is pretty cool.
 
You guys have played in so many different places, for such diverse groups and sizes of people. What venue would you say is best suited for your style?

I like theatres. Like old theatres that have been turned into rock clubs and performance venues. There are tons of them over the world, like The Opera House. Places where you can see their history. The Sound Academy is my favourite. The seats are all gone, the floors are all sloped, it’s just legendary. Everyone has played there. Just thinking of playing there is fascinating and we have gotten to play it like three or four times now.
 
What was the hardest part about starting up a band, what were some of the original challenges you faced getting your material out there?

Getting people to like us. When we first started we didn’t really fit into any scene. Grunge had just started and our band would play with the hardcore bands and the ska ones. We would play in little tiny clubs with 20 or 30 people coming to see us.

Even when I was 27-years-old, I was in the band for ten years and nothing was happening. Once we switched our band name from Pezz to Billy Talent and focused on our sound, everything just snowballed from there. We’ve just paid our dues for so long that we will never take anything, like our popularity, for granted because it took us so long to get there.
 
Does the band go into the studio with a plan and idea of how an album is going to turn out, or does it evolve while you guys jam?

We work on riffs and play on top of what we’ve been coming up with. We never talk about the sound we want to make, it just comes out. There is never a discussion.
 
Every fan is eagerly anticipating your next album, when should we expect Billy Talent IV?

Good question. I’m really excited about IV as its going to be really new for us. We are making a big move to a new place to create it and it’s going to be absolutely wonderful.
 
Your debut album Billy Talent was instantly popular and worshiped by many teens. Do you have any ideas as to why and how this record has instigated such sentimental attachment in this age bracket?

I don’t know. I think for Canadian music at the time there was nothing really like it. Not only was it what the songs were about, it was also just the sound and the stories. The band was completely different and Canada knew that. I guess it was kind of a new regime. Alexisonfire came out afterwards and Our Lady Peace was already pretty popular. We were all kind of opening the floodgates for radio stations to be more open minded.

But I don’t know. Honestly, nobody really knows what kids will be into. You just do what you do and hope they like it. It’s a mystery.

Julia McMullin
Blare Magazine
April 7, 2010

It was like Ben Kowalewicz was relishing his hometown arena-sized Billy, er, bully pulpit.

As lead singer for Toronto band Billy Talent, the energy and crazed-eye intensity he possesses was in full force Sunday night at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre. And it was that verve which had the near-capacity, teen-dominated crowd in the group’s hand for most of their 90-minute set.

Marking the final stop on an extensive Canadian tour supporting their latest album Billy Talent III, the “four idiots from Mississauga” (their words, not mine) began the rather evenly paced performance with Devil In A Midnight Mass.

“Home sweet f------ home!” Kowalewicz shouted before This Suffering and the first screamo-rock highlight in Line & Sinker fuelled by guitarist Ian D’Sa.

The band also was determined to emphasize the fact they are indeed Canadian, whether with the “Welcome Home Boys” written on a large Canadian flag, a smaller flag on bassist’s John Gallant’s amp, a maple leaf on D’Sa’s guitar or a Team Canada t-shirt with Crosby and 87 on the back. “Best goal ever!” Kowalewicz said holding up the t-shirt prior to delving into the slower but beefy Rusted From The Rain.

A lot of the new songs didn’t seem to have as much oomph as the early material, but the encore-opening Devil On My Shoulder, the hard-driving Diamond On A Landmine (which saw a bra tossed onstage) and Turn Your Back held their own. Turn Your Back also featured a guest appearance by Tom Gabel, lead singer of support act Against Me!

After showing a 2007 photo from a show at the same venue, Billy Talent asked fans to light up the arena with lighters, cell phones or anything else they could find for the slower, somewhat tender Nothing To Lose. It was the last moment of calm before a bruising storm of The Ex and an extended Try Honesty wrapped up the main set.

Kowaleciwz had a few more foot-stomping moments onstage for Fallen Leaves and Red Flag, but by then it was apparent arenas are beginning to suit them.

Prior to Billy Talent, Alexisonfire ran through a 40-minute set mixing the older, shrieking nuggets like No Transitory and Boiled Frogs with more adventurous recent material from their new album Old Crows/Young Cardinals. About to perform a cover of Rush’s Tom Sawyer across town at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony, the band led by Dallas Green and George Pettit shone on Young Cardinals and especially the slower, groovier The Northern.

Toronto’s Cancer Bats opened up the four-band gig early but it was punk rock band Against Me! which nearly stole the show. Playing almost seamlessly – and with a style in the vein of Social Distortion and The Gaslight Anthem -- songs like Don’t Lose Touch, Stop!, Thrash Unreal and I Was a Teenage Anarchist are instant party starters. As well, Against Me!’s Gabel brought out Billy Talent’s Gallant and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk for one song, dubbing the new super group Against Talent.

There was a time, around the initial success of bands like Sum 41 and Simple Plan, that mainstream Canadian punk seemed about to fully descend into emo whinging and the brattier melodies of Avril Lavigne.

But in front of more than 10,200 fans at the Bell Centre, Mississauga's Billy Talent showed why all was not lost to bubblegum pop run through a distortion pedal. With St. Catharines's Alexisonfire and Toronto's Cancer Bats, Wednesday's concert presented a look Canada's punk scene from various angles, with a solid performance from Florida's Against Me! thrown in for good measure.

Initially called Pezz, Billy Talent formed in 1993, releasing the album Watoosh! under their original name in 1999. But it wasn't until 2003's eponymous album - and its breakout single "Try Honesty" - that the band found mainstream success with their unique brand of alt-punk, going multi-platinum with that record and 2006's Billy Talent II. Their latest album, 2009's Billy Talent III, continues to showcase their unique modern sound, which balances catchy but angular melodies with an inventive musicality that avoids the math-nerd complexities of post-hardcore.

Starting the show with the fuzzed-out intro to "Devil in a Midnight Mass", the band came out with enough energy to match the frenzied crowd. Initially, the guitar tone seemed worryingly processed and buzzing, like a Nintendo rocking out through a broken bass amp. But thankfully, the mix cleaned up by the second song, "This Suffering". The sound was near-flawless after that, allowing vocalist Ben Kowalewicz to cleanly deliver infectious choruses with his trademark nasal urgency; effective, despite occasionally evoking Fran Drescher calling for help.

Next, bassist Jonathan Gallant and guitarist Ian D'Sa traded off notes in a doomy, menacing intro before launching into "Line & Sinker", from their 2003 album. Then, new song "Rusted from the Rain" and recent single "Saint Veronika". An early highlight came when 2004's "River Below" kicked off with its antagonistic, catchy guitar riff.

That song perhaps best encapsulates Billy Talent's appeal. Mixing menace with pathos, Kowalewicz's lyrics perfectly blend with the mid-paced aggression of D'Sa, Gallant, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk. The result is less the self-absorbed moaning of teenage angst than it is the soundtrack to a tortured neurotic wringing his hands and pacing. Full of pent-up emotion, songs like "Nothing To Lose" and "The Ex" clearly struck a chord with the crowd, as did "Surrender" and "Turn Your Back", which featured guest vocals by Alexisonfire's Dallas Green and Tom Gabel from Against Me!, respectively.

Grimacing while spitting background vocals, guitarist D'Sa, with a vertical pillar of hair resembling either a Dick Tracy villain or startled cartoon character, maintained a strong presence, even as Kowalewicz prowled the stage. Anchored by Solowoniuk, Gallant laid down a solid low end, rumbling the crowd in darker songs like "Tears into Wine". By the time impossibly catchy single "Devil on My Shoulder" kicked off the encore, the band had the crowd entranced, and fully believing in the future of Canadian punk.

Starting off the show was Toronto's Cancer Bats. Their crushing performance of crusty, metal-influenced punk bruised from brawling with New Orleans sludge bands cemented their status as one of the best Canadian punk bands to crawl from the underground in the past few years. They were followed by Florida's Against Me! and their catchy, straight-forward pop punk, and Alexisonfire's complex, layered, and warmly received post-hardcore spasming.

Al Kratina
The Montreal Gazette
March 26, 2010

Music producers, like coaches in professional sports, rarely get their due.

Theirs is an intangible talent. According to the court of popular opinion, hockey coaches throw pucks on the ice and the hockey players do the rest. The same is true for producers working with veteran rock acts. Most music fans figure that producers simply press record and get out of the way.

But when singer Ben Kowalewicz of Toronto rockers Billy Talent talks about the influence producer Brendan O'Brien had on his band's third recording, Billy Talent III, it is with the highest praise. As it should be: Upon its release in July, the recording debuted at No. 1 on the sales charts in Canada.

His resumé didn't hurt the atmosphere, either. O'Brien has wrung magic out of some of the best rock acts in history -- Pearl Jam, AC/DC, Rage Against the Machine, Bruce Springsteen among them. It's a facet of O'Brien's professional life that wasn't lost on Kowalewicz.

"That's the really cool part of a guy like Brendan. I'd walk into this room where Pearl Jam recorded Vs. and Vitalogy and No Code and where [Rage Against the Machine singer] Zach [de la Rocha] sang a lot of Evil Empire and The Battle of Los Angeles. There's magic that surrounds that place. As much as I thought at first it might be intimidating, it only added to the mysticism of the record."

O'Brien is the latest coup for the group, which also features bassist Jonathan Gallant, drummer Aaron Solowoniuk and guitarist Ian D'Sa. But he's only part of the equation.

Billy Talent has been a serious presence in Canadian music since switching its name from Pezz (under threat of a lawsuit) to Billy Talent in 2001. With hundreds of thousands of records sold in this country and 11 Juno Award nominations, Billy Talent ranks among the most popular and well-regarded acts of the past decade.

Prior to its mainstream arrival, the band had been together for eight years, though with only moderate results. The name change seemed to inspire the group; soon after signing a split deal with Warner Music Canada and Atlantic Records in the U.S., the quartet got rolling with a mixture of screamo and stadium rock that ignited young audiences.

Back then, the key to Billy Talent's success was the bond it shared with fans. Sixteen years after its formation, Kowalewicz takes pride in the fact the relationship is intact.

The band has similar feelings when it comes to all facets of their career, from tour techs to managers.

"The way our band has always worked, and the way we still work, is that the people we choose to do business with and work with are good people. Morally and ethically grounded, forward thinking and good humans."

Kowalewicz and his bandmates strive to live by the same code. When it came to planning their upcoming tour of Canada, which begins Wednesday in Victoria at the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, the mandate was to make it a reasonably priced night out.

1 - Friendship, Development

2 - Writing Songs, Leadership

3 - Multiple Scleroses

4 - Releasing Records

Plus, check out these interviews from 2007

1 - 1st Demo Demoluca, 1st Album, BillyTalent

2 - Pezz, New Bandname, Success in Germany, Lyrics

3 - Fallen Leaves, John Lennon, Most Talented

FaceCulture
September 28, 2009

“If I like a record the first time I hear it, I get worried,” admits Billy Talent vocalist Ben Kowalewicz. He’s talking about the band’s tertiary effort, Billy Talent III, and how it takes some time to fully ingest.

In Kowalewicz’s mind, sometimes an album you instantly love eventually reveals itself as having little of merit — it winds up sucking, in other words. However, the opposite can apply as well. One may dislike an album at first listen, yet with more plays, it eventually becomes a favourite. Naturally, Kowalewicz believes this may be the case with III. Fans may be apprehensive at first, but with time, he’s confident it will become the band’s most enduring effort to date.

“When I hear a record, if I miss something and have to go back to listen, I know there’s something deeper to it,” he continues. “When you buy a record and you love it, it becomes a part of you. It’s the soundtrack to parts of your life because you create these memories and attach certain songs with certain points of your life. With a new record, there is no past. It has to be created. These songs don’t have those attachments for some people, but hopefully they’re going to develop them over time.”

Listening to the raucous energy and upbeat drive of III, it’s obvious that Kowalewicz worries too much. While the Toronto-based band (rounded out by guitarist Ian D’Sa, bassist Jon Gallant and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk) has clearly introduced fresh, more melodic elements to its uniquely edgy hard rock, III isn’t really that much of a stretch. It’s got the initial barbs to suck us in and, after repeated listens, reveals many layers that keep fans coming back for more.

Kowalewicz credits that expansive depth to the renowned abilities of producer Brendan O’Brien (AC/DC, Mastodon, Pearl Jam) for combining the band’s driving rhythms, contrasting vocals, singalong choruses and straightforward beats so smoothly. Yet it’s not all O’Brien’s doing. After 15 years of pushing forward, III finds Billy Talent stepping backwards in some ways.

“With this record, we’re still a loud band, but there are beautiful, amazing riffs,” he says. “We went with it and it’s natural. There’s more of a ’90s throwback feel to it. We grew up then; that was our bread and butter — Pearl Jam, Rage, Soundgarden, Nirvana and Tool. We’re reverting back to that. They’re the reason we picked up instruments. Because of that, I think there are deeper layers or textures to this record that weren’t so obvious on the first ones. While it may freak people out at first, the more they explore III and it adheres to the special moments in their life, the more they’ll enjoy it.”

It sounds like a lot of speculation, but with III flying off of store shelves, topping charts and pushing the band into what will easily become another two-year stint of touring, Kowalewicz’s overanalyzing seems moot.

“What can I say — I care,” he admits with a chuckle. “Musicians create music to entertain people and connect with them. After we finished this record, we had to sit on it for a couple of months until everything was ready to go. That’s a long time to sit on it. Some nights you lay in bed wondering if people will like it. It’s definitely different sounding, so we’re worried about if people will grow with us or not.”

“It’s a Catch-22 in some ways, though,” he notes. “If this album sounded too much like the others, we’d be nailed for doing the same shit. If you do something different, though, they give you shit for that. You can only have so many sleepless nights before you gotta say fuck it and do what’s right for you.”

Keith Carmen
Fast Forward Weekly
August 6, 2009

Billy Talent's Ian D'Sa and Jon Gallant are sitting in Starbucks sipping on bottles of water on a quiet evening when we meet.

It's hard to believe these are two of the guys responsible for such explosive hits as "Try Honesty" amongst "Red Flag," "River Below" and their latest, "Rusted From The Rain." The intense energy of these songs doesn't show here.

Instead, D'Sa and Gallant are completely laid back and chill, eager to talk about their new album, Billy Talent III, which dropped July 14. Everything about the meeting is collected and still, a calm before the craziness of the album's release and the extensive touring set to follow it.

For the album, Warner flew in Grammy Award-winning producer Brendan O'Brien, who has worked with the likes of Stone Temple Pilots, Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC, Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam, Velvet Revolver and Incubus, to name just a few. Billy Talent were asked to submit a list of dream producers and O'Brien at the top — and they got him.

"I don't even think we really believed it until we had him in our rehearsal studio in Toronto doing pre-production," says Gallant. "We've been hardened enough to not believe anything until it actually happens. We were excited about it and crossing our fingers and then when it was all going down it was really a dream come true, finally."

The experience was different this time, especially for guitarist D'Sa, who co-produced Billy Talent II alongside Billy Talent producer Gavin Brown (Three Days Grace, Thornley, Cancer Bats).

"It was interesting at first," says D'Sa says. "We didn't see eye-to-eye.

"In the pre-production, everything was great, but once we got to the studio, he's really all about momentum and working super-fast, so that first week if I disagreed with something he would disagree with me and it got a little hairy at some point. I think we both ended up understanding each other in the second week and it turned out great in the end.

"It's funny how it changed from the beginning, because when you walk in, especially with someone you've never met before, you have to work really fast. You're walking in protecting your baby — 'baby' meaning all the songs we're written over the past eight months.

"After a while you have to realize this is a guy that has made so many great records and so many records that all his calls are totally correct and in line. He's all about trusting your instinct and he's great. We kind of got to that realization and followed that path after a while."

Billy Talent credit O'Brien for the new sense of texturing on the album. He added percussion, played the mellotron on "White Sparrows," piano on "Diamond On A Landmine" and added various additional details and elements the band wouldn't have thought to do on top of their standard guitar, bass and drum set-up.

Yet this is not what stands out most about the album. Instead, the melodies scream the loudest while, perhaps ironically, vocalist Ben Kowalewicz screams the least he ever has.

Gone are the angst-ridden tracks of harboured teenage aggression and loneliness in favour of more thought-provoking songs. There are even elements of hope amidst the softer vocals and lyrics of this new batch riff-rock anthems.

"I think as we're getting older we're maturing," D'Sa says. "The first album did have a lot of screaming on it because we were more angry and aggressive at that point in our lives. It really fits where we are right now in life on this record."

"It has more a fulfilling attitude towards it," Gallant adds. "We feel as a band that we've accomplished a lot and have a right to do all the things we want to do without second guessing them. I think there's a lot more of our instinct on the record."

A lot has happened since Billy Talent II dropped in 2006. For Gallant, the biggest thing is the birth of his now 21-month-old son.

"It makes it a little more difficult to tour because you want to be there," he says. "Aaron [Solowoniuk, drums] has been doing it since the band started touring heavily and now that I'm in his shoes I understand a lot of the sacrifice that he made.

"I think it also makes you get to appreciate life. I hope my son gets to do the things that I got to do. It changes your mindset in ways, but I don't think it affects me creatively."

For D'Sa, it's a different story. He ended a long-term relationship and became involved with the non-profit organization Canadian Artists For African Aid, better known as Song For Africa.

The organization was started in 2006 by Winnipeg-based music producer Darcy Ataman, who got a group of Canadian artists together to record a song and video called "Song For Africa" in order to raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa.

D'Sa was asked to record the guitar tracks for the follow-up Song For Africa documentary last year. During the recording, the team was shooting aspects of the documentary, which ended up including some footage of D'Sa.

Ataman asked D'Sa if he would like to go to Africa. D'Sa jumped on the opportunity and joined fellow musicians Damhnait Doyle, Luke McMaster and Simon Wilcox for 10 days in Kenya where they visited families in mud huts, AIDS clinics and the biggest slum in Africa.

"It was really eye-opening and an amazing experience," D'Sa says. "It made me realize how lucky we are to live here and all the things that are available to us that aren't available to others and how we can help change their problems.

"We're all neighbours, we're just far away from each other. When you go over there you realize we're a lot closer than we think."

D'Sa got to see the work organizations like CARE Canada and Free The Children are doing in Kenya. They teach families to boil polluted water before drinking it, something they didn't normally do.

One of the aspects of the trip that stuck out the most was how happy the children were and how curious they were about what it was like for D'Sa to grow up in a city just outside of Toronto.

"It was really great to hear their stories and see where they grew up. There are a lot of parallels. They have normal families," he says. "Their living conditions aren't as good as here, but they have normal families and do normal things. It made me feel like we're a lot closer than we think."

If this doesn't sound like the talk of a bunch of young punks, it's because it isn't. Billy Talent are developing into a far different sort of band.

D'Sa takes a moment to reflect on how all of these life experiences have affected the band musically — not just in terms of song inspiration, but also in their ability to master their art.

"I feel like we're slowly honing the songwriting craft and becoming better as songwriters so this is the one I feel really proud of," he says.

It's too early to tell if the third installment will match the success of Billy Talent, which was certified three times platinum in Canada, or Billy Talent II, which reached #1 in both Canada and Germany and was certified two times platinum, but Billy Talent seem pretty content with where things are now.

They've already released a video for "Rusted From The Rain" and have filmed one for second single "Devil On My Shoulder." They're currently on tour supporting Rise Against and Rancid and are planning to tour Canada in January and February. Dates will be announced soon.

"We're working on making it a smashing lineup right now," Gallant says. "We want to make sure everything is right for the Canadian tour and to do something special. At that time the band will be a well-oiled touring machine and we'll have our shit together."

Sheena Lyonnais
Chart Attack
July 29, 2009