Fresh off a number of big European festival dates, Canadian alternative rockers Billy Talent have been hitting the summer concert circuit in their home and native land, a sojourn than brings them to Belleville, Ontario and the annual Empire Rockfest weekend concert series.
The quartet, originally from Mississauga, Ontario, which spent the first six years of its existence known as Pezz, is headlining the first night of the popular eastern Ontario concert event, Thursday, July 26. The amazing rock duo The Standstills is opening. After a couple more shows in Canada to wrap up the month of July, they head back overseas for some festivals in central Europe, as well as a jaunt through the United Kingdom.
Billy Talent has released five popular and critically lauded studio albums since 2003, the most recent being Afraid of Heights, which came out in 2016. Along the way the band has become one of the most successful acts on the awards circuit, earned a total of 21 awards on 56 nominations for songs, albums and videos.
Comprised of vocalist Benjamin Kowalewicz, guitarist Ian D’Sa, bassist Jonathan Gallant and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk, many of their hit singles, such as Fallen Leaves, Devil on My Shoulder, Try Honesty, Saint Veronika, Rusted by the Rain, still staples on both alternative rock and active rock radio. Their success has transferred beyond Canada as Billy Talent have toured extensively overseas.
As hard as it may seem to believe, Billy Talent are now considered to be veterans of the Canadian music scene. With almost a decade playing as Pezz before changing their name to Billy Talent in 1998 and unleashing their startlingly successful debut album in 2003, the band now has 15 years as a top touring and recording attraction under their belt. Still full of youthful enthusiasm, but now accompanied by savvy and experience, D’Sa said he and his bandmates welcome their role as mentors to younger artists and bands.
“We have a lot of bands coming up to us. A lot of younger bands don’t know who to trust or who to talk to, and what do we make of this or that scenario. And I love giving advice because we have met some good people and met some shitty people, and we have experienced so much in our career in this business that you do build up a wealth of knowledge,” he said, also commenting on the fact that there are now second-generation Billy Talent fans.
“We have parents bringing their kids to our shows now and it’s amazing how the young people are so into the music, even the older stuff. And it’s happening all over the world where kids are still really into rock and metal. We just played a couple of festivals with Iron Maiden headlining and it was just so cool to see a bunch of dads with kids on their shoulders wearing Maiden t-shirts and singing along, because they were one of my favourite metal groups growing up.”
The fact that both the newer Billy Talent material and that from the band’s back catalogue connects with both younger fans as well as with their longer-term adherents is a testament to the fact that D’Sa, Kowalewicz, Gallant, and Solowoniuk have matured and evolved as musicians and songwriters, without sacrificing the essence or tone of what made Billy Talent a household name throughout the early 2000s.
“I think it’s something that is really important. It’s really nice that our fans have grown with us, because to be some 42-year-old writing songs about being angsty and angry and that my girl just broke up with me doesn’t work at this stage. So, over the years we have done a good job of writing for whatever age we feel like and that’s really important in order to stay current and stay relevant. It’s important to write about whatever is going on in your life. And in some ways over the last 10 years we still may be an angry band, but it’s become important to us to have a mature outlook about it,” D’Sa said.
“It is something that we think about, but I don’t really go out of my way to put too much stress on it, because I think that at the end of the day, as a band we just want to make records that impact people and move people – that’s what counts. We have been lucky to be able to do that, and that continues to be our mission going forward; just write from an honest point of view and try to connect with people.”
D’Sa said he and his bandmates have been writing new material and will be getting together after the summer concert season is over to figure out how best to move forward with the new songs. The subject of whether to release songs as a series of singles, as an EP or a full-length album will be one of the things under discussion in the Billy Talent camp.
“As an established band, we have had a lot of chances over the last 15 years and put out a lot of product. Our older fans may want to buy a record that has 10 to 12 tracks on it, and I that’s certainly they way I like to buy music. But for the kids, and maybe even the general music buying public, it would be singles or streaming – I think both models are still relevant. The streaming thing is definitely becoming more and more popular,” he said.
“But I really love albums, I and still buy albums and listen to a full album. It will be interesting how rock bands adapt to these changes. I guess a lot of it now is about the feedback from fans, and whether the are still digging the album as a viable option. It would be fun perhaps to release it one song at a time like they do in pop and hip hop. It would be an interesting experiment to do that because I think rock fans would love that as well. Instead of waiting two years to get a new album, you get a new song every month from the band you love. So, there are lots of different things we are looking at trying. That said, the situation we’re in with our label is good and we’re definitely up for doing some more albums.”
From the outset of their career, there has been little doubt that Billy Talent is one of the best live rock acts of their generation, a characteristic that has even greater significance in an era where, even if bands do regularly release albums, they don’t sell like they used to. Thus, the road is where a band earns its keep.
“We have always made a living off of playing live, whereas certain bands can make a living just from their records. But that’s never been the case for us. We’ve always felt like an indie band at heart. And even though we have a record deal, we are signed to a major label and there are always a lot of expenses to recoup to the label. So, we don’t really see a lot of money from the albums themselves,” D’Sa said.
“Being a live act that can play in front of people is definitely more valuable to us now than it ever has been. You will never really ever be able to download or stream the live experience. You have to go and witness it with your own eyes and ears – all your senses. And that’s the one thing that we know and its why we will be out on the road for a long while yet.”
As for what fans should expect from the new music, regardless of how its released, D’Sa said it could go in some interesting directions.
“We have been writing since the beginning of this year and we have a whole bunch of ideas. When we’re back from touring at the end of August, we’re going to take a short break and then in September we will reconvene and start putting it together. I have produced the last two albums and we have our own studio in Toronto that we have been working out of for about seven years now. About 75 per cent of the last record was done there and we’re probably going to do most of the new stuff there as well and I will most likely be producing. But that could change; we’re one of these bands who is always open to new ideas and new approaches,” said D’Sa.
“It will definitely be fun to get back to the writing and recording process. Earlier this year I went on a trip to India with my parents and I had never been there before, so that really inspired me a lot, especially getting a different perspective on music and culture. I came back with a lot of ideas and now I’ve got a bunch of new ones after going to Europe. It’s still going to sound like us but there’s nothing I can really say about what the sound of the new record is going to be like because it’s still in the idea stage. We’ll see what happens when we’re all in the room together.”
Throughout their career, Billy Talent has released some of the most potent and popular music videos, garnering them loads of MuchMusic video award nominations and victories, helping the band’s visibility and draw as a live attraction. It seems in recent years the video has become an important promotional tool once again; this time being used on various social media platforms as a way for and artist or group of getting in front of as many audience eyes as possible.
“The music video has become an important promotional device now. And it’s a way for people to discover new bands. I know back in the day before the internet became bit, MuchMusic and shows like that were the only way you could get introduced to a lot of new bands. So, I would watch the Pepsi Power Hour and discover new bands like Soundgarden. Today videos are totally a promotions vehicle and a great way for new artists to get their name out there is to make a good video, make a cool video. And thanks to the technology today you can do so much right now with a small budget, it’s unbelievable,” he said.
The band has been a quartet since its foundation, but in recent years, Solowoniuk has had to step back from performing full shows because of the worsening state of the Multiple Sclerosis he was first diagnosed with back in the late 1990s. In his place behind the kit since 2016 has been Jordan Hastings (Alexisonfire, Say Yes), although D’Sa said that Solowoniuk is still a member of the band and performs a few numbers each night on the road – as much as his condition will allow.
“Aaron is doing amazing. He was out for part of our tour in Europe and he has been getting out and playing three to four songs every night. He is looking great and doing great; things couldn’t be better under the circumstances based on what he has been through over the last couple of years. He will always be part of this band. And it’s been great to have both him and Jordan out there. It’s kind of a five-piece band now,” D’Sa said, adding that Billy Talent has always been like a group of brothers, where the relationships are more important than the trappings of being rock stars.
“I never really bought into the whole rock star things and I certainly believe our band doesn’t act like that and never has. If you work hard for something, like we did for 10 years, and then get some success, it feels worth all the sacrifices and disappointments and you don’t take that success for granted. You really value the relationships with the guys that you first met in high school that much more. We will be friends for life, well beyond whatever happens with the band.”
For more information on the band, visit http://billytalent.com.
For information and tickets on Billy Talent’s show in Belleville, and the entire Empire Rockfest event, visit https://theempiretheatre.com/live-events/empire-rockfest-2018-announcement.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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