Photo: Dustin Rabin
Billy Talent, the sleepwalk-streaking Canadian punksters, slipped Gigwise a glimpse into the warped and wonderful world of Billy Talent: “I love your country, I think your people are great, your music is great, but your food fucking sucks!” spouts lead-singer Ben Kowalewicz after an unsatisfactory trip to the nearby food chain.
Chilling in a modest changing room backstage at Northumbria University, the lads look confident and grateful to have returned, as Ben rants: “We are really excited to be back, there was a time when we didn’t think we would be able to ever come back, but then we wrote a really good record!” Billy Talent are becoming quite the experts on the UK with another tour on these shores planned in September. Ben proclaims: “The crowds are good, the beer is good, the food is shite…” “Except Fish & Chips” interjects Ian. “I love the English Breakfast” pipes-up bassist Jon Gallant, making Ben quickly back-track as he jokingly states: “So we actually love your food!” Er, right.
Down to more pressing matters, the craziest thing the guys have done on tour? The answer was unanimous. Bassist Jon Gallant reluctantly reveals: “I got drunk in Japan and found myself running nude through the hotel after I had gone to bed, so I was sleep-running naked!” In between fits of laughter Ben chips in: “I opened the door and Jon said: ‘fuck dude let me in’ I was like: ‘what’s going on?’ and he just said: ‘I dunno dude, we’ll talk about it tomorrow!’” Ben laments: “We are kinda dorks, we aren’t one of those bands who say ‘yeah we drunk a whole lot of Jack Daniels and banged loads of girls!’ Just imagine a bunch of nerds in nerdy situations and that’s us”.
Reflecting on their humble beginnings, Ben reminisces: “Me, Jon and Aaron all played in a band together but it was pretty awful. Then we met this kid (points to Ian D’Sa) who was the best guitar player hands down in our area. We had one rehearsal with him and said: ‘hey man this feels alright!’ Thirteen years later we are sitting here in Newcastle!” Their big break came in the form of a record deal as guitarist Ian explains: “We were releasing records independently up until 2001. Then we released a four-song E.P that caught the attention of Warner Music Canada who eventually managed to get us a deal with Atlantic Records - and that’s when it all kicked off.”
When asked for their views about ‘Myspace’ and downloading music, Ian explained: “I think it’s great, it’s helped us gain fans worldwide. Sometimes you don’t have the funds to get to every city and every country in the world, so it’s one of the best ways to create fans internationally.” Ben added: “We leaked a couple of tracks on ‘Myspace’ before we released them to gauge our fans’ reaction. You get positive and negative feedback so it’s actually a great way of testing the water before committing to something”.
The UK’s own Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Buzzcocks were cited as big influences for the Toronto band, who have stormed back onto the scene with their second album, ‘Billy Talent II’. Lead guitarist Ian D’sa explains how their sound has evolved: “It’s quite a bit different from our first record but it still has our signature sound.” When asked about which of the new songs are best to play live, “‘Burn The Evidence’ sounded awesome when we played it in Glasgow” explained Ian. Ben and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk vouched for ‘Falling Leaves’ while Jon said: “I’m loving ‘This suffering’ at the moment, I can take it easy and the crowd seem to like it”.
So what’s on the guys’ iPods at the moment? Well Ben’s enjoying Amy Milan while Aaron and Ian love the new Rise Against album. Then the question lands on bassist Jon, and it suddenly turns into one almighty effort to get a simple answer. Jon starts off saying: “Well I’ve just bought a Roy Orbison CD but it’s not on my iPod yet”. Aaron tries to help him out, asking: “Well what’s on your iPod then? . . . . Are there any bands on it?” Jon ponders for a second before announcing: “I haven’t actually listened to it since we’ve been here. Not since I was on the plane.” Ben impatiently demands: “So what did you listen to on the plane then?!” Jon mischievously replies: “Well I actually had it on random!” Finally the game is up when Ben pleads: “Which songs came up on random?” making Jon grudgingly reveal: “'Blacken' by Metallica”.
What does the future hold for Billy Talent? Ben jests: “We are doing the Warped Tour then we are breaking up! Then we are getting back together to tour the U.S with Rise Against, then breaking up again for Christmas, then doing a reunion tour of Canada in the New Year!” With the lads having this much fun, talk of break-ups is certainly a joke. One things for sure, we can expect plenty more gigs and sleepwalk-streaking mayhem to come.
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