Billy Talent: The Quintessential Canadian Rock Band

“Appearances can be deceiving”.   Those were the first words I ever read on Billy Talent, scrolling the band’s MySpace page in preparation for CONFRONT Magazine’s interview with the Canadian rockers.  Curious, I continued to read the band’s bio and soon realized my assumptions that the band was fairly new to the music scene were made frequently by others but were also false.

Formed in 1993 under another name, Billy Talent has been in this business for more than 13 years.  Although their launch into mainstream success can be attributed to the release of their EP ‘Try Honesty’ in 2001, those prior eight years spent learning their craft, perfecting their skills and essentially becoming adults has moulded this band into what many now consider to be the quintessential Canadian Rock Band of recent times.

In the fall of 2003, the band released their first full-length on a major label; a self-titled album that garnered considerable mainstream airplay as well as sales success, topping the 3 times platinum mark as of 2006.  A slew of award nominations then followed including wins at the 2004 Juno Awards,the 2004 MuchMusic and the 2004 Casby Awards.

‘Billy Talent II’, the band’s sophmore release on a major was greeted by Canadian fans with such love and anticipation that the album made it to #1 on the Canadian charts with 48 000 copies sold in its first week.

On January 18th, 2007,  the band started their first Canadian arena tour alongside Rise Against, Anti-Flag, and fellow Canadians Moneen, interviewed previously by CONFRONT; debatably one of the best line-ups to tour Canada in a while.

Not sure what to expect, I made my way to the Bell Center on Monday morning after having spent a good portion of the weekend reading countless threads and exchanging ideas with some fans on the band’s official message board.  Originally, we had received confirmation of a CONFRONT interview with BT drummer Aaron Solowoniuk and guitarist/BTII producer Ian D’Sa.  However, because of scheduling conflicts I was told that only Aaron could make the interview.  You can imagine my surprise when once at the venue I was told Jonathan Gallant would be with me shortly.

Despite the cold he was fighting, Jon walked in with a smile and a strong hand shake, a cup of Tim Horton’s coffee in hand, ready to sit down and get to some questions.  I had just started telling him all about our publication when there was a knock at the door and gallantly (no pun intended) Jon went to answer.  That’s when singer Benjamin Kowalewicz walked in asking if he could join the interview.  Always happy to get the input of others, I gladly introduced myself and picked up where I had left off with Jon.

One of the first questions I like to ask any artist is possibly one of the most important: What exactly their creative process is and how they go about creating their art.  Given that mine usually consists of listening to music and inspiring myself from the emotion the melody transpires and the imagery the lyrics convey, I’m always in such awe of those who can write that which inspires others.