Billy Talent
Billy Talent
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Billy Talent
Benjamin Kowalewicz: Vocals
Jon Gallant: Bass and vocals
Aaron Solowoniuk: Drums
Ian D’sa: Guitar and vocals

It has been a busy year for Canadian Punk- Rock outfit Billy Talent. With knock out performances at several festivals this year, including Reading, Leeds and the alternative Belgian music festival Pukkelpop. Opening slots for the likes of Sum 41, Finger Eleven and even The Buzzcocks, they have been working hard to promote their self titled major label album debut.

Add to this the fact that they were hand picked by legendary Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell to play 10 shows of this years Lollapalooza tour and are scheduled to open for several of The Darkness’s all important American shows later this month, you can be sure that there is something quite extraordinary about this bunch of shrieking rockers…..

October saw the foursome embark on their first UK headlining tour. Would they manage to pull the crowds without the safety net of huge names and festivals? I caught up with extrovert vocalist Benjamin Kowalewicz before their Leeds gig to pick his brains on all things Billy Talent and find out just what he thinks of a certain group of spandex-tastic rockers………..

Hi Ben. First things first. When and where were you born?
I was Born in Montreal, Canada

Date?...
(Squirms in his chair)….1970’s sometime…

You have a fairly hectic touring schedule at the moment. Did you have any expectations as to what life on the road would be like. How is the reality matching up so far? Feel free to vent your frustrations here…..
It has been a lot harder than I though it would be in the beginning…..but then it’s turned out to be everything that I expected and more; it’s a dream come true.

Good points and bad points?
The hardest part is just missing your loved ones at home but it’s our dream come true so we can’t complain...I mean, you can complain sometimes when the physical aspect comes in where you haven’t slept and you have been driving and you’ve just done X shows in a row. You get a little burnt out but that’s just natural. We flew out from New York after playing there, didn’t sleep…flew to London…drove as soon as we landed and played in Cardiff…then we did Nottingham the next day…and it’s our fourth show in a row tonight.

You are going to be opening for The Darkness in America at the end of November. Much of Britain has taken them to their hearts…are you looking forward to it?
I’m indifferent, I mean, I think it’s kind of funny. It doesn’t move my soul in anyway….they don’t have to be famous everywhere I guess.

Have you played any shows this year you felt stood out, any favourites?
Umm…I really enjoyed opening for Jane’s Addiction last night ( In Brighton), though the (B.T) show was kind of terrible. Just the nostalgia of it was pretty cool, that was fun. I’d say that was my highlight.

You must feel slightly overwhelmed with the level of success you have had in your home country, Canada.
It all just kind of happened for us, we started touring a lot more and then once the album came out that’s when all this really started for us. So it’s all kind of brand new to be actually playing infront of people and stuff.

You’ve been together for quite a while (Over 10 years)
Yeah, a long time and finally we actually have some people coming to our shows which is amazing you know? It’s really good.

You like?
(Ben smiles and laughs like a madman) YEAH…of course, we roll into a town tonight and hear that there’s like 200 tickets sold and we’re like ‘how??’

There has been a lot of hype, I’m sure you’ll live up to it.
We’ll see what happens!

Have you had any strange encounters with slightly over-enthusiastic, borderline obsessive fans?
Not really, I get some people who write me nice notes and send photographs of themselves and things like that which is nice

Naked?
(Laughs) NO! no skin, but yeah, sometimes I’ll be playing and girls will just grab my crotch (acts out violent crotch grabbing), and I’m just like ‘what the fuck?!’

I suppose you can’t complain…
(Laughs)You can if they’re too young because that’s just gross, right?

Some slightly anal people with far too much time on their hands feel the need to label and pigeon-hole bands and their music. Your band has been described as everything from Rock and Roll to Emo. One dedicated fan on your website forum even came up with ‘Punk-Pop-Rock-Buzzcock’
I think that’s really cool because in a lot of ways bands like The Clash, and Jane’s Addiction are bands that take*thinks for a second*……The Clash are from Dub to Scar to Rockabilly to Rock and Roll and they manage to do it all in their own way. So for us we have so many different influences and we come from all over the spectrum, but I think that everything we do comes out sounding like Billy Talent. I don’t really mind if people need to pigeon-hole us for them to digest us better.

Don’t you think it can be a bit much though? ‘I listen to Emo and not Pop’ etc…
You know, music snobs are the people who ruin music…I grew up with a lot of people who were kind of music snobs in a lot of ways too because they get a little upset with the way music has been going over the past little bit. I don’t know….I think people just need to get over themselves and take things for what it’s worth.

There is a stigma attached to certain types of music. Some people see it as being ‘uncool’ to like certain bands or styles of music. Signing to a major can be seen as ‘selling out’…
Yeah. It doesn’t matter to us if little Joe-Blow has a laptop and wants to slag us. (Puts on deep voice) ‘You are on a major label therefore you are instantly shit’

A lot of fantastic bands have been on majors Every single band that you can think of in your head…90% of them have been on major labels. Labels like Hellcat and things like that, god bless Tim Armstrong and God bless Rancid….but those are BIG corporations now. It’s THEIR corporation but it’s still a big thing so it all just depends. I think that a lot of times if you’re not playing in basements infront of 50 people you’re not ‘cool’ .

Ridiculous…
Yeah, I find it ridiculous too. Music is made to be shared and appreciated or disliked. It is just like any other form of art.

Moving on…could you please describe your new album in less than 10 words…
Really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really good! (Laughs) I like it!

There is a new Britney Spears album out. X has $10 and is torn between spending her hard earned cash on her favourite pop-porn stars album….or casting her money into the pockets of the unknown (YOU!) How would you convince her that your album deserved to be given a chance?
Like we were just talking about, if somebody wants to buy Britney’s album so be it. Come and see us playing, if you like what you hear then go and buy it…if you don’t..don’t.’

Favourite song on your album?
It changes. I’m in a ‘Standing in the Rain’ kind of vibe right now. Some people hate it actually.

Favourite way to relax?
I have a chair at home. You know where you see old movies where there’s ‘Grandpa’s chair’?..Well I decided I’d save up enough money and I bought myself a chair. It’s like a Layzee boy. It’s leather and it has holders. I have books and pads of paper in it and I just kind of sit there and that’s my favourite way to relax… I look forward every time I get home to sit in my chair, my girlfriend looks at me like ‘What are you doing??’ and I’m just like :( Ben jumps up and mimics stroking and cuddling the chair)

You should have it on your rider. ‘Big comfy chair’
(Laughs) Yeah!, just like that, ‘BIG COMFY CHAIR’. (Laughs again…) Instead of humus and apples.

How has the reception been over here so far?
It has been weird. I’ll be totally, blatantly honest with you, we were really scared coming over here this time because before we were doing the festivals so we were pretty much guaranteed that people were going to be there. We did all these big festival dates but it was kind of cheating. It’s fun as hell, but it’s also…you can’t fall on your face really. When we were told we would be coming over here and doing our own headlining shows we were like ‘What??! No-one’s going to fucking come’ For real, we were like ‘Who’s going to come?’ are we going to play infront of 4 people?’….which is fine because that is usually how it goes. When we first started out we played infront of 10 people. It has been amazing over here, nearly every show has been sold out and we are more than happy. We are ecstatic.

Do you have any sponsors?
Nothing. Zero. (Laughs)

Do you want them?
(Laughs again) I’d like a mic stand endorsement, just because I go through 4 a night!

An hour or so later I found myself dodging flailing limbs as Billy Talent took to the stage and the inevitable mosh-pit frenzie ensued. Launching into 'This is how it goes", a solid, hard hitting piece of 'fuck yes' rock, the boys made it clear from the outset they meant business.

Kowalewicz knows how to work a crowd, but would you expect anything less after a decade of soul grinding practice?....well.....no. However I can safely say that Mr K's performance was particularly impressive...dry humping the drum kit, flashing and shaking his sweaty midriff...what more could the girls want? I was beginning to understand why crotch grabbing was such a regular occurance at BT gigs....

The frantic tempo was pretty much sustained throughout the set, thanks to the might of drummer Aaron Solowoniuk and skill of bassist Jon Gallant. (Tight riffs came courtesy of Mr Ian D'sa.) Although they experienced several technical problems during their set (perhaps due to the fact they only had time for a line check before going on) and had to endure heckles as appalling as ‘So where’s you Talent now?!’ ( Not exactly original…) , they managed to give it to the crowd as hard, and with as much frenzied energy as is possible on a cold, dank night in Yorkshire. I came away seriously impressed.

You wont find many musical fish in the sea able to match Billy Talents refreshing style, and that can only be a good thing.Theirs is a carbon copy free area. Billy Talent are here, they’re not going away and they want to be heard. So go!

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