Billy Talent
Words: Rob Lyon
Last here in 2009, Billy Talent are returning to Australia for their long awaited headlining tour. The band is a lot angrier these days, clearly evolving from the early days when they were known as Pezz and they mixed genres of hip hop, indie and ska. With two platinum records in Canada, success worldwide opened the doors for extensive touring and opportunities to play massive festivals such as Soundwave.
Drummer Aaron Solowoniuk spoke to Caught in the Mosh about the process of making their new album, some major obstacles, like having open-heart surgery and unscrupulous people stealing from the band in the early days. As Aaron explains, fans should get excited about what lies ahead…
It’s really good news that your band is coming back to Australia for your own headline tour. Are you excited about coming back?
Yes we are! It was 2009 when we were last here and it has been way to long.
With quite an extensive back catalogue what can punters expect on this tour especially with another album in the works?
By the time we arrive in Australia, the album will almost be out, so we’ll be playing old songs, new songs and just destroying it as well as we can.
Is that hard juggling what you want to play as opposed to what fans want to hear?
As music fans ourselves and going to many shows, I think we all came to the consensus that we hate going to see bands play all new material. You want to hear new stuff but you also want to hear your favourite songs. It has happened to us many times and some bands do it differently but we will sprinkle in some new songs to our set, but most of the show will be from I, II and III. I think that is the smart way to do it. We just don’t want people standing there looking at us.
How would you describe the new album compared to the others?
It is a bit of a departure but it’s still Billy Talent. If you’re a fan of Billy Talent from the beginning I think you’re going to be very excited about this record. It’s very well rounded and we have a lot of faster songs and ballads which is unlike anything we’ve done before but still has that Billy Talent feel to it.
Drummer Aaron Solowoniuk spoke to Caught in the Mosh about the process of making their new album, some major obstacles, like having open-heart surgery and unscrupulous people stealing from the band in the early days. As Aaron explains, fans should get excited about what lies ahead…
It’s really good news that your band is coming back to Australia for your own headline tour. Are you excited about coming back?
Yes we are! It was 2009 when we were last here and it has been way to long.
With quite an extensive back catalogue what can punters expect on this tour especially with another album in the works?
By the time we arrive in Australia, the album will almost be out, so we’ll be playing old songs, new songs and just destroying it as well as we can.
Is that hard juggling what you want to play as opposed to what fans want to hear?
As music fans ourselves and going to many shows, I think we all came to the consensus that we hate going to see bands play all new material. You want to hear new stuff but you also want to hear your favourite songs. It has happened to us many times and some bands do it differently but we will sprinkle in some new songs to our set, but most of the show will be from I, II and III. I think that is the smart way to do it. We just don’t want people standing there looking at us.
How would you describe the new album compared to the others?
It is a bit of a departure but it’s still Billy Talent. If you’re a fan of Billy Talent from the beginning I think you’re going to be very excited about this record. It’s very well rounded and we have a lot of faster songs and ballads which is unlike anything we’ve done before but still has that Billy Talent feel to it.
What drives this change? Is it being clear in your own mind that you want the record to be different or have you been influenced by something else?
With I, II and III we had producers work with us. Our guitarist, Ian D’Sa, recorded us on a four-track recorder in his basement way back in 1993, when we were Pezz. From that very moment he always dreamed of doing a record himself. When we first started to create this record we said to him that this is your time. He asked us but it did seem a no brainer to get him to record it, so when you hear these songs, it will be coming from such a pure form of me, Jon, Ben and Ian being in a room recording together. I think when Ian knew that he would get that opportunity to record his first big record he really took that seriously and the song writing really evolved from there. It is exciting for all of us.
Did everything go to plan in the studio?
Um, I had to go for heart surgery, which threw a monkey wrench in to things. I found out in October that I might have to have heart surgery, so we wrote from January through the spring, in to summer. When fall came it was time to go to Vancouver and have surgery. My heart was acting differently, it was working too hard. I had a second opinion booked right from when I got home from recording drums and was told I needed to have this surgery done. I ended up spending six weeks at home while everyone else continued working on the album. It was kind of hard for me to not be there for those six weeks, let alone think about drums or music. It was really weird for me because I’ve never known that as I’ve always played drums everyday especially when we’re recording an album because you’re constantly making the songs better, evolving and I had to pull out of that for a bit. Two months later I got back on the drums and now I’m four months in to it, I’m healthier than ever and the record is almost done.
With I, II and III we had producers work with us. Our guitarist, Ian D’Sa, recorded us on a four-track recorder in his basement way back in 1993, when we were Pezz. From that very moment he always dreamed of doing a record himself. When we first started to create this record we said to him that this is your time. He asked us but it did seem a no brainer to get him to record it, so when you hear these songs, it will be coming from such a pure form of me, Jon, Ben and Ian being in a room recording together. I think when Ian knew that he would get that opportunity to record his first big record he really took that seriously and the song writing really evolved from there. It is exciting for all of us.
Did everything go to plan in the studio?
Um, I had to go for heart surgery, which threw a monkey wrench in to things. I found out in October that I might have to have heart surgery, so we wrote from January through the spring, in to summer. When fall came it was time to go to Vancouver and have surgery. My heart was acting differently, it was working too hard. I had a second opinion booked right from when I got home from recording drums and was told I needed to have this surgery done. I ended up spending six weeks at home while everyone else continued working on the album. It was kind of hard for me to not be there for those six weeks, let alone think about drums or music. It was really weird for me because I’ve never known that as I’ve always played drums everyday especially when we’re recording an album because you’re constantly making the songs better, evolving and I had to pull out of that for a bit. Two months later I got back on the drums and now I’m four months in to it, I’m healthier than ever and the record is almost done.
How has the band evolved since its days as Pezz?
We’ve learnt a lot and have learned it the hard way. Just from making so many mistakes when we were young and now, twenty years later, being in to this band stuff, it really is an animal. There’s so much that needs to be done, besides just writing songs and playing them live. The one thing we’ve always stuck to is making good music and playing live which is the essence of a good band. You can’t have a good career if you can’t play these songs live and you can’t have a good career if you don’t write good songs. From there, everything stems out and we’ve learnt how to run a proper band business, if that’s what you call it. If you don’t take it seriously people will rip you off and steal from you so you have to have you hand in every hat being aware of everything. I think we’re doing an ok job.
Steal? Seriously?
Yeah, stealing money from us! Putting things in a budget that shouldn’t be there and not doing what was supposed to be done. This was more so at the beginning where we met a few dodgy promoters that didn’t pay us everything we were supposed to be paid. We soon learnt not to work with those people again or make sure you get what is owed to you. Downloading could be seen as stealing as well, but that’s a necessary evil. People have been ripped off by record companies for so long by only getting one good song on an album. I think it has made the industry and bands realise that they have to write and release ten or eleven really good songs if you want people to buy it.
We’ve learnt a lot and have learned it the hard way. Just from making so many mistakes when we were young and now, twenty years later, being in to this band stuff, it really is an animal. There’s so much that needs to be done, besides just writing songs and playing them live. The one thing we’ve always stuck to is making good music and playing live which is the essence of a good band. You can’t have a good career if you can’t play these songs live and you can’t have a good career if you don’t write good songs. From there, everything stems out and we’ve learnt how to run a proper band business, if that’s what you call it. If you don’t take it seriously people will rip you off and steal from you so you have to have you hand in every hat being aware of everything. I think we’re doing an ok job.
Steal? Seriously?
Yeah, stealing money from us! Putting things in a budget that shouldn’t be there and not doing what was supposed to be done. This was more so at the beginning where we met a few dodgy promoters that didn’t pay us everything we were supposed to be paid. We soon learnt not to work with those people again or make sure you get what is owed to you. Downloading could be seen as stealing as well, but that’s a necessary evil. People have been ripped off by record companies for so long by only getting one good song on an album. I think it has made the industry and bands realise that they have to write and release ten or eleven really good songs if you want people to buy it.