Today’s post is a spin-off from a post I wrote last week about the Canadian punk film classic Hard Core Logo. (You can read about the post here). If you happened to read that post, you might remember one of the more interesting tidbits of information was that one of Canada’s most successful and popular bands, Billy Talent, was named after one of the main characters in the movie. Having unearthed that nugget of news last week, it only seemed fitting that the band I profile for this week’s edition of The Great Canadian Road Trip should be Billy Talent as well. Why not? They are terrific. They have had 7 songs reach the top of the Canadian rock charts since they formed over thirty years ago in 1993. Billy Talent has sold over three million albums worldwide, going platinum multiple times. The band has won seven Juno Awards, ten Much Music Video awards and had the video for their song, “Fallen Leaves”, earn the #5 ranking as being one of the best Canadian music videos of all time. But who exactly is Billy Talent? Let’s find out as we travel to the home of Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, where it all began for four guys who have known each other their entire adult lives. This is the story of Canada’s Billy Talent!
Billy Talent is primarily known as a rock band. However, they also enjoy punk music and often combine the two genres in a musical hybrid that often is referred to as Pop Punk. But make no mistake, the boys in Billy Talent play a brand of rock music that has been widely embraced by fans all across the country. In many ways, Billy Talent has some important similarities to a couple of other iconic Canadian bands known as Rush and The Tragically Hip. First of all, the lineup for Billy Talent has remained the same throughout the entirety of their career as a band. That is a rare and noteworthy accomplishment. There are only so many Canadian bands like Rush or The Hip who have stuck together through the highs and the lows and the grind that comes with making a living playing music in Canada. The members of Billy Talent consist of singer Benjamin Kowalewicz, guitarists Ian D’Sa and Jonathan Gallant and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk. They met while attending high school together. In fact, they played together for almost a decade under the band name Pezz. As Pezz, the four friends played all around the Greater Toronto Area. They wrote their own songs, lugged their own gear and developed a reputation as one of the area’s hardest working bands. In the basement of Ian D’Sa’s parent’s home, the band recorded a four-track EP called Demoluca. But the sound quality was subpar, so they all got part-time jobs and maxxed out their credit cards in order to pay for some time in a proper recording studio with a professional record producer and sound engineer. This resulted in a better quality EP called Dudebox. Still working as Pezz, the four guys managed to save a little more money, which they invested in recording an actual professional album which they called Watoosh! The future looked bright for Pezz until one day when the band received a notice from an American lawyer that they were being sued by a U.S. band that also went by the name Pezz. As it turned out, the American band had been performing as Pezz longer than our Mississauga heroes, so the Canadian band was forced into a name change. As they looked around for inspiration, they thought about one of their favourite movies, Hard Core Logo. In that movie there was a character who went by the name Billy Tallent. He was young, handsome and skilled and seemed to have a wonderful future ahead of him. That character resonated with the guys in the band, so they opted to call themselves Billy Talent…dropping one letter from the character’s name so as to avoid a repeat of being sued for using a name that they weren’t entitled to use.
With the same four guys, Billy Talent headed out to maintain the momentum they had established with the Watoosh! album as Pezz. They did this by tapping into some of the industry connections they had started to make along the way. In the early days of Pezz, in order to get the money to record their first EPs, Ben Kowalewicz had gotten a part-time job at Toronto radio station 102.1 The Edge. That station was known for featuring bands with an alternative bent to their musical style. Kowalewicz asked one of the programme directors there to come and watch Billy Talent as they played at a local club. The programme director, Jen Hirst, liked what she saw. A short while later, after she had moved to Warner Music Canada, she remembered the band and invited them to sign with the label. The band agreed. For the first time ever, the boys in Pezz/Billy Talent had a decent amount of money being invested in the making of an album. The result of this effort was Billy Talent’s debut self-titled album. The lead single from the album Billy Talent was a banger of a song called “Try Honesty”. The video for “Try Honesty” was shot at Whitby Psychiatric Hospital. The song and the video both became hits and were instrumental in launching the brand that the band had become. In no time at all, “Try Honesty” made Billy Talent a recognizable name in the Canadian music scene. Pezz was definitely gone. Billy Talent was the only name that mattered now.
In addition to having a No. 1 hit song right out of the gate, the other things that really helped Billy Talent establish their identity as one of Canada’s best rock bands were the videos they produced. The band was lucky that they managed to begin their ascent to the top of the charts during the last vestiges of Much Music’s reign as a music station of influence in Canada. As many Canadian bands found out during the 1980s and 90s, it was easier to get their music known all across the country via music videos played on Much Music than it was to get in a van and attempt to drive back and forth across this vast nation. Billy Talent was able to launch themselves into the national music conversation from the relative comfort of their Mississauga home base. For anyone unaware of the local geography in question, Mississauga is a city that borders Toronto on its western boundary. Any band from MIssissauga would consider playing at Toronto venues to be like playing at home. Since Much Music was headquartered in Toronto, Billy Talent could make live appearances there and get their music heard in all parts of the country without actually ever having to leave home. As mentioned off of the top of this post, Billy Talent have become highly regarded for the quality and originality of their music videos. So even though I am featuring their debut single, “Try Honesty”, I encourage you to check out some of their other videos for songs, such as “Rusted From the Rain”, “Fallen Leaves”, “Devil On My Shoulder”, “Surprise, Surprise”, “Stand Up and Run” and many others. In the links below, I will show you the “official” music video, as well as a live version of “Try Honesty”, so you can see the band as their creative and live best.
For thirty-one years, Ben, Ian, Jonathan and Aaron have made music together because they view themselves as a musical family. Their story of brotherhood and friendship that has stood the test of time makes me think of Neil, Alex and Geddy from Rush or Rob, Johnny, Paul and the two Gords from The Tragically Hip. The men from Billy Talent also share one other unfortunate thing in common with The Hip and with Rush, and that is health issues. Just as Rush lost Neil Peart and The Hip lost Gord Downie, both to brain cancer, Billy Talent has also been learning to deal with the onset of Multiple Sclerosis in drummer Aaron Solowonuik. Amazingly enough, Solowonuik has managed to stay on as drummer for the band right up until the recording of Billy Talent’s latest album, Crisis of Faith, which was recorded in 2021. As lead singer, Benjamin Kowalewicz has stated in interviews that as the disease spread and took hold of their friend, the band learned how to help him deal with it in ways that allowed him to continue to be a functional member of the team. They learned all about medication and exercise and diet and rest and have worked together as brothers to help their friend to keep making music at a high level for as long as possible. There seems to be a growing sense that Solowoniuk may need to start stepping back, but until he makes that call or else simply can’t drum as a rock band needs him to do, he will be the drummer for Billy Talent. Sometimes the lineup for a band changes significantly over time, to the point where the group you may go to see play live bears little resemblance to the original band that you grew to love. But that is not the case with Billy Talent. Although I have not heard anything on this matter, it is worth noting that neither Rush nor The Tragically Hip replaced their friend when fate stepped in and the final notes were played. Whether or not the same will be true for Billy Talent once Aaron Solowonuik can no longer play is something that remains to be seen. Regardless of how it all turns out, the boys from Mississauga have a lot to be proud of. They have played in a band as friends for over three decades. They have No. 1 hit songs and golden records galore. They are one of the top ten best selling bands in Canadian history. They have achieved all of this success by staying true to their own creative vision and strategic business plan. They work hard, play hard and are well respected in all corners of this land. They are Billy Talent. Well done, gents. Well done, indeed.
The link to the official website for Billy Talent can be found here.
The link to the official video for the song “Try Honesty” by Billy Talent can be found here. ***The link to the lyric version is here. The link to a live version of “Try Honesty” can be found here. For what it worth, I think the live version is best if you are hearing this for the first time.
The link to the official website for Mississauga, Ontario can be found here.
***As always, all original content contained within this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this post shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2024 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com
Nice intro to a band I wasn’t familiar with. Interestingly, their most recent album “Live at Festhalle Frankfurt” from June 2023 was captured in my home country Germany.
And, yes, it’s nearly unheard of for a group to have had almost the same line-up over 30 years. According to Wikipedia, it appears since 2016, they effectively have had Jordan Hastings as their drummer. Aaron Solowoniuk is still listed as a member of the group but “on hiatus”- sadly it appears because of MS.