Billy Talent

Editor’s Note: I had the opportunity to interview Ian and Aaron of Billy Talent while they were passing through Edmonton. The interview went great and was lots of fun. I had some help from my friend Chris during the interview. Thank you to everyone who made it possible.

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Bobby: Ok, starting with the basics can you please state your name and what you do in Billy Talent?

Ian: I’m Ian and I play guitar.

Aaron: And I’m Aaron and I play the drums.

Bobby: Alright, your first major, full length CD dropped two weeks ago tomorrow. How does that feel?

Ian: O, it’s awesome to finally have the album out because we have been touring for quite sometime now and the album just came out on the 16th of this month. And we’re really excited about it.

Aaron: Ya, it’s a great feeling. It’s about time. We’ve been touring, we’ve been waiting for this for a long time so it’s good to start touring with an album.

Bobby: Have you been getting some good feedback?

Ian: Ya, well we’ve been getting some really good feedback from the album. But there ‘s always some people that don’t like it. And that’s the thing with our band: either you like it or you don’t like it at all. Like I’ve never heard of anybody just say “Ya, they’re alright”. But ya, it’s either you like it or you hate it.

Aaron: Ya, you like it or hate it.

Bobby: What is your favorite song on the album and why?

Aaron: I like.. man, there’s so many… I like “How It Goes” the best.

Bobby: That’s a good song.

Ian: My favorite? “Living In The Shadows”.

Bobby: Any reason?

Ian: It’s really simple, straight forward simple.

Bobby: Alright, where did you get the idea for the CD cover?

Ian: I actually worked with an art director and myself on it. We just wanted something that really stood out, and we had this kinda of idea to have it look like something reminiscing of the early kinda cute Cuban revolutionary posters. So it just looks likes kind’ve like a silk-screen on a vinyl or a leather kinda of background. It’s kinda cool cause we wanted to have an album/record feel to it, like the 70s. That’s why it’s got that type of leather kind’ve feel to it.

Bobby: How do you normally write all your material?

Ian: I start off writing stuff on the guitar and then I’ll come up with vocal melodies on the piano and then bring it to the band. We’ll work out arrangements. Ben will fill in the blanks kinda with his lyrics. Like he’ll listen to the music and he’s constantly writing lyrics; so he’ll put whatever he feels on top. Really bring the music and the lyrics together. That’s pretty much how it works.

Bobby: Lyrically, like Ben writes most of the lyrics, but you guys sing about stuff most bands steer clear of. Heroin Addicted Prostitutes like “Standing In The Rain”, Multiple Sclerosis, why did you choose to go in that direction?

Aaron: Ben is just a story teller. He likes to talk in third person sometimes. So he’s really just telling a story and telling it from other people’s point of views. Where it be a prostitute or a kid who’s not feeling good about himself; he’s very good at telling stories.

Ian: Ya, some people that write about themselves all the time ends up being, I guess the word would be self-serving if you just wrote about yourself all the time. So I think it’s important to write about other people and their experiences too. Because it’s a form for that. That’s why all the songs on the album have a good variety of just people’s life experiences in general. You know?

Bobby: Yep. OK, “Try Honesty” is your first single, why did you pick that for the single?

Ian: I think that’s the song that most people reacted to strongly. Us in particular, and everyone that we worked with from our management to our record company and just our fans; they really reacted to that song. So we just choose that as being our first single. I think that it effects people all on the same level; from any block of life. It’s just really good.

Bobby: Where did you come up with the idea to use the house theme in the video?

Aaron: I have no clue.

*Laughter*

Ian: The house in the video thing… well we filmed the video in this old abandoned psychiatric institute in Whitby, Ontario and it’s been around since 1926. It’s just abandoned because they have built a new hospital and this place was abandoned and there were beds still nailed to the floor and a morgue in there and all sorts of creepy stuff. And we thought it was just a good… It was kind of good metaphor to film the video there for what the song means. What the video tries to convey is kinda releasing your demons and getting all the negative things out of your life. We thought that was the right place to do it.

Chris: That’s pretty interesting because I used to live in Whitby actually, in Ajax.

Ian: Have you ever been to that house? It’s called the “Whitby Psych”.

Chris: No, I didn’t even see it. I was only there till I was 8. You guys are from Toronto right?

Ian: Ya, ya.

Chris: Are you guys gonna have another single coming up?

Ian: We’ll see how the first one’s doing, then if we get to the second single…

Aaron: Maybe January…

Ian: Ya January, we’ll wait and see.

Aaron: January if we’re lucky!

Ian: *laughs* ya!

Bobby: How did you end up meeting Atlantic?

Ian: It’s kinda a funny story actually. Cause we’d been playing and a lot of record company people from the Canadian industry had come checked us out, but no one was really willing to do anything about it. I guess we were one of those bands that people considered a “high risk band” because of the style of music we play. So we ended up signing a publishing deal with EMI and then what happened was that through them alot of other people in the United States heard about us, and Atlantic flew up and saw us in rehearsal one day. And eight months later, later after we finished these demos, they were the first ones that were still really into it and persistent about signing the band; so that’s why we went with them.

Bobby: How do you like being on it?

Ian: It’s been great, wonderful.

Aaron: Amazing. There’s no pressure, they’ve let us do everything we’ve wanted to do. Which is really good.

Ian: Ya, they’ve never stepped over the line as far as anything creatively. Like they left it all up to us; which is exactly what we wanted from signing to them. And they’ve never really gotten in our way. They’ve done their job and we’re doing our job. It’s a great relationship with our record company; which you never hear about.

Aaron: Ya, you never ever hear about that.

Ian: We’re one of the few bands that’s actually saying we have a great relationship with our record company.

Bobby: Ok, you describe yourself as a “walking, talking Seinfield episode”, Why?

Aaron: *laughs* Cause it’s true.The funniest stuff happens to us all the time. It’s just like a Seinfield episode. Some episodes are about absolutely nothing; but they’re so funny. And we walk around all day and the dumbest things happen to us and we just laugh at ourselves a lot. And we all enjoy Seinfield, so that’s why we kinda put it together because we just laugh at each other.

Ian: Ya, we have this thing that we think there is a black cloud following Billy Talent. For some reason, something will always screw up. We call it the “Billy Talent Curse” so on any given day, almost everyday something crazy happens.

Bobby: Like what?

Ian: What was the last time? *looks at Aaron* It was probably a couple days ago.

Aaron: I don’t know, personal things happen to me all the time man! *Ian laughs* Everyone gets their food and my food mysterially gets not delivered because she forgot to order it.

Ian: Ya, Aaron’s the one that they always forget to bring his food.

Aaron: Sitting on a plane, and the only seat on the entire plane that’s broken is mine. And the guy behind me is getting mad at me so they move me to another seat. Then a lady wants me to move because her TV doesn’t work. I had to move three times once! I’m not complaining, it’s really funny.

Ian: And then he had to sit beside this really old lady who didn’t get off the plane untill, well she was the last one off the place. So we ended up waiting an hour and a half while Aaron was the last one to get off the plane.

Aaron: *in a squeaky voice* “Do you mind if I wait until the end of the plane?” *normal voice again* And it was a jumbo jet, so there was like 350 people; and I had to wait and I had to pee so bad. And she didn’t get up for 7, the flight was 7 hours, and I had to pee; and she wouldn’t get up because her legs were hurting. And I didn’t want to make an old lady get up or crawl over her; so I held it. I was just laughing my head off to myself because the stupidest stuff happens.

Ian: A couple shows ago, some kid took his eyeball out of his head!

Aaron: Yes!

Ian: When we were one stage, in between songs…

Aaron: He went like this *makes a plucking noise and acts like he’s pulling his eye out). Held it in the air.

Ian: He’s like “hey!”. We had to stop.

Aaron: We’re like “What are we gonna do now?”

Ian: We’re like “No you couldn’t… O My God!” He just took his eyeball out of his head. He had a glasseye.

Aaron: Something will probably happen to us in like an hour, and you’ll see us all laughing at each other because it’s just so stupid.

Bobby: I’ll keep an eye out then.

Aaron: Yeah, exactly. “Keep an eye out” *makes the motion as if he’s pulling his eye out of his socket*

Bobby: *laughs* What was your favorite character on Seinfield?

Aaron: They’re all unbelievable. They’re all so good. They’re all so good. I don’t have my favorite, they’re all amazing.

Ian: I think Costanza is my favorite character. Because out of anyone in the band, I think Jon is most like Costanza.

Aaron: *laughs*

Ian: But I like Costanza’s character. It’s hilarious.

Aaron: I like Kramer. Everyone likes Kramer. Elaine’s hilarious.

Bobby: You can’t not like Kramer.

Aaron: Exactly.Kramer’s cool.

Chris: Do you have any other shows you guys like?

Aaron: “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.

Ian: Ya.

Aaron: The guy who used to write for, he wrote all the Seinfield episodes; he has his own show now on Showcase.

Bobby: Ya, I’ve seen that a couple times. It’s pretty funny.

Aaron: You have to give it a good 2 or 3 episodes to start getting it. And its fuckin- it’s really funny once you get it, like it’s really funny.

Bobby: Ya, my dad’s a big fan of that show.

Aaron: Ya, it’s such a great show.

Bobby: If you weren’t in a band, what do you think you’d be doing?

Ian: I used to work as an animator, so I’d probably be doing that right now or playing in another band or something. I just like playing music, so I’d still be playing music. But I’d probably be working a day job at my animation job.

Aaron: I’d be a sushi chef.

Bobby: Why?

Aaron: Because I love sushi and I’d love to know how to cook it and make it. And then I’d be in a band part-time too.

Bobby: Your currently on tour with AlexIsOnFire, how has that tour been so far?

Aaron: Amazing.

Ian: It’s been awesome, it’s great. All these bands, we all kinda know each other from Toronto.. *He drops all his game tokens* Ahh! There goes my tokens!

Aaron: Seinfield. There ya go.

Ian:*picks some up* I think I lost one there. Ahh well, doesn’t matter. It’s a great tour because all these bands are sort’ve up and coming bands from Toronto. We’ve all played the same clubs in Toronto, now we get to take it across Canada. You know? It’s got us, AlexIsOnFire from St. Catherine’s, we’ve got Death From Above…

Aaron: Death From Above is amazing.

Ian: A great band from Chicago too, Spitalfield. They’re awesome too, it’s just been a great tour. It’s awesome.

Aaron: Sad that’s it’s half over.

Ian: Ya. We like to call it the “Shock And Awe” tour.

Bobby: Why?

Ian: It’s not your typical Canadian rock band…

Aaron: The furthest from it. So much more.

Ian: And it’s great because we’re all Canadian bands, well except from Spitalfield, but I mean we’re taking it across Canada. It’s about time. You know?

Bobby: Do you have any memorable moments from it so far?

Aaron: The eyeball man.

Ian: The eyeball, that was pretty cool.

Aaron: That was like the second show, the eyeball.

Bobby: Any idea why he was wearing a glasseye?

Ian: No idea, I think he was born like that. He came up to me after the show and asked me to touch it. And I was like “Naw, Dude. I can’t touch your eye man”. And he was like “Come on man, it would really mean a lot to me”. So I was like “alright” so I touch his eye, and he asked me to roll it around. I was like “Aw man dude,stop, I can’t do anymore.”

Aaron: I can’t believe you actually did it.

Ian: I touch a guy’s eye, glasseye. He’s a cool kid.

Aaron: Ya he is, he’s a really cool kid.

Ian: Another memorable moment was when we played the CD release show with the same bands in Toronto with AlexIsOnFire. It was just a crazy show cause it sold out. We had like 30 kids on stage at one point, people stage diving. George of AlexIsOnFire dove off one of the balconies.

Aaron: O, fuck, he’s probably gonna do that tonight.

Ian: From a good 20 feet up, like on a speaker column. And he was greeted to like 100 kids with their arms up, holding him up. So that’s amazing. And there’s photographs if you go to kidwithcamera.com; just awesome photograph of that show.

Bobby: Alright, I will. If you could pick one person, dead or alive, who you would pick to tour with and why?

Ian: One person dead or alive…

Bobby: Or a band.

Aaron: The Clash obviously.

Ian: Ya, I’d say The Clash too.

Bobby: Why?

Ian: They were like the real deal of any of those punk bands that came out. Like I respect and love all those punk bands, but they were the only band that were the realest band. That’s why. They spoke in real things. And the music was just incredible too. And they seemed like they were doing it from all the right reasons you know. That’s what I respect about them, that’s why I would like to tour with them.

Bobby: How has being in a band changed your life?

Aaron: Living out of a suitcase.

Ian: Ya.

Aaron: It’s amazing. We get to do what we’ve always dreamed off. Like we played indie for 10 years and we would play little shows in front of 10 people, 30 people, 50 people. If we got a opening slot for one of the bigger bands that rolled into town, we might be able to play in front of like 80 people. Now we get to play in front of people like every single, like we do 5 shows a week. We’ve probably done about, since we’ve been out in May, we’ve probably done about 85 shows. It’s just a dream come true. You get to do this everyday. It’s just phenomenal.

Bobby: Ok, you guys got the name “Billy Talent” from a 1996 movie called “Hard Core Logo”, why did you pick that for your name?

Ian: Well we had this name called “Pez” for a long time. And this band in the US, they had the same name, and they didn’t like the fact that we had that name. So they kinda threatened to sue us. So in the end we were just like “Take the stupid name”; it’s a stupid name anyway. Who names their band after candy? So we gave them the name and we looked for a new name; and Ben brought up “Billy Talent”. The guitar player from the movie, “Hard Core Logo”. We had all seen the movie and really liked it, so we went with it.

Bobby: Ok, last time you were here, you put on a great show. Ben balanced a shoe on his head and wrapped his face in toilet paper. How do you think you’ll top that this time?

Ian: O ya!! He did didn’t he?

Aaron: I had forgotten about that! We won’t know until the show is done.

Ian: Ya, we’re pretty spontaneous. When the shows done, something must have happened.

Aaron: Ya.

Ian: Unless it was like nobody was there or nobody threw anything weird on stage. Then maybe nothing will happen. I don’t know.

Aaron: We’ll make it interesting.

Bobby: Ok, nowadays you can find Mp3s all over the internet, Kazaa, Morpheus, things like that. How do you feel about that?

Aaron: I don’t really think about it. It’s there.

Ian: We’re not too concerned about that. I think it’s pretty cool that you can go download a song or two from artists that are really hard to find or independent artists that don’t have a major deal or don’t have a record in stores. That’s why it’s really good. But I can see the downside. People thinking that their losing a lot of money. But you know what? It shouldn’t matter though. People love your music. They’re downloading it because they love it.

Bobby: And that’s what matters.

Aaron: Exactly.

Ian: Your going to have bands forever.

Bobby: I also recently read an article about Rancid in Alternative Press magazine. And one of the main themes was “Through Music You Can Live Forever”. You can take many different takes on that quote. But like what do you think on that quote? Do yo think it’s real or what’s your opinion on it?

Ian: Through music you can life forever?

Bobby: Yep.

Aaron: It’s true, I’ve never even thought about that until now, but I guess our CD will be around long after we’re dead.

Ian: Ya, it’s very true.

Aaron: It’s pretty neat to think.

Ian: Ya, it applies to a lot of things. Like movies and art. I guess too. Artists like Picasso will love forever through his paintings. And even movies; and I guess it’s the same with music. Like Sinatra will live forever through his music. Ya, it’s true.

Aaron: That’s a really good thing to say, that’s amazing. I agree with that totally.

Ian: I guess that’s the whole point of a recording: it’s recording a certain moment in time.

Aaron: Documenting your performance.

Chris: You probably hear this a lot, but where did you get your hair?

Ian: O, I’ve just been doing this for years. Now all of a sudden people notice now. It’s funny, I’ve been doing this for about 4 years. It’s just getting really long now cause when I go on the road, I don’t have a chance to cut it. So now it’s getting out of control, but I don’t care. I think it’s funny.

Aaron: If you look on the back of the CD, it’s baby version. It’s only about that big *he makes a size with his fingers*. And then we left on tour and it keeps growing on tour.

Ian: *laughs* Ya, ya, it started out with a simple, I was trying to do a little rock-a-philly/plump door thing and now it turned into kid at play.

Bobby: Do you use all gel? How do you do it?

Ian: No, hairspray, blowdryer on that.

Aaron: You sleep upside down, that’s what you should say.

Ian: Ya, like a bat.

Bobby: Why did you decide to become musicians?

Aaron: I don’t know.

Ian: I don’t think it was a decision, it was more like a passion. Something I started to do when I was really young and I just loved doing it. So I never decided to become musician, I just kept doing it. And I decided to become an animator and I went to school for that and I got a job and did that and the band was always there the whole time. So when the band got actually got an offer to record demos and do this professionally, I was like “Why not? I’ve been doing this my whole life”. So it wasn’t really a decision, it was more like a real, true passion.

Bobby: Alright, do you have any tips for young musicians just starting out?

Aaron: Never quit. 10 years it took us.

Ian: 10 years it took us. Never quit and surround yourself with people that are friends rather then because you think they’re good musicians. You know like there are hundreds of guys out there that are good technical musicians; but in the end if you don’t get along with them; like I’d rather be in a band with someone who doesn’t know how to play music at all and learn with them. And they’ll learn and be good after several years rather then trying to get a band together with a bunch of hot shots. Because if you’re not friends, then there’s no point.

Aaron: Ya, learn about each other too. And listen to bands that know. Like listen to bands like the Red Hot Chilly Peppers who is just four guys and they all know their roles and just, you know, just good with what they do. And they’ve learnt that with each other. So it’s hard.

Chris: How did you guys meet each other?

Ian: We all met in high school in grade 10 or something. We actually…

Aaron: We all wore our suits and ties in our little catholic school.

Ian: Ya, it was a catholic school, we had uniforms, cardigans…

Aaron: Turtle necks with the name.

Bobby: And now your covered in tattoos, tattoos and leather jackets.

Aaron: Yep, there you go *laughs*. But we’ve known each other for a good 11 years now. We met each other actually, we were both in different bands. And then we kinda saw Ian and he saw us. And we kinda broke off from those bands and formed the bands together.

Ian: You know what I just realized?

*Ben walks up to the table*

Aaron: Look who it is!

Ian: Look who it is! The guy who forget he’s supposed to do an interview.

Aaron: He’s talking on his cell phone.

Ben: Hey guys. I told you I was in the bathroom man! Can’t a man have a fucking ten minutes to himself here?

*Everyone laughs. We exchanged greetings*

Ben: We’ll I’ll let you get back to it. *He walks away and talks to Laura*

Ian: It’s funny, I just realized last week. Our name’s “Billy Talent” and we met at a talent show in high school. Which is really funny. I didn’t realize that that’s why people were writing about that in articles and stuff until last week.

Aaron: I didn’t realize that either.

Ian: We did meet at a talent show. Like, I’d known these guys in high school; like I’d seen them around. But I never really talked to them until that talent show. That’s where we met.

Aaron: “Hey! You’re in a band? So am I. Cool!” You know?

Ian: Our bands started playing together. And a year later when both bands kinda broke up, Ben called me up and asked if I wanted to form a band. It was with Aaron and Jon. That’s what happened.

Bobby: That’s a good story. I guess that’s about it, do you have any shout outs before we end?

Aaron: I love Edmonton.

Ian: Edmonton’s great. We’ll try not to shoot guns this time. I think we’re gonna go shoot guns though.

Aaron: Ya, we might go to the shooting range and get warmed up for the show. Last time we were here, we went to the shooting range and it was fun. You shoot a gun and then play music, you play it differently. *Everyone laughs* You really do. So we might go over there now.

Bobby: Awesome, thanks a lot for doing it.

Ian: Nah, thank you.