Billy Talent

Editor’s Note: Ian and Aaron of Billy Talent were nice enough to grant me another interview as they passed through Edmonton this week. The interview went well, and I know I learnt some new things. A couple times during the interview their crew members started jamming on the stage behind us, which made it really difficult to decipher what they were saying at times, but overall it was pretty clear. I hope you enjoy 🙂

Please note: All photos were taken from their site and are copyrighted by their rightful owners.

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Bobby: Okay, it’s been about a year since we last talked, and in that year, you’ve blown up immensely. How does it feel looking back on the past year?

Ian: Well, we haven’t really had time to look back on the last year since we’ve been on the road since the last time we were here. I think when our whole touring cycle is done and we’re home for a good 4 or 5 months working on the next record, it will really sink in.

Aaron: Ya, we need to go home and figure out what happened. We’re still touring, it’s still the same day to day routine; it hasn’t really sunk in at all.

Bobby: What do you think has been the most memorable moment of the past year?

Aaron: Oh gosh… Everyday there’s a memorable moment. We got into a bus accident three days ago, which was pretty crazy. But playing the Warped Tour was my most favourable memorable moment. That’s for sure.

Ian: We played the Warped Tour for a whole month, and most of the dates were in the US and when we came back to Canada, the first show we played was in Quebec City; and it was just nuts. We could tell our fans were really looking forward to us coming home.

 

Bobby: Why did you decide to do “The Ex” as a live video?

Aaron: Because we needed another video and we were in the middle of touring, touring, touring, touring, and we had no time to really get a concept video together. And we had this really good footage for this show we did in… [Turns to Ian] where was that MTV Breakout?

Ian: It was in Calgary actually. Calgary and Ottawa. We have footage from Calgary and Ottawa.

Aaron: The Ottawa show, they kind of just sent a film crew to us while we were doing our sound check. And I hate all the footage from that.

Ian: Ya, we really didn’t have time to do a video because we were on the road, so we decided that a live video would captured what we do live really well.

Bobby: During most of your live shows, right before you play “The Ex”, Ben goes on a giant rant, some of that speech was capture in the video. Some people wanted to know what he says exactly, because they can never catch the whole thing. Do you have any idea what he says?

Aaron: Ben just talks about his experiences with women, and every show we play it seems to get more and more heartfelt.

Bobby: Do you guys have any plans for recording? Like you said you were recording in a couple of months, do you have any big plans for it?

Ian: Well, not really. We’re going into the studio in February and then probably after that we’ll be touring for a good 18 months.

Bobby: Earlier today I found out that you guys were releasing a DVD in November. What’s going to be on it?

Ian: Basically, it’s a short documentary about our 18 months on the road. I guess it’s kind of about our rise from being relatively unknown to where we are today. It’s more of a documentary then just a band DVD because we really wanted it to be that way. It really captures what happened to us in the last 18 months.

Bobby: Your debut self-titled album was just certified platinum in Canada. How does that feel?

Aaron: Haven’t really thought about it because I haven’t had time to think. That’s the only way to explain it. Everything’s still the same for us. The only difference is a plaque on our wall; but I haven’t seen my wall in months, so I don’t really know.

Ian: The last time we were in Edmonton actually, we were at New City and our record company presented us with our platinum award; and it’s pretty cool.

Bobby: Okay, let’s talk about the Junos for a bit. They were in Edmonton a couple months ago. How were they for you guys?

Ian: The Junos? It was a lot of fun. It was fun hanging out with the other bands and meeting other bands that we had never met before. It was also kind of weird.

Bobby: How was it weird?

Aaron: Well at the MMVAs, I got a little freaked out being at the centre, here, knowing that there are thousands of people all around the building and everywhere you went, you couldn’t get out. Then being in this huge stadium with 15,000 people and being in a little room in the back hanging out with Finger Eleven and Three Days Grace and Simple Plan; and us just staying in that one room. It was just weird being on that end of it. We’ve been fans of music and fans of stuff like that our whole lives, so to be put on the stage was weird.

Bobby: How did it feel winning the New Group Of The Year award?

Aaron: Awesome.

Bobby: Don’t you think that it’s a bit ironic that you guys won it for New Group Of The Year when you’ve been a band for over 10 years?

Aaron: Exactly!

Ian: Yes!

Aaron: That’s what we thought! We won New Group and we’ve been together for eleven years.

Bobby: Okay, when you guys went to receive your Juno award, Ian was nowhere in sight. It took a good thirty seconds before he went running onto the platform.

Ian: I was in the washroom! Ya, I remember I was backstage taking a pee and Scott from Finger Eleven opened the washroom door and was yelling “Dude! You just won an award! Get out there!” So I went running outside and the guys were already on the podium, stage.

Aaron: I was laughing my head off. It was so funny.

Ian: I was freaking out, I was really freaking out. Because it was a big deal. It’s a big deal to win a Juno award and I didn’t want to miss it so I was running like there’s no tomorrow.

Bobby: Well, now for the more important question: Did you have time to wash your hands before you went out there to get your award?

Aaron: Uh-ohh

Ian: [Laughs] No I did not. And I shook all those poor people’s hands…

Aaron: [pretending to give a handshake] Thank you so much! You have pee on your hands now!

Ian: I don’t think I got pee on my hands though.

Aaron: Well you hope.

Bobby: How was performing at the awards?

Aaron: Short.

Ian: Ya, it was kind of weird.

Bobby: Ya, why was it cut up into four parts?

Aaron: They wanted a six-minute montage, and each band got a minute and a half. I think that’s why. That’s the only reason I can think of.

Ian: I don’t know. I thought it was kind of lame. Like why did they take the younger rock groups and make them do a montage and let the more contemporary, adult music play their full song?

[Here, their crew started playing some songs up on stage, and the music completely overpowered anyone talking, so its impossible to make out what they were saying for a couple seconds]

Bobby: Another bad thing about the event was the sound system, a few of the bands sounded pretty bad.

Ian: Ya, people told us that we sounded like crap.

Bobby: [Laughs] Ya, you did a bit; but luckily at the MMVAs you sounded really good. Okay, Pezz was your former band name, and you released one CD under that name called Watoosh.

Ian: Yep.

Bobby: It is really hard to find, I was lucky enough to get a copy of it…

Ian: O really? Where’d you get it?

Bobby: Well, I was able to find it on the Internet, so only a burnt copy. The real thing is impossible to find. Do you think you will ever re-release it, or re-do any of the songs?

Ian: Probably not.

Aaron: Ya, that’s put to rest.

Bobby: Okay, a while ago while you guys were in Edmonton, you were playing at the Iron Horse and Ben’s mic stand broke and he threw it back…

Aaron: And it hit me in the head, it was awesome [sarcastically]. That was another one of my most memorable bad experiences. They seem to happen on a weekly basis.

Ian: That was a bad experience. That was probably the scariest experience. The bus accident…

Aaron: Ya, there was no blood a few days ago which was awesome. In Edmonton there was a lot of blood.
Ian: I heard him stop playing and I turn around and he’s lying on the ground holding his head; and when he took his hands off, blood covered his entire face. And I knew something really bad had happened.

Aaron: And unfortunately, we weren’t filming that show; so it’s not going to be on our DVD. But there’s pictures of the scar and the stitches of it, for all you people to run out and buy it to see.

Bobby: I read also that when you guys went to UofA hospital, a whole bunch of fans came and brought you slurpees.

Aaron: Ya! That was nice. I’m surprised that they made me sit in the waiting room for about twenty minutes.

Ian: I know!

Aaron: And I had a giant cut on my head! They made me wait like someone who had a little cut finger or something. I should’ve pretended that I couldn’t remember anything.

Ian: He’s covered in blood and holding his skull together and they made him wait twenty minutes!

Aaron: Definitely not good medi-care. Well maybe somebody else was having an heart attack or something, but it didn’t seem too full.

Bobby: That’s an odd thing to do.

Aaron: I think it was my tatoos.

Bobby [laughs] You guys got to play for most of the Warped Tour on the main stage, how was that?

Ian: It was awesome, we didn’t expect to get to play on the main stage, and for most of US we got to play on the main stage, and in Canada too. So they really really did us a favour as far as playing in front of new fans. It was awesome.

Aaron: Ya, I think a lot of the bands really enjoyed our band and talked to Kevin Lyman. He gave us some opening slots, like we probably went on between noon and 3 o’clock everyday on the main stage. We played 3 side stages, which was pretty crazy as well.

Ian: A lot of the organisers of the tour were really into the band. So they did us a huge favour by putting us on the main stage.

Bobby: That’s good. Can you tell us something about the band or one of the members that people don’t know?

Ian: We could make something up.

Aaron: I don’t know, let me think… I don’t know. Something about Ben or Jon that nobody knows. What could we say? Let’s go back to that question at the end of the interview.

Bobby: Okay will do. I heard that Darrin from Goldfinger is your tour manager for this tour. How did that get set up?

Ian: Darrin moved to Toronto a few years ago and is married to a Canadian woman. So we kind of met him in Toronto. And it’s funny because we opened up for Goldfinger like five years ago at the Kool Haus. He’s one of Aaron’s favourite drummers, and just being around the city we ended up talking to him. He’s in between albums right now for Goldfinger so he decided to come out on tour with us as tour manager for the Warped Tour and this tour as well.

Bobby: If you could be a girl for one day, what would you do and why?

Ian: One day?

Bobby: Or more if you want.

Aaron: I’d go shopping and try on all the dresses I’ve always wanted without everyone looking at me all weird. Put on all the makeup I’ve always been dying to put on without people looking at me weird.

Ian: Ya, put on a lot of makeup.

Bobby: If you were stranded on a desert island with no food and nothing to eat, which one of the band members would you eat to survive and why?

Ian and Aaron: Jon!

Bobby: Why?

Aaron: Because he’s got muscle.

Ian: He’s got lots of muscle, lots of meat on him.

Aaron: I’d just be like skin and bones. It wouldn’t do any help to eat me.

Bobby: If you could have one thing at this moment, anything at all. What would you have and why?

Ian: One thing at this moment? A café americano.

Aaron: Because he just woke up.

Ian: Ya, I just woke up. Aaron?

Aaron: Umm… I don’t know. That’s a good question.

[Here the crew members started playing again, Aaron got up to tell them to stop and wait for five more minutes until the interview was over]

Ian: Idiots. Our crew likes to jam a lot.

Bobby: You should do what the Dropkick Murphys did, they got their crew members to be a band and actually had them open for them one night.

Aaron: O, like the Crew Fighters.

Ian: The Crew Fighters?

Aaron: That was Sum41’s opening band.

Ian: Was it really?

Aaron: Yep.

Bobby: Are there are bands out there that you think people should check out?

Aaron: Death From Above 1979 and Metric tonight, they’re amazing.

Bobby: I’ll make sure to pay attention to them tonight then. Now to go to back to that question. Tell us something about the band members that nobody else knows.

Ian: Ben’s a wicked drummer.

Aaron: Ya, he is. He’s actually one of my favourite drummers, him and Travis Barker. That’s not even a lie. Umm.. what else? Jon…

Ian: Jon…

Aaron: I don’t know.

Ian: I’m afraid actually. Why am I afraid?

Aaron: Umm, we’ll just leave it alone.

Ian: You want to leave it alone? We gotta say something. Um… Jon likes… “bagals”. He likes to say “bagal” and “pallow”.

Aaron: He eats “bagal” on his “pallow”.

Ian: And when you tell him its pronounced “bagel” and “pillow” he’s like “No, you’re wrong.”

Aaron: Well he used to say we were wrong, but now he’s actually conformed. But when we first started spending every single day with him it was “bagal” and “pallow.”

Ian: He truly believed that that “pallow” and “bagal” was how you said them.

Aaron: But its p-i-l-l-o-w. “Pillow”.

Bobby: You guys should get Ben to do a drum solo today if he’s that good a drummer.

Aaron: He will never do a drum solo.

Bobby: Why not?

Aaron: He’s too shy behind the kit, but you give him a mic and he goes crazy.

Bobby: Ya, he goes absolutely insane with a mic in his hands. But I guess that’s about it. Any shout-outs you want to say before were done?

Aaron: Nope. That was a good interview.

Bobby: Thanks a lot.