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Billy Talent

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Billy Talent
Background information
Years active1993 - present
MembersBenjamin Kowalewicz
Jonathan Gallant
Ian D'Sa
Aaron Solowoniuk

Billy Talent, originally called Pezz, is a Canadian band, originally from Mississauga, Ontario. They are now based in downtown Toronto. They performed and recorded together for about a decade before finding a wide mainstream following.

Members

History

Origins as Pezz

The band originated in Meadovale and Streetsville, Ontario two neigbouring districts in Missississauga, a large city west of Toronto, Ontario. In 1993, Ben Kowalewicz and Jon Gallant were part of a band called "To Each His Own", where Gallant played bass, and Kowalewicz was on drums. Kowalewicz moved to vocals, and Aaron Solowoniuk was recruited in his place. They then met Ian D'Sa backstage at their high school talent show. The trio would then go on to merge with D'Sa's current band which was breaking up at the time, "Dragon Flower", which was a mix of grunge, Rage Against The Machine, and hip-hop. Their merging would bring on the name "The Other One" for a short time, and eventually Pezz.

Pezz began writing, performing songs, and gaining attention and credibility at first locally, and soon in Toronto's broader indie music scene. Their first recording was a cheap 4-track demo. It was recorded in Ian D'Sa's basement in late 1994, and was named Jason Deluca, after a friend of the band. Soon after, in January 1995, they all put in money to record another demo of better quality, which they called Dudebox. It wasn't until the band members maxed-out their credit cards, and collaborated with Juno-nominated music producer Brad Nelson, that they recorded their first full-length album, Watoosh!, in 1998. While popular within Toronto's indie scene, it did not reach large mainstream sales levels.[1]

Billy Talent and mainstream success

In 1999, Pezz ran into some legal trouble over their name. A punk band from Memphis, Tennessee used the same name, and indeed had released their first album under that name in 1999. At first, the Canadian Pezz's management threatened a lawsuit and demanded $5,000 from BYO Records, the Los Angeles-based record company, at the time, for the American Pezz. In time, the band relented, and soon renamed themselves Billy Talent in 2001. The name was inspired by "Billy Tallent", the name of a guitarist in Hard Core Logo, the novel by Michael Turner and its film adaptation by Bruce McDonald.

As Billy Talent, their sound began to move in a more aggressive, punk rock direction. Their four song EP, Try Honesty, was released in September 2001, and the band became increasingly well-known, and their live shows, noted for their high energy, more frequent.

In 2002, the band quickly attracted considerable interest from major record companies. In the end, the band signed with Atlantic Records and Warner Music Canada. In the fall of 2003, the band released their full-length self-titled album, Billy Talent. The album found considerable mainstream airplay and sales success. "Try Honesty" was a successful first single, and was followed by other singles into late 2003 and 2004. The band played sold-out shows in Canada and the United States and had success in Europe as well. The band received Juno and MuchMusic Video Award nominations and awards, and spent late 2004 and most of 2005 touring. As of June 2006, Billy Talent the album, has gone 3x Platinum in Canada and will likely achieve mainstream success in the United States as well after playing shows at almost every Warped Tour 2006 festival.

Billy Talent II

The band's second album was mostly recorded at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver BC. Again working closely with good friends Gavin Brown and Chris Lord-Alge. This time however Ian D'sa got a chance to try his hand at producing. The band also recorded cover songs of John Lennon's "Cold Turkey" and the Buzzcocks "Ever Fallen in Love?" In the fall of 2005, a demo of an unreleased song entitled, "Red Flag", was circulating across the Internet; "Red Flag" also appears on the soundtracks to Burnout Revenge, Burnout Legends, SSX On Tour and EA Sports' NHL 2005, and on the Atlantic Records compilation Black by Popular Demand. Another song, "Devil In A Midnight Mass," was available for download on their website exclusively on Christmas Day, 2005. "Surrender" was offered for download exclusively on Valentine's Day, 2006. Both "Devil In A Midnight Mass" and "Surrender" appeared on the band's newest album, Billy Talent II, released on June 27, 2006. On April 20th the final version of "Devil In A Midnight Mass" was made available online through the band's Myspace, it is now also played on some Canadian radio stations owned by Corus Entertainment, such as FM96, 102.1 the Edge, 99.3 The Fox, 106.1 The Goat and Y108. The video for "Devil In A Midnight Mass" is now being played on MuchMusic. Clips of all the new songs can be found at the Warner Music website.

All of the tracks on Billy Talent II were leaked onto the internet on June 19th 2006. On June 23rd, all of the tracks were officially released onto the band's MySpace as a listing preview for the fans. The next day 10 of the songs were removed and their myspace now contained the songs "This Suffering", "Devil In A Midnight Mass", "Red Flag" and one of the songs from their self-titled album.

The band performed a Intimate & Interactive outdoor concert at Muchmusic on June 28th, 2006 and were also interviewed by Devon Soltendieck. Viewers also called, e-mailed, and videophoned the band at the Chum City parking lot in Toronto, Ontario. Portions of the program are available at Muchmusic Axs.

The album fared very well in Canada in its debut week, landing in at number 1 on the Canadian charts with 48,000 copies sold the first week. However the success didn't duplicate itself in the U.S., where the disk came in at #134, selling only 7,231 units in week 1.

Devil In A Midnight Mass was the first single released on Billy Talent II. A video for "Red Flag" was shot on July 21, 2006, in Los Angeles, CA [1], and it is scheduled to be released as the second single. The video for "Red Flag" was first played in the UK on Scuzz on August 20th, 2006, and in Canada on MuchMusic the following day.

The band performed a live session for Mike Davies on BBC Radio 1's The Lockup on September 12th, playing the tracks "Red Flag", "Devil In A Midnight Mass" and "This Suffering".

During the band's most recent UK tour, Ben was forced to return to Canada for family related reasons. The band had to miss their Southampton show in Ben's absence. The whole band returned the following month to play the show. Halfway through the performance, Ben apologised to the crowd for his absence the previous month, which was followed by a heart warming round of applause from the crowd as the band went on to play a storming set.

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

EPs

Year Title Format Chart Position
1993 Demoluca (as Pezz) EP
1994 Dudebox (as Pezz) EP
2001 Try Honesty EP EP

Singles

Year Title Chart positions Album
Canada UK Singles Chart Germany
2003 "Try Honesty" - 68 - Billy Talent
2004 "The Ex" - 61 - Billy Talent
2004 "River Below" - 70 - Billy Talent
2004 "Nothing To Lose" - - - Billy Talent
2006 "Devil In A Midnight Mass" 1 66 - Billy Talent II
2006 "Red Flag" 1 49 34 Billy Talent II
2006 "Fallen Leaves" - - - Billy Talent II

Awards

  • 2003 Casby Awards: Won Favorite New Single (for "Try Honesty")
  • 2004 Juno Awards: Won Best New Group Of The Year, Nominated for Rock Album Of The Year, Single Of The Year (for "Try Honesty")
  • 2004 MuchMusic Video Awards: Won Best Rock Video (for "Try Honesty")
  • 2004 Casby Awards: Won Favorite New Single (for "River Below"), Favorite New Album
  • 2005 Juno Awards: Won Group Of The Year, Best Album Of The Year (for "Billy Talent"), Nominated for Single Of The Year (for "River Below")
  • 2005 MuchMusic Video Awards: Won Best Video (for "River Below"), Best Rock Video (for "River Below")
  • 2006 MuchMusic Video Awards: Nominated Best Video (for "Devil in a Midnight Mass"), Best Director - Sean Michael Turrell (for "Devil in a Midnight Mass"), Best Post-Production (for "Devil in a Midnight Mass"), Best Cinematography (for "Devil in a Midnight Mass"), Best Rock Video (for "Devil in a Midnight Mass")

References

  1. ^ The Ongoing History of New Music. '"Before They Were Famous" Original Broadcast date: 13-11-05 on CFNY.
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