Billy Talent- an interview with Ian D'Sa

by Rebecca Clark

With all the new bands breaking out of their shells and into the music scene, Billy Talent is unquestionably a band to watch offering a different and unique flavor to the rock genre.

Billy Talent is a Toronto Canada based band that formed together in high school and has been together for almost 10 years.

Guitarist Ian D’Sa got involved in music at an early age. “My mom enrolled me into piano lessons when I was a kid, so that’s how it kind of started,” D’Sa said.

D’Sa attended Ontario College of Art and Design (OCA) and balanced being in the band and attending classes. After OCA, D’Sa attended grad school at Sheridan for animation and became a computer animator.

After D’Sa graduated from Sheridan, he took a job in Montreal. D’Sa’s dedication and love of being involved in the band motivated him to travel a four-hour drive home every second weekend just to practice and play with the guys, D’Sa said. Finally he had enough of traveling back and forth and D’Sa eventually moved home and got a job there so he could peruse his dream of being in a band.

D’Sa also had the opportunity to work on the animated series Angela Anaconda.

A lot of bands have been breaking up and losing members because they have only known each other for a year or two. But Billy Talent have been friends and together for so long that they all share a brother like bond, which makes them stronger as a band, D’sa said.

 “I don’t think we will ever call it quits because we have been wanting to do this for so long,” D’Sa said.

  As a band, Billy Talent wants to always challenge them-selves musically and lyrically and have fundamentals of what their songs are about D’Sa said. “It is important for us that we do something original and creative and challenging, but at the same time we want to be different,” D’Sa said.

According to D’Sa, lyrically Billy Talent tries to keep their words and concepts simple. They believe that they can get the point across better with simple words and feel that big words and concepts are less effective in communicating, D’Sa said.

 “We think less is more and songwriting fundamentals to us are to get the point across and in a relatively short amount of time and not to saturate it,” D’Sa said. “We want to do that too, but it is less effective and not everyone gets it.”

Billy Talent’s debut album is due out in stores in late August or early September. The first single will be “Try Honesty,” which will hit radio in July. They recorded the album back in Vancouver in December and recorded it all in five weeks

 “We are really, really happy with it,” D’Sa said. “It was one of those experiences that you will remember the rest of your life because you have worked so hard to get to this point. Everything that we have released independently up to this point we have recorded ourselves at local studios and to get the opportunity in Vancouver to record a full-length album that is really high quality and with people who know what they are doing…it was a really amazing experience. We are super excited to have this album coming out. It is our first album and we have been wanting this for so long.”

Billy Talent was not always known as Billy Talent. “We changed our name to Billy Talent like 2.5 years ago,” D’Sa said. “We used to be called Pezz for seven or eight years.”

Billy Talent got their name from the movie Hard Core Logo, which had a character named 'Billy Tallent' in it.

 “It is a really kind of ironic name, Billy Tallent, and he was kind of cocky and sarcastic at the same time and we just loved it and decided to name the band after it,” D’Sa said.

No matter what, Billy Talent want to keep their uniqueness and would never dream of changing their sound because their different style of rock is what sets them apart. “We are not going to change ourselves to sound like something more accessible because we will just sound like everyone else,” D’Sa said.

D’Sa said to embrace the differences bands have because it will in a sense set bands free to find themselves in their music. Billy Talent seemed to really take off and progress after they just simply embraced their differences instead of trying to be a band they weren’t D’Sa said.

 “I think it is really sad to hear everyone trying to do their best Eddie Vedder…I think what is going to separate us from the rest of the bands is that we are playing rock and roll like everyone else, but we don’t ever try to want to be like anyone else,” D’Sa said. “We try to take pride in our own uniqueness.”

Billy Talent focuses on being your own person and the emotional power in their lyrics. They strive to remain real and want to write about things that matter to them in their songs. “Our music is commentary on life, and commentary on people and how they live their life,” D’Sa said.

When Billy Talent first started out as a band their primary focus was to sound good live and to get their live show down, now that they have their live show to their satisfaction Billy Talent was able to be more focused on the writing of the record.

 “A lot of bands think it is a privilege for the audience to see them play, but we think it is our privilege to play in front of people,” D’Sa said. “So that’s why we go crazy and get a little out of hand on stage because somebody paid money to see our band and we want them to have a good night with us.”

Billy Talent is currently on tour with Sum 41 and after that tour they will be going out with one of their idols the Buzzcocks. For tour dates and more information on Billy Talent go to www.billytalent.com

Billy Talent is:

Benjamin Kowalewicz (vocals)

Ian D’Sa (guitar)

Jon Gallant (bass)

Aaron Solowoniuk (drums)

Interview was conducted May 2003