Interview with Billy Talent

Apart from the underwear buying, how have you been preparing for your tour? We’ve been preparing by just staying out on the road! I think I’ve been home about a week in the last five weeks. We head out tomorrow to go to across Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Finland for the next few weeks, then we come home for a bit and then we are coming to the UK – which we are super excited about! So you’re in mainland Europe this weekend, do you usually get a warm reception over there? Yeah well we’ve been pretty lucky because we’ve been touring in the UK and, as you say, mainland Europe for about 8 or 9 years I guess now so we’ve been pretty fortunate to have been pretty well received and the crowds are getting bigger instead of smaller which is nice. So we’ve been pretty lucky but we’ve also been going there for a long time, trying to put on the best shows we can and letting people know that if they do come and see us, they are going to get a good show. Do you maybe prefer it from playing Canada & America? Well it’s different, I mean every country, and every place has its own great things and its own not-so-great things. We love the fact we get to travel and see the world and playing a show in Vancouver, Canada or Montreal, New York or Berlin or London – they are all amazing places. They all just have there own little charm to them. I just found out today that you have got AWOLNATION supporting you, which I am very excited about, what is that made you choose them? Well we actually met them last summer, we were on a flight on the way to Poland on and we ended up hanging out with those dudes. They are super nice guys and they do really well in Canada, they’re on the radio all the time here and they’ve got a lot of momentum behind them. We met them and they were super great guys, which is first and foremost the most important thing and they’re a good band that are something a little different. I think everybody expects us to take out the hardcore band or the punk rock band but we’re like ‘well this is a good rock band’. We’re excited to have them out and we hope people will dig them. I hear your guitarist Ian has been listening to a lot of Pink Floyd and The Cure whilst writing and recording the album, are you guys particularly interested in the heritage of British music? Yeah we all are! It has had a huge impact on us and I think 80% of our favourite bands are from the UK. We are into The Clash to The Pistols to the Buzzcocks and then Black Sabbath to Led Zeppelin and to Pink Floyd and obviously The Stones and the Beetles and the Kinks – the list goes on and on! Well Ian was born in the UK and my mum and all my family were too – I’m the first generation to be born in Canada. So you feel you have a special connection with the UK? Yeah I feel there has also been a connection – oh I will just have to mention the Police because the Police are one of our favourite bands- but yeah there is definitely a huge connection. I mean, Canada and England still have a lot in parallel. We still have the bloody Queen on our money for Christ’s sake – for absolutely no reason whatsoever. We’ve always been connected and I think that is something that we love. It’s often the case that band who have been in the biz quite a while get bored or uninterested in new music. Is new music something you still have pleasure in and enjoy discovering? Yeah I love hearing new songs I love and I think there’s tons of great music that sometimes takes time to find but it’s worth it once you do find it. I’m really into the Menzingers right now and I also love a lot of hip-hop like Kanye and Jay-Z, they’re amazing rappers. You’ve got to keep your finger on the pulse and you don’t always have to enjoy what’s going on but I think you have to appreciate what’s going on and try to see the good in it. Let’s talk about the new album! What kind of response have you got so far from that? Well I can honestly tell you that the response we’ve got thus far has been really really positive. I think it was the right record that we needed to write at the right time and I think sonically and lyrically it has felt like it is on the right page. We’ve all been on the same page and I thin what happens is a lot of times, bands evolve and change and different records and songs come out of you when you don’t expect it. I think whether you’re a Billy Talent fan or if you have heard of us but haven’t actually heard of us, this record would be the best indicator of where we’re at and who we are as musicians. I think your live show is a massive part of your appeal and I felt that Dead Silence really reflected that. It the live sound one you were going for or did it just end up like that? You know what, we don’t ever really sit and say ‘this is what it is going to be’, it just kind of happens. I can honestly tell you that we went from a song like Viking Death March to writing Stand up And Run which is a beautiful 50s/60s love song. We were sitting there like ‘what the hell kind of record are we going to make here?’. We just let it write itself and we just kind of steer the boat when it gets too far in one direction. How do you think this differs from your last album and of course the trilogy of albums? I think first and foremost, the most important thing is that Ian produced the record. We’re so proud of him because we know he’s had it in him and it’s really nice to have this record for him to show the world ‘look what I can do!’. He’s a very talented man who is very good at what he does and I can’t say enough good things about him. I think that is the major difference between this and all the other records. What was it that made you want to finish the trilogy and not call the new album Billy Talent IIII? Well it’s just like sometimes you feel like Chinese food and sometimes you feel like Mexican food. Were kind of at the point where we felt like we were done and wanted to try something else. It wasn’t really methodical it was just like ‘let’s move on the next chapter’.

So you feel you just naturally progressed from there?

Yeah and that’s how this band works, if it feels weird, we don’t do it. It felt like it was the right time and it worked! So your second date of the UK tour in Norwich, what is it that made you want to come back to our city? It’s just a matter of we have toured the UK quite a few times in our live and we like 1) Go to new places and 2) We like to keep going back. So going back to Norwich is just something that made sense to us. If we’re going to be going back to the UK then we have to go back to Norwich! Billy Talent come to the Norwich UEA LCR on the 7th November. For tickets and more info go to www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk.