Billy Talent puts down sonic ‘flame-thrower’
When Billy Talent revisited the high-octane dramas of its self-titled debut on a 10th-anniversary tour in 2013, Ben Kowalewicz experienced a revelation about his decade-younger self.
“I realized that back then I was just a flame-thrower,” he said. “As a singer, I didn’t quite understand the art of refrain — I was just on full blast the whole time. Which was cool, but you realize that you become a little one-dimensional when you do that.”
The Toronto hard-rock band hasn’t depleted its reserves of raw power over the course of its fivealbum catalogue, and Kowalewicz can still shriek as if he’s sprinting across hot coals, but Billy Talent has also explored “avenues that were a bit more vulnerable and personal,” Kowalewicz said.
“And because of that, I think I improved as a singer. I mean, I’m not Pavarotti, but I know my capabilities a lot more. I know I can paint with different colours, as opposed to just red. There was a lot of red back on that first record.”
It’s a credit to Billy Talent’s expanded range that its latest release, Afraid of Heights, isn’t saturated in scarlet.
It very well could have been, considering the lyrical focus on the harsh cost exacted by personal and universal fears.
But while Kowalewicz summons visceral anger on songs driven by an unshakable dread, such as Big Red Gun and Ghost Ship of Cannibal Rats, there’s also room for unsinkable hope on the energizing Leave Them All Behind and February Winds.
Kowalewicz singled out the slowly escalating addiction lament Rabbit Down the Hole as a song he wouldn’t have been equipped to tackle 10 years ago.
“It’s a big rock opus — our November Rain kind of song,” he said with a cackle.
“That’s something I’m not always comfortable with — starting with an acoustic guitar and me crooning.”
Kowalewicz credits guitarist and chief songwriter Ian D’Sa with encouraging him to broaden his range beyond the wide-eyed mania of the band’s early work, and with the new album’s sharp, often political focus.
“He had been working on this record for so long and was so vested in every aspect, from lyrics to music to melody to production. This was his opus.”
Bristling songs that warn of military and environmental apocalypse, written “as a projection of where we were potentially going with the Trumps of the world,” sound even more intense now than when Afraid of Heights was released in July. That extra resonance may help explain why Kowalewicz sensed a heightened passion on stage and in the audience on Billy Talent’s recent European tour.
“I honestly think that it MEANS something, you know? It’s not just people going to see a show, they stand there for an hour and then walk away. When people come to our shows, we want them to walk away inspired and happy and to have felt something. Because I think the power of a rock show is really, really important.”
Whether talking about Billy Talent’s pre-fame years, “playing in front of 10 people in every (horrible) bar in the world,” opening for Guns N’ Roses in Toronto last summer (“I’ll admit, I was a little nervous about that one”) or his anticipation of the Canadian tour supporting Afraid of Heights, Kowalewicz speaks about live performance with the enthusiasm of someone who doesn’t take success for granted.