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In some tiny little town in southern Ontario some years ago, four kids from the Greater Toronto Area hauled drums and amplifiers onto the back of a tractor trailer to play their Rage Against The Machine- and Soundgarden-influenced brand of hard rock for the locals. When you're cutting your teeth as a live band, you learn to just grin and bear it when the generator craps out four times during your set. You learn to just rock those jump kicks on stage, even if your audience is comprised mostly of farmers. It's how you learn and get better. "That was a bad show," says Ian D'Sa, half horrified, half laughing. "Then the racists came," adds Ben Kowalewicz. "They accosted Ian and told him to get out of their town. That was worse." Ya, that's worse.
D'Sa is the Goan guitarist and primary songwriter in Billy Talent, one of the country's biggest hard rock bands. Since the tractor trailer incident, he has indeed learned and gotten better alongside vocalist Kowalewicz, bassist Jon Gallant, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk, and together, they've made Billy Talent into one of Canada's biggest musical exports.
How and why Billy Talent are as successful as they are is about patience and friendship. The average life span of a band is about two years - not long enough to grow past infancy, or really give it a respectable shot - just hope for a miracle. Billy Talent outgrew the terrible twos about 14 years ago. While most bands are throwing food and taking naps, Billy Talent are getting their driver's license.
Sixteen years without a single lineup change is almost unheard of. There's always the band-dismantling "real job" waiting at dad's insurance company or personality clashes that end up leveling most bands. Nobody left and nobody really clashed; they're just as good at being friends as they are at playing music together.
This is also the reason that these four gentlemen have a reputation with fans, and within the industry, as being respectable, wellmannered, down-to-Earth people. "I think we're good guys because it took 10 years to get people to understand what we're doing. If this would have happened 1 6 years ago, we'd all be dicks," jokes Solowoniuk. "I think we were...