Fun fact: Did you know people willingly live in Canada? I hadn’t a clue! And what’s more Canadians don’t fear Chuck Norris. Wait–I’m getting word that there’s no way I can actually prove that. Fuck fact-checking, I’m starting that rumor/truth. If they aren’t scared of his beardy American goodness, then they rightfully should. Anyway, we need to keep our eyes peeled on Canada, they seem to be up to no good. Exporting Celine Dion and Nickelback and all…but somehow they’ve also exported Canadian hair-rockers; Billy Talent. I got a call from the Great White North and we had a chat. Here it is.
Racket Aaron: Hey, how’s it going in the Great White North?
Billy Talent John: Oh man, it’s been a hell of a winter. It’s been like, record snow falls this year. It’s been ridiculous. Earlier in the winter we were on the road, but now I’m just trying to keep up with the shoveling.
RA: You sound a little bit sick there.
BTJ: You know what, I just walked home from the village by my house, and it’s so cold that my nose is draining [laughs]. It’s definitely good that I had my sweater.
RA: I live in Arizona, I’ve never actually seen snow before.
BTJ: Oh, really? That’s crazy for me to understand because I was raised in Toronto. But I’ve noticed the weather is the same here in New York City. We’re pretty close, and the Great Lakes act as kind of a weather shield, so Toronto doesn’t usually have winters that are too bad. Buffalo gets it way worse than we do. But this year, it seems like every third day there’s snow. It sucks.
RA: So you guys released the live DVD “666.” this year
BTJ: Yep.
RA: Why’d you call it that? Did you owe the Devil product placement?
BJT: Well, it’s six songs from three different shows. So we talked about it, and we thought about the idea, and though, “Ah, that’s pretty cool. We can do some good shit with that.” But mainly it was six songs, from three different shows and it’s a number that went along with the number-theme of our record, so it just presented itself and we all agreed to it.
RA: So whats coming up in the future for you guys?
BTJ: We’re not supposed to be doing anything right now, except for working on our next record, and we have been and it’s been amazing. The writting has been going great, and it’s been extremely creative and were so excited. But then we got offered a My Chemical Romance tour through the States for main support. It’s a great, great opprotunity to get in front of a lot of kids ’cause we haven’t had that many opportunites in the States to do that kind of thing. So we decided to take the tour. We’re friends with those guys too. They’re really good dudes, so we’re happy to support them. So that’s what’s next on the agenda for us.
RA: So let me ask you something that’s weighed heavily on my mind for years. If you were to shave Gerard Way, don’t you think it would be Billy Corgan under that hair?
BTJ: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah. I could see that.
RA: Is it at all frustrating, I mean I know you’re pretty successful in Canada and other places in the world, but like you mentioned previously: You haven’t had many opportunities in the States. Is it at all frustrating to be this accomplished as a band every where else, and be relatively unknown in the United States?
BTJ: Well, we’ve had as much success in Europe as we’ve had in Canada, and in the UK, and in Australia things have taken off for us. So we’ve been able to keep ourselves busy by hitting Europe, and just seeing the most fantastic country in the world, and to be involved in the fantastic music scenes over there. But you know, it is a little frustrating that it hasn’t caught on. But we know why, you know? It’s like, we’ve done a lot of touring down there [in the States] and a lot of opportunities to be on the Warped Tour, but usually it’s the fans that mainly come out, and a few people who may have caught wind through friends. We haven’t gotten much radio or TV support down there like we have in Canada, and what’s happened in Europe. But we have a really great following down in the States, it’s just small. It’s cool, you know? We’ve played everywhere from clubs and theaters to the House of Blues. We have great shows, so it’s fun for us. It keeps us hungry.
RA: Did you expect bigger things after the single “Try Honesty” was such a big hit down here?
BTJ: Yeah, I guess so. I don’t know…you know it’s hard to remember way back then. I remember when the record company just kind of gave up on us after that single, and really started pushing the band away. Things work differently in the States than everywhere else. But uh, so it was a little bit disappointing to see it take off so well in Canada and Germany and to have such an awesome start in the States, and then have it kind of fade away. We know the reasons why, and it’s all good in the end.
RA: Am I reading this correctly, have you guys maintained all the original members?
BTJ: Yeah, since 1993. It’s pretty rad, actually. It’s something I’ve really grown to appreciate. Especially touring the last six years internationally, and seeing other bands releasing that maybe one-in-ten has the same situation.
RA: Has that helped you, or hindered you?
BTJ: Oh no, it’s definitely helped us. There is the amount of respect we have for one another, and what we do and contribute to the band. It took a long time to do that, to learn everybody’s role and how we all fit in. We just try to figure out how we can fit together… It’s kind of like a sports team. It takes all kinds of different personalities and skills to succeed in this stupid business. It’s fun to play rock ‘n’ roll, thats the bottom line, but to make it fun you really you need to respect your band members and love what you’re doing.
RA: I read recently that you had a newborn child–
BTJ: Yeah!
RA: How does that hinder touring?
BTJ: I don’t know yet, haha. I’ll find out on this My Chemical Romance tour. It’s gonna be awesome. Right now I’m seeing him every day, helping out so much. Unlike other dads who have to get started for their day job I’m home from the moment he wakes up. Of course we’re rehearsing and writing songs like that, but I’m learning so much about him. It’s so amazing and it’s going to be really difficult to be away from him. I like my job too, but there’s drawbacks just like there would be with anything else. In today’s day and age with computers, my wife and I both have Macs, and we can do the iChat, and I can see him every day. So I’m trying to be as positive as I can about it.
RA: Yeah. Did you kind of freak out when the wife was like, “Guess what…I’m pregnant!”
BTJ: Yeah…yeah! I was in Montreal playing a gig when I found out. It was wild. But we’d been together for a long time and it had no negative effect on our relationship. She’s such a strong willed, independent, and supportive woman too. We’ll make it work; we’ve made every thing else work so far without any difficulties.
RA: What does Ian [D’Sa/guitars] use to keep his hair up?
BTJ: Haha, in the DVD, the deluxe version of the DVD, you can watch a fast-forwarded version of it. It’s…he uses hairspray and a hair dryer.
RA: I would’ve assumed it’s maple syrup.
BTJ: Haha, yeah, that would probably work.
RA: Might be better for the environment too. So what would your dream job be if you weren’t playing in a band?
BTJ: Oh man, I would love to be creative man, maybe down there in Phoenix for [Wayne] Gretzky [part owner of the Phoenix Cyotes/Hockey legend.]
RA: But the Coyotes suck though!
BTJ: But they’re on the cusp of making the playoffs!
RA: Dude, they are ALWAYS on the cusp of making it to the playoffs.
BTJ: They’ve got a different roster full of hard-working guys, they don’t have any superstars. They’ve got Shane Doan and that’s it. You’ve also got Ed Jovanaski who’s pretty good.
RA: I’d want to be established with a more credible team, like say the Redwings, or even the Capitals, who are starting to make some noise.
BTJ: Yeah, well we all love having the Redwings. Trying being a Leaf-head, haha.
RA: Yeah it never seems to work out to well for you guys. Would you like to ask me any questions?
BTJ: Lets see, Phoenix… Does Todd McFarlane still live there? The guy, the comic guy?
RA: Yeah, he does. I believe. I’m pretty sure he does.
BTJ: When we were playing a gig in Phoenix, one of the tour manager’s girlfriends worked for Todd McFarlane,so she got us some of his dolls and a signed sticker.
RA: It seems like your band should try to commission Todd McFarlane to make you guys some action figures.
BTJ: Oh yeah, that’d be great!
RA: I’d like to start that motion, here and now.
BTJ: Isn’t that every band member’s dream? He puts a lot of detail into those figures.
RA: I’d like to be Todd McFarlane, I think.
BTJ: Haha, that’d be a pretty good life. You gonna see the Coyotes tonight?
RA: I catch some of their games on TV once in a while when I have the time…
BTJ: They aren’t very popular, are they?
RA: I mean, when they first became a team here in Arizona, they started out OK. Here in Arizona, for the past couple of years the biggest team we’ve had has basically been the Phoenix Suns. The Cardinals are a continuous disappointment, and ever since the Diamondbacks won the World Series in 2001, we really haven’t had much else to bank on. The Coyotes used to make it to the playoffs, only to get blown out every year by the Anaheim Ducks. That’s really all they’ve done.
BTJ: Yeah, well, you’ve got Steve Nash, another fantastic Canadian out there winning all the MVP awards in the NBA. We’re infiltrating the world, man.
RA: You need to stop that. For the longest time I’ve been under the impression that Canada is mostly uninhabited, except for Celine Dion, snow, and Nickelback…and frankly, that scares the shit out of me.
BTJ: Well, we always try to tell Americans it’s ice cold up here, and we can only get around with sleds so you guys don’t come up here.
RA: Yeah, that’s the impression that I got. That it’s just cold, there’s rampant Yeti, and snowflakes that’ll hurt you. I don’t even know what you guys like to do for recreation, I just assume it has something to do with your free health care.
BTJ: Yeah, and we don’t have a problem with guns.
RA: I’ve always wondered what the dynamics and differences were–
BTJ: Well here, you just don’t have to worry so much about being shot. That’s just a lower risk. I think in all of Canada there was something like 400-500 murders all year.
RA: But it’s such a big land!
BTJ: Yeah, well we only have about 35 million people here too. Just not that many people. I think in Baltimore, MD you get something like 10,000 murders a year.
RA: Yeah…there’s a couple of places in America I think we should try to trade to other countries that hate us, you know… Like an act of contrition. We could give the Florida Keys to Russia, since all they know is cold and then maybe Vladimir Putin would get his head out of his frosty ass.
BTJ: [Laughs] I think they [America] would be better off not shipping all that money overseas to fund the War on Terror-
RA: But thats an important war…
BTJ: Well, it could be an option.
RA: Alright then, well hey…do you have any last words?
BTJ: Um…well, just look for us on tour, and check out our live DVD, “666”, and when the third record comes out we will definitely be trying to make our way down to places in the United States, like Arizona and the West Coast.
RA: Alright John, well it’s been great. Thanks for your time!
BTJ: Alright Aaron, take it easy!
-Aaron “Latino Heat” Hale