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The band originated in Streetsville, part of the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, Ontario. In 1993, Ben Kowalewicz, Jon Gallant, and Aaron Solowoniuk met Ian D'Sa backstage at their high school talent show. Ian was in a different band at the time, but they immediately became friends, and later formed a new band, Pezz. Pezz began writing and performing songs and winning attention and credibility at first locally, and soon in Toronto's broader indie music scene. A collaboration with Juno-nominated music producer Brad Nelson led to their first full-length album, Watoosh!, in 1998. While popular within Toronto's indie scene, it did not reach large mainstream sales levels.In 1999, Pezz ran into some legal trouble over their name. A punk band from Memphis, Tennessee used the same name, and indeed had released their first album under that name in 1990. At first, the Canadian Pezz's management threatened a lawsuit and demanded $5,000 from BYO Records, the Los Angeles-based record company, at the time, for the American Pezz. In time, the band relented, and soon renamed themselves Billy Talent. The name was inspired by "Billy Tallent", the name of a guitarist in Hard Core Logo, the novel by Michael Turner and its film adaptation by Bruce McDonald. You can see that Billy Talent is not the name of one of the bandmembers, like some people think, but a name taken from a novel.
As Billy Talent, their sound began to move in a more aggressive, punk rock direction. Their four song EP, Try Honesty, was released in September 2001, and the band became increasingly well-known, and their live shows, noted for their high energy, more frequent.
In 2002, producer Gavin Brown picked up a demo tape from the band and quickly circulated it to record companies, attracting considerable interest. In the end, the band signed with Atlantic Records and Warner Music Canada. In the fall of 2003, the band released their full-length self-titled album, Billy Talent. The album found considerable mainstream airplay and sales success. "Try Honesty" was a successful first single, and was followed by other singles into late 2003 and 2004. The band played sold-out shows in Canada and the United States and had success in Europe as well. The band received Juno and MuchMusic Video Award nominations and awards, and spent late 2004 and most of 2005 touring. As of June 2006, Billy Talent the album, has gone 3x Platinum in Canada.
In the fall of 2005, a demo of an unreleased song entitled, "Red Flag", was circulating across the Internet; "Red Flag" also appears on the soundtracks to Burnout Revenge, Burnout Legends, SSX On Tour and EA Sports' NHL 2006, and on the Atlantic Records compilation Black by Popular Demand. Another song, "Devil In A Midnight Mass," was available for download on their website exclusively on Christmas Day, 2005. "Surrender" was offered for download exclusively on Valentine's Day, 2006. Both "Devil In A Midnight Mass" and "Surrender" appeared on the band's newest album, Billy Talent II, released on June 27, 2006. On April 20th the final version of "Devil In A Midnight Mass" was made available online through the band's myspace, it is now also played on some Canadian radio stations owned by Corus Entertainment, such as FM96, 102.1 the Edge, 99.3 The Fox, 106.1 The Goat and Y108. The video for "Devil In A Midnight Mass" is now being played on MuchMusic. Clips of all the new songs can be found at the Warner Music website.
All of the tracks on Billy Talent II were leaked onto the internet on June 19th 2006. On June 23rd, all of the tracks were officially released onto the band's MySpace as a listing preview for the fans. The next day 10 of the songs were removed and their myspace now contained the songs "This Suffering", "Devil In A Midnight Mass", "Red Flag" and one of the songs from their self-titled album.
The band performed a Intimate & Interactive outdoor concert at Muchmusic on June 28th, 2006 and were also interviewed by Devon Soltendieck. Viewers also called, e-mailed, and videophoned the band at the Chum City parking lot in Toronto, Ontario. Portions of the program are available at Muchmusic Axs.
The album fared very well in Canada in its debut week, landing in at number 1 on the Canadian charts with 48,000 copies sold the first week. However the success didn't duplicate itself in the U.S., where the disk came in at a weak #134, selling only 7,231 units in week 1.
Devil In A Midnight Mass was the first single released on Billy Talent II. There is speculation that "Red Flag" will be the second single to be released in the near future.
A video for "Red Flag" will begin shooting on July 21, 2006, in Los Angeles, CA.
