Tag Archives: billy talent

My iPod #358: Billy Talent – Fallen Leaves

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Ahh. Billy Talent II. What a great album. When it comes to Billy Talent, for me their first two albums can’t be beaten. “Billy Talent III” and “Dead Silence” are cool, but they don’t have that oomph that really came across in the opening couple of the Billy Talent trilogy. Just don’t ask me to choose between the two because I seriously can’t.

I’ve known “Fallen Leaves” before it was even a single. Ha. I honestly can’t remember the first time I heard it. It may have been when the then-new album was on the band’s MySpace profile or whatever. But I’ve listened to it for almost ten years now, and it always sounds as brilliant as when I heard it the first time. It’s not even my favourite on the album, which is saying something.

“Fallen Leaves” came to be one of Billy Talent’s most popular tracks, being released as a single in late 2006 and receiving its own video where the band stumble across a gang of freaks. I still don’t quite get the video; it’s quite weird. But there is a very funny part where Ian looks very very surprised when the four discover a lady a some very large assets.

“Fallen Leaves” will appear on Billy Talent’s greatest hits compilation “Hits“, which is to be released soon. Here are the group’s thoughts on that particular song:

My iPod #351: Pezz (Billy Talent) – Fairytale

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For those of you who don’t know, Billy Talent used to be known as Pezz and produced a complete style of music under the moniker. Instead of the heavy, hard punk, post-hardcore rock they are recognised for their music went down a completely different route taking influences from ska, indie rock and a bit of hip-hop too.

Under that name they released one album labelled “Watoosh!” (a name which I can only think is the onomatopoeia of the noise a whip makes when used) in 1999. “Fairytale” is the second track on this album, and was one of the first four songs I heard when I found about Billy Talent’s past (albeit in very low quality). The other three being “M&M”, “Nita” and the Tragically Hip cover of “New Orleans Is Sinking”. Was the music different? Of course it was. But in a good way. In fact, at that point I was amazed that even when they weren’t Billy Talent, I still liked every song that they made. This was at a time when the first album was the only thing the band had to show.

I really liked “Fairytale” when I heard it for the first time. It was less angry and more brighter than Billy Talent material. Ian was still a maniac on guitar, Jon and Aaron still owned the rhythm and Ben had a bouncy rapid-fire vocal delivery that you would rarely hear today. Overall, it’s a very positive and energetic track about wanting to be in a relationship, but only being able to dream about it or something. Which probably sums up the title. Billy Talent used to be of those bands where the song titles never appeared in the song, you see.

My iPod #344: Billy Talent – The Ex

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In the middle of Billy Talent’s first album (at least their first under that name) from 2003 comes “The Ex”, a very angry song – possibly written from personal experience by lead singer Ben Kowalewicz – about suddenly being dumped by a girlfriend and being left alone again after putting so much effort into keep that relationship going. Ben is not happy, and makes it very clear in this track.

If you’ve listened to “Billy Talent” fully, you will know how much a heel turn this track is after listening to “Lies” which is much lighter in comparison. D’Sa’s busy guitar introduction begins the song, the rhythm section kicks in a few seconds later and Ben sings about the sky turning grey and other melancholy things, before shouting the chorus wondering why he has to suffer through the shit.

This song rocks, yeah! Think I heard it when its video was available on Billy Talent’s official website, years ago when it had the yellow and red design. Those were good times. That’s where I heard “Try Honesty” and other songs from the first album for the first time too. But that’s for another time.

My iPod #269: Billy Talent – Devil on My Shoulder

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So yesterday I wrote about another Billy Talent track. One that starts off another of their albums. This one is about another devil but instead of it being in a midnight mass, it is now on a shoulder. The song’s narrator’s shoulder. It is the first song on Billy Talent’s third/fourth album, and was released as its second single.

This was the one that really got me pumped up for the release of “Billy Talent III”. “Turn Your Back” was the first new song that showed that the group had a new album in the works when a live performance of it at the Hurricane Festival in 2008 was uploaded onto YouTube. That was all well and good, but it would be almost a year until anticipation for the upcoming album really started rolling. “Rusted from the Rain” was released as the first official single, which I thought was okay upon first listen. It grew on me over time, but there wasn’t anything particularly striking about it initially.

Then….. this happened. A trailer previewing another new song from the album. A sneaky bassline joined by Ben growling the title of the song, then followed by an assault from the guitar and drums. This was what I wanted to hear. It sounded so cool. That was “Devil on My Shoulder”.

It probably should have been released as the first single. I wouldn’t have had the same amount of doubts about the album if it had been. The song itself is from the perspective of someone who has very bad luck, feeling nothing but self-loathing and self-pity. In terms of its sound, it was very different to anything else that Billy Talent had released. Brendan O’Brien – who has produced albums for artists such as Rage Against the Machine, The Offspring and Pearl Jam – brings a real studio atmosphere into the album, something that was not so obvious on the albums prior to it. This was a proper hard rock song. This was no longer a band who needed to scream, or were as angry as they used to be in previous songs. Billy Talent had…. matured (eerrrr).

It had to happen one day. But “Devil on My Shoulder” was the sign that showed me that the fire was still roared in the belly of Billy Talent.

My iPod #268: Billy Talent – Devil in a Midnight Mass

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The opening track to Billy Talent’s second album was built upon an ‘evil guitar riff’ that guitarist Ian D’Sa started playing one day. Lead singer Benjamin Kowalewicz wondered what kind of evil would suit that riff, and found it one day when he read an article about a Catholic priest who was molested 150 children in the 90s and was then stabbed to death during his time in prison. As a result, one of Billy Talent’s darkest songs was created. A song which gets the blood racing and sends shivers down my spine each time it plays.

The thing is – I wasn’t so enthused by it when I first heard the song via its video all those years ago in 2006. Thinking about it now I am not so sure why. It was very quick, and was finished before I could absorb anything that was happening. The first time I really understood it was when I actually listened to it through my headphones – that’s when it hit me.

Starting with Ian’s lone menacing riff – the song explodes when the drums kick in along with an almighty “YEEEAAAAHH” from Ben. The verses describe the priest – the ‘devil in a midnight mass’ – whilst the pre-chorus and choruses depict the scene when the priest is killed in jail who will now sing ‘silent night for the rest of [his] life.’

That is all well and… good, but the most threatening part is the last forty-five seconds of the song when the riff repeats on and on as Ben says what could possibly be the priest’s last words before he dies, “Whisper, whisper, don’t make a sound/Your bed is made, it’s in the ground”. That comes to a halt for a split second before those two phrases are ceaselessly screamed at you by Ben, Ian and the bassist Jon before climaxing with an astonishing shriek which echoes right into the next track.

This song is scary. This song is awesome. The best Billy Talent album opener. Hands down. I look at another one tomorrow though.

This is the band’s impression of it when they heard the album mix for the first time.