Billy Talent helps people with MS go to college
April 15, 2008
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Toronto-based punk rock foursome Billy Talent has helped put 51 students through college.
When the band isn’t busy touring across the globe or accepting titles like 2007’s “Group of the Year” Juno Award, vocalist Ben Kowalewicz, guitarist Ian D’Sa, bassist/vocalist Jon Gallant and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk find time to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada Scholarship fund, which awards funds to students who have MS or who have parents with MS to help them reach their educational goals.
“Our drummer has had MS for 10 years, so it’s a pretty personal cause,” Kowalewicz said. “We thought it would be cool to start a scholarship fund to raise money to put kids affected by MS through school, and have helped out 51 so far.”
To raise money for the fund, Billy Talent organizes an annual benefit concert featuring the band and other friends and musicians. FUMS07 raised just over $50,000 and featured Billy Talent along with Dallas Green of City and Colour, The Saint Alvia Cartel with guest DJ sets by K-OS, DJ Jazz and Justin Peroff of Broken Social Scene.
The band members met in 1993 and realized their musical chemistry was too strong to ignore. As they began playing music, friendships developed within the band and so did the sound of Billy Talent.
“I think that over the past 15 years the music has evolved, but the people and our goals have pretty much stayed the same,” Kowalewicz said.
Kowalewicz attributed the sound’s “evolution” to new musical influences, changes in the band’s likes and dislikes and the members’ personal experiences since the band began. The methods they use to compose music have remained the same over the past 15 years, Kowalewicz said.
“Ian’s the main songwriter, and arrangement-wise we’ll get together and share ideas for our parts and figure out what works best,” Kowalewicz said.
Kowalewicz said ideas for his lyrics often spur from reading a book or the news, talking to friends or new observations in everyday life.
“A new experience will often spark a little light and an idea comes with it,” Kowalewicz said. “We aren’t methodical with our writing — with each song we really just try to express a story.”
Currently, Billy Talent is busy touring with alternative rock bands My Chemical Romance and Drive-By, who they met in Europe last summer when playing at several festivals.
Kowalewicz said the bands got along well and decided to join forces and tour across the U.S. through April and the beginning of May. Billy Talent will play their last U.S. show for a while on May 5 in Buffalo, N.Y., before flying out to Belgium for Groezrock, a punk rock/hardcore festival.
From there, they’ll make their way out to the United Kingdom, Norway and Finland and are most excited to play at Club Tochka in Moscow.
“We’ve never been to Russia, and we think it will be a really great experience,” Kowalewicz said.
The members of Billy Talent make it a priority to soak up the culture of each city they visit. When traveling throughout Europe they spent downtime exploring the art, customs and history of each region.
Billy Talent has plenty of exciting opportunities ahead and consistently tries to show appreciation for their fans and people who have helped them along the way.
“Music’s really a wonderful thing and something so great to create,” Kowalewicz said. “We’ve really been blessed to be able to do it for a living.”
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