Billy Talent’s Ian D’Sa Isn’t Discouraged by HeavyTO Backlash, Discusses New Disc
Getting the hang of being a touring rock musician can take some time — especially if you’re in a band like Billy Talent, who pack-out stadiums in their Canadian homeland as well as abroad in Europe. Despite years on the road backed by major labels like Atlantic and Warner (who are behind the band’s upcoming release, ‘Billy Talent IV’), guitarist Ian D’Sa insists his ego is still in check.
“Some bands feel they need to keep a wall between themselves and their fans but that doesn’t really exist for us,” he tells Spinner. “We were independent for the first nine years as a band and are used to crashing on our friends floors. It’s allowed us to be really open to talking to fans, and I think that’s why we’ve developed a cult following.”
The Ontario rockers may have a cult following but it’s certain that few fans were on hand last weekend in Toronto for HeavyTO, where the band was sandwiched on the bill between juggernauts Slayer and Rob Zombie. Thanks to a guerrilla Jägermeister ad campaign gone awry, concertgoers sent a strong message to Billy Talent with crude, makeshift signs displaying insults like “Billy Talentless” and “Top 10 Ways to Kill Billy Talent.”
Speaking to Spinner onsite at HeavyTO, D’Sa admitted he had a hunch their set might not sit too well with the devil horn-thrusting audience. “We play all kinds of music festivals in Europe; we blend in with other bands there, and their take on harder metal-like music. But it’s totally different in North America. There’s a very purist mentality here that didn’t exist in the early ’90s with Lollapalooza-type bands like Faith No More. While it is kind of weird that we’re on this bill, because we aren’t metal, we’re definitely happy to share the stage with all these great bands that we grew up on.”
Though the incident in Toronto was certainly humbling, D’Sa and crew should have no problem bouncing back — especially since their fans are so pumped to hear news of their forthcoming record, the first since 2009’s ‘Billy Talent III.’ “Even my friends are asking me when it’s coming and I’m like, ‘Dude, we’ve been touring for the last year-and-a-half!'” the guitarist laughs. “That’s a lot of touring.”
On the plus side, being on the road when there’s a new album on the books is bound to encourage ad-libbing as the guys tests out fresh ideas. “The more shows you play on tour, the better you get at transitions,” says D’Sa. “Some songs could be heavier, some could be lighter, but it’s really a mood kind of thing. I’ve written some songs that sound best on a blues guitar, but I can’t put that on a Billy Talent record. However, it is something the rest of the band can grow from when we add different instrumentation.”
When asked what fans can expect from their fourth disc, D’Sa remains vague. “The songs are a lot different than the last album, they’re closer to our first self-titled album. We’re opening up to new ideas and using piano on a few songs, but I’ve also been listening to a lot of old punk stuff I was into in high-school like OFF! and Black Flag.”
D’Sa, who’s also producing the disc, having worked with bands like Toronto’s Die Mannequin in addition to co-producing ‘Billy Talent II,’ has high hopes for the next release (and likely can’t bare the thought of actual fans hoisting “Billy Talentless” signs at future concerts). “Producing your own album is definitely more time-intensive, because not only am I trying to work on songs, but thinking about how it’s going to sound sonically as well. It’s definitely going to be a challenge. But I’m up for it.”
Baptized in Blood Singer Johl Fendley Is a Fan of Justin Timberlake’s Dirty Jeans
Angela Smith
Baptized in Blood have been playing gigs for about six years now under their current name, a tribute to the band Death, and their song of the same name. Based in the smaller city of London, Ontario, they lucked out when they caught the attention of Roadrunner Records.
“Growing up in a small town, you get a real appreciation for underground bands playing real underground shows,” says Baptized In Blood frontman, Joel Ploth, who actually grew up in the even smaller, Stratford ON, home of the Justin Bieber. “I didn’t get a lot of exposure to heavy music early on. We never had ‘crazy’ shows, but local promoters were able to bring in a lot of smaller bands like Trunk, Five Knuckle Chuckle, Swarm, and Left For Dead.”
To reference the cult Mike Judge comedy, ‘Office Space,’ Joel is a ‘ straight shooter with upper management written all over him’ “I started the band during the hockey strike of 2004, but all the other guys were already in bands already. I had to drag them away to start this side project that became Baptized in Blood. By the end of our first year, they had all quit to focus on this thing specifically. I’m glad they made that choice.”
For a guy whose only band experience was playing in a high school cover band, it’s quite an achievement, and after six years, he’s still a driving force in keeping the band together. He attributes part of his success to a strict ‘failure is not an option’ ethos. “Without that positivity or drive, bands fall off the face of the earth or break up. Whether it be due egos about ridiculous shit, think they’re huge when they’re not, or just doubting their abilities. But you can’t do that in this industry. If you want to succeed, you have to believe in everything you do and every word that comes out of your mouth.”
Much of his song writing on his last self-titled album sticks to a similar mentality, “I deal mostly with things that happen in my life and focus on things that are relatable. I could write ten albums about killing zombies but I don’t want to because I don’t know s— about it. I I want to write about my family, life, death, and personal experiences. My songs are like my battle cry, to shout out to the world ‘is there anybody else going through this shit too?’ I want to reassure people that as shitty as it gets, there’s always turn around.”
Little known fact, Joel worked at Mr. Sub for ten years before he started the band, but it gave him a lot of time to write all the songs for their first album. “That job allowed me to write all the songs for the first album. ‘Up Shirts Down Skirts’ was written about this smoking 40-year old who would come buy subs from me. I’d stare at her ass as she was leaving the whole time. It’s crazy where you get inspiration from. It just so happens mine are from Mr. Sub. You have to have a good laugh at that. We all have to do our own little things to let you keep on going.”
Metal bands are generally known for serious attitudes and giving the finger to mainstream pop stars but their bellowing thrash hit, ‘Dirty’s Back’ is indeed a Justin Timberlake reference. A tribute, as much as their own namesake is to the band Death.
“This may sound really f—— lame but I really respect what he’s done for himself. I’m incredibly jealous of him, aside from the boy band stuff. When I wrote that song, I was thinking ‘if he can bring sexy back, I can bring dirty back.’ Also, I don’t wash my jeans either. If you just leave them, they age perfectly by themselves — that’s something I learned from him. ”
James Franco and Drag Queen Art Star Kalup Linzy ‘Turn It Up’ on Dance-y Debut
James Franco is a man of many trades, his latest being dance music maven alongside unlikely collaborator Kalup Linzy, a video artist drag queen R&B singer. Most of Linzy’s work has been in the art world — his avant-garde opera opens next month at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art — but he’s joined his famous friend in the pop-culture sphere with their recently released experimental, bass-heavy ‘Turn It Up’ EP.According to Linzy, Franco approached him a few years ago after seeing him speak at the prestigious Art Basel Festival in Miami. The two became friends, sharing a mutual respect for each other’s work.”There’s something different going on with him; he’s not just in the movie world,” Linzy tells Spinner of his A-list pal and collaborator. “What’s funny is that he was painting before his acting career took off and I was acting before my art career took off.”Over the period of a year, the pair co-wrote and recorded the disc together. Initially, Linzy assumed the former ‘Freaks and Geeks‘ star would simply add some spoken-word elements to the mix but Franco had other plans, pushing to full-on sing on the release, which was co-produced by DJ/Rupture, as well as offer his own musical direction.”He’s so talented, he might have been able to make the record on his own,” says Linzy, noting there was such a flow of output “we could even have released a double-album, but he’s so busy with all his movies.””The EP definitely went in an electronic direction,” he continues. “But I see it rooted in the tradition of R&B but with dubstep and also some Motown sounds — some [tracks] can be played in the club, but there are certain textures that are also meant to be listened to with headphones. I hope with that this new record will be added to the conversation of contemporary music, but as well within the conversation of art.”
The video for their current single, ‘Rising’ — which features lo-fi video shot by Franco from the set of General Hospital,’ where the Hollywood star has a recurring role as vagabond artist Franco, as well as footage of Linzy’s green screen work referencing Picasso and Basquiat — should certainly help drum up discussion. It might also tip off a few more people to the fact that Linzy, himself, did a stint on ABC’s daytime soap.
It was Franco who pitched him to the producers at ‘General Hospital,’ who eventually brought Linzy on to play Franco’s pal Kalup Ishmael, a character that mirrors his own flamboyant art persona.
“It was a very comfortable experience,” says Linzy. “I saw they had a board set up with all my pictures and past performances with James [at various society events]. It was inspiring to see that they had really researched and integrated our lives together into the show. My character’s story line ran for four episodes.”
Appearing on ‘General Hospital’ was actually a logical career move for the artist as he’s explored gender and family issues through his own self-produced soap operas. Linzy points to his childhood in Florida where he watched daytime TV staples such as ‘Guiding Light’ with his grandmother for introducing him to the medium.
“By the time I got to junior high, I caught on to the storylines and started following the characters,” says Linzy. “They started influencing my creative thinking and I started making these soap operas as a teenager with my cousin.”
“My great grandmother used to listen to ‘Guiding Light’ on the radio in the 1930s,” he adds. “So that’s where it began.”
- Filed under: News, Exclusive, New Releases
HeavyTO Takes on Toronto With Mighty Sets From Slayer, Anvil and More
WireImage/Redferns
This past weekend’s HeavyTO was the inaugural Toronto counterpart to the aptly named Montreal metal fest Heavy MTL. Situated in Downsview Park (ironically, also the location for the 2002 Pope-squat, the controversial two-week long Catholic convention that hosted Pope John Paul II and brought shame to the park due to massive septic flooding), the two-day fest boasted a who’s who of the metal world.
Mighty acts like Anvil, Testament, Death Angel, Mastodon, Rob Zombie and the jewel of the holy thrash trinity, Slayer, headed up the final day of the mega-concert (July 24), with fans shifting between two massive side-by-side sound stages, making it near impossible to miss a moment of the eardrum-throttling action.
As Anvil pounded through their catalogue, frontman Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow made it clear that the unsung stalwarts have more to offer than just nostalgic numbers. The Canadian metal pioneers may have been dubbed as underdogs on the festival website but this was clearly not the case Sunday in Toronto.
Then there were the acts that seemed to come slightly out of left field. Melissa Auf Der Maur rocking out during an early afternoon set clearly didn’t sit well with most. Nor did having Canadian punk rockers Billy Talent oddly slotted between Slayer and Rob Zombie. And thanks to a guerrilla Jägermeister ad campaign gone awry, many fans objected with crude orange signs displaying insults like “Billy Talentless” and “Top 10 Ways to Kill Billy Talent.” Chirpy lead singer Ben Kowalewicz was brave enough, however, to read the signs out from the stage, attempting to see the humor in the situation.
Earlier in the day, Billy Talent guitarist Ian D’sa told Noisecreep he was aware there might be some tension from the HeavyTO concertgoers. “We play all kinds of music festivals in Europe,” he said. “We feel we blend in with other bands there, and their take on harder metal-like music, but it’s totally different in North America. There’s a very purist mentality here that didn’t exist in the early ’90s with Lollapalooza-type bands like Faith No More. While it is kind of weird that we’re on this bill, because we aren’t metal, we’re definitely happy to share the stage with all these great bands that we grew up on.”
Even with the crowd on your side, following up Rob Zombie is likely to be an ego-bruiser as it’s tough to compete with such a mighty headliner. Though Zombie’s own status as a “true” heavy metal act is debatable, there were no complaints (or angry makeshift signs) from fans while the rocker and horror film auteur ripped through a set that included costume changes, flaming altarpieces and synaesthesia-inducing video projections.
When the behemoth that is Slayer finally plugged in, people raced towards the pit. Guitar God Kerry King revved up the crowd who’d been waiting hours for this gnarly spectacle. Drunk, sweaty and thrusting devil horns towards the band, fans made sure to honor the metal forefathers, easily the highlight of the entire fest.
So will Heavy be a repeat in Toronto? The bands on the 2011 bill certainly seemed amped to come together to promote, what Baptized in Blood frontman Joel Fendley calls, “the best f—ing genre of music in the f—ing planet!” Though attendance could have been better (especially given the ace marketing pitch for a weekend pass: “the best f—ing use of $150 possible”), the reaction from the raucous crowd on hand over the weekend should hopefully convinced the Metal Gods (and the Live Nation bigwigs behind the fest) to move ahead with the 2012 installment.
Somebody Had A Rough Night…
College and Spadina today, appearing next at the MoMA?
Kaskade Makes House Music From the Heart: ‘I’m a Lover!’
Ultra Records
Ryan Raddon, aka Kaskade, is known for producing catchy and uplifting progressive house songs, but what really sets him apart is that the lyrics behind them are often his. The past few years have seen the DJ and producer join forces with Martin Solveig‘smuse Martina Sorbara of Dragonette for his track ‘Fire in Your New Shoes,’ while penning lyrics for Deadmau5‘s Billboard sensation ‘Move for Me’, which, in turn, put him on DJ Tiësto‘s radar for their ‘Only You’ collaboration.
“When I’m writing and creating music, it’s hard to hide from who you are. Even when I make aggressive stuff, it doesn’t sound genuine, so I think the music is a reflection of who I am — I’m a lover!”
Kaskade admits to being a fan of sentimental songwriters like the Cure‘s Robert Smith,Sting and even Sade. He came into that world, himself, by playing around with poetry, but says, being “such a music guy, I thought I should fuse the worlds a bit and try my hand at songwriting.” That was about the time he moved to San Francisco and started hanging out with other songwriters.
“I’d ask people things like, like, ‘How do you make an idea work and make it succinct in a short amount of time?’ It was like learning how to get my ideas out in less words.”
It was in San Francisco that Kaskade released his first single for house music label OM Record, where he worked as an A&R guy (he’s since signed to Ultra Records). “I’ve always been interested in new sounds and progressed as an artist,” he says. “I was influenced by Chicago house and New Wave. New sounds in drum’n’bass and dubstep get me excited, too. I always liked stuff that’s a bit more musical and could make a good song with interesting production.”
“Electronic music has never had the profile that it does now,” he says. “Its been slowing gaining momentum in the interior US for 20 years. When Identity Festival approached me, I felt the time was now and people were ready; with Lady Gaga as big as she is, it seems like part of the sound has crossed over to the mainstream. I knew someone was going to do something like this eventually, and that it was time for someone to get it together.”
Only at Hanlan’s Point…
Does anyone know Maria or Shawn? Any swingers wanna give ’em a call. Could be a good time ;)
#OnlyatHanlan’sPoint
Goldie – FACT Mix 264
They should have called it the OG mix tape. With all pre-1994 content, Goldie is proving how relevant, or, irrelevant, drum & bass is today by releasing a set of oldies from before the genre even existed. Talk about skirting around the issue. Most of the tracks are his, produced under Rufige Kru. It’s actually highly listenable, tunes are cut tight and get to the meat pretty fast.
Direct download: FACT mix 264 – Goldie
(Available for three weeks)
Let’s Get Together – Satin Storm
LFO – LFO
Energy Flash – Joey Beltram
Voodoo Ray – A Guy Called Gerald
Krisp Biscuit – Rufige Kru
In My Soul – Internal Affairs
Killa Muffin – Rufige Kru
Find A Way – Internal Affairs
Menace – Rufige Kru
You Held My Hand (Mark Mac & Goldie Remix) – Manix & Rufige Kru
Del De Go Go – Tek 9 & Rufige Kru
Shinin’ Down On Me – Internal Affairs
Rollin Like Scottie – Rufige Kru & Agzilla De Ice
Rage – Doc Scott
I Think I’m Going Out Of My Head – Satin Storm
Kid Robot x Swatch
So much awesome. Can’t wait for September 1. For once, I actually know what I want for my birthday. :)
Wiener-gate lives on
Yet another disgruntled graphic designer who’s spent a little too much time on the stroll.
