July 9th, 2013 
Derek Scancarelli 
It comes as no surprise that Billy Talent‘s video for their song “Viking Death March” has reached over two million views, especially considering it was filmed in front of an audience of 100,000 fans in Germany. Playing right before Metallica isn’t something that many bands can say they’ve done, but the Toronto natives have put time and effort into establishing a global presence for their band and a strong one at that.
The band is currently touring in support of their 2012 release entitled Dead Silence, and will be performing at a chunk of this year’s Vans Warped Tour (7/19-8/04). Check out below the jump for an exclusive interview with Billy Talent’s guitarist Ian D’Sa. Also, be sure to head over to Youtube to check out their monstrous video for “Viking Death March.”
I noticed you guys have some shows coming up in Africa. Have you ever played there before? What other countries around the world have you visited?
We’ve played in South Africa once before in Capetown, Durban, and at the Oppikoppi festival which is outside of Johannesburg. It was an amazing experience and we look forward to going back again. As far as other countries go, we’ve spent a lot of time touring through the many countries in Europe, have been all over the UK, and Japan once. We’re looking forward to playing South America for the first time at the end of this year.
You guys have toured with some amazing bands in the past. What are some of your favorite bands for you to go on the road with? Who would you like to share the stage with?
Some of our favorite bands to tour with have been Alexisonfire, Anti-Flag, The Cancer Bats, Rise Against, and My Chemical Romance to name a few. We just played with Rammstein in Germany last week which was incredible. We’d love to play with bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, or Rage Against the Machine some day as we grew up listening to those bands in highschool.
Dead Silence came out in 2012. How has the response been to the album?
The response has been great so far! It was a challenge to create as we decided to do everything ourselves this time, and the outcome is some of the best material we’ve ever released.
Did you guys take any different steps towards writing or recording the album musically?
This time around I produced the album along with our long time friends Eric Ratz and Kenny Luong engineering. The majority of the album was recorded in our hometown of Toronto where we’ve been working on building our own studio. All the vocals and many guitar parts were recorded there.
What is your favorite part about playing Warped Tour?
The best part of Warped tour is the sense of community, getting to play with a lot of great bands day after day is fun. Also, making new friends and getting to enjoy the summer outdoors is a bonus.
What can we expect to see from your performances at Warped this summer?
We’ll be playing to a lot of fans that haven’t seen us in a while as we haven’t toured in the U.S. that much in recent years. We’re looking forward to playing all the songs that our fans want to hear.
How has Aaron been holding up with all the extensive traveling and playing for the band? Has he had to change any of his daily routines to make sure he keeps his health and heart in tip top shape?
Aaron is doing great, watching how he has dealt with some of these issues has been a real inspiration to the rest of us. He hasn’t had to change all that much as he is already pretty conscious of eating healthy and getting enough sleep and exercise.
What is it about Germany that you have such a loyal fanbase there?
German fans seem to be the most devout ‘rock’ fans out of a lot of countries we’ve visited. They like heavy music and tend to stay fans of a band they are passionate about for as long as that band is together, whereas people in North America tend to move on to the next popular thing a little bit quicker. Also, because of the initial enthusiasm for the band on the first record, we toured there quite extensively and laid the groundwork for a very loyal fanbase ourselves.
The “Viking Death March” video is almost overwhelming. How was the experience of standing onstage in-front of all of those people? Were you in awe? Tell me about that whole experience.
At the time of shooting that video we had already played that same festival (Rock Am Ring) in Germany twice. We knew what to expect and that it would be totally overwhelming as there are 100,000 people watching. To add to that, we were also playing right before Metallica so that was a bit overwhelming, too. We just had fun and let the crowd take over, that was kind of the point of the video. It really focused on the idea that if you get a large enough group of people assembled, anything is possible including revolution and change. Although this was just a ‘rock’ concert and not an ‘occupy’ movement, there certainly was a sense of unity when it came to that many people having a good time together. It felt like people in the audience were having a good time together as a ‘group’ as opposed to an individual watching a show. I’ve never felt that much ‘togetherness’ at a show before.
Would you consider yourselves to be a politically charged band?
That isn’t our main agenda as a band, but we’re definitely outspoken when it comes to standing up for what is right in this world. We write songs from mostly personal experience and experiences we’ve watched people close to us have to go through. To hear that our music has helped someone in any way overcome a fear or motivate them towards positive change is the best thing in the world.
Is there anything you haven’t done yet as a band that you would like to?
I guess the biggest would be playing in places we’ve never been to before. For us it’s a great feeling going to somewhere for the first time, getting to play for new fans, and taking in a new culture.
What can we expect to see from you in the future?
We’re going to be touring until the end of the year and are excited to keep making music.
When will we see a new album?
Depending on when enough material is ready, we’ll be back in the studio writing and rehearsing once the ‘Dead Silence’ tour has finished. Hopefully 2014!
Written and conducted by: Derek Scancarelli Follow @DerekUTG
Check out Derek’s concert photography, D. SKANK PHOTOGRAPHY
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