Billy Talent

Four players from Mississauga, Ontario, have shared the same lineup since 1993, and Billy Talent have spent three decades refining a sound that began as raw rap-rock and hardened into catchy, angst-ridden pop-punk. Vocalist Benjamin Kowalewicz, guitarist Ian D'Sa, bassist Jonathan Gallant and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk remain the core of the group. Their albums have sold well over a million physical copies in Canada alone and close to three million worldwide.

Before that, they traded as Pezz, grinding through Toronto's indie circuit and releasing the album Watoosh in 1999. A legal claim from an American band of the same name forced a rename to Billy Talent, a nod to a guitarist in Michael Turner's novel Hard Core Logo. A contact at Toronto radio station 102.1 The Edge, later hired by Warner Music Canada's A&R department, helped secure the deal behind the self-titled debut of 2003, whose first single was 'Try Honesty'. Afraid of Heights, made with Jordan Hastings stepping in for Solowoniuk, appeared in July 2016, and Crisis of Faith arrived in January 2022.