03 Jun 2010

Hilltop Live is happy to announce that Canada`s hottest rock outfit Billy Talent will be performing at Oppikoppi Sexy. Crooked. Teeth Festival on Friday 8 August 2010.  Winners of the Juno Award 2010 for “Best Rock Album of the Year”, Billy Talent will be in South Africa for 3 shows in Northam, Cape Town and Durban.

“Try Honesty” is the monster single that broke Billy Talent and its eponymous debut album wide open to the tune of triple-platinum sales back in Canada in 2003. It was only after Billy Talent demonstrated its lasting mettle in the wake of 2006’s Billy Talent II with three more platinum sales awards, a sold-out show at Toronto’s 20,000-seat Air Canada Centre and, most unexpectedly, a No. 1 debut in Germany to match the one already notched at home that they were finally acknowledged as one of the most popular and successful bands in Canada.

Billy Talent have played sold-out shows in Canada and the United States and had success in Europe as well. They have shared the stage with Green Day, The Black Eyed Peas, Iron Maiden, Santana and many more.

Billy Talent bandmembers are vocalist Ben Kowalewicz, guitarist Ian D'Sa, bassist Jon Gallant and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk. They have been playing together for 15 years.

"We grew up in the early ‘90s, when all these amazing bands came out – Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and Jane's Addiction. All these amazing things, we grew up with, and as time progressed we explored punk – the Clash, the Pistols and things like that. We explored that avenue and, I guess, over time, as a progression, you kinda revert to a time when things made the most sense. And, I think, the early ‘90s kinda shaped us and our psyches and who we are and why we even play music." Ben Kowalewicz.

“People are always saying: ‘You sound so different from record to live.’ And some people really like the way the records sound, some people really like the live stuff,” says Kowalewicz. “So one thing that, I think, we really wanted to do with our new album, Billy Talent III, was to amalgamate both, so that it sounds really big and heavy but there’s still, like, this feeling that’s really visceral and alive.

SONG For Africa Album

Ian (lead guitar and backing vocals) recently went to Rwanda with Song For Africa, a non-profit organization that aims to inspire change and raise awareness about humanitarian issues in Africa. An album of the same name (Song for Africa) will be released on June 22 through the iTunes store.

More about the project: http://www.songforafrica.com/media.php

Website: http://www.billytalent.com/Tour/

Catch Billy Talent live at:

7 Aug: 3 Arts Centre, Cape Town

Ticket prices:

R150 Pre

R200 Gate

8 Aug: Oppikoppi. Sexy. Crooked. Teeth. Northam

10 Aug: Wave House, Gateway, Durban

Ticket prices:

R100 pre

R150 gate

All tickets are for sale at www.ticketbreak.co.za

www.oppikoppi.co.za