BILLY TALENT // What Hits?

Everyone has their Sliding Doors moment. You know, that late-nineties Gwyneth Paltrow movie where her life changes depending on whether or not she catches a train? For Ben Kowalewicz, that came on a visit to Australia. A trip across the pond in his mid-twenties lead to a very interesting fork in the road.

“I went over there in 2001 and I was very close to not coming back,” he explains. “I went there with my best friend to visit another one of my best friends. We stayed for three weeks—we were in Sydney, we went up to Byron and were up and around the coast. The day came when we were supposed to leave and I woke up late because we got really drunk the night before. I was saying to my friend, ‘We’ve got to go! Our flight leaves in like two hours!’ and he just told me that he was staying. He’s been there ever since. I was very close to doing the same thing, but I came back for the band and I think I did the right thing in the long run.”

Two years afterward, Billy Talent would release their debut self-titled album—and the rest, as they say, is history. It’s safe to say that Ben’s choice for staying true to the band is one that’s paid off substantially: from humble beginnings as a high-school band, then known as Pezz, they’re now one of the true survivors within their genre. A perennial underdog done good. Here we are in 2014 with Hits, compiling nearly all of the band’s singles across four studio albums, as well as two brand new songs. Did Kowalewicz ever expect that he’d be in a band that would be releasing a greatest hits album?

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“Sometimes, I’ll be walking down the street and I’ll get someone saying, ‘Hey, you’re that guy in that band! I used to love you guys!’ I’m like, ‘Used to? When did it stop?’

[BEN]

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“Absolutely, one hundred-percent not,” he affirms. “It’s hard to quantify, but it’s been an amazing few months working on it and talking about it with the guys. Some people have reservations about this sort of thing—they think it means that you’re breaking up or that your best years are behind you. We’re thinking the exact opposite of that—it’s breathing life back into these songs and giving them back in a way. Sometimes, I’ll be walking down the street and I’ll get someone saying, ‘Hey, you’re that guy in that band! I used to love you guys!’ I’m like, ‘Used to? When did it stop?’ We thought that this was the best way to show where we’re at and where we’re going.”

It’s worth mentioning that throughout Pezz and into Billy Talent, the line-up has remained exactly the same. There’s never been a single departure, split, reunion or comeback—what was in Billy Talent shall always be. It provokes a genuinely curious question as to what has kept the four of them motivated to persevere as one—and the answer’s got as much to do with one another as it does their music.

“There’s just something about the shared passion between the four of us,” says Ben. “Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had our arguments, we’ve had our ups and downs, our struggles … we’ve gone through a lot. I think the one thing is that we have a respect for the greater good. I dunno, we could be having a shitty day, one of us is having a rough go … as soon as we get together and start playing, everything feels good again. We’re not worried about the outside world. It’s a safe place for us and we respect that. It keeps us very in check with our emotions and our creative sides.”