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Gigging Northern Ireland had a chat with Canadian-group Billy Talent ahead of their UK tour despite the Canadians not visiting Northern Ireland - boy, we were mad at not being able to see these guys! We chat about their new record, working with such great people and the differences between the crowds here in comparison to elsewhere.

Things really took off for you guys when 'Devil in a Midnight Mass' went right to the top. It was all over the airwaves and the video was being shown everywhere. Is it fair to say that's when things really began to take off?

Yeah, well in the beginning 'Try Honesty' and we were an indie band for 10 years. Our first record was really good but when Devil in a Midnight Mass came out we had the privilege to go to many many new places in the world.

You've released your third studio album, 'Billy Talent III' earlier this year. How was the writing process for this?

We took about a month off after we were on the road for a long time and 'Billy Talent II', and Ian would just come to the studio and just blow us away everyday, and his styles that were coming out were like grungy, and a little bit forward tempo and we just went with it. We wrote all the new music first, and then Ben and Ian would go along and come up with all the melodies and all the contents for the music, and go on to create what the bulk of the songs where about. They went from stuff they were going through at the moment, and we just wanted to have a good working relationship, and be good together and just work on songs.

On this new album you worked with Brendan O'Brian (Rage Against the Machine), and it's received so much praise from Rocksound and Kerrang! amongst others. Did you expect such raving reviews?

Working with Brendan O'Brian was really amazing. He's a very musical man, and the fact that he was creating so many records that shaped our roots, and it's only musicians but people. He worked on all the Rage albums after their first one, and all the Pearl Jam albums, it was just such a privilege to be around such a strong force in the music industry. A little intimidating as well, cause he's worked with all of my favourite bands so it was a pretty crazy experience.

Was it not really surreal working with someone you looked upto when you were trying to get to that stage where you wanted to be a recognised band?

It was extremely surreal. Just to be around him, let alone work with him. Just being able to meet him and work with him everyday to get the album out so, it really was a privilege, it was really amazing.

You're kicking off your UK tour on 19th October. How you guys feeling about this tour?

We can't wait to come over to Europe, and the UK. We've been in the States for a month now, and so to get over to the UK, and to be with our fans, it's gonna be so great. The Canterbury, a band that was recommended to us from a group of friends, and we got dropped an email about this band called 'Reuben' from the UK, we looked into them and got them on the bill. We're in Boston now just finishing up the American Tour, which has been going great, then we go home for a week, then we go off to the UK for almost 2 weeks, and then from there we go to Europe. So we're just in the middle of just playing our new songs in front of people, and we've been doing a lot of festivals in the summer and we haven't really been able to pen any new songs because the album hadn't came out at that point but now the album's been out everywhere. It's just great to build a set out of three albums, and we're just having a lot of fun.

Do you notice a difference from the crowds you would get in America compared to Europe and the UK?

There's more people that like us in the UK and in Europe than there'd be in the US. Well the kids are really passionate here, but there's not as many. Like, we'd play an 800 seater and 400 kids will come, and you know it's amazing because it's just a totally different situation for us and, it's the same everywhere. It's great to have people to like your music and sing along to your songs and, it's an amazing feeling.

What would be the strangest thing that's ever happened on tour, in or out of the tour bus?

A lot of strange things happen all the time. Yesterday we had breakfast with Adrock from the Beastie Boys. I don't know if you're a fan of the Beastie Boys but we're huge fans of the Beastie Boys, and we got to go out for breakfast and have a conversation with one of our idols. It was pretty, pretty amazing. That was in New York yesterday so strange things happen all the time.

What are you looking forward to the most when you head out on this UK tour?

Great songs, great bands, and we've got a couple of real gems up our sleeve that we've never really done before. It just Billy Talent with their songs and a couple of tricks, and the opening bands are going to be fantastic, and we're just excited to get over there.

Gigging Northern Ireland says Billy Talent kick off their UK tour on the 19th October 2009.

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