Billy Talent is a Canadian punk rock band from Mississauga, Ontario. In 1993, the band formed for a talent competition under the name Pezz at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Secondary School, with Benjamin Kowalewicz as the lead vocalist, Ian D'Sa on guitar, bassist Jon Gallant and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk. In July 1994, the band released their first four-track demo, Demoluca. The demo reportedly got its name from Jason Deluca, a friend of the band who had visited during recording. Shortly thereafter, the band went to Signal to Noise Studios in nearby Toronto to record their next demo, Dudebox. Released in January 1995, the demo consists of two new tracks as well as a re-recording of the track Happy and a remix of the track You’re It. A reissue containing four new tracks, a live recording of the title track, and a re-recording of Just a Thought was released in 1996. After the release of both Demoluca and Dudebox, Pezz began growing a following through the Greater Toronto Area’s indie music scene.

Throughout the late-90’s, activity from the band slowed down as real-life obligations began to get in the way. Ian and Jon went to college to pursue animation and business degrees respectively, Aaron was working at a local Chrysler dealership, and Benjamin was in between jobs. Ian had also begun working on Canadian children’s television show Angela Anaconda as an animator. Despite this, the group would find the time and allocated their resources to work on their first studio album. The album, titled Watoosh!, released on July 23, 1999 and further cemented the band’s place in the local indie rock scene. The album would also begin their deviation from the rap-rock formula, with the band beginning to experiment with the punk sound they would become known for. With the added attention came legal scrutiny as they received legal documentation from an American band with the same name as them which had held the name since 1989. Taking inspiration from the 1996 mockumentary film Hard Core Logo, they renamed to Billy Talent and began working on new material.

Shortly after the rename, Benjamin ran into Jen Hirst, who worked at Benjamin’s former workplace 102.1 The Edge. Convincing her to listen to a recording of his band’s work during their encounter would end up paying off as Hirst would be hired to work in A&R for Warner Music Canada. A deal to produce a demo was reached with Gavin Brown set to produce. In 2002, executives from Atlantic Records met with the band during a rehearsal at the request of the band’s manager. The meeting proved positive and a co-venture agreement was signed between Atlantic, Warner Music Canada, and the band. This would lead to the release of their self-titled album in September of 2003. The album would net Gavin Brown Producer of the Year for his work with the song Try Honesty and the band New Group of the Year at the 2004 Juno Awards.

In 2006, Aaron posted a letter on the band’s website announcing that he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that disrupts your spine’s way to transmit signals to your brain, in 1999 and gave more details into his life touring with the disease. The band would release their second album under the Billy Talent name, Billy Talent II, on June 27, 2006. The album was a success in Canada and Germany with it receiving a 4x platinum certification in Canada and a 2x platinum certification in Germany. This success didn’t carry over to the United States. The album presented a mellower side to them, with Jon commenting on the band’s softer side in a 2007 interview with the Ottawa Sun:

We scaled the anger and language back a bit. Not because we had to, but because we’ve mellowed a lot since our first record, Billy Talent in 2003. We’ve matured as men and as a band enough to know you can’t force anger. We wanted to do something completely different from the first record because he had changed dramatically and had learned a lot from their personal relationships. Everyone in the band is partnering up and dealing with those issues. The general theme of the album is trust, the lack thereof or breaking up. That seemed to fuel the record.

Billy Talent would go on an international tour based in Europe to promote the album, with shows in London and Manchester being recorded for the live album Live from the UK Sept./2006, which was handed out to fans as a limited edition CD during touring. Afterwards, the band would go on their first tour in Canadian arenas, performing with Anti-Flag, Moneen, and Rise Against. Afterwards, a large club tour throughout the United States was planned to take place between June 1 and September 3, 2007. All dates were performed, but the tour didn’t end until September 8 with the band performing three additional shows in Atlantic Canada. On November 27, 2007, they released a second live album, 666.

In early 2008, the band opened for My Chemical Romance and Benjamin would put out a post on the band’s website on Canada Day 2008 saying they would be staying within Canada until their next album has finished recording and that they were no longer touring to support their previous album. In November 2008, the band headed to the studio with Brendan O'Brien in order to work on their next album in Atlanta. After recording, the band would play a few select shows with the Soundwave Festival in Australia before returning to North America to tour with Anti-Flag and Rancid in the summer of 2009. The band would release Billy Talent III on July 14, 2009 in Canada, July 10 for Europe excluding the UK, and July 13 for the United Kingdom. The album would eventually release in the United States on September 22, 2009 via Roadrunner Records. The band had tours in Europe and Canada as well as a few select shows in South Africa before deciding to set their sights on writing and recording their next album in April 2011.

Recording for the band’s then-upcoming album began in November of 2011 and the album, Dead Silence, initially released on the band’s SoundCloud account on September 4, 2012 with the album having an official release a week later on September 11. The band would engage in a cross-Canada tour with Hollerado, Indian Handcuffs, and Sum 41 while Monster Truck would fill in for Sum 41 when the band had to miss the last stretch of the tour due to medical reasons. In 2014, Billy Talent released their first, and only, compilation album Hits. Two new songs were released on the album, with “Kingdom of Zod” becoming a sleeper hit in Canada.

Writing began for the band’s next album, Afraid of Heights, in early 2015. On January 16, 2015, Aaron announced he was taking a leave of absence from the band due to complications from his multiple sclerosis and that friend of the band and fellow drummer Jordan Hastings from Alexisonfire was selected to fill in for him. Afraid of Heights was the first album without Aaron Solowoniuk on drums and was released on July 29, 2016 along with the title track being released as the album’s first single. Aaron would rejoin the band for two songs during a concert at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre (now known as the Scotiabank Arena) on February 27, 2017. He would mark his full return to the band shortly after.

In November 2019, Billy Talent released the song “Forgiveness I + II” and later revealed that the song was going to be the opening track on their next album. The band would release two more singles: “Reckless Paradise” and “I Beg to Differ (This Will Get Better)” before going silent so all socials. In September of 2021, they returned with the song “End of Me” featuring Rivers Cuomo of Weezer and announced that their next album would be titled Crisis of Faith and would release on January 21, 2022.