{"id":481520,"date":"2026-02-17T21:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T21:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/481520\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T21:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T21:27:17","slug":"20th-anniversary-of-hit-record-puts-mississauga-rockers-back-on-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/481520\/","title":{"rendered":"20th anniversary of hit record puts Mississauga rockers back on the road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From performances in the cafeteria at Mount Carmel Secondary School to concert stadiums around the world, Billy Talent has been there and done that.<\/p>\n<p>And they are going to do it again\u2026minus the cafeteria gigs.<\/p>\n<p>The Mississauga-based band has announced a series of shows that will take their aggressive rock sound across Europe, starting in June and landing them at the RBC Amphitheatre in Toronto on July 18.<\/p>\n<p>St. Catharine\u2019s Alexisonfire will join them for two shows on the tour.<\/p>\n<p>The concerts will feature an entire performance of the band\u2019s second album, Billy Talent II, released in June of 2006, which immediately went to the top of the charts in Canada and Germany and has since sold over one million copies worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on The Drex Show, guitarist Ian D\u2019Sa said the timing is right to bring back the older material.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"vidyard-player-embed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771363633_300_awZCW3rPmWvxPqZHnBCKLu.jpg\" data-videoid=\"790139\" data-uuid=\"awZCW3rPmWvxPqZHnBCKLu\" data-v=\"4\" data-type=\"inline\" data-muted=\"1\" style=\"width:100%\"\/>    <\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"1024\" height=\"513\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-30-at-1.55.02-PM-1024x513.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\"  decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>      <\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Billy Talent II) it\u2019s kinda gone down as a fan favourite, so we thought, this one was the one to do a bigger kinda thing for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>While the band has released six studio albums and continues to tour with essentially the original line-up, D\u2019Sa said it has been a great experience for the band to get reacquainted with the older material.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoing back and learning the songs that we haven\u2019t played live in almost forever, that\u2019s the fun, interesting part,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a lot of guitar stuff that I had to catch up on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Formed in 1993, with lead vocalist\u00a0Benjamin Kowalewicz, guitarist D\u2019Sa, bassist Jonathan Gallant, and drummer\u00a0Aaron Solowoniuk, Billy Talent, the musicians met while attending Mount Carmel in Meadowvale and went under the name Pezz when they performed in the school cafeteria as part of a talent contest.<\/p>\n<p>A local following soon began and then extended beyond the borders of Mississauga, where the band became part of the underground indie music scene in Toronto. A name change took place, then a record deal, and the rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt does make you kind of feel old,\u201d D\u2019Sa stated during his interview, acknowledging that 20 years have passed since the release of Billy Talent II. \u201cBut we are looking forward to playing the material.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insauga.com\/editorial-guidelines\" class=\"editorial-guidelines-link d-block mb-4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n            INsauga&#8217;s Editorial Standards and Policies        <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last 30 Days: 66,006 Votes<\/p>\n<p>All Time: 1,228,645 Votes<\/p>\n<p>    2512 VOTES<br \/>\n    Should bike lanes stay or be removed?    <\/p>\n<p>\tWIN A $100 GIFT CARD<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to INsauga\u2019s daily email newsletter for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From performances in the cafeteria at Mount Carmel Secondary School to concert stadiums around the world, Billy Talent&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194297],"tags":[49,48,55405],"class_list":{"0":"post-481520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mississauga","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mississauga"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}