1. Sorry but i always start the interview with the lamest question that pops up in my mind. This means my questions can only get better with time, so ... here goes ... Explain the band name? Whos is Billy and what's his talent?

The band name comes from a book from and author named Michael Turner; the book is called Hard Core Logo. It was adapted into a movie by Bruce MacDonald and is about a fictional punk band that reunites for a tour across Canada, the guitar player in the band is named Billy Tallent. We were searching for a new name and liked everything about the character and his name. It’s a cocky rock star kinda sounding name and we thought it would be an Ironic name to describe our band.

I read that you started somewhere in '93 under the name Pezz and even released a full length? What do you remember from that period?

We worked hard as an indie band. We released two tapes and a full-length CD under that moniker and sold them at our gigs. We tried to land indie deals; but nobody seemed to understand what we were about. We also grew as a band and felt that we had honed in on what we were about and wanted to separate our selves from our Pezz days. There was also another band from Memphis named Pezz, so we needed to make the change. They were fun days, but I don’t really see it as being any different then today aside from the fact that now we are known outside of Toronto.

You've toured halfway across the globe now. What's the main difference between lets say Europe and the States in general?

I find that in the States it’s a little more cut-throat. In Europe the career is more of a thing that a fan appreciates. People talk different too.

You played here at the Pukkelpop festival some months ago. What do you remember from that occasion?

The Mars Volta. It was a great day, fun fans and good bands.

The whole Canadian scene seems to be smothered under the weight of big sellers like Bryan Adams and Celine Dion. Do you think the attention for other local acts is less pronounced because of this?

No, they’re different types of artists. A larger audience listens to the music that they make in general, so they’ll get more attention based on that.

What good does it do to have a band like Sum 41 around in your home country then?

It’s great. They have kids listening to Rock and Roll and Rock and Roll is the best music that kids could be listening too.

How did the signing to Atlantic Records come about? Spur of the moment thing or did you spend a whole time thinking about it first?

We were very careful of our choice, we had several labels courting us and we were that happiest with what Atlantic had to offer.

As a result of being on a "major, the band has been getting a lot of (bad) criticism from people within the "scene". How do you, as a band, handle these things? Just don't pay attention or does it do anything to you anyway?

It’s the dumbest and most irrelevant criticism that we get. We were indie for so long and we couldn’t get an indie deal because nobody believed that we were any good. We don’t really care about that stuff any way because good music is good music. The Clash, the Pistols, Led Zeppelin and thousands of other great bands are all on majors, it’s a reality that if you want a lot of people to hear your music the best way is through the distribution of a major label. Today’s world is so screwed up that major labels set up indie labels for their up and coming bands strictly so the band can obtain “indie cred”. It’s all a joke.

How has being signed to Atlantic changed your life as a band? Any things you, as a band, do differently now than before?

We do interviews and travel the globe.

How was it like to work with Gavin Brown?

It was amazing. Gavin is one of the few guys who understood what we were about when all this stuff went down. We were able to trust his suggestions and his direction. He was able to create the sonic sounds that we wanted in our record too. He is a very talented man.

How has he influenced the sound of your latest album? Did he include any personal touches you think? What did he contribute to make it a better record?

His ability to get the guitar tones and instrument tones that we wanted was great. He also had an ability of getting great performances out of us as musicians and singers. He recognized the very passionate points or our performances and was able to single those out. Gavin also helped us weed out some material that wasn’t very good in some of our songs. He was able to crack our inner circle and really became an important piece of the puzzle.

You guys kind of popped out of nowhere for me personally and I think for you guys it also happened very fast so you still kind of have the best of both worlds. What is your opinion of this crusade against file sharing? In the end, isn't it hurting the music business more than it is helping it?

I think its just forcing record companies to re-evaluate the way they do business. Right now it hurts the bands and the record companies; but it’s better for the music fan. What it really does is put more focus on making better music, records that are good from front to back. Maybe they should focus on signing great bands that fans want to support and not just one-hit wonders.

So I’m interested how you view your own future... Any specific goals you want to achieve as a band?

We want to make a lot of records.

How about upcoming new material? Is that already a works in progress?

You never stop trying to be creative. Ian works hard at writing and Ben is always jotting down lyric ideas. We’ll be touring until the end of the year before we get recording again though.

It is a common thing for people to tag this band as this or that. Personally, what "genre" or "subgenera" do you feel associated/connected too?

We get tagged as everything from Punk to Emo to Pistol Rock; people need to label things for their own reasons. We think that we’re just a Rock and Roll band; guitar, bass, drums and vocal.

If there was ever an untruth about the band that was floating about, here's your place to comment on it, or if there’s anything you'd like to say to our Belgian fans thanks here's your moment

I can’t think about any untruths; but we want to say thanks to the Belgian fans for their support and keep drinking that Belgian beer. MMmmmmm beer, I love it.