Everyone's gotta grow up sometime -- even hard-rocking punk throwbacks whose fanbase is still a bit on the youngish side.

Just ask Billy Talent frontman Ben Kowalewicz, who at the age of 31 is already almost a decade older than his average listener.

"I am getting older and I am starting to think about more than just Saturday nights," says Kowalewicz, who celebrated his most recent birthday on Dec. 16.

"You realize that you have to look a bit more into the future and that you are going to have to evolve and adapt to these situations you're faced with."

When the Sun caught up with him a few weeks before New Year's, Kowalewicz was in a reflective mood, calling the prior 12 months both "the greatest struggle and the most rewarding year for the band."

The struggles had to do with the release of Billy Talent's second album (called II), an experience marred by "a changing of the guard" at the band's U.S. label, as he explains. The rewards came in the wake of II's release, when fans welcomed the explosive, often cathartic album with open arms.

But all the chunky guitar riffs and impassioned scream/singing in the world can't slow down Father Time, and Kowalewicz admits he's recently become a little more aware of his advancing years.

"I think I sense my age the most when I see bands that are like 20 or 21," he says. "Like, when we're on the Warped tours, I'll be hanging out with Jay Bentley from Bad Religion, who's a good deal older than me ... We're, like, the bridge between the really young ones (on the tours) and the really old ones."

While Kowalewicz is still decades away from being eligible for his rock 'n' roll pension, he does plan to make a few changes this year -- to quit smoking ("Cancer is not cool," as he puts it), and to stagger Billy Talent's schedule so his bandmates (guitarist Ian D'Sa, bassist Jon Gallant, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk) have more time to recharge between tours.

"If you're touring too much, eventually the shows begin to suffer," he says.

And speaking of shows, the band is definitely on an upward trajectory, at least if their choice of venues is any indication. The last time Billy Talent was in Winnipeg (in May 2006), it was for a basement pizza party at the home of a fan who'd won a radio-station promotion.

This time, they're headlining at MTS Centre -- proof that getting older isn't all bad.

"Any person who's in a band, whether they're just learning or they've been playing for a decade, the dream for any band is to play an arena tour," he says. "And with the calibre of the bands we're bringing out with us ... I think we're going to knock the f--ing roof off the place."

Tickets to see Billy Talent cost $24.50 to $39.50 at Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.ca or 780-3333).