Guitarist Ian D'Sa, left, and lead singer Ben Kowalewicz, right, of Billy Talent. (SUN file photo)

Billy Talent frontman Ben Kowalewicz says the band's new album, due early summer and likely to be titled "Billy Talent III," "is definitely more rock."

Produced by Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Bruce Springsteen), the multi-platinum Toronto act just has some overdubs and mixing left to do when it returns from its current tour in Australia.

How could this band get any more rock?

Kowalewocz laughs. "Well, there are some pretty straight-up good ol' fashioned riffs," he says in an exclusive interview for Lowdown. "You know, there was this Seventies revival thing that was whatever and now it's the Eighties neon-colour-and-really-horrible-bands music vibe. This is more of like the Nineties, when we were 16, 17 and were all into that throwback grunge -- not grunge," he corrects, "but just a rock 'n' roll record. Hopefully, people will like it because it's where we're at."

Kowalewicz, guitarist Ian D'Sa, bassist Jonathan Gallant, and drummer Aaron Solowoniuk recorded their 2003 self-titled full-length debut with Toronto producer Gavin Brown, with whom they had cut the demoes that landed them a co-venture deal with Atlantic/Warner. That album went triple-platinum (300,000) in Canada. The follow-up, "Billy Talent II," co-produced by Brown and D'Sa, sold just as well.

Going into the third album -- the title Kowalewicz told Lowdown "I think is gonna be III" -- Billy Talent wanted to give another producer a try, but not just any producer, one of two top guys in the rock world.

"It was a very tough situation," says Kowalewicz. "We kind of had a wish list of who we wanted to work with and if we weren't gonna get that, then we were just gonna do it ourselves and get Ian to produce it.

"We sent the songs to Brendan O'Brien and Butch Vig. Butch was the first to get back to us, but he was gonna be busy working with Green Day, so he couldn't do it, and then Brendan got the songs and two days later called and said, 'Let's do it.' We were blown away and a little shocked for the first month because he's done some of our favorite records."

The band started working with O'Brien and engineer Nick DiDia in Los Angeles late last year recording the beds. Then in the new year, they went to O'Brien's hometown of Atlanta mainly to cut guitars and vocals. They are completing the album in Toronto at a downtown studio.

After all these years of working with one producer, Kowalewicz says Billy Talent has really enjoyed this new experience. "[Brendan] just tries to add life and body and feeling and emotion to [the songs]. To him, it's all about connecting with people, especially for me as a singer. It's very important for me."

Kowalewicz, who is known for his off-the-leash abandon onstage and unique melodic screams, doesn't hold back when he's in the studio, but says O'Brien wasn't alarmed that he wasn't standing still at the mic.

"He's worked with guys like Eddie Vedder and Zack de la Rocha and Scott Weiland and all these kinds of people, so he's been around some pretty charismatic frontmen. With me, it's hard to explain but he thinks I've grown into [my voice] and accepted it. He's just trying to bring that out and make it sound the best it can sound."

As for D'Sa, who co-produced the last album and has produced some local bands, including Die Mannequin, Kowalewicz notes that it has been hard for the guitarist to just sit back and let O'Brien take the reins.

"[Ian] is one of the most impressively thorough people and he's very passionate about the band, but especially about guitar tones. So him and Brendan have this working system that works for both of them and to see two people like that work together and get these sounds is pretty impressive. Ian's been fantastic through the entire process. He's definitely learning a lot by asking [Brendan and Nick] technical questions and they're totally helping him out and giving him all these great ideas."

Billy Talent has Australian dates in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth this week for both the Sidewaves and Soundwave Festivals, before coming home to put the finishing touches on the album.

The band will play Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival on April 18 in Indio, CA, and May 3 at The Bamboozle Festival in East Rutherford, NJ. According to Pollstar.com, they have a 17-date tour with Rancid starting July 6 in Seattle, WA, and ending July 30 in Hamburg, NY. More Lowdown stories