Ian D'Sa

D'Sa is known for making unexpected appearances at other bands' live shows and to guest as vocalist sometimes with Alexisonfire. He joined Sum 41 as a guest guitarist for a one-off performance of their popular encore song "Pain for Pleasure", and also performed as a guest in one show with British band Reuben in 2006, while the band supported Billy Talent. He produced the first single, "Buried at Sea", from The Operation M.D.'s second studio album Birds + Bee Stings, which was released on 29 June 2010.

D'Sa has been involved with Song for Africa since 2007, a project to connect Canada's youth to the AIDS pandemic, playing guitar on the song and in the video and single. In July 2007, he travelled to Kenya for 10 days to be part of the Song for Africa documentary film. D'Sa also wrote and recorded the song "Land of a Thousand Hills" for the benefit album Song for Africa – Rwanda: Rises Up!, in which he sings lead vocals and plays guitar with punk rock band Noble Blood. In November 2012, he contributed a guitar solo to the song "Toast to Freedom", recorded by Anti-Flag for Amnesty International as a benefit single. He played solo in the video for the song.

In 1998, Pezz changed their name to Billy Talent after the fictional character in Michael Turner's Hard Core Logo book. D'Sa co-produced the album Billy Talent II with Gavin Brown. He also did art direction and package design on the album. He received co-direction credit for the video "Fallen Leaves", for which the band was awarded Best Video and Best Rock Video at the 2007 MuchMusic Video Awards. Released in September 2012, the fourth album of the band, Dead Silence, was produced entirely by D'Sa. He was nominated for Producer of the Year at the 2017 Juno Awards for his work on the band's fifth album, Afraid of Heights.

Ian was born in the suburb of Southall, London. He is of Goan background. His family moved to Canada when he was three years old. He grew up in Mississauga, Ontario, learning guitar at the age of 13. He attended Our Lady of Mount Carmel Secondary School. In 1991, he formed a band named Dragonflower with some fellow schoolmates. After Dragonflower broke up, he formed another band named Soluble Fish and recorded a five-song demo entitled Nugget Sauces. He eventually met Benjamin Kowalewicz, Jonathan Gallant and Aaron Solowoniuk in 1993 at a high school talent show. He started a new band with them named Pezz (later to become Billy Talent) while also playing in Soluble Fish. Both bands played shows together until Soluble Fish broke up in 1996. Still playing with Pezz, D'Sa went to OCAD and then Sheridan College where he got his degree in classical animation and has worked on the TV shows Angela Anaconda, Birdz, and the film Adventures in 3-D IMAX as a character animator. Pezz changed their name to Billy Talent a few years later in 1998.