Billy Bryans

Canadian drummer, technician, producer and DJ from Toronto, Ontario originally born in Montréal.

b. September 15, 1947 in Pointe Claire (Montréal), Quebec
d. April 23, 2012 in Toronto, Ontario

Started his first band, MG And The Escorts, in the mid-1960s while in attending high school in Montréal. After completing university at Sir George Williams University he moved to Toronto in 1970 where he gravitated to Rochdale College. There he would join Horn (11) and run the college's recording studio, starting his production and mixing career. One of his first clients at the studio was Downchild Blues Band, for whom he would co-produce their first big hit "Flip Flop And Fly" in 1973 and joined the band for a period as drummer.

In demand as a double-threat drummer and producer, he produced a record for early New Wave outfit Time Twins at the Lanois brothers' Grant Avenue Studio. His production for them was influential on both Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. He would join Toronto New Wave band The Government for a short period in the early 1980s. It was around the same time he became professionally involved with Lorraine Segato and Lauri Conger, joining Mama Quilla II. Not long after joining, these three would found a new outfit in 1982, The Parachute Club.

After the successful band folded in in 1989, Bryans drummed for a variety of projects and produced many albums for other artists, especially in Caribbean styles. He was a devoted student of rhythm and ended up focusing on Cuban salsa in the late 1990s, becoming a DJ of the genre and writing about it extensively in his blog MisterBryans. He passed away from lung cancer in 2012 at the age of 63.