Brain (musician)

Bryan Kei Mantia (born February 4, 1963), known professionally as Brain, is an American rock drummer. He has played with bands such as Primus, Guns N' Roses, Praxis, and Godflesh, and with other performers such as Tom Waits, Serj Tankian, Bill Laswell, Bootsy Collins, and Buckethead. He has also done session work for numerous artists and bands.

History

Mantia was born February 4, 1963, in the South Bay city of Cupertino, California, to an Italian American father and a Japanese American mother. As a teenager, Mantia became interested in such artists as James Brown, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix, acts that featured groove-heavy sounds. When he was 16 years old, he started playing drums. Because of his 'obsessive' study of the drum book ''Portraits in Rhythm'', Mantia was given the nickname "Brain" by members of his high school concert band.

Mantia attended the Percussion Institute of Technology in Hollywood, California, during the mid-1980s to further hone his craft. During this time, he was a member of local funk-rock band named the Limbomaniacs (which would later become part of Ben Wa). In 1989, Mantia joined Primus briefly, before breaking his foot, forcing him to pull out of the band.

In the early '90s, he joined Praxis, a musical project led by Bill Laswell featuring Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins and Buckethead. Mantia recorded with Buckethead on many of Buckethead's solo albums, including '' Monsters and Robots'', '' Colma'', '' The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell'', and '' Bucketheadland 2'', among others.

Mantia appeared on releases by the industrial metal band Godflesh in the late 1990s, including '' Songs of Love and Hate'', and '' Love and Hate in Dub''. In 1996, Mantia rejoined Primus, touring with and recording for four years with the group, appearing on The Brown Album, Rhinoplasty and Antipop.

In March 2000, Mantia joined the revamped lineup of Guns N' Roses after being recommended to singer Axl Rose by Buckethead (who himself had joined the band a few months earlier).

In 2003, Mantia appeared on several songs on BT's 2003 release '' Emotional Technology'' as well BT's score for the 2003 film ''Monster''.

Mantia toured several legs of the Chinese Democracy Tour with Guns N' Roses from 2000 until 2006, when he left the band to take care of his newborn child. Frank Ferrer, originally brought in as just a replacement drummer for the tour, eventually replaced Mantia as full time drummer for the band. ''Chinese Democracy'' was released in 2008, and featured drums from Mantia on every track except the title track. Mantia was also credited with writing the songs "Shackler's Revenge" and "Sorry". Parts of Mantia's drumming on the album were note-for-note re-recordings of Josh Freese's parts, who left the band before Mantia joined. Mantia was also responsible for arrangements on "Shackler's Revenge", "Better", " Street of Dreams", "There Was a Time", "Sorry", "Madagascar", and " Prostitute", initial production on "Shackler's Revenge" and "Sorry", engineering on "Sorry", drum machine and drum programming on "I.R.S." and Logic Pro engineering for the entire album.

After leaving the band, Mantia made a guest appearance (alongside fellow former GNR member Robin Finck) at Guns N' Roses' House of Blues West Hollywood show on March 12, 2012. Mantia played congas on "You're Crazy" and "Rocket Queen". He continued to occasionally work for the band on yet to be released remix material.

Since leaving Guns N' Roses, Mantia has primarily been focused on music behind the scenes as a composer and producer.

Mantia had a brief stint drumming with The Crystal Method in 2013 and 2014 (alongside Guns N' Roses guitarist Richard Fortus). These performances included appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Last Call with Carson Daly

In 2017, Mantia toured with Buckethead and Dan Monti as part of Buckethead's live show.

Composing

Mantia has partnered with musician Melissa Reese on several projects, a composing team dubbed "Brain and Melissa". In 2010, along with Buckethead, they released the multi-CD sets ''Kind Regards'' and ''Best Regards''. Brain and Melissa composed part of the soundtrack to the video game '' Infamous 2'', for which they were nominated for "Outstanding Achievement in Original Composition" by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences awards. Other video games the duo worked on include, ''PlayStation Home'', '' ModNation Racers'', ''Twisted Metal'', '' Fantasia: Music Evolved'' and '' Infamous: Second Son'' (received the nomination ''Original Dramatic Score, Franchise'' at the 2014 NAVGTR Awards, shared with Marc Canham and Nathan Johnson). They also scored the films '' Detention'' and '' Power/Rangers''. They have worked with music video director Joseph Kahn on several television commercials, including NASCAR, SEAT, and Qoros. In addition, they scored a commercial for Johnnie Walker Blue which featured a computer-generated Bruce Lee. They also worked on several remixes of songs off of ''Chinese Democracy'' for a planned remix album.

The two created a stock music album called "Eclectic Cinema" alongside former Guns N' Roses guitarist Paul Tobias, and Guns N' Roses and Buckethead collaborator Pete Scaturro. Mantia has also worked with Tobias on several other stock music tracks.

The duo performed at the halftime show of a Houston Rockets basketball game on November 10, 2017, performing remixes of "Sorry" and "If the World" from ''Chinese Democracy'', and a cover of KISS's "Do You Love Me?" from Destroyer.

Equipment

''Information sourced from "Bryan Mantia's Drum setup".''

Drums

DW Collector's Series Maple drums in Tony Williams Yellow Lacquer with Custom Yellow Hardware

18x24 Bass Drum

8x12, 9x13 Toms

16x16, 16x18 Floor Toms w/ Legs

6x14 Edge Snare

9000 Single Bass Drum Pedal

9500 Hi-Hat

9300 Snare Stand

9700 Straight/Boom Cymbal Stand (x6)

9900 Double Tom Stand (x2)

9100 Throne

Cymbals

Zildjian

14" A Mastersound Hi-Hats

19" A Medium Thin Crash (2)

20" K CrashRide

20" A Deep Ride

20" A Medium Thin Crash

22" Oriental China "Trash"

Electronics

Akai MPC 60 II, 3000 LE, 4000

Technics SL-1210MKZ Turntables with a M44Gs stylus

Vestax PMCO5PRO DJMixer

Selected discography and videography

* ''Brain's Lessons: Shredding Repis On the Gnar Gnar Rad'' – 2002 instructional video
* ''Brain's Worst Drum Instructional DVD Ever'' – 2008 instructional video

;Limbomaniacs
* ''Stinky Grooves'' – 1990

;Praxis
* ''Transmutation'' – 1992
* ''Sacrifist'' – 1994
* ''Metatron'' – 1994
* ''Live in Poland'' – 1997
* ''Transmutation Live'' – 1997
* ''Warszawa'' – 1999
* ''Tennessee 2004'' – 2007
* ''Profanation'' – 2008

;Bullmark
* '' Interstate 76 soundtrack'' – 1996

;Giant Robot
* ''Giant Robot'' – 1996

;Godflesh
* '' Songs of Love and Hate'' – 1996

;Tom Waits
*'' Bone Machine'' – 1992
*''Mule Variations'' – 1999
*'' Real Gone'' – 2004
*'' Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards'' – 2006

;Primus
* ''Brown Album'' – 1997
* ''Rhinoplasty'' – 1998
* ''Antipop'' – 1999

;Buckethead;

* ''I Need 5 Minutes Alone'' (as Pieces) – 1997
* '' Colma'' – 1998
* '' Monsters and Robots'' – 1999
* '' The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell'' – 2004
* ''Kevin's Noodle House'' – 2007
* ''A Real Diamond in the Rough'' (tracks 2, 4, & 7) – 2009
* ''Best Regards'' (with Melissa Reese) – 2010
* ''Brain as Hamenoodle'' – 2010
* ''Kind Regards'' (with Melissa Reese) – 2010

;El Stew
* ''No Hesitation'' – 1999

;No Forcefield
*''Lee's Oriental Massage 415-626-1837'' – 2000
*''God Is an Excuse'' – 2001

;Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains
* '' The Big Eyeball in the Sky'' – 2004

;Serj Tankian
* ''Elect the Dead'' – 2007
* '' Imperfect Harmonies'' (track 10) – 2010

;Guns N' Roses
* ''Chinese Democracy'' – 2008
* " Absurd" – 2021

;Science Faxtion
* ''Living on Another Frequency'' – 2008

;Travis Dickerson

* ''The Dragons of Eden'' (with Buckethead) – 2008
* ''Iconography'' (with Buckethead) – 2009

;Video Games
* ''Cyberpunk 2077'' (with Melissa Reese) – 2020

Notes

References

External links

Brain and Melissa official website

Audio Interview with Brain from the podcast "I'd Hit That"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brain
Living people
American heavy metal drummers
American people of Italian descent
American musicians of Japanese descent
Musicians from California
People from Cupertino, California
Godflesh members
Guns N' Roses members
Primus (band) members
San Jose State University alumni
Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area
Blue Coast Records artists
1963 births
20th-century American drummers
American male drummers
21st-century American drummers
Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains members
Praxis (band) members