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| Brain was born sometime in
the mid-60s in Cupertino, CA. Inspired by drummers like Tony Williams, Ornette Coleman,
and Buddy Rich, he started playing drums at age 16, with Steve Morris teaching him. Brain
attended the Percussion Institute of Technology after graduating from high school, and he
later studied classical snare drumming at San Jose State University. He quickly developed
a reputation as one of the most talented drummers in the world. Brain got his nickname in high school. After finding out that Terry Bozzio had transcribed Anthony Circone's "Portraits In Rhythm" for drums, Brain became obsessed with learning it, and friends started calling him "Brain". The nickname obviously stuck, although he also use his real name (unlike Buckethead). Brain soon found himself doing various shows and records as a session musician, without having any real band. The closest he got was being a member of the Limbomaniacs in the mid 80s. The band featured singer Kelly Smith, guitarist M.I.R.V and bassist House. Limbomaniacs was shortlasting, and Brain later also joined other shortlasting projects like Big City and Mongrels x 10, before the Limbomaniacs reformed in 1989 - now with Pete Scaturro on vocals. In 1989, Brain joined Primus for a few weeks, but after a skateboard-accident, they were forced to find another drummer, and Brain lost the spot. The same year, Brain played with a band called Curveball, that covered 70s funk songs. Brain stayed with them for about a year until he decided to go on tour with the Limbomaniacs. Curveball also later reformed in 1995. Limbomaniacs released their debut "Stinky Grooves" in 1990. The album was produced by Bill Laswell, and featured Macco Parker, Bootsy Collins, and Trouble Funk percussionist T-Bone. Two years later, Brain joined MCM And The Monster. Brain played drums on their album "Collective Emotional Problems". Two years later, the band broke up again. In 1992, Brain joined Praxis. He made Bill Laswell and Bootsy Collins aware of his friend Buckethead, who soon found himself playing guitar in the same band. At this time, the band featured Bill Laswell, Bootsy Collins, Buckethead, Brian Worrell, Brain and DJ Af. Their debut, "Transmutation" was released later the same year. Five more Praxis albums were released over the next years: "Sacrifist", "Metatron", "Transmutation Live", "Collection" and "Warsawa". Brain also played in several other bands during these years, including Smiley And The Gay Boys, the cover bands CaCa, Ted Zeppelin, which was a Ted Nugent/Led Zeppelin cover band, the Miles Davis cover band Borgnine and Johnny Moon And The Lunatics. In 1996, Brain joined Godflesh as their drummer. They had been working on an album, and as their drummer left, they had to get a replacement. Brains cousin, Kristen Yee, worked as Godflesh' manager, and he recommended Brain to the band. After the album was done, Godflesh went on a support tour Brain couldn't do because he was asked to join Primus. On August 20, 1996, Brain officially joined the band as the replacement for Tim "Herb" Alexander. "It was definitely intimidating. I was doing mostly studio work before I joined this band - you go in to a do a commercial or some quick session work - you nail your part in an hour, you get the check, you go home. In a band like this you have to be on all the time. In the studio, onstage, all the time. Les loves the drums, so he's a bit harder on a drummer than most other people I've played with." Primus immediately started working on the South Park theme song. On July 8, 1997, Primus released their "Brown Album", which was Brain's first album with them. “We went into the studio and started jamming three nights a week, for a couple of hours each night. Somebody would start something and we’d just let the tape roll. We made a CD out of all that, then we went through each jam to take the best parts and decide which grooves we wanted to make into songs. We realized that we had enough for two more albums.” Primus also
released their cover song EP "Rhinoplasty" in 1998, and "Antipop" was
released in 1999. Several producers were brought in for this album, including Tom Waits,
the former Police drummer Stewart Copeland, Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello, Limp
Bizkit's Fred Durst and South Park creator Matt Stone. While playing with GnR, Brain has kept himself busy working on various other projects - most notable as the drummer in Colonel Claypool's Bucket Of Bernie Brains. The band was put together for the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN in June, 2004, and featured Les Claypool (bass), Buckethead (guitar), Brain (drums) and Bernie Worell (keyboards). The band released their self titled debut on September 21, 2004, and also went on a tour supporting the album. In the summer, 2006, when Guns N' Roses was on tour in
Europe, Brain got a daughter named Kei. He pulled out of most of the tour to be with his
family, and he later also pulled out of the fall North American tour. Frank Ferrer
replaced him, but it was emphasized that both were considered part of the band, and
that Brain didn't leave. |
Artist Name : BrainReal Name: Brian Mantia Born: In the mid-60s in Cupertino, CA Other Bands: Primus, Godflesh, the Limbomaniacs, Giant Robot Worked with: Tom Waits, Jon Hassell, Buckethead Parents: Unknown Siblings: Unknown |
| Influences Buddy Rich: When my mom took me to see Buddy Rich over at the mall I was just floored. Toy
Williams: He’s probably like my number 1 guy. And it’s not really even
his drumming, it’s more just the attitude, the kind of ZEN thing that he had going
on. Other Influences: John Bonham, Sly Stone, Steve Copeland, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin |
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| Quotes "[With] Guns N' Roses doing this last show in Rio in front of like 200,000 people.. ya know, I mean I was so nervous, I'd warmed up for like 3 hours." "I was doing mostly studio work (...). You go in to a do a commercial or some quick session work - you nail your part in an hour, you get the check, you go home. In a band (...) you have to be on all the time. In the studio, onstage, all the time." “People used to say, ‘What are you, some kind of brain?’.” |
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