Bryan Mantia - History

History

Born in 1963 in the South Bay city of Cupertino, California to an Italian-American father and a Japanese American mother, Mantia became interested in such 'groove heavy' artists as James Brown, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix early on, but it wasn't until he was 16 years old that Mantia began playing drums. Shortly thereafter, Mantia acquired the nickname "Brain" while playing in a high school concert band, due to his obsession with the complex Anthony Cirone book, "Portraits in Rhythm." Mantia continued to perfect his drumming skills, by studying at such music schools as the Percussion Institute of Technology in Hollywood. The mid '80s saw Mantia join the San Francisco Bay Area funk-rock band, the Limbomaniacs, who broke up later in the decade, but reformed to issue a lone full-length in 1990, Stinky Grooves.

From there, Mantia played with a variety of other outfits, including M.I.R.V. (Cosmodrome, Feeding Time on Monkey Island), MCM and the Monster (Collective Emotional Problems), and Tom Waits (Bone Machine), before co-forming the funk/experimental supergroup, Praxis. Included in the group were Parliament/Funkadelic veterans Bootsy Collins (bass) and Bernie Worrell (keyboards), as well as masked guitarist Buckethead and producer Bill Laswell - resulting in multiple releases throughout the '90s, such as Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis), Transmutation Live, and Warszawa. Mantia continued to work with Buckethead outside of Praxis - playing on such solo Buckethead albums as Giant Robot and Monsters and Robots.

The late '90s saw Mantia appear on releases by Godflesh (Songs of Love and Hate, Love and Hate in Dub) and longtime friends, Primus (whom Mantia was briefly a member of in 1989, before a broken foot led to his exit). His second go-around with Primus proved more fruitful, as Mantia toured extensively with the trio and played on the albums Brown Album, Rhinoplasty, and Antipop. Mantia also contributed to a side project with Larry Lalonde called No Forcefield, releasing two albums. Already boasting quite an impressive musical resume, it was about to get even greater, as Axl Rose invited Mantia to join his overhauled version of Guns N' Roses in 2000 (at the insistence of Buckethead, who was brought onboard as Slash's replacement). Mantia appeared with the group throughout sporadic live dates in 2001 and 2002, while continuing to lay down tracks for Guns N' Roses' long awaited studio album, 'Chinese Democracy'.

Brain's Lessons: Shredding Repis On the Gnar Gnar Rad is a VHS drum workshop Published by Alfred Publishing. In the video, Brain goes through some of the techniques he feels are important, including Go Go, Funk Patterns, the Ostinato and the Up Down Technique. The video is shot to look like a home movie and includes many humorous moments including a sit down steak dinner with his parents right in the middle of Brain "shredding" on a toy drum set. Although silly at times, the video is extremely informative for drummers looking to learn the hard grooves he is known for.

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

In the early summer of 2006, after 4 warm-up dates in New York City, Mantia toured Europe with Guns N' Roses. On June 21, 2006 it was announced he was taking a short break from the GN'R tour to spend time with his wife, who gave birth to a baby girl on July 4, 2006. Since leaving to be a father, replacement drummer Frank Ferrer has been performing in most of the band's shows. In the Fall of 2006, Ferrer was promoted to an official member of the band, which fueled speculation that Mantia had resigned or been fired from Guns N' Roses. As of November, 2008, Mantia is no longer listed on the band's official MySpace page. However, Axl Rose mentioned him "working on things for the band" during his fan-forum interviews in December 2008. In the liner notes for GN'R's 2008 album, Chinese Democracy, replacement drummer Frank Ferrer thanks Mantia, saying "... Brain, God bless you and your family." Brain rejoined Guns N' Roses at their show at the House Of Blues on March 13, 2012 playing congas on a couple songs.