Brian Mantia

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Brian Mantia is a drummer. He has played with bands like Primus and Guns N' Roses, and with other popular performers such as Buckethead and Tom Waits.

Contents

1 History
2 Equipment

2.1 Drums
2.2 Percussion
2.3 Cymbals
2.4 Electronics

3 Selected discography

3.1 With
3.2 With Buckethead
3.3 With Giant Robot
3.4 With
3.5 With

4 External links

History

Drummer Brian “Brain" Mantia has played with some of rock's more cult/fringe artists (Praxis, Primus, Tom Waits, Buckethead, Godflesh), as well as more mainstream/renown ones (Guns N' Roses). Born in 1964 in the South Bay city of Cupertino, CA, 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 countless releases throughout the ‘90s (including such standouts as Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis, Transmutation Live, and Warzsawa, among countless others). Mantia continued to work with Buckethead even 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 such albums as The Brown Album, Rhinoplasty, and Anti-Pop. 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 (the Rock in Rio III Festival) and 2002 (the MTV Video Music Awards), while continuing to lay down tracks for the oft-delayed new Guns N' Roses studio release, Chinese Democracy." source: All Music Guide

Mantia appears on the song "Circles" on Brian Transeau's 2003 release Emotional Technology.

As of June 2006, Brian is touring Europe with Guns N' Roses. On June 21, 2006 it was announced he was taking a short break from the GNR tour to spend time with his pregnant wife, who gave birth to a baby girl on July 4, 2006. [link]

Equipment

Drums

26" x 14" Green Ludwig Vistalite Bass drum
14" x 5-1/2" Ludwig Vistalite Black Beauty snare
14" North Floor Tom
6" North Tom
13" x 9" Red Ludwig Vistalite Floor Tom
18" x 16" Amber Ludwig Vistalite

Percussion

6" Black LP Cowbell

Cymbals

Zildjian
13" A quickbeat hi hats
A Medium thin crash
8" EFX 1
16" A Medium crash
8" A splash
6" Zil-Bel
21" A Rock Ride
18" A China Low

Electronics

2 Technics SL-1210MKZ Turntables with an M44Gs stylus
Vestax PMCO5PRO DJMixer

Selected discography

With
Brown Album - 1997
Rhinoplasty - 1998
Antipop - 1999

With Buckethead

Colma - 1998
Monsters and Robots - 1999
The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell - 2004

With Giant Robot

Giant Robot NTT - 1996 (NTT Records)

With
The Big Eyeball in the Sky - 2004

With
Chinese Democracy - (not yet released)

External links

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