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.

Early life and education

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's early influences were James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis. When he was 16 years old, he started playing drums. At 15, he attended Led Zeppelin's last North American concert ever at the Oakland Coliseum. Because of his 'obsessive' study of the drum book Portraits in Rhythm by Anthony J. Cirone, Mantia was given the nickname "Brain" by members of his high school concert band. Some time later, Mantia rejoined Primus, touring with (and recording for) four years with the group, appearing on Brown Album, Rhinoplasty and Antipop.

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

In 2004, Mantia toured with Tom Waits on the Real Gone tour. 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.

Since leaving Guns N' Roses in 2006, Mantia has primarily been focused on music behind the scenes as a composer and producer despite receiving offers to tour with Nine Inch Nails, Korn and System of a Down. 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.

Mantia performed with Primus for the first time in 24 years at the Fox Oakland Theatre on December 30, 2024. However, with Les Claypool and Larry LaLonde auditioning for "the greatest drummer on Earth" in Primus, Mantia did not officially rejoin the band.

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, Midnight Club 2, 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.

Personal life

As of 2022, Mantia was living in his hometown Cupertino with a daughter.

Drums

DW Collector's Series Maple drums in Tony Williams Yellow Lacquer with Custom Yellow Hardware<br />

18x24 Bass Drum<br />

8x12, 9x13 Toms<br />

16x16, 16x18 Floor Toms w/ Legs<br />

6x14 Edge Snare

9000 Single Bass Drum Pedal<br />

9500 Hi-Hat<br />

9300 Snare Stand<br />

9700 Straight/Boom Cymbal Stand (x6)<br />

9900 Double Tom Stand (x2)<br />

9100 Throne

Cymbals

Zildjian<br />

14" A Mastersound Hi-Hats<br />

19" A Medium Thin Crash (2)<br />

20" K CrashRide<br />

20" A Deep Ride<br />

20" A Medium Thin Crash<br />

22" Oriental China "Trash"

Electronics

Akai MPC 60 II, 3000 LE, 4000<br />

Technics SL-1210MKZ Turntables with a M44Gs stylus<br />

Vestax PMCO5PRO DJMixer

Selected discography and videography

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

;Limbomaniacs

  • Stinky Grooves – 1990

;Opafire

  • Without A Trace album, on tracks Crazy Wind; & Hot Melts Ice - 1991

;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

;Jon Hassell

  • Dressing for Pleasure - 1994

;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
  • "Hard Skool" – 2021
  • "Perhaps" – 2023
  • "The General" – 2023
  • "Nothin' - 2025
  • "Atlas" - 2025

;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

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