Bryan "Brain" Mantia began drumming at the age of 16 and went on to a formal intensive study of rhythm at San Jose State University. On a quest to excel in this field, he decided after a period of time to transfer to the esteemed Percussion Institute of Technology in Los Angeles.
After declining an invitation to teach at the Institute, Brain went on to play with a variety of other artists, most notably: Primus, Tom Waits, Guns N' Roses, Praxis, Bootsy Collins, producer Bill Laswell and guitarist Buckethead to name a few. Highlights of Brain's prestigious body of work include appearances on albums by Godflesh (Songs of Love and Hate, Love and Hate in Dub), Tom Waits (Bone Machine, Real Gone, Mule Variations and Orphans), Primus (Brown Album, Rhinoplasty, and Antipop) and Serj Tankian (Elect the Dead). Brain also continued to work with Buckethead outside of Praxis - playing on such solo Buckethead records as Giant Robot and Monsters and Robots. To add to an already impressive musical resume, Axl Rose invited Brain to join his overhauled version of Guns N' Roses in 2000. Brain appeared with the group throughout sporadic live dates in 2001 through 2008, while continuing to lay down tracks for the most recent Guns N' Roses studio album, Chinese Democracy.
Brain had the foresight early on to gear his musical career in more than one direction. These days, Brain is involved in a plethora of composing, writing and scoring projects. This year alone he has already composed 2 major game themes for Sony Playstation, several pieces of original music for Playstation HOME, and is also scoring a major Playstation series release set for February 2011. At the request of Axl Rose, Brain has produced 6 Guns n' Roses remixes from the album Chinese Democracy to be released on the upcoming Gn'R remix album, and has just come off scoring the E3 2010 Xbox media briefing convention for Microsoft. Brain composed numerous film trailer pieces some of which can be heard on Casa Verdugo, the forthcoming media LP from Howling Entertainment. Currently, Brain is gearing up for the release of the first volume of 3 Avant-garde 5-disc sets with Buckethead entitled Best Regards.