  bryan "brain" mantia is a contemporary rock drummer and composer. he has played with bands such as primus, guns n' roses, praxis, and godflesh, and with other popular performers such as tom waits, serj tankian, bill laswell, bootsy collins, and buckethead. he has also done session work for numerous artists and bands. ==history== born 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 with buckethead outside of praxis â 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, 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 an
American_heavy_metal_drummers American_musicians American_musicians_of_Japanese_descent American_people_of_Italian_descent Blue_Coast_Records_artists Guns_N\'_Roses_members Living_people Musicians_from_California Musicians_from_the_San_Francisco_Bay_Area People_from_Cupertino,_California People_from_Santa_Clara_County,_California Primus_(band)_members San_Jose_State_University_alumni