Bryan Beller | |
|---|---|
 Beller in 2015 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1971-05-06)May 6, 1971 (age 53) |
| Genres | |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1994–present |
| Labels | Onion Boy Records |
| Website | bryanbeller |
Bryan Beller (born May 6, 1971) is an Americanbass guitarist[1][2] known for his work withJoe Satriani,The Aristocrats,Dethklok,Mike Keneally,Steve Vai,James LaBrie ofDream Theater andDweezil Zappa, as well as his four solo album releases,View (2003),Thanks In Advance (2008),Wednesday Night Live (2011), and the progressive double concept albumScenes From The Flood (2019). He has beenJoe Satriani's touring bassist since 2013, encompassing theUnstoppable Momentum tour (2013–14)[3], theShockwave (2015–16) world tour, and theG3/What Happens Next tour (2018), in addition to featuring on theShockwave Supernova record. Beller is also the bassist of the rock/fusion super-trioThe Aristocrats (withGuthrie Govan on guitar andMarco Minnemann on drums), and he managed the band from 2012 to 2018.The Aristocrats have released six studio albums, along with four live releases documenting the band's world tours in support of their debut albumThe Aristocrats and sophomore albumCulture Clash. Their studio albumYou Know What... was the focus of their world tour that began in the summer of 2019 and extended through to 2020.
Beller first joined Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa's band Z in 1993. Mike Keneally was already a member of the band. Eventually Beller joined Keneally's band Beer For Dolphins, and both musicians left Z in early 1996. With Beller on bass, Mike Keneally and Beer For Dolphins opened up for Steve Vai on his USA nationwide tour in support of Vai's albumThe Fire Garden in late 1996.
From 1997 to 2003, Beller worked at the bass amplification companySWR Sound Corporation, holding positions including Artist Relations Manager, Product Development Manager, and eventually Vice President. The company was sold toFender Musical Instruments Corporation in 2003, at which point Beller became the Marketing Manager for SWR inside Fender. He left the company in 2005 to pursue a career as a musician on a full-time basis.
From 1999 to 2012, Beller wrote forBass Player Magazine in various formats, including columns, CD reviews, feature articles, and full transcriptions. His cover stories included pieces onChris Wolstenholme ofMuse,Justin Chancellor ofTool, jazz bassistChristian McBride, andAlex Webster ofCannibal Corpse. He was on the magazine's masthead as a Contributing Editor from 2007 to 2012.
In his career as a sideman musician, during 1997-1999, Beller recorded two tracks on Steve Vai'sThe Ultra Zone album, toured Europe with former MC5 guitaristWayne Kramer, and continued work with Mike Keneally on his albumsSluggo! andDancing. During 1999-2005, Beller tracked three albums forDream Theater'sJames LaBrie - two under the Mullmuzzler name (Keep It To Yourself andMullmuzzler 2), and one as James LaBrie (Elements Of Persuasion). He also worked with Steve Vai and the Metropol Orchestra on two live performances of Vai's work, some pre-released and some debut orchestral material. Two years later, Beller wasSteve Vai's choice for the 2007 "String Theories" tour, which resulted in the 2009 live CD/DVDWhere The Wild Things Are.
From 2007 to 2012, Beller toured with the "band"Dethklok, a tongue-in-cheek extreme metal band born of theCartoon Network "Adult Swim" showMetalocalypse; Beller tracked on the last twoDethklok releases (Dethalbum III;The Doomstar Requiem) and anchored the band for three nationwide tours, alongsideMastodon andMachine Head, among others. Meanwhile, his work with guitaristMike Keneally (Frank Zappa) continued, on releases such asDOG (2004),Guitar Therapy Live (2006),Scambot: One (2009), andbakin' at the potato! (2011). Beller's first instructional DVD,Mastering Tone And Versatility, was released byAlfred Publishing in early 2012,[4] and he's also a featured artist on the instructional websiteJamplay.com.[5]
In January 2011, Beller played a gig at The Anaheim Bass Bash withMarco Minnemann on drums andGuthrie Govan on guitar (who was filling in for Greg Howe, a late replacement due to a schedule conflict). This was the first show of the band that would becomeThe Aristocrats less than a year later. The Aristocrats released their debutThe Aristocrats in 2011,Culture Clash in 2013,Tres Caballeros in 2015, andYou Know What...? in 2019, and Beller joined them for several world tours in support of those releases. Additionally, they released three live albums:Boing, We'll Do It Live (2012),Culture Clash Live (2015), andSecret Show: Live In Osaka (2015). The albumYou Know What...? debuted at #2 on the Billboard Jazz Charts in July 2019.
In 2013,Joe Satriani invited Beller to join his touring band for hisUnstoppable Momentum World Tour from 2013 to 2014. In early 2015 Beller tracked on Satriani's albumShockwave Supernova, and again joined the band for that world tour from 2015 to 2016. Beller was featured in Satriani's documentary film of that tour,Beyond The Supernova (2018). Beller toured with Satriani once again throughout 2018 on the G3/What Happens Next World Tour, also featuringJohn Petrucci,Phil Collen ofDef Leppard, andUli Jon Roth.
Beller formed an independent record label (Onion Boy Records) in 2003 and has released four solo albums on that label. He released his debut solo albumView in late 2003, featuring Mike Keneally, Jeff Babko, Toss Panos, Griff Peters, and Rick Musallam. The album was a mix of rock/fusion instrumentals, solo acoustic/electric bass compositions, and rock vocal songs. His second albumThanks In Advance was released in 2008. A compositional statement about breaking through anger and finding gratitude, it featured many of the same players asView, but leaned more in a jazz/rock fusion direction. The longest (ten minutes) and most complex composition, "Love Terror Adrenaline/Break Through", notably featured Marco Minnemann on drums, three years before the formation of The Aristocrats.
In 2011, Beller partnered with Mike Keneally to tour in support of his first two studio albums. Named the "They're Both The Same Band" tour due to the concept of sharing band members for both acts (Rick Musallam and Griff Peters on guitar, Joe Travers on drums, plus Keneally and Beller), they played five shows in the U.S. Northeast and nine shows on the U.S. West Coast. They did one final show in this format, in September 2011 atThe Baked Potato jazz club in Los Angeles, and recorded it. That show resulted in Beller's first live albumWednesday Night Live, and was released in 2011 on both CD and DVD.[6] The very same show resulted in Mike Keneally's live albumbakin' at the potato!, released that same year.
From 2013 to 2016, Beller gathered material for his third studio solo album, the progressive double concept albumScenes From The Flood.Scenes was a departure for Beller, with 18 songs (15 instrumental, 3 with vocals) focusing on the double concept album format, with repeating melodies and themes throughout, and influenced by double albums such asPink Floyd'sThe Wall,Nine Inch Nails'The Fragile, andYes'Tales From Topographic Oceans. Beller spent most of 2017 creating the demos for the album, and then tracked it throughout 2018 with 26 different musicians, including guitaristsJoe Satriani,John Petrucci,Guthrie Govan,Mike Keneally,Janet Feder,Mike Dawes, andNili Brosh; drummersGene Hoglan, Ray Hearne ofHaken, and Joe Travers; and many others. The album was mixed and mastered by Forrester Savell (Karnivool), and mixing took place over nine months from 2018 to 2019.Scenes From The Flood was released in 2CD and double vinyl formats on September 13, 2019.
Beller's earliest days on bass were as aWestfield, New Jersey, pre-teen on upright in the school orchestra. It was short-lived, as he switched to electric at 13 to better playRush,Led Zeppelin,Pink Floyd andMetallica tunes. Concurrently, a couple of years of classical piano lessons morphed into his own self-taught ear training regimen, as he learned to play those same classic rock and metal songs on the piano completely by ear. Once he landed atBerklee College Of Music, Beller focused solely on bass, and eventually joined a blues-rock band called 100 Proof, which played originals mixed with blues andAllman Brothers covers in Boston's dirtiest bars.
But it was when Beller met drummer (andFrank Zappa enthusiast) Joe Travers at Berklee that his career first ventured onto its current path. Travers knew Mike Keneally, who was in Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa's band Z. Travers moved to Los Angeles in 1992, joined that band, and referred Beller, who moved to Los Angeles and joined Z (his first professional gig) in 1993.
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2014: Atomic Mind
