BRYAN BELLER
Bryan Beller has maintained a multi-faceted career as a bassist, composer, solo artist and clinician for over 25 years, earning his reputation as a uniquely talented yet supremely tasteful team player for instrumentally-minded artists. In the power super-trio The Aristocrats (with uber-players Guthrie Govan on guitar and Marco Minnemann on drums) he’s a part of one of the hottest acts in rock/fusion today; their 2019 release You Know What…? debuted at #2 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. He’s been Joe Satriani’s touring bassist since 2013, and also tracked Satriani’s complete 2022 album The Elephants Of Mars. (Beller will be back out on tour with both The Aristocrats and Joe Satriani in 2022 and beyond.) He was Steve Vai’s choice for the 2009 live CD/DVD Where The Wild Things Are, and he also toured and recorded in the “band” Dethklok, a tongue-in-cheek extreme metal band borne of the hit Cartoon Network “Adult Swim” show Metalocalypse. He’s been a musical partner of freak/genius guitarist Mike Keneally (Frank Zappa) for over 20 years and 10 albums.
On his own, Beller’s solo album catalog includes 2003’s View, 2008’s Thanks In Advance, and 2011’s Wednesday Night Live, as well as an Alfred instructional DVD, all released to widespread acclaim. His 2019 solo release – the progressive concept double album Scenes From The Flood featuring Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Guthrie Govan, Mike Keneally, Gene Hoglan (Dethklok), Ray Hearne (Haken) and many more – was hailed by multiple outlets as an instant classic: “A colossal artistic statement and a career triumph…one of the year’s most intriguing and staggering albums, it will for sure end in our 2019 best of lists.” (Scott Medina, Sonic Perspectives)
As a pure player, a composer, a masterclass clinician, a former Contributing Editor for Bass Player Magazine, and a former VP of SWR bass amps, Bryan Beller brings a holistic perspective to the world of bass, and music.
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LONGER BIO
Bryan Beller has maintained a frenetic, multi-faceted career as a bassist, composer, solo artist, writer and clinician for over twenty-five years.
Beller’s reputation as a uniquely talented yet supremely tasteful team player for adventurous instrumentally-minded artists is clearly evidenced in his work for some of the industry’s top names. He’s been Joe Satriani’s touring bassist since 2013, notching three world tours (including a G3 with John Petrucci and Phil Collen of Def Leppard), several cuts on Satch’s 2015 release Shockwave Supernova, and a feature appearance in Satriani’s tour documentary film Beyond The Supernova. More recently, Beller tracked the entire 2022 Satriani album The Elephants Of Mars. He’s also the bassist of the rock/fusion super-trio The Aristocrats (with uber-players Guthrie Govan on guitar and Marco Minnemann on drums), one of the hottest acts in the genre today. The Aristocrats released six critically acclaimed albums in five short years, with their sixth (2019’s You Know What…?) debuting at #2 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Their four successful world tours even included joining Satriani and Steve Vai for a G3 run in Europe. This high profile work has landed Beller on the pages of numerous music magazines, including cover features in Bass Player and Bass Musician magazines. Beller will be back on the road with both The Aristocrats and Joe Satriani in 2022.
As a solo artist, Beller’s most current release (2019) is the epic-scale modern progressive double concept album Scenes From The Flood. The massive 2CD/2LP work gathered an all-star cast of 26 musicians (including Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Guthrie Govan, Mike Keneally, Gene Hoglan (Dethklok), Ray Hearne (Haken), Joe Travers, Nili Brosh, Mike Dawes, Janet Feder, and many more) to explore themes of ambition and loss, intentionality and reality, hope and disillusionment. It uses every second of its 18-song, 88-minute running order to tell an emotionally consuming and unforgettable musical story. Scenes From The Flood was hailed by multiple outlets as an instant classic: “A colossal artistic statement and a career triumph…one of the year’s most intriguing and staggering albums, it will for sure end in our 2019 best of lists.” (Scott Medina, Sonic Perspectives)
Before then, Beller released his debut solo album View in late 2003 to widespread acclaim, earning the monthly feature in Bass Player Magazine (“…it’s a thrill to witness an artist like Beller find his voice with such a self-assured debut…”). His second album Thanks In Advance (2008) garnered even more critical praise (“…a bonafide entry for bass album of the year” – Chris Jisi, Bass Player Magazine). Beller’s first live album Wednesday Night Live – a raw, powerful, intimate document of his 2010 touring lineup playing the world-famous Baked Potato in Los Angeles – was released in 2011 on both CD and DVD. His first instructional DVD, Mastering Tone And Versatility, was released by Alfred Publishing in early 2012, and he’s a featured artist on the instructional website Jamplay.com.
Beller’s additional sideman gig experience includes being Steve Vai’s choice for the 2009 live CD/DVD Where The Wild Things Are, a tour-de-force document of the six-piece Vai live band Beller anchored on bass in 2007. Beller also appears on several Steve Vai albums, notably Inviolate (2022), Real Illusions: Reflections (2005) and The Ultra-Zone (1999). He’s also toured with the “band” Dethklok, a tongue-in-cheek extreme metal band borne of the hit Cartoon Network “Adult Swim” show Metalocalypse; Beller’s tracked on the last two Dethklok releases (Dethalbum III; The Doomstar Requiem) and has joined the band for three nationwide tours to date, alongside metal monsters Mastodon and Machine Head, among others. And he’s been a musical partner of freak/genius guitarist Mike Keneally (Frank Zappa) for over 17 years and 10 albums.
Beller’s 16-year span as a freelance writer includes cover stories on bass luminaries such as Justin Chancellor (Tool), Christian McBride, Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse) and Chris Wolstenholme (Muse), as well as a landmark cover feature on the state of heavy metal bass involving ten different interviews. In 2010, Beller interviewed former Governor of Arkansas and 2008 Republican Presidential candidate (and part-time bassist) Mike Huckabee for Bass Player Magazine. He’s also interviewed a veritable who’s who of the modern bass world: Jonas Hellborg, Victor Wooten, John Patitucci, Lee Sklar, Neil Stubenhaus, Jay DeMarcus (Rascal Flatts), Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck, Nine Inch Nails), Bill Laswell, Jimmy Haslip, Stefan Lessard (Dave Matthews Band), Matt Garrison, Adam Nitti, Oteil Burbridge, Dave LaRue, Miroslav Vitous, Billy Sheehan, Emmy-award winning television scorer W.G. “Snuffy” Walden (The West Wing), and myriad others.
Beller’s earliest days on bass were as a Westfield, New Jersey pre-teen on upright in the school orchestra. It was short-lived, as he switched to electric at 13 to better play Rush, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Metallica 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 at Berklee College Of Music, Beller focused solely on bass, and eventually joined a blues-rock band called 100 Proof, which played originals mixed with blues and Allman Brothers covers in Boston’s dirtiest bars. Beller’s rootsy, earthy, groove-oriented approach (as opposed to some of the more shred-oriented players of the time) had found a welcome home – and the original lineup of the band went on to do interesting things: One (Dylan Altman) wrote a #1 hit song for Tim McGraw; another (Jon Skibic) served as the touring guitarist for The Eels and the Gigolo Aunts; and the other (Ben Sesar) ended up as Brad Paisley’s touring drummer for ten years and counting.
But it was when Beller met drummer (and Frank Zappa fanatic) Joe Travers at Berklee that his career first ventured onto its current path. Joe knew Mike Keneally, who was in Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa’s band Z. Eventually Joe moved to Los Angeles, joined that band, and got Beller an audition in 1993, which Beller won, thereby entering the world of Zappa-influenced and independently-minded musicians he still calls fellow travelers to this day.
As a pure player, a composer, a masterclass clinician (sponsored by Mike Lull Custom Basses, Gallien-Krueger Amplification and D’Addario Strings), a former Contributing Editor for Bass Player Magazine, and a former Vice-President of SWR Sound Corporation, Beller brings a holistic perspective to the world of bass, and music.
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SQUEEZE IT: Got a chance to see Ozone Squeeze at The Baked Potato in Los Angeles last night, featuring my Satriani tour mate Rai Thistlethwayte (shown here) on keys, vocals and key bass; the legendary Oz Noy on guitar; and Sara Niemietz on vocals, who I hadn't had the pleasure of hearing until last night. Fun, funky, jazzy, soul-drenched vibes and a great night out. They're hitting the road for a short US tour and I say 10/10, would recommend!
EDIT: How could I have forgotten Darren Stanley on drums? He was killing and grooving all night. My bad. I tried to tag him but there's a lot of Darren Stanley's out there!
Mon, MAR 20 Yoshi's Oakland CA
Tue, MAR 21 City Winery Chicago IL
Wed, MAR 22 Keystone Korner Baltimore MD
Thu, MAR 23 City Winery Philadelphia PA
Fri, MAR 24 Iridium New York City, NY
Sat, MAR 25 City Winery Boston MA
WHEN THREE’S NOT A CROWD: An especially rare joint appearance on my socials of Ellie’s Mom (aka Liz Teisan) and #nosocialmedia Joe Travers, house drummer for Ultimate Jam Night at The Whiskey A Go-Go on the Sunset Strip (the occasion that brought us together for the evening). It’s nice to be home, albeit ever so briefly.
I HEART D'ADDARIO: And so does Ellie, clearly. (She got so many snacks for participating in this photo shoot.) Touring is BACK, baby, and that means it's time to re-up on strings, straps, cables, and all of the things that make it possible for us to do what we do onstage night after night. I've been playing D'Addario and Co. strings for 25 years now, and they just keep on delivering for me. Plus these Planet Lock straps make strap lock hardware a thing of the past - a huge hassle just gone. I could go on and on, but why do that when Ellie took all of these impossibly cute photos?
Next up: Two months in Europe with Joe Satriani, followed by one month in the UK and select European countries with The Aristocrats. Europe, it's been too long. See you soon.
R.I.P. MICHAEL RHODES, THE BASS KING OF NASHVILLE: When I moved to Nashville in early 2006, Bass Player Magazine assigned their new Music City correspondent (a.k.a. me) an article on Michael Rhodes, with a Masterclass’s focus on a specific release. Michael chose what they call in local parlance an “artist’s album” (in other words, not designed to be a superstar vehicle mega-smash, but instead more artsy/rootsy) he’d recently completed, Randall Bramblett’s “No More Mr. Lucky”. And it was an absolute tour-de-force of bass magic in the first three songs alone. The pick-twanged line in “God Was in The Water” (I won’t tell you how he did it, just listen to it!) and the soft, floaty double-stop melody of “Lost Enough” was enough to say: This is a master at work.
As I learned more about him, I got that he was at the very very top of an incredibly competitive scene. His credit list was already ridiculous. Today it practically defies belief. All that, and he couldn’t have been more humble, sweet, down to earth, you name it.
We didn’t know each other “well” but we saw each other a few times during my 8 years in Nashville. I thought of him more recently as he’d been the live touring bassist for Joe Bonamassa, and I wondered if I might cross paths with him as I traveled with Joe Satriani at some point. I wish I had.
You really need to read this article in The Tennessean on the incredible list of artists he played with. And then go find that Randall Bramblett record and marvel at Michael Rhodes’ sublime artistry. Rest in peace, groove master.
www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/03/05/michael-rhodes-award-winning-hall-of-fame...
And here’s Michael’s unedited answer from the last question of our 2006 interview:
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BB: If someone said they wanted to play like Michael Rhodes, what advice would you give them?
MR: Oh, man, be careful, first of all! All kidding aside…you know, how do we get to where we are? It’s the sum of our entire experience up to that point in time. I’m self-taught, so a lot of the stuff that I do is stuff that I’ve had to figure out how to do it. And so consequently got way off the trail, initially, and then in that process discovered something that was maybe unique to me. It’s developing one’s own vocabulary. So that’s the esoteric part of it, I guess, that we – it’s really just, what do we hear, what do I hear, how do I like the bass to sound…it’s hard to get this down into a succinct thought.
I think it’s just about listening. I think it’s really about listening, and what’s absolutely essential.
I mean, practice is obvious. I think we’ve all spent a great deal of time along the way on the edge of the bed when we’re kids, and in my case it was learning while I was earning, because that’s just the way it worked out. Hell, I had a gig before I even owned a bass. It spoke to the paucity of bass players in West Monroe, Louisiana at the time, that nobody wanted to play bass. I did, but…
Bryan, I think it really is just about listening. It’s like, “What is the essence of the song? What can I bring to it? What does it need?” And I don’t want to butt in where I’m not wanted – sonically, or rhythmically, or anything like that. And always be willing to – for me, I’ll always acquiesce to someone who has an idea that…oh, man, yeah. Listening to this guy, he’s doing something…the drummer could be doing something…maybe even not intentional, but he’s screwing around with a little part in the song or something like that, and it’s like, “Oh yeah, OK.” And you start playing chase with an idea. Pretty soon, it becomes concrete. That, in a session situation, or any situation, you know? It’s that.
To play like me, just be open to all styles. God, there’s just so much good music out there, there’s so many good songs…and be willing to contribute. Or to not contribute. Be willing to not play very much.
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📸: Daniel Knighton
