After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1993,
Bryan Beller's first big gig was with
Ahmet and
Dweezil Zappa's band
Z, which is where he first met
Mike Keneally. In 1996, after two albums and a tour,
Keneally decided to leave
Z for a solo career and
Beller decided to stick with
Keneally, beginning a musical partnership that's still going strong.
Beller has also played and/or recorded with
Wayne Kramer (
MC5),
Dream Theater's
James LaBrie,
Steve Vai and
Joe Satriani.
Beller appears on several
Vai albums, and was asked to be bassist for
Vai's 2004 shows with the prestigious
Metropole Orchestra (their performance of "Lotus Feet" was nominated for a 2005 Grammy). In 2002,
Beller began work on
View, his debut as a leader. Financed, composed, and produced by
Beller, the critically praised
View was released on his own Onion Boy label in the fall of 2003.
A 2007 tour in
Steve Vai's band was documented on
Vai's 2009 release, Where the Wild Things Are.
Beller's second album,
Thanks in Advance, came out in between in 2008, followed by the live document Wednesday Night Live in 2011. Also in 2011,
Beller formed
The Aristocrats, a modern day power trio, with
Guthrie Govan on guitar and
Marco Minnemann on drums. He also performed and toured with Dethklok, the band from Adult Swim's show Metalocalypse.
He's been
Joe Satriani's touring bassist since 2013, playing on Shockwave Supernova and logging several world tours with
Satriani.
Beller is also a freelance writer and educator whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including a long-running column in Bass Player magazine. He's interviewed many heavyweight bass players like Lee Sklar,
Neil Stubenhaus,
Billy Sheehan,
Bill Laswell and
Miroslav Vitous.
In 2019, The Aristocrats released their fifth album,
You Know What? Later that year,
Beller released
Scenes from the Flood, which featured noted players like
Joe Satriani,
John Petrucci,
Guthrie Govan, and
Mike Keneally. ~ Sean Westergaard