Bucketheadland Heroes: Dan Monti 'Brewer'

Good evening everybody, whilst it's easy to look at guitar hero Buckethead and think it's a one man show. There's been many mechanics who've worked at Bucketheadland over the last 3 decades, assuring that the park continues to thrive. And today, we're taking an in-depth look at one of it's lead mechanics, Dan Monti. So, let's begin. Woo!!

Throughout the 1990's during the early years of Buckethead's career, the vast majority of album releases were recorded by legendary producer, bassist and Praxis founder Bill Laswell.

Then in the early 2000's when Buckethead began working on an album for one of Laswell's frequently used record labels, ION records. He formed a partnership with a then teenage music engineer working at the famous Village Studios in LA, by the name of Dan Monti, also known as Brewer. And that album was 'Bucketheadland 2'.

Mixed, engineered, programmed, co-produced and co-written by Dan, the album marked a clear shift in direction by Buckethead from previous albums, opting for a more heavier, chunkier, sound.

For the next several years, the duo would follow up Bucketheadland 2 with numerous heavy riff driven albums such as 'The Island of Lost Minds' 'Inbred Mountain' 'Pepper's Ghost' 'The Elephant Man's Alarm Clock' and 'The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell'. All of which were co-written by Dan, who also provided the drums and bass tracks for several of the albums and had a track named after him along with his brother Bill Monti aka 'The Towel'.

(Brewer in the Air/ Towel in the Kitchen. 'Pepper's Ghost' 2007)
(Uncle Bubbles Inspired by Towel's Dad. Pike 144: 'Scream Sundae' 2015)

In 2005, Buckethead began working on his 14th solo album 'Enter the Chicken'. To promote the album Dan joined Buckethead for his 2005 'Disneyworld to Disney Land' tour, providing the bass.

For the making of the album, Buckethead reconnected with System of a Down's Serj Tankian, who Buckethead met in 1999 during the Ozzfest tour.
Serj co-produced the album along with Dan, and the two formed an immediate friendship.

(Dan Monti/Serj Tankian Interview, 2011)
Interviewer - How Did you and Dan start working together?

Serj – I'll give this question to Dan to answer.

Dan – We met through a mutual friend. An artist named Buckethead. He's one of the most ridiculous guitar players on the planet but a great guy. An Serj was producing and releasing a Buckethead album. So Buckethead brought me along to co-produce and engineer. And that's how we met. It was awesome!

Serj -Awesome. Great album. Loved making that album.

Dan & Serj would go on to form the band F.C.C, The Flying Cunts of Chaos. What a name. With Dan providing lead guitar and vocals, co-producing and engineering on several of their releases, as well going on numerous tours with the band.

Throughout this time Dan continued to co-write & produce albums with Buckethead, including 'Albino Slug' 'A Real Diamond in the Rough' 'Shadows Between the Sky' 'Captain EO's Voyage' and more. As well as working on several other projects, editing and mixing for the likes of 'Guns N' Roses' 'Metallica' 'Slayer' & 'Black Sabbath'.

Then in 2011 after another handful of live shows together, Buckethead & Dan began the monumental Pike album series.
A self-released series of albums that currently stands at almost 300 albums deep, with almost every single album co-produced & co-written by Dan, as well as providing all of the drum tracks, be it live or programmed, and many of the bass melodies throughout the series.
So it's more than fair to say that without Dan Monti, there would more than likely be no Pike albums.

(Bryan 'Brain' Mantia talks about Dan Monti with Natternet, 2018)

Brain- Dan Monti is the greatest. He's kind of the master of everything! He can engineer, play bass, guitar, drums. I don't think there's anything he can't do in music. He sings too. And if there's any technical question I have I'll call him up and he'll figure it out. Yeah he knows everything!

To say that Dan Monti has played a pivotal part in Buckethead's career over the last 2 decades would be a huge understatement. What started with Bucketheadland 2 in 2003, has now reached over 300 albums together and formed one of the greatest and most prolific musical partnerships in history.
And they show no signs of slowing down.

So, for what you've done in Bucketheadland, Dan 'Brewer' Monti; Thank You. A real Bucketheadland Hero.