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born december 9, 1968 in knoxville, tennessee
moved to LA when he was 18
currently playing guitar in weezer and about to embark on their 'enlightenment tour', in support of their fourth album maladroit. weezers fifth album might include songs written and sung by brian. (i.e. "yellow camaro", "nice to meet you" and "birthday booty")
brian saw elvis presley at the age of four and knew that music is was what he wanted to do. brian began studying guitar picking from tv programs such as "the barneyloo and buster show" and "hee haw," using the ukelele that his grandma had won at a bingo game. at age fourteen he went for the guitar plunge. "My mom assumed that a guitar meant long hair, rock 'n' roll, and drugs," bell said. "But she said it was OK if I bought the guitar with my own money. So I sold my Atari when I was 14 to my uncle for his kids [guitar] - all my cartridges and everything. I thought to myself, 'It's time to get serious. I'm not a kid anymore.' So that's what I did."
fueling his interest in music, brian's dad, an english professor and ex-college dj, had a bunch of 45's from the 50's and 60's that brian got a hold of. he managed to wear out his fathers valuable records on his first record player, a fisher price lo-fi stereo system.
according to brian tennessee's music scene was "really a dead music scene, except that since it was such a small music scene, everybody knew everybody. i was hanging out with people who were my friend's brother's friends, who were about four years older than me, and were out of their mind crazy. that's because the scene was so small and anyone that was into punk music, skateboarding or anything out of the ordinary would come to these parties. you couldn't really select (your friends). it was like, "i know these people are bad, but i'm forced to hang out with them because there's nobody else that's interesting in this town." i had a lot of wild times. i saw a lot of good bands: dead kennedys, circle jerks, scream, black flag; all those bands came through. it was wild at the time, but then i realized for myself that to join a band there was kind of pointless because nobody had the dreams that i had, the same visions.
music was his first priority, but baseball was right behind it. "my first dream was to be rock star; my second dream was to be a professional baseball player. I gave it up in high school; it wasn't cool to play sports," brian admits.
brian moved to LA in 1986 in an atempt to fulfill his dream of being a musician. after three years of perfecting his guitar skills, he joined carnival art at the age of 21, and oddly, playing bass. carnival art released two albums under the label beggars banquet, and has been described as "twisted, heavy, guitar driven psycho pop, exploring the inner difficulties of life in the big city with a sick mind." the extent to their fame was the airing of the video for "mr. blue veins" on an episode of beavis and butthead in 1994. pretty cool, i think.
brian got involved in weezer after attending a show in a small LA club in 1993. "the show didn't totally rock my world," he said. "but the songs stuck in my head, and i kept singing them. i was with another band [carnival art], and i thought it'd be kind of fun for us to do a show with them, so i gave rivers my phone number." rivers called brian several months later, but not to schedule a gig. weezers original guitarist, jason cropper, had left and they needed a replacement. brian apparently was the right man for the job, and is now in the weezer family. together they have recorded four albums, and are currently working on album # 5, in which brian is finally able to incorporate his songwriting. "yellow camaro", "nice to meet you", and "birthday "booty" are the first of his songs to be a possibility for the album.
rewinding the tape back to 1993, brian also started a band with his then-girlfriend, susan fox. this band is what its all about. "it was meant to be nothing more than a cute project...something where we would play children's birthday parties," said bell. "we had monikers; i was 'space helmet' and she was 'moon boot' and we wrote crazy wacky songs about snufulufugus and bo peep counting sheep. we made our own antennas out of headbands and wire and styrofoam balls with glitter, and i would wear a blue star trek looking shirt at the gigs." yep, 1993 was also the birth of the space twins.
"there's always the 'what ifs..' what if spacetwins take off and it starts demanding more of your time. that would be the best thing in the world. a lot of times you get things that you don't want, but that's not what i'm looking for in space twins. i want the other guys in the space twins to experience success and actually be able to make a living doing music, but i don't want to have to make sacrifices to get there. the radio these days is just so lame that we probably wont get played and that's all right," brian explains.
so that's where we end up: brian is in the space twins, in weezer, touring with weezer, writing great songs and hopefully recording an album with the space twins soon.
here's something to think about:
Is being popular necessarily bad?
brian - "it has its negatives, sure. dealing with fans can be difficult. sometimes it can be rewarding, you can meet some great people. people treat you as an object, someone that they feel free reign to grab at, stick little pieces of paper in your face and say, "sign this, sign this!" it's so overwhelming. i've been extremely shy most of my life, and only recently have i been able to break out.
the business side really gets me down; that's something I've never thought of before. just remember where you come from, and keep yourself grounded. don't forget your friends. when all this is gone, it's more important to have friends than it is to have a million fans.