Birth name Matthew Woods Brody Years active 1991–present Education Pomona College Instruments various Role Musician | Genres Experimental Name Max Brody Origin Austin, Texas, U.S. Labels Sanctuary
Warner | |
 | ||
Music groups Ministry (2003 – 2004), Pink Anvil, Areola 51 Albums Houses of the Mole, Animositisomina, Side Trax, Early Trax, Twitched | ||
Max Brody: California
Max Brody (born Matthew Woods Brody, 1969) is an American musician based outside of Seattle, Washington, best known as the one-time percussionist/saxophonist for the hard rock band Ministry.
Contents
Personal life
Brody was born in the town of Elgin, Illinois and was raised there until the age of five, when his family relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona. Brody started playing clarinet in the second grade, switching to saxophone as soon as he could reasonably hold one. By high school, he and his brother, Doug, were writing and recording jazzy, ambient, "new age" songs under the moniker "Mosaic" at their parents', house which resulted in a series of recordings that were released in the mid- to late 1980s on the Invincible label out of Phoenix, Arizona. The two also made appearances on albums by other artists on that label. Brody later taught himself to play drums.
After his graduation from high school in 1987, Brody moved to Claremont, California and graduated from Pomona College in 1991. Bouncing back and forth from Los Angeles to Seattle, he eventually settled on Austin, where his favorite bands came from.
He met his wife, Sherry, on the set of A.I.; she was an extra in the film. They married in 2004, in Arizona. They have one child together named Isabella. Divorced in 2010, he now has full custody of his daughter and lives in Washington state.
Career
After graduating college, Brody moved to Seattle, Washington and played in various local rock bands. Finding the Seattle scene saturated, he moved to Austin, Texas in 1993. There, he met and became musical partners with Rey Washam, drummer for such seminal punk/hardcore acts as Rapeman, Scratch Acid and the Big Boys. They went on to form the short-lived Euripedes Pants, which featured a number of infamous Austin musicians. Washam later went on to drum for Ministry.
In the late spring of 1999, Brody received a call from Ministry co-performer Paul Barker, who offered the opportunity to perform saxophone parts during their ill-fated Dark Side of the Spoon tour. He later went on to perform one-half of the drum duties for their 2003 Animositisomina tour and album, as well as their follow-up Houses of the Molé.
He also appeared as the drummer for the "Flesh Fair Band" (a.k.a. Ministry) in the Kubrick/Spielburg (2001) film A.I..
Brody continues to work with fellow Austin musicians like Brett Bradford (Scratch Acid), Jeff Pinkus (Butthole Surfers), Jason Craig (Pocket FishRmen), Jimbo Yongue (Daddy Longhead), Randy Turner (Big Boys), Paul Barker (Ministry), Mike Scaccia (Ministry) Danny Barnes (Bad Livers), and John Hawkins (Crust), as well as New York musicians Victor Poison-tete (Rat At Rat R), Stu Spasm (Lubricated Goat), Italian conceptual artist Daniele Santaguiliana (Testing Vault) and L.A. music supervisor Jeff Kinart, in many different music projects.
Having learned a great deal about production during his years in Ministry, he has now begun to produce records and events on his own, and started a multimedia company called "Darkstack" with Austin visual artist D Kithcart. As of 2012, he had moved to Shoreline, Washington with his daughter. In 2013 he started a band with Danny Barnes (formerly of the Bad Livers) called the Test Apes. He has also released several solo efforts.