Bassist and producer Paul Bryan is best known for his long-standing collaboration with Aimee Mann, but as a solo artist, he has branched out in a more experimental, jazz-based direction. Bryan first established himself as a bassist for musicians like Carol Noonan in the 1990s. In 1999, he became the bassist and bandleader for Mann, eventually also producing her albums, including her Grammy-winning 2017 effort Mental Illness. As a musician and producer, Bryan worked with performers like Tanita Tikaram, Susanna Hoffs, Amy Correia and Grant Lee Phillips as well, but he also pursued work with more out-of-the-box artists like guitarist Jeff Parker or saxophonist Josh Johnson. Bryan's own 2020 album Cri$el Gems featured an improv group which included Parker, and two years later, he recorded an ambient trio album entitled A Better Ghost. In 2024, he presented his next solo album Western Electric, recorded as a trio with Josh Johnson and drummer Jay Bellerose. Paul Bryan was born in April 1967 in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, California, and started recording as a bassist and multi-instrumentalist with artists such as singer/songwriters Carol Noonan and Catie Curtis or guitarist Duke Levine in the Nineties. Starting in 1999, he became Aimee Mann's bassist and bandleader, touring with her and then appearing on the concert album Live at St. Ann's Warehouse (2004) and the studio album The Forgotten Arm (2005). He then became Mann's producer, overseeing the albums One More Drifter in the Snow (2006), @#%&*! Smilers (2008), Charmer (2012), Mental Illness (2017) and Queens of the Summer Hotel (2021) as well as Mann's one-off duo project with Ted Leo, The Both. His work on Mental Illness won a Grammy Award for "Best Folk Record". While he had released a song-based solo album in 2003, Handcuff King, Bryan focused on his career as a collaborator. Besides his work with Mann, Bryan also recorded with musicians like Norah Jones, Martha Wainwright, Susan Tedeschi, Bettye LaVette, Peter Wolf and Jewel, and produced albums by Grant Lee Phillips (Little Moon, 2009), Tanita Tikaram (Can't Go Back, 2012), Glen Phillips (Swallowed by the New, 2016) and Susanna Hoffs (Bright Lights, 2021). He also toured with Lucinda Williams in 2006, Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint in 2007 and Rufus Wainwright in 2018 and 2019. Starting in the mid-2010s, Bryan moved into a more improvisational, genre-bending direction as well. He produced records by guitarist Jeff Parker (The New Breed, 2016, and Suite for Max Brown, 2020) and toured with him in 2017 and 2018, and he also produced albums by saxophonist Josh Johnson (Freedom Exercise, 2020) and drummer Jeremy Cunningham (The Weather Up There, 2020). As a bandleader, Bryan and Parker put together a groove-oriented improv group for a weekly residency at LA jazz venue ETA, recording the 2020 album Cri$el Gems with them. Two years later, Bryan released an album with Cunningham and saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi called A Better Ghost. In 2024, Bryan presented his next album as a leader: Western Electric, a trio recording with Josh Johnson and drummer Jay Bellrose. ~ Christian Genzel, Rovi