Musician-turned-filmmaker recalls edgy Dayton band in documentary
As a teenager in Dayton in the 1990s, Eric Mahoney wanted to make a name for himself as a musician.
“That was absolutely what I wanted to do,” Mahoney said. “That was where my head and heart was for a long, long time.”
The adolescent came of age in a fortuitous time and place: The Dayton music scene was on the rise thanks to groups such as the Breeders and Guided by Voices — as well as one of Mahoney’s favorites, Brainiac.
“Brainiac was thought to be the most creative, inspiring, hip, cool kind of band that was happening,” he said.
Mahoney ultimately focused his artistic ambitions on filmmaking, but as the director of a new documentary about Brainiac, he recently had the opportunity to return to his roots.
“Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero” will screen Friday and Saturday at Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts. Mahoney, who graduated from OSU in 2003, will introduce both shows.
“I’m really flattered to be able to do it,” said Mahoney, a 41-year-old resident of Brooklyn. “I took film classes in that room, and I sat in that room a lot and thought about my future as an artist or potentially making films one day.”
Even after he relocated to the East Coast, Mahoney retained a soft spot for Brainiac.
“Underneath all of the noise and experimentation and vocal effects and distortion were beautifully crafted pop songs,” he said. “They were just supercreative. They dressed really uniquely. Their artwork was unique. Everything about them as a collective was very well-curated and interesting.”
In 2016, after producing an acclaimed anthology film called “Madly,” Mahoney realized that the following year would be the 20th anniversary of the death of Brainiac front man Tim Taylor, who, with the band
The band Brainiac — from left, Juan Monasterio, Tyler Trent, Tim Taylor and John Schmersal — is the subject of the movie “Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero” What: “Brainiac: Transmissions After Zero”
Where: Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N. High St.
Contact: 614-292-3535, www.wexarts.org
Showtimes: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday; director Eric Mahoney will introduce both screenings
Tickets: $10, or $8 for students, senior citizens and Wexner Center members
knocking on the door of stardom, perished in a car crash in 1997.
“Also, that year would be 25 years since the band’s first album came out,” Mahoney said. “Those were two interesting anniversary dates, and (I) thought, ‘Well,
maybe enough time has passed here where this is a good place to revisit it.’”
Mahoney, who raised money for the film using Kickstarter, set about securing interviews with the surviving members of the band, which dissolved after the death of Taylor.
From his youth in Dayton, the filmmaker knew original guitarist Michelle Bodine.
“Her brother, Scott, actually initially gave me guitar lessons, and I ended up being in a band with him for many years,” said Mahoney, who had also met the band’s subsequent guitarist John Schmersal. Bodine and Schmersal — plus bassist Juan Monasterio and drummer Tyler Trent — all are interviewed in the documentary.
Mahoney wanted to make a film that would have appeal beyond Brainiac fans.
“This story is so much bigger than that, and it actually is a very almost Shakespearean tragedy,” he said.
The film — which received its premiere at the 2019 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas — is without a distributor, but so far, audiences are responding, even if they didn’t grow up with the music, as Mahoney did.
“We have people come up to us at all these things (who say), ‘My girlfriend or my boyfriend brought me to this, and I have no idea who these guys are, but I love the movie,’” Mahoney said.