Hungry2Live
Hungry2Live
Ep.11 H2L. Cerebral Palsy and Rock And Roll Dreams Come True - Brandon Mendenhall
On today’s episode, Rachel speaks with Brandon Mendenhall. From a young age, Brandon was told he was not going to be able to do much. He was born with cerebral palsy. This affected his fine and gross motor skills. It also impacted his speech. Being bullied at school because he was different, Brandon began to feel depressed. He turned to music to help him cope. By picking up a guitar, he helped rehabilitate movement and his fingers. While no one in LA wanted to hire someone like him for their band, Brandon created his own, The Mendenhall Experiment. As you can imagine, the process of building a band around someone with cerebral palsy was not easy. There were moments of life and death. Drugs, rock-bottom and a suicide attempt. However, Brandon never gave up on his dream. And his band plays all over the United States. He has even shot an award winning documentary, with Munky from KORN. He has played on the same stages as, Def Leppard, Three Days Grace, Taking Back Sunday, The Pretty Reckless, and Seether. Brandon is an inspiration.
@sir_limps_alot
@tmxofficial
No, I don't
Speaker 2:Care,
Speaker 1:But they say I came here to stay
Speaker 2:Through the days. The must. It wasn't easy. Again. He never gave up cuz I, God God had Through the darkness through the tears, turn the lights off, never give a hell.
Speaker 3:Hi and welcome to another episode of hungry to live. My name is Rachel. This show is about human connection over stigma and taboos that we were told never to talk about today. I have a great guest. His name is Brandon Menden hall. If you are into music, I highly recommend checking him out. And here's Brandon to tell you a little bit about himself.
Speaker 4:So my name is Brandon Brandon, my hall and I play guitar in, um, a hog rock, heavy metal band called the menu hall experiment. The menu hall experiment is my liberal experiment to see if the guy with Sobral palsy can move halfway across the country from Chicago to LA form a band, and then elevate that band to a national level of success.
Speaker 3:All right. So in a nutshell, that was Brandon's story. Brandon has cerebral palsy. He moved across the country to start a band. It wasn't easy and he has been able to take this success of this band. He has formed and has been able to travel around. I know the United States around the world as well.
Speaker 4:Uh, yeah, the movie, uh, man matter actually took me to Moscow. Russia for four is before all this crazy stuff went down.
Speaker 3:<laugh> I'm glad before all this went down. So for the listener, I'm gonna have Brandon explain what is cerebral palsy?
Speaker 4:Uh, cerebral palsy is a neuromuscular disorder, um, and it reflects everybody, but has it a little bit differently? There's four technical type different types of Al palsy. Um, I'm not gonna get into that here cause it's medical jargon, but frankly I can't even pronounce, but, um, I will tell you about my, uh, cerebral palsy affects my left side. It affects, um, the way that I walk my gate, my speech and um, basically all motor function pertaining to the left side of my body. So think of me as like the Terminator half machine, half man, that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:It's a great analogy. So speaking of, of being the Terminator half machine, half, half man, half the time your machine is your guitar. So how do you play the guitar with a deficit in your mobility and how has that kind of shaped your identity? Not only in the band, but in your life?
Speaker 4:Well, the guitar and, and the, a story behind me learning to play the guitar. I was putting like the cornerstone of, of my entire story and my entire band. So when I first started to play the guitar, none of my fingers moved individually kind of moved like that. And like you can see, but my hand still likes to lock up and do like funky things. But once I put it on a Flipboard, I've got like a basis point, right. So it's a little easier. Um, but basically I can't do the funky cord shapes to tradition on chord. Like, you know, any standard guitar player would, would be able to do so that was a roadblock. Cause if you can't play chord, how can you play rhythm guitar? Right. So I try and I, and it wasn't working out for me and I didn't wanna give up. So I, I read the story about Keith Richard from about how in the sixties and seventies, when they were PO a lot. And he was all like being Keith of what I could call it. Uh, he's still using open tunings and, uh, he would play because guitar in a very unconventional way. Well, I could kind of took that concept and applied it to modern day with modern tunings. That would kind of be best for the style of music girl was trying to create. And then once I did that, but it's like the flood gets opened. It's like a, okay, now I can play. So now I can focus on being creative.
Speaker 3:So once you were able to figure out a way to actually play the guitar and have it be sustainable for the, um, having it be sustainable in order for you to play for long periods of time with having the, the mobility or lack of mobility in your fingers and hands, how did that kind of, as you said, open the flood gates, how did change what you were originally being told? Because I, I know a little bit about your story and how you were told at a young age, you weren't really gonna do much with your life and then you picked up guitar and that completely changed the trajectory of everything. So can you kind of give a little background of what it was like to hear words that may have not been the most uplifting from your family, but had created this fire in you to become what you are now?
Speaker 4:Uh, yeah. I, I mean, uh, guitar and like going through the whole process, you know, everybody kind of like, yeah, right. You're not gonna, this is just another thing, but you're not gonna see through and you're not gonna be successful. Right. Cause, cause like how could you, right? Like it, it was another of things like your body's not built for it. So just move on. Um, and nobody was really kind to me about it. My family included actually my grandfather was dead upset against it. Um, and he said some things to me that weren't, weren't very nice. He put me, I'd never become a guitar player and I shouldn't even try. And, uh, basically that he was annoyed by me knowing how the guitar and not sound that great. Cause when you're 18, 19 years old age, but I was at the time and never played an instrument, a stirring instrument before. It's not gonna sound that great. Right. So, and no one does it, it, the be doing some people do, I guess they're blessed with maximum talent and stuff, but I wasn't, every ounce of that I have, I've had to earn it the hard way
Speaker 3:And okay. So every ounce of talent that you have, and you have a lot, because I know from experience, I met you somewhere. Would you like to tell the listener where we met?
Speaker 4:We actually, we met a charity event for, um, I believe it was rocks United. Uh, it was a benefit to stop human trafficking officially in Los Angeles. And, uh, we performed at the event along with of the multi-platinum Grammy award winning band. Uh, Papa was the<inaudible> for the show and I believe we were direct support
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm<affirmative> so, as I like to tell this story, you guys opened, then Papa Roach came on and I turned and I was in the pit in the mosh pit and both you and your lead singer were there. And I was like, oh my gosh, you guys are amazing. And then I was like, I'm a special ed teacher. And then the next thing I know is you took my phone and you put my number in your phone and you're like, let's collaborate. And that was like the end of it.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yeah. I, I much remember like, because one of my goals is I, I, I wanna do public speaking and I very much want to work with high schools and colleges, um, and, and go around and like, you know, get to share my story with the kids in, in hopes of, uh, creating a whole new generation of people that not, not only are exclusive to those with disabilities, but hopefully a whole new generation of kick musicians, right?
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm<affirmative> Andre is a ton of child musicians and teenage musicians, and there's a growing number of, um, students with disabilities. So I appreciate what you do so much. And I definitely think that wherever and whenever you wanna speak, you, people need to know out there. And I love that I have you on the show so people can get to know you. And I know you've been on other shows and I also know that you have, um, a documentary called mind over matter. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 4:Uh, mind over matter is the documentary film based upon my life story at clinical clinicals, that journey of that young man forming a bag, um, in Los Angeles and then all of the, the accolades that we've gotten and the pitfalls that we've form fallen into. Um, and then, you know, it goes on to, to capture some of our most major successes. I don't wanna spoil the movie for the people that haven't seen it, but please go watch it. And it, you know, if you, if you not somehow inspired by the movie at the end of it, I just don't think you're living. You should check your full cause. There there's something in that, in that phone for everybody. And I can say that with confidence now, years later after so many awards have been given to it, so many people have come up, came up to me and given their testimony on what the film, how the film has impacted them.
Speaker 3:I'd have to say you are extremely humble. Just listening to you talk about it, knowing having seen the film, um, I know how great it is, but I also know that what, as you said, it has gotten some awards and during the whole awards, um, time period, when it came out there, that's how it was like at first advertised mind over matter, got this award at this film festival, this award at this film festival, but something that really struck me about it is even within that film and that documentary right now, you're talking and you're very humble, but you had a chance to have somebody in that, um, documentary who you looked up to as an artist and without giving too much away. Like, I think it's important that you talk a little bit about that because I think that there's some people who, while they hear your story, they might be like, okay, that's a really great story. I still I've been told. I've been, I've been hit so many times, I've fallen down so many times I'm gonna maybe get up, but no matter how many times you were torn down and the music industry and in and of itself, regardless if you have a disability is extremely challenging and can be heartbreaking and there can be a addiction and recovery and sobriety and then addiction again, and other, um, moments of depression and anxiety and not knowing if you made the right choice moving across the country. And I know that's all part of your story. And before we get into that, I just, I, I just have to say I'm just so I, I feel tongue tied because I just feel so humbled by you right now. Um, can you with, okay, maybe without saying who's in your documentary, can you say some of the bands you've played with,
Speaker 4:Well, well, I'll just go ahead and tell the, uh, I'll just tell the whole synopsis. Cause if you, if you read the cover of the, the film, there's a quote from, from monkey on the, on the cover of the film. So, um, basically we made the film and the one band and the one August in particular who inspired me to power through my disability and, and like form my own band was the band and, uh, monkey from corn and, uh, um, getting a little choke up thinking about it. But, uh, cause when you put it in terms like that, it's pretty, uh, it's pretty amazing. Right. But, um, so I got to work with monkey and, and we got from corn and they were a part of the film. Um, I actually got to go into the studio and write a song that's on a record of the power right now with, with monkey and, you know, a, a small, like nobody kid coming from the middle of nowhere, Illinois to move to LA, to meet all these people. And, and just for the fact of like, just to get to meet them and the point of very circle and then to take it all the way to the level of getting to work with them, uh, you know, I'm blessed and I know I'm blessed and I know that my story and my existence on this rock was many to be, and that is to help and inspire other people. Right. Because it stuff just doesn't happen to like people like this for no reason. Right. So, yeah, even though, so I got to work with corn, but before the film, um, in the last interview we dig together right before, um, the pandemic, it was literally right after COVID kind popped off. Um, we did a thing with some Mary records who actually released the film. Um, we did, it was almost like a, a Q and a outtakes interview after they did a screening of a film on YouTube. Um, in which case at the end of, of it monkey was like, yeah, you know, at this point, Brandon is like my little brother, so there you go. It, it all kinda fits together and, and, and harming that, like not only have I got to work with this person, my eye on my hero, now he is considered to be family I'm with that. And if I can do it, you can do it too. Cause I'm just a dude.
Speaker 3:You're just a dude who's humble. Who knows what his mission on this planet is. And you are definitely someone else's hero, just like, monkey's your hero. And I think it's so important that you keep telling your story. I, I do know that there's a little bit of your story that has to do with, um, addiction, the rock and roll life. Let's just say being a rock and roller yeah. And pulling yourself out of that. So can you just briefly talk about that?
Speaker 4:Well, I, uh, I moved there LA and I was interning at, uh, recording studio in Hollywood, one of the major ones. Um, and I was doing everything I possibly could to impress the owners of the studio to get hired on staff there. Cause that was my goal. That was my original goal was to, because I graduated music production school in Florida. So I both moved to LA to be a record, to take my knowledge from where I learned school. And I moved to LA get a job in a major studio and then just work at the studio and get a paycheck and make records and hopefully have a bunch of platinum records plaque with my name on it. That was, that was my dream. That was my goal is to make a living, making other people's records. Well, I came to LA, I got a, I got an internship in a major studio and I was doing everything I could to impress them. And so I would, I had a D job across the street. The studio was on Phil mark Boulevard. So I worked, looked at the target in west Hollywood and I would work the, the night shift. And I would sometimes I would work overnight when I would get up, get off of work in the morning and go to a studio and do my internship. And sometimes I would be there all the day and go back to work. So basically I was kind of living in the studio. There was a lounge above studio D where Michael Jackson recorded. Most of his hit records and studio D was kind of, uh, completely isolated situation. So you would walk into that studio, you had a kitchen, you had an lounge, you had, there was like, um, a dining area, a bathroom, a shower, everything. So aside from order food, he didn't have to leave that Enclos studio. So I was basically working, um, a day job in, at the studio, bouncing back and forth, basically there all the time. And eventually, you know, drinking monster and energy drinks, uh, you know, drinking color. And, uh, one of the one the, that work at studio kind of made a joke about doing cocaine. And I was like, I was just young and stupid and tired, and I was like, you got some and it just opened up Pandora's box. And before you knew it, we were doing it all of time. And just, I think I weighed, I think I weighed 120, probably 125 pounds. And like once I got into, I dropped like 98, 9900 pounds, maybe I was super skinny and, and just like at the studio all the time.
Speaker 3:Wow. How did you get yourself out of that place?
Speaker 4:I, um, I hit, I hit off bottom in a, in a couple ways like, uh, I didn't get hired at the studio you, because I couldn't drive a vehicle. Um, so I, I couldn't drive to do run errands and get coffee because like there's a hierarchy in, uh, a big cereal or at least it was, um, 15, 20 years ago when this, um, it was about 2004, so yeah, 15, 16 years ago, something like that. Um, so there was a hierarchy. So you were an intern, you were an assistant engineer and then like the main engineer, but the intern had to do all of the, the goer work. They had to get coffee, they had to get the food, they had to move the pro rigs. Um, cuz back then we had slogan rigs and work cases. So like if an August came in and they wanted, they would pick the gear that they wanted and then you would have to float the gear, um, from a storage unit into the, the appropriate studio, that kind of thing. And then once he made it to the assistant level, Vanue were actually in the rooms working on the record with the engineers and the artist producers, so on and so forth. So my goal was there was like a siling position where it was like a pro tools tech. So I would've been like the guy that calibrated the, the systems to the mixing console and set it all up for the sessions to come in. But, and I was like that close from getting it. And um, new management came in and they kind of did away with that position. So it bounced me back to like, oh, well you gotta be a runner. And um, I was like, I can't do that cause I can't drive. So eventually I got my go. Um, and that made me wanna do drugs even more. Um, because I went for, I think I was super, super depressed for like probably 18 months after that I went into this drug depression. Um, cause I was a kid. I was like 21 years old. And I, I, in my mind because of what they taught me from the school I went to, if like I was at the top, I, I was at the top, so where else can you go if you were only at top and you failed. And I, I couldn't live with that for forever for a long time. So I kept hanging out with the people at the studio and like there was a group of us, but we just hung out and we made music, but we really just did drugs<laugh> and it was just a bad, a bad scene, bad environment. So I did that for a while and, and then eventually I burned myself out. I, um, I hit left bottom. I realized the people around me, weren't actually real friends, which you don't have that a lot in LA. I, I told people now that like I have,<affirmative> a lot of associates. Like I know a lot of people, but I have a very small circle of friends because that's just the nature of the beast. Um, so I realized that people were my friends and then I was gonna quit music all together because it wasn't, it wasn't really lining up through me. I was doing background vocals in an industrial band at the time I played the whiskey and a few other clubs. So I got like my first performances out of the way, but nothing else that I was doing within my group of people or outside of, I think I, I tried to join other bands and I got the standard answers of like, what you mean? You can't play like, you know, injustice for all for Metallica or, you know, domination from Panther or, you know, insert any other comp looking metal song, you know, in the genre of the music I like to make. So that didn't work out for me either. And I was going to quit. That was kinda like the double bottom is that I realized my friends suck. They actually in my friends. And then the second half of my music career, wasn't working out. So like, I basically was so depressed, but like I wanted to quit music and just give up all my life. And I ended up, I took one of my guitars of gave it to monkey from corn and that's kind of how he en he entered the story was I gave him a guitar and I was like, we had a heart to hurt. And I was telling him that like, Hey man, I'm not doing good. I'm not, I, I didn't tell him. I was like on drugs. Cause I didn't have a hope to do that. Even though like, I know those guys wouldn't have judged me for that. I, I just told him, I was like, yo, you know, things aren't going right. Um, I don't think it's gonna work out for me. And he was like, well, if you can't like join a band, then make your own band, become your own boss, do it yourself. And I was like, what? And about it for a minute, like throughout the evening and the next week, or we'll have food. And then it clicked in my head, you know, he's right. I, I need to build a band around me at that point. I started bragging for the mental hall experiment along with distancing myself from all of those people. I literally like cut people out of my life and people, some of these people I've known for like a couple of them. I I've known from my childhood. So like, it was like, we were not cool at, at the moment, not through forever, but at the moment it was like, I cut people all my life. And um, I literally got another appointment across town. I went from living in Koreatown to living in Burbank. And then I, I got like the job at home Depot and, and basically like, I quit doing drugs, cold Turkey, and it wasn't easy. It sucked. But I think the hardest point for me was to not to cut those people outta your life. But if you really want to stop doing those kind of things, you have to cut out the people that are enabling you to do those things. Once, once the people were gone, the drugs were gone. Cause I was never that kind of person to like, just go and score from any random person<laugh> so I guess, and, and that would go, it was okay. But like, um, that's really how I got sober.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks for sharing. And it sounds like you did a lot of growing up, um, in your early twenties and then, and The beginning of your story with monkey kind of started, he was kind of like you're saving grace to say the least and he helped put your life into perspective. And I'm glad he did that because you wouldn't have been here to tell your story tonight, which leads me to this question. I ask my guests, what keeps you hungry to live
Speaker 4:Hungry to live? Probably, um, I think the thing that keeps me going with music and, and, and with life is, is that like, um, seeing what's next and, and seeing the, the smiling happy faces on people. When, when I get to share my story with someone and that impact it, it makes, you know, cause you never know, you never know what's gonna happen in your life from one minute to the next. So there's that. But then knowing that I, I built myself into this, uh, this person who is now a leader, a mentor, um, a focal point of inspiration for many people, um, you know, being able to continue to cultivate and share my story with people is kind of what keeps me am a game that keeps me doing it because music, music and my music business can become a very, very daunting kind of nasty environment. The music industry is not a kind place to be. Um, especially when you make it from where once you make it somewhere, there's a whole nother set of challenges to actually stay there. So kind of like, you know, the, the mountains to climb, just keep appearing on the horizon. So, um, you just gotta stay tune yourself and, and continue on your, your personal marathon as, as I'd like to call it. If I can borrow, um, some ideology from my favorite rapper MIPS hustle.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Can you share social media? So the listener can find you,
Speaker 4:Uh, social media is the mending hall experiment.com. Uh, the, uh, you'll find the front Instagram at TMX official, and then you can find, uh, you can find the film at, um, mind over matter film.com.
Speaker 3:Awesome. And you can find, um, hung to live at Hungary. The number two live.com and on instagram@hungarydotthenumbertwo.live. And I have written up poem about you, Brandon. So I'm going to, to read it mind over matter at times, chasing the mad Hatter down a rabbit hole, but couldn't jump because it was physical. His cerebral palsy, a disability affecting his mobility, his fingers, legs, and speech made things seem out of reach with music. He found an emotional outlet, a place he could create event, a physical rehabilitation playing the guitar with hand manipulation practiced hard, but the industry was tough. Became depressed, turned to alcohol and drugs. A suicide attempt did not leave him exempt. He followed his dreams. Sometimes his lead singer screams formed his own band has since played shows with many greats like sound garden, Def Leppard and taking back Sunday. Thank you so much, Brandon. And thank you for listening to hungry, to live
Speaker 5:In the right place in the, down on my luck there with dog days, how to switch it up, make it okay. So I gave up on a ride race learned from a pastor mass days. Still got town, never too late.
Speaker 1:No, I don't
Speaker 5:Care. But
Speaker 1:They say
Speaker 5:I came
Speaker 1:Here to stay
Speaker 5:Through
Speaker 2:The days the masteries. It wasn't easy again. He never gave up Kaza. God God have Through the darkness, through the tears, turn the lights off face. The fear never gave up.
Speaker 1:I.
