Brian McTernan


Brian McTernan is an American musician and record producer from Baltimore. As a musician, McTernan was the lead vocalist for the hardcore punk band Battery, guitar player for Ashes, and is currently the singer for Be Well.
McTernan operates a studio called Salad Days in Baltimore, named after the Minor Threat song of the same name, and has produced albums for a number of notable artists, including Thrice, Circa Survive, Turnstile, and Hot Water Music. He was voted one of the 50 most influential people in Maryland by The Daily Record.

Early life

McTernan was born in Bethesda, Maryland. Brian had a troubled youth, which he addressed on Battery's 2017 song "My Last Breath". He dropped out of high-school at the age on 17 to tour with Battery.
He comes from a family with many hardcore punk music ties. His brother, Mike McTernan, is the singer for Damnation A.D. and When Tigers Fight. His brother Peter played drums for Good Clean Fun for a short period of time.. Brian started attending punk and hardcore shows in the DC area when he was ten years old.

Musician

McTernan joined Ken Olden, Matt Squire, Toshi Yano and Zac Eller to form Battery in 1990. Originally called "Fury", the band released its first record in 1991 on Deadlock Records. The band broke up in 1998 but reunited briefly in 2012. In 2017, the band reunited for good, releasing a new compilation, For The Rejected By The Rejected, and embarked on a tour of Europe.
McTernan was also a songwriter and guitar player for the rock band Miltown, which was signed to Warner Brothers. Miltown broke up in the studio before the first album was completed.

Producer

In 1994, McTernan moved to Boston to be near his future wife who studied at Harvard University. He started his recording studio "Salad Days", when he was 18 years old, naming it after a song by Minor Threat from their 1985 Salad Days EP, in the basement of the house he shared with six roommates. The first recording produced by McTernan was the eponymous 1995 EP by the New York City based post-hardcore band Texas Is the Reason for Revelation Records.
McTernan went on to build Salad Days to be a legendary studio. He attracted artists from around the world, who traveled to Baltimore to work with him. Brian is also widely known as a mentor, who helped producers such as Matt Squire and Paul Leavitt launch their production careers.

Recordings