Bent
Bent take musical shape
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By Michele Stefancic
The rock fairy tale of alternative rock band Bent started out innocently enough: a group of teen males perfecting cover songs in their garage, dreaming of becoming the next set of big rock icons. Reality and a love of performing took precedence and Bent started to take music seriously by writing their own material. Formed in 1991 in a small suburb 20 minutes away from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania called Washington, Bent was created by vocalist, bassist Casey Linden and drummer Bo Markley. Bent's line-up later solidified with the addition of Jason Kotz and John Interval on guitars and vocals. An independent outfit who sight Tool, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns N' Roses as their musical inspirations, Bent have been plugging away ! ! at their craft for a strong nine years. Bent shows no sings of slowing down either, "I can see Bent starting the long uphill climb to national recognition," continues Markley, of his goals for the band in the next year. Before the birth of Bent, the death of two other local bands had to occurr. Markley was in Drywater and Kotz was in Droan. Linden and Markley met at school while Interval was simply hired, fired and re-hired as the ever-changing guitarist. "We are thinking about hiring someone just to have around to quit or be fired so we don't have to go through the whole process again," says Kotz. "(John) came back and gave us a big kick in the ass to get ourselves moving." Asked to describe their sound, the duo offers a strange res! ! ponse. "Sean Connery meets Bill Murray," says Kotz. Markley adds, "Markley, Interval, Linden and Kotz. 'Milk'." Okay, that doesn't really clarify what Bent is though. Perhaps I should further expand. Listening to their 3-song demo, which they released on their own, Bent is equal parts alt rock, hard rock and a generally great listen. The outfit is tight; their lyrics are strong with conviction while leaving enough room for lateral advancement upward. For a bunch of 22 and 23 year olds, Bent pretty much has their shit together. Drawing musical influences ranging from jazz to rock to pop and anything in-between, Linden is responsible for writing most of the band's lyrics. Kotz has been known to kick out a few lyrical gems and the band writes their music as a collective unit. "The writing process is changing a little," says Kotz. "Before, Casey or I would come in with the basic structure for the song completely written. Now, we have the time to jam and work through ideas with the whole band." Kotz further explains this style of writing, "We have a new song called "The Orgasmic Pig," which is named after a particular guitar effect." "I busted out a little jazzy type riff and John put in this great melodic hook. Bo's funky-ass beat combined with Casey's driving groove produced a pretty nice song. At one time or another, most of us have come up with ideas while driving. The whole problem is remembering it when we can get to our instruments." It was his ! ! idols Slash and C.C. Deville that first moved Kotz to pick up the guitar at 15. He worked with a teacher learning how to play melodies and Guns N' Roses tracks on the sly. Markley admits he's addicted to his drum kit and performing at least once a day is a must for him. "Recently we made a schedule, we only had two days off a week, but I have an addiction to feed here. I'm very addicted to playing the drums, so I decided the two days Bent has off, I'll play the drums for my church's band," admits Markley. Building a name for yourself is perhaps one of the hardest aspects an independent band has to push through. Self-promotion is extremely important to Bent and they've taken the electronic route by building a web site (www.bentonline.com). "People can get a free listen to our music (on the site). Every once in a while we get random hits from across the world, you couldn't get that kind of exposure so easily in the pre-internet world," says Kotz. "Also, h! ! aving a guestbook helps us get feedback on what we need to do to put on a better show or put out better music." Logging onto their web site visitors can listen to tracks "Dirtball," "No Time" and my personal fave, "Somewhere In Between." Kotz breaks down the meaning of the songs in detail. ""Dirtball" came partially from my job at the local beer store. At least part of the song is about cheap beer and priorities. It's about where your values are in life when you buy a case of Jacob Best everyday instead of buying soap." Continues Kotz, "No Time" is Casey's brainchild. I think that it's pretty apparent what that! ! song is about when you listen to the chant during the bridge. "Somewhere In Between," on the other hand I have no clue about. I asked Casey before about the words and he was kind of evasive about it. I think that it's kind of a sensitive topic to him, that he would rather let the listener hear and come to his/her own conclusion." These three tracks also appear on Bent's demo. Markley remembers the experience of being in the recording studio. "The studio experience was the good part. If I were to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing. I learned a lot and if the process were to be altered, I may not have learned anything." The light-hearted side of Markley shines through when he explains the significance behind the band's name, which was chosen one day out of the blue. "(Casey) liked the sound of it and I liked the look of it. It's a small name and having only four characters in it, it cuts down on the price of advertising. The smaller the name, the bigger the affordable print. Plus I like to drink, so its right up my alley." All kidding aside Markley is serious about the prospects of Bent being signed to a major label. Markley says the band is looking fo! ! r support and would particularly like to be picked up by Sony/Epic or Geffen Records. Looking ahead to the not so distant future Markley says the band is always writing new material. "We're currently in discussion with an area promoters about the release of a 7-song EP. I can't really say too much about that because we're not really sure what's going to happen with that," Markley says. Ending our chat Markley decided to ask this Canadian native a burning question, "How about Canada? When can we stop by there (and perform)?" If I have anything to do with, Bent is more than welcome to spread their music around our fair country whenever they feel like visiting. Copyright 2001, BallBuster, The Official Int'l Underground Hard Music Report |
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"I think Casey, Jason and I stuck together mostly because we're the only three people from our hometown, in our age group with similar interests musically (speaking)," says Markley from his Washington, home. 
Bent also hits the streets taking the music right to the people. Whenever a major artist visits their area, Bent will hand out stickers and CDs to fans outside the venue. Markley runs a self-created entertainment company and promotes Bent through this venture. Day jobs add to the financial costs the band faces for promotion and recording.