RockMoto

We just interviewed Jay Bentley from Bad Religion!! One of the most influential bands of my formative years – the music I listened to in late junior high and high school, when I changed from nerdy misfit to snippy little alterna-teen. (Doc Martens and all.) I railed at school board meetings, I hung Barbie dolls in nooses along school hallways, and I wrote about social ills like greed and hippies. I really wanted to change something in the world, or at least make it clear that I wouldn't be counted among the docile masses.

So what made Bad Religion stand out wasn’t just that the music was good, it was that the lyrics were amazing. Intellectual, defiant and also self-aware, which unlike some lesser hardcore bands kept things from getting preachy. I respected that, a band that knew you truly had to think for yourself. At the time, I was going to local shows where bands screamed the same tired slogans over and over. Meanwhile, Greg Graffin was singing stuff like this, from “No Direction” on Generator:

Everyone is looking for something
and they assume somebody else knows what it is
No one can live with the decisions of their own
it seems so they look to someone else
to tell 'em what to be
tell 'em what to wear
tell 'em what to say
tell 'em how to act and think and compel others compulsively
until the world is all like them.

A righteous student came and asked me to reflect
He judged my lifestyle was politically incorrect
I don't believe in self important folks who preach
No Bad Religion song can make your life complete
Prepare for rejection you'll get no direction from me

That was 1992, by the way. Have things really changed? Anyway, I deal with a lot of celebrities as part of my job, and I’ve never geeked out on anyone. But the moment Jay Bentley stepped into Westbeach Recorders, my stomach leaped into my throat. I don’t know how to explain it, but I felt ever so slightly awed. Maybe because his personality and his presence are kind of larger than life, even though he’d be the last person to acknowledge it. Maybe because his band is legit, longtime punk rock legend. Possibly because I’d just swallowed a huge chunk of frosted donut, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t have anything to do with food.

As it turned out, Jay was hilarious and a good storyteller, and has one of the greatest laughs I've heard in a long time. This was one of the best interviews I’ve ever done. Also very real. There’s no difference between Jay on-camera and Jay off-camera, which isn’t always the case with high-profile people. I think a lot of it is simply his personality, but I’m guessing that 28 years in an incredibly influential band without mainstream commercial success keeps you grounded. Along with all the things that get thrown at you onstage.

Speaking of which, my co-captain here at RockMoto is one of the most grounded and most genuine musicians I know – even though there’s a lot he could brag about. For those of you who haven’t put it together before, RockMoto’s own illustrious video editor, Pete Finestone, used to be the drummer for Bad Religion. Pete was with the band on their first album, How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, then on Suffer, No Control, and Against the Grain, which together include the majority of Bad Religion’s most critically acclaimed work. He’s played with a number of other bands and even had his own label in the late ’90s. He's currently playing with Evil Maria. He taught literature briefly in England and helped edit a feature film.

He is a kick-ass video editor and a good friend.

Finally, one last tidbit from the day: the studio where we shot the interview, Westbeach Recorders (http://www.westbeachrecorders.com), is also the same studio where Bad Religion recorded all the albums from Suffer through Recipe for Hate. Westbeach has worked with Blink 182, NOFX, The Offspring, Rancid and a ton of other great punk bands, and when I say worked with, I mean produced gold records for. And guess what? They ride! We’ll be shooting another episode at the studio in the near future. Oh, and check out their MySpace page for more photos from our shoot today.

Stay tuned for our interview with Jay, which promises to be funny and only mildly offensive. Depending on how much we cut. And when you get a chance, put some Bad Religion on your playlist and ponder the state of the world…and whether you want to do anything about it. JP