Bent Left Band Interview

Bent Left, a political punk band from Missouri, visited Pennsylvania in January, as part of their tour promoting their recent release, “Rocket Surgery.” Learn a little about the band through this recent interview.

Can you briefly describe your band so that our Pennsylvania readers can get a feel for the band and your music?

WILLIAM: Bent Left is a political party punk band. Our band has built its foundation on promoting positive social action and awareness. We see no need for people to compete amongst themselves within a system that does not embrace a utilitarian approach. Five dollar words aside, we want everyone to question their situation and to take an intelligent approach toward their life and the lives of others. We hope people will work to achieve the greatest common ‘good’. The best way we have found to make everything good over the last 7 years involves large daily doses of intoxicants.

JOSH: The band is comprised of a three-fingered handful of anarcho-hippy punks who draw influence from the sociopolitical spectrum of the everyday existence. The songs are glorified musical interpretations of head-to-head battles between circular saws and dynamite.

This is your 5th tour in two years. Do you find that the tours become routine? Are there still a lot of surprises?

WILLIAM: This fun piece of trivia was unbeknown to me until I read this question. Tours all tend to jumble together as do the last two years. I do not think tour has become routine up to this point because we have all been enrolled in school in between stints on the road. College has a great way of making you forget everything you once loved about life. We’re graduated now and plan to be on tour until at least august.

There are always a lot of surprises but they have a tendency to become the same surprises; i.e. the van broke, where’s poof, cops lets roll, forgot my bass, no money, no people, wow…we got paid, where’s will, etc. The surprises keep it interesting.

JOSH: Tours are routine in the same way that trips to the dentist are. They always seem long overdue, the experience is a noisy medley of excitement and suffering, and you smile widely while simultaneously looking like you got the shit kicked out of you for a few days after your return. Your teeth are generally a lot cleaner after the dental visit, but I personally would much rather be on the road.

What’s different about this tour from the others you’ve done?

WILLIAM: This will be the first tour without a safety net. Through all of our previous tours we have had homes, jobs, and school to come back to. We are officially homeless right now, no jobs, and no more school. This one is also 4 times longer than anything we have ever done.

JOSH: This tour has no definite end. We’re dedicated to staying on the road through August, but the world is our oyster after that. We’ve always been committed to work or school or living situations, but we’ve turned our backs on all of that for the time being. This is our first real effort at turning our lives into our livings.

What can you tell us about the upcoming EP, “Pre-Meditated Insantiy?”

WILLIAM: We released it last summer and will be selling it at all our shows on this tour. We recorded the whole thing in about 24 hours of studio time over one weekend with our good friend Jason McEntire in St. Louis. It is an observation of the systemic from the individual and attempts to bring to light certain anomalies about the way we interact with the world around us and visa versa.

JOSH: “Premeditated Insanity” was released this past summer as the transitional precursor to our next full length “Rocket Surgery.” It’s was our first release after stripping down from a four-piece to a three-piece. We’ll be writing the new record while we’re on the road along with a possible acoustic EP to be released sometime on either side of it.

JOSH:

What influences your band and your music?

WILLIAM: Everything.

JOSH: There really isn’t anything that doesn’t influence us. The arms of ignorance and injustice are far-reaching in our world, and their touch soaks deep into the sponge of our lives. The music is simply a byproduct of our analysis of such.

What message(s) would you like to communicate through your band?

JOSH: We serve to encourage political and social action and awareness on an individual level to create a global impact. Ultimately, we want our listeners to enjoy themselves and in that enjoyment take interest in our message. The most we can really hope for is that we are inspiring people to think deeper about their lives than mere surface value.

Write by phanmemgoc