THE GOOD WORD…ON BAD RELIGION
QnA with Sean Delanty and BR’s Jay Bentley.

There shouldn’t be a need for an introduction for a band that has been together and busy for 27 years. The cool thing about Bad Religion is that they gain new fans daily. Not to mention the impact they have had on American punk rock as we know it. Shit, I would say Bad Religion pioneered American punk rock, however founding member and Bad Religion bass player Jay Bentley would modestly disagree. “We were sick of getting beat up” Bentley explained to me when I asked about the early history of BR. Jay has to be one of the coolest, laid back people I have had the pleasure of interviewing for Smash. We could have chatted for hours but he lives in Vancouver, Canada and that would be one hell of a cell bill for me.

SM – What is BR up to right now?
JB – I’m at home in Vancouver, everyone else is at their homes. It’s pretty much a waiting game for us. I just got off the phone with someone at Warped Tour.
SM – This is your 4th year on the tour. Are you excited? How has it changed since the beginning?
JB – This thing has gotten huge. There is no way anyone could have anticipated how big it was going to get. I mean its hard to explain, its just so bizarre the path its taken. It was such a low key kind of thing at first then all of sudden this new music started blowing up.
SM – What is your favorite city to hit on the Warped Tour?
JB – The show in New York at Darian Lake is cool. Its right on a lake next to an amusement park. The one they had in Vegas on July 4th was great too. We had the next day off. It was just a great vibe with the fireworks going off.
SM – You like Vegas?
JB - Vegas is probably my favorite city on the planet. I love going out there. Its always a good time. It’s the one place where there is always something to do. When we would play at the Huntridge and I would always get stuck with to many things to do. The Punk Rock Bowling Tournament is always a good time. Too bad we sucked last time.
SM – You remember the Huntridge? That was the best place.
JB – I loved that place. It was a beautiful venue and a lot of fun to play. I remember playing a VFW hall in Vegas also. It’s a shame the Huntridge is gone. We will always have those great moments. What a great vibe that place had.
SM - Now about the new record, New Maps Of Hell. What direction has BR taken with it? Is it politically driven?
JB – Not as much as The Empire Strikes 1st. The songs here are more about asking for forgiveness but not deserving it. We are more social political. I mean this administration is fucked. This is pretty scary moment in time for America. Someone is going to have a pretty big mess to clean up. I was watching something on the news when John Edwards was asked what he would do in the 1st 100 days if he became president. He said he would go around the world and apologize.

Bad Religion got they’re start playing at friends parties and backyards in the San Fernando Valley. They have watched the genre of punk go through its changes over the years and seen the birth of the internet as a main source of how a lot of people obtain their music. They aren’t concerned about it at all. In fact Jay embraces it as a way to have more choices on what you listen to.

SM – How do you feel about the music industry as far as iTunes and other online outlets to obtain music? Do you think its hurting the industry?
JB – It is changing it a lot. It’s not a bad thing or a good thing. I remember when I was 16 reading a review from a respected music critic before I would buy a record. That’s how a lot of us got our music. Now it’s so easy to sample before you buy. Sites like Myspace are great for musicians. It’s a fast easy way to get you music out there and heard. Shit, getting 99 cents per song is better than zero. The record labels that are fighting iTunes are pretty much hitting their heads into a brick wall. They should just embrace it. This is reality, it’s not ideal. The days of people making money on records are over.
SM – What are you listening to these days?
JB – Ive been listening to a band called The Gallows. They’re on Brett’s label, (Epitaph) amazing band. I’ve also been listening to The Artic Monkeys also. The one cd stuck in my cd player is the new Bouncing Souls. It’s amazing and very cool to see my friends have such a good record.
SM – What do you think about a lot of the newer punk stuff out now?
JB – Its good but at the same time very over produced. I mean I will love a record then see the band play live and they don’t come close to what’s recorded on the record. I wish people would go back to the basics of the live show. People just don’t play music anymore.

My friend Matt is a huge Bad Religion fan. When I told him I was doing this interview he shit himself. I was in a bit of a dilemma on what I should ask them seeing he knew a lot more about them then I did. While I was working on what questions to ask I sent Matt a text late one night asking him if he had one question he could ask Bad Religion what would it be. This is what he sent me back.

Matt – You’ve created your own genre, toured the world 100 times, made a living from music. What’s next for Bad Religion?
JB – There is no next really. For 27 years we don’t really think about the future. It’s all day to day for us. That’s just how we have always done things. I mean it’s really just a great hobby gone completely crazy. I don’t really know but I’m excited to find out.
SM – That should be something a lot of bands live by.
JB – Exactly, I mean it’s worked for us so far. Of course we had our moments of ego and occasional fist fights but we would discuss it and get over it. You really got to love why you do this.
SM – Is Bad Religion self supportive as far as having management?
JB – Yeah we pretty much self manage ourselves. We have a booking agent and business manager to deal with the money part of it but yeah we are self managed. It’s pretty tricky to have your guitar player being the owner of the label your on. If we have something to bitch about it would be label related we know where to go (laughs).
SM – So Epitaph seems to be the label for you. What happened with Atlantic?
JB – They just had too high of an expectation of BR. They wanted us to be the next Offspring then it got put on the back burner when it didn’t turn out that way. It was a mutual fuck you.
SM – I know Brett records with BR but does he tour with BR?
JB – Brett is like our Brian Wilson, he is very heavily involved in BR. If he can drive to a BR show he will play with us. He has a lot of work load running Epitaph.
SM – What about Greg being a professor?
JB – (laughs) Yeah he has a PHD in biology and teaches at UCLA. None of us call him Professor Graffin.
SM – How do you all rotate touring with his schedule?
JB – He will tell us when he has school and I just black out the dates we can’t tour.
SM – Where to after the Warped Tour?
JB – We are going to do an east coast tour then Australia. Graffin has to be back to teach in January.
SM – Where haven’t you toured that you would like to?
JB – We want to do something in Asia like Vietnam, Thailand and Beijing. It would also be cool to hit Poland and maybe Moscow. No middle east shows then again you never know.