Gentle Ben make guitar based music of a lo-fi indie-rock style. Dense, intense, direct and real, no scene, no playmakers, just a band channelling energy and commitment into the best songs and noise they can make.
More prosaically, the Anglo-Welsh-Canadian 3-piece formed in 2007. AJ, Jamie & Vince fuse jangling grinding guitars, dirty biting bass and ear-tearing bowel-threatening drums into Gentle Ben. Vince leaves a trail of broken sticks across Alberta and Lancashire and prefers looking at royalty cheques to cashing them. Jamie believes that bass should be felt as well as heard and has proven this theory from East Yorkshire to the South Coast with Avatar and Spore. AJ stands by the comment ‘you have to be really good to sound that untidy’ as a justification for his ‘loose’ style.
Our sound has been compared to, among others, Husker Du, Sebadoh, Fugazi and the Pixies. That neighbourhood’s probably a fair starting point.
Crucially, everywhere we’ve played has asked us back, headlining local venues and moving up to the main stage of Canterbury ArtsFest in June 2008. Live is absolutely Gentle Ben’s element. Getting sweaty with the crowd is where it’s at. It’s what we care about.
A 2-track single will be recorded and released in the summer on our own Happy Moose record label.
