Max Bent

Kent MacMillan (AKA Max Bent) spent most of his formative years playing piano and guitar while growing up in Mississauga. In high school Kent developed his skills and showmanship by playing with any band that would let him, having musical roles in many high school plays and by singing in a Steve Hackett era Genesis tribute. Kent claims that most of what he learned to play on guitar during his first years of playing came from picking up early Black Sabbath and Rush riffs. Once he started performing at parties and small clubs, he stared to expand his musical horizons. This led to him eventually opening for local Toronto acts such as Goddo, Paul James and The Rick Santers Band.After graduating high school in 1984 he hit the Toronto hard rock music scene. This led to the formation of the hard rock band Blackjack that quickly became a common site on the Ontario club circuit. Hard living combined with constant touring led to the pre-mature demise of the band. During this hiatus from the road came the formation of First & Last which featured the vocals and keyboards of Kent’s brother and co-founder of the band Lorne Ryder (3-time CCMA Top-Ten Nominee, Keyboard Player of the Year.) First and Last became well known around Ontario hard rock venues for its energetic live shows and original material. During his time with First & Last Kent opened for artists such as Moxy and Paul James and was a regular on stage at some of Toronto’s largest venues (including Nags Head North, Entex, Gasworks.) Together the brothers recorded two albums, one of which was produced by legendary New York-born producer Bob Gallo (James Brown and Ben E. King). The second album was charted throughout Canada on university radio and received major label interest, however non-stop touring again led to an early end for the band. In the early 90’s with country music gaining new momentum, Kent formed the country-blues trio Hogtown featuring the rhythm section of Mike Hayes and Richard McNeil (James Taylor.) Despite the previous hard times he had endured during heavy touring, Kent once again hit the road hard -- pushing the band to become another well known club act. With a set list that covered artsits from A to Z (quite literally), Hogtown became well known for it’s musical diversity and showmanship. After almost 1500 shows Kent needed a break from the road at the age of 29. During the years he had spent touring Kent had written over 1000 songs and had found himself without an outlet to record this body of work. Kent soon found himself in semi-retirement from the music business. Taking time to settle down in Guelph, he started doing some local recording and spent some time working on his songwriting abilities. With life slowed an easier pace Kent re-discovered his love for the blues and roots music. He soon joined a hard rock band which eventually became known as “The Wind” and went on to record one CD with the group. As time went on, Kent found himself becoming more and more dissatisfied with having to conform to one style of music. He started doing some session work locally and hitting local club jams to meet other musicians. It was during this time that he ended up becoming a lead guitarist for local musicians like Keith Thompson and Mo’Kauffey. These new musical partners pushed Kent along with the Max Bent Band back into a full time music career playing a mix of blues and roots music. Recently the Max Bent band has played alongside blues legend Hubert Sumlin (Howlin’ Wolf), Douglas Watson, Daddy Long Legs and has opened for acts including Steady Rolling Bob Margolin, The Stampeders and Fathead. Max Bent released his long awaited debut solo CD, “The Blues You Have” in 2004. He now enjoys a mix of performing, recording, and working with younger artists at jam nights and local songwriter nights. In the past few years, Kent has begun heading down the path of sitting on the other side of the microphone, and has started producing for other artists. In 2007, a song he produced, “Downtown Silhouette,” written and performed by Lorne Ryder was nominated at the Ontario Independant Music Awards. The song was included on the Max Bent Band’s follow up to “The Blues You Have”, the roots inspired “The Weight of the World,”. Kent is planning ..ing his second blues album sometime...he promises before he retires.