The punk band that is boiling to the surface: Brain Bent
Photo Credit: Shannon Johnston (@me_onlylouder)
Throw the best parts of the B52’s, Devo, and Iguana Death Cult in a blender, and what have you got? Calgary’s own Brain Bent. Saturated in satire, paired with clever songwriting, and an elastic live show with twists and curves that set them apart from other local acts, it’s impossible not to take notice of Brain Bent’s antics. Active since 2019, guitarist Nathan enlisted synth player and partner Joanna when they were on a road trip together to B.C., jamming out to post-punk when he noticed Joanna’s voice as she sang along. With her theatrical background and piano experience, it would lead to a new element of the project that was initially spearheaded alongside Gus (drummer) and Travis (bassist).
“I have rhythm. I grew up playing music with my dad, but I never actually played in a band before. Nor had I played piano,” Joanna shared. Nathan responded to this in disbelief, saying he swore she told him she played piano before. “SURPRISE!” Joanna laughed, with the rest of the band shaking their heads while chuckling saying, “She lied on her resume to get into the band.”
This is not the first work-related line that the band has uttered, with some people referring to them as the “Office Space” band, but they are much more than that. With releases like “Quality Assurance Audit” and “Cog in the Grind”, Brain Bent touches on the mundanity of corporate culture. “We were inspired by our experiences working in a job where you are getting policed in every aspect that you do. If you’re not at your best while doing your work, they are eyeing you up.” Gus shares, with Nathan expanding, “I went through a fairly corporate job, and my experience in this band kind of helped me through it because it helped me realize the absurdity of it. That made it easier to kind of disassociate a bit. I could see that this is ridiculous and everyone I know thinks this is ridiculous, right? It depressed me… but we can also find the humour in it now”
Photo Credit: Shannon Johnston (@me_onlylouder)
However, the band is not on a mission to stay within the confines of corporate jargon. “We really don’t want to be the Office Space band. I’m really excited about our new material. It’s getting darker, polished. We love what we do and we love what we’re playing.” Part of what hooked listeners from the very beginning was their identifiable imagery and theatrical live show. Donning boiler room suits with a bright yellow ‘!?’, it embodies the initial reaction you may experience when seeing the group perform for the first time. Debuting their style at Calgary’s Rockin’ 4 Dollar$ at Broken City, a night which is usually radiating with excitement. Brain Bent decided to take a different approach: think of the moment when you first watched Joaquin Phoenix’s awkward encounter on David Letterman during the height of his film ‘I’m Still Here.’ It was kind of like that.
“We made the whole crowd split, like splitting the sea, and made a grand entrance, walking in single file to the stage. When we all came on, we tried to remain as stoic as possible and tried to keep everything tight.” Travis laughs. “That show was wild because we did four songs, two of them were covers because we had only been in a band for a month at that point. And we didn’t know how it would go over. We were worried people would think it was going to be weird. Our music can be pretty intense. There was an immediate kind of ‘what the fuck reaction’ and then people caught on. But they were still stunned”, Nathan reminisces. Ultimately, the outfits were born out of a necessity to present a full united front as a band.
“We wanted something that was beyond just showing up with gear. The main inspiration was the Fearless Fliers Band. Their flying suits look so slick.” Gus explains. This rings true in the way that the band is unified off the stage. Joanna says “We all sing, we’re all contributors, we all play instruments. It’s usually one idea, whether that’s lyrics, whether that’s a bass line, whether that’s a synth line, it’s one idea and then we draw on that and build. It’s super collaborative and extremely supportive…it’s brain melding, I guess.”
A couple weeks after the band’s debut performance, they recorded a few demos that took off online. As word spread throughout the music community, they received messages from music blogs that extended to Europe. “People were messaging us from Denmark. They were like, “Bro, your record is sick! Where are you from?” And we were having to Google translate. It was insane that can dump music on the internet and you’re like, ‘yeah, whatever.’ But sometimes stuff just takes off.” Despite the pandemic affecting performance opportunities everywhere, Brain Bent continued to maintain a buzzworthy presence appearing on Sled Island’s Lemonade Stand compilation and played one of the first events that marked the city’s return to live music at Dickens: “We talk about that show all the time! What a Black Mirror experience! Everyone was seated and as soon as they put the lights on, the plexiglass on the stage turned into a giant mirror and we felt like we were really performing to ourselves. We are still recovering from that.” Joanna laughs.
Photo Credit: Shannon Johnston (@me_onlylouder)
The band will be playing Sled Island for the second time after their mind-altering performance with Uranium Club in 2022; a beguiling punk bill that left a lasting impression on attendees. “We remember when we first got accepted into Sled, we all started simultaneously screaming. Sled didn’t happen that year because of the pandemic and we are very grateful they had us back. But that was a powerful moment for us as a band. Sled Island makes you feel like you’ve hit the next step in your hometown and you have the opportunity to rub elbows with artists who are bigger than you.” If you’ve never been to a Brain Bent show before and you’re thinking of checking them out (as you should), here’s what you can expect: “My favourite thing coming away from a show is when you can’t stop thinking about the moments that happen. We just want to leave a big impression on people. That’s it. Just a little life-changing moment of some kind.” Gus sheepishly shares. Joanna adds that she hopes attendees experience, “relief and release. You get to dance your face off. Scream along with the lyrics. You get to exist in this world. You get to do whatever you want. And then you leave. But we want them to have the whole experience.”
Pickup issue #1 of REVERIE Magazine to see more of Brain Bent’s cover story feature and check out their latest music video for “Quality Assurance Audit” down below!