DENTMAN INTERVIEWS PAT DENT, BASS PLAYER OF
Dentman- Who are you?
Pat- I'm Pat, the bass player and occasionally the singer of The Dents. I sang the second vocal parts on songs like "One By One" and "The Old Routine." I also contributed many of the songs that we played throughout the years. My interests include bicycling, travel, Irish culture and history, tape-trading/doing mail and role-playing games. Books that inspire me include "Stone Butch Blues" by Leslie Feinburg, "The State and Revolution" by V.I. Lenin, and "The New Farm
Vegetarian Cookbook." I live in Buffalo, NY, at a house with five friends and we do shows in our basement. Sometimes I work and I hate it.
Dentman- What did you do in the band?
Pat- Amongst the responsibilities that I was endowed with were doing the mail for the band, organizing practices schedules, setting up tour, etc. Everyone did their part: Rob did the old web site, even after he was no longer in the band; Pat Welch (Paddy McMayhem) was the van driver and he provided much of the equipment that we used; Kevin was the strong tie that kept it all together.
Dentman- How did you become a member?
Pat- I became a member of The Dents in January of 1997 the day Pat Welch filled in for Iggy on drums and we decided that this was meant to be. We let Iggy go and changed the name to The Dents (which, for the record I feel is a terrible name, but we were young kids having fun and back then had a lot fewer cares in the world).
Dentman- What was your favorite moment in the band?
Pat- There were many, many moments in doing this band that I could list as amazing ones, but when we were first released on a tape ("A Tradition of Lies," released by Josh Lyons/ Blatherskyte Noise) it was so exciting. I think I was 16 at the time. In Rochester then there was not much of a scene, and hadn't been since the early 90's, so everything was fresh to most of the people involved. Of course there were lots of people who just passed through the scene and are no longer part of the DIY community, but from what I hear Rochester's scene is as strong as ever now. I have no qualm with people leaving the scene after "testing the waters" either, because to go on some kind of self-righteous rant about how I am still actively involved would be counter-productive and stupid. The point is, for me, hardcore and punk is an ethic. Even if someone only goes to five shows, some inkling that perhaps there is an alternative to the normal drudgery has to penetrate their skulls. The DIY community and ethic is so strong that those people have to have gained some new sense of independence or learned about some issue, or something. And if so it has been a total success, because above all else, hardcore and punk are about self-empowerment and living out your dreams.
Dentman- How did you feel when the band broke up?
Pat- Well, it was a terrible thing but it had to happen, because things had been falling apart for a long time. Rob had left the summer before for Boston, and then Pat Welch quit the band a couple months after we toured; I simply didn't have the energy anymore to keep pushing on. Pat said he'd play the last show with us, but that was a disaster anyway, in terms of how well we played. I must thank all of our friends and supporters for coming to the last show though, because almost 200 people were there all told. We raised enough money to donate a sizable amount to two different needy groups/ organizations. Thank you everyone.
Dentman- Do you have any other bands?
Pat- Right now I am in one main band, They Live from
Buffalo, NY. We play fast hardcore with influences including Crossed Out, Infest and early Japanese thrash. There are a bunch of They Live records out that I didn't play on, but we're working on writing an LP right now (9/00). I've been in a million project bands (most of which are noise, noise-core or acoustic punk) such as The Blake Guyers, Roadhouse, Zombie Dead, Antcor, Gastrointestinal Atrocity, SATMAP, The
Eagle of Christ, and the greatest band I was ever in, Twilight of the Gods. TOTG was a mix between noise-grind, folk, black metal and many other forms of musical expression, and we had no real influences. We set out to emulate no one. I loved it because of the ideology and philosophy, which underlay the band. The other guys and I worked so well together. They were old friends of mine and our talents and abilities complemented each other's perfectly. Unfortunately there is no official demo release as of yet.
Dentman- Do you think the dents will ever get back together?
Pat- I�m Sorry, but that information is classified, although I will hint that Kevin and I are still very good friends.
Dentman- Out of all the band members who was the biggest pain in the ass?
Pat- Pat Welch, drummer extraordinaire, was often difficult to deal with, especially towards the end. After we graduated high school it became almost impossible to get in touch with him, but he was the absolute perfect drummer for the band so it never even occurred to me that we should have someone else play. I feel bad now because I know he probably stayed in the band much longer than he wanted to as a favor to the rest of us.
Dentman- What was your favorite song?
Pat- My favorite Dents song is "Robbed," a song I wrote as sort of a tribute to the other members of the band. To me this was one of our greatest songs, but I don't think anyone really knew it or recognized it when we played it live.
Dentman- What was the main message you wanted to get out to all the people who were into your band, or listened to you?
Dentman- Well, that question requires a different response depending on the time frame to which it is relevant. At first The Dents had a vaguely socially reformist lyrical basis, mixed with a lot of stupid funny songs and we covered songs like "Oki Dogs" by Youth Gone Madd, "Streets of London" the way The Anti-Nowhere League played it, and lots of early DC hardcore bands like SOA and Teen Idles. I don't think we had a message exactly, we just wanted to have a band because it was exciting and allowed us to work together to create what we considered to be high art. Later on I started getting interested in class issues and political activism, vegetarianism and animal rights, and related struggles, and I think the lyrics began to become a vehicle for me to express my outrage about various things. Of course, I wasn't the only person in the band so we had songs about all sorts of stuff. I guess that's why you have (if you read our lyrics) songs like "Fifteen Dollars of Fame" which is a criticism of people using the DIY community as a capitalist engine, coupled with songs like "Rob Went Steady With Satan" which is a ridiculous joke about our guitarist Rob. Actually, a lot of our very early songs were either wholly or in part a jab at Rob.
Dentman- Will there be any other releases by The Dents? On your label "SFW?" maybe?
Pat- First off, to clarify one thing, SFW is actually Spindel's record label, named after the zine he did for a long time which had the same name. Although we contributed monetarily to the release of the 7", it was a project that he helped us a great deal with and released on his label. In fact, Spindel/SFW Zine was always a strong supporter of the band and a close friend, and I know we never could have done everything we did do without his help. As far as whether or not there will be another Dents release, I can fairly confidently say "Yes," although the details of the release are classified.
Dentman- What do you want to tell all your friends out there?
Pat- I have a label/distro called Achieve Records. I mostly carry noise and acoustic punk tapes and all kinds of zines. Contact me through the old Dents address even though I live in Buffalo now. My new four-way noise split is out featuring Insomnia (IL),
MB10 (TX), Vita-Verbum-Lux (QC) and The Ludovico
Technique (NY) and it's $3ppd or trade. Expect to see me releasing a one-issue zine/tape called "Ashtray" with J.T. of Demonic Youth Crew Records from Illinois, and "We Will Not Obey vol.2," my second all-acoustic punk comp tape, both in early 2001. Thank you so much for this opportunity to express myself; it means a lot to me. Thanks to everyone who's reading.
Contact:
The Dents/ Achieve Records
1130 Woodbridge Lane
Webster, NY 14580-8709
716-833-2721
[email protected]