The Bentley Project - Theresa and Mark Bentley Interview-The Final on Vinyl Podcast

I had a nice conversation with The Bentley's regarding their debut release Kind In The Shade.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

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Transcript

Speaker 2 0:14

Hi everybody, this is Keith MuzikMan Hannaleck with the Final on Vinyl Podcast. And today we have Theresa and Mark Bentley from the Bentley Project, who will be releasing their debut album, Kind as the Shade, on February seventh. Welcome aboard, folks.

Speaker 0:31

Good morning. How are you? Good morning.

Speaker 2 0:33

Good. I'm doing great. I hope you both are doing better. I understand you've been under the weather lately.

Speaker 0:41

Yeah, but we're doing fine, so thank goodness it's passed.

Speaker 2 0:45

That's good. That time of year, you know.

Speaker 0:48

It is. Not fun.

Speaker 2 0:52

So what have you folks uh been doing with your lives prior to your your debut here? What uh got you into music?

Speaker 0:59

Well, we both have been in music all of our lives. Um Mark is a classical guitarist and he um oh I don't know, probably thirty, four years ago, was a part of a guitar duo and uh a classical guitar duo that traveled with the Missouri Arts Council, I believe it was, and um he ran up in a big competition in New York, so they got to play in Europe and travel around here. So he's been doing that, and then I um was a professional French horn player before all of this and um you know played in numerous orchestras around here and in Europe. Um and then um once we got together and I started working on harp, then it just kind of flowed from there, and the harp and guitar are so incredibly beautiful together. So that's kind of how it all started.

Speaker 2 1:52

Oh. I agree, definitely. So I got a chance to hear your album review it and thought it was quite beautiful. Uh is there any particular reason that you went in that direction uh with new age instrumental and ampient type of music?

Speaker 2:11

Well, I have always been a lover of music and I think um when I was young and um the new age kind of genre really took off, um, you know, like in the 80s, 90s, and for whatever reason it just really struck me. Um being a classical artist, I I've had an affinity for the Impressionism music and always felt like New Age was kind of an outgrowth of that. Um and so it just really struck me because that's one of my favorite genres of music. And so I've oh I don't know, probably for 20 years I've wanted to do something like this. And then Mark introduced me to this poet, which by the way was his um duo partner.

Speaker 1 2:57

Right. Um one of my former duo duo partners was the grandson of the poet of the poem, it was the basis for the work.

Speaker 3:03

Yeah, so he introduced me to this poem, and I just it just was so beautiful and just struck me. And I sat it on my piano for probably a year thinking I'm gonna do something with this and not sure what I'm gonna do, but I'm gonna do something. And then about a year and a half ago, I started pulling out phrases and thought I'm gonna write new age music to this. It just seems so perfect for it, and that's where it began.

Speaker 2 3:29

Oh, that's interesting. So it was an ongoing process, it just was uh something that was already created, and you took that and created something else from it, and that's what happened. Interesting.

Speaker 3:41

Right. Right. Typically when I write, I usually in the past have always written my own poems and then wrote have written a song to go along with it. Um but this this it it just seemed like it needed a complete tone poem, and um which is actually what this album is. I I call it an ambient tone poem, and I'm not sure if um your listeners are aware what that is. In the classical world, we have tone poems, um, particularly Strauss, which of course I love, and it tells a story through the music, and there's no words. And so I just thought, well, it'd be fun to do a out of this poem to do some type of ambient tone poem. And that's how that flowed out.

Speaker 2 4:24

Interesting. I think a lot of people are doing that without even realizing it, right?

Speaker 4:29

Probably so. Yeah. They probably just don't know what they're doing really. If if it's a complete album that tells a story, that's really what you're doing is creating a tone poem.

Speaker 2 4:39

Yeah, I'd never heard of that term. Wow. I always learned something on these calls. So are you folks both collectors of vinyl and or were you when you were growing up? What you know, what were you listening to?

Speaker 4:53

Oh, we have what probably five hundred vinyls sitting downstairs right now.

Speaker 1 4:59

Not so much as recently as in past years, yeah. Lots of different genres for me, uh the runs the gamut. Jazz, you know, n new some new age, some earlier new age, and uh classical, especially classical guitar.

Speaker 5:15

Early mus yeah, we have Palestrina, we have you name it, we probably have it.

Speaker 2 5:20

Oh, what about when you were both growing up? Did you have siblings that were older than you that played music and got you into that? And that's happened to me.

Speaker 5:30

Did it? Oh bo well, we're both the oldest um in our families and so we are the ones that brought music.

Speaker 1 5:38

Right, right. In my case, sure. Musical within the family.

Speaker 5:43

Well, you have singers in your family, but it's not something that they pursued.

unknown 5:48

Right.

Speaker 2 5:49

Did you did you get classical rock or a little bit of everything? A little bit of everything, oh yeah.

Speaker 5:57

Yeah. Well you started off in a rock band.

Speaker 1 5:59

Right, right. In high school, we have you know, every kid's dream. So uh and then get guitar. But I started playing guitar as a kid a bit. My dad uh would listen to Chad Atkins and Carlos Montoya and cla on flamenco guitar, so that was my introduction to the guitar world and acoustic music. Wow.

Speaker 2 6:18

Start with the easy stuff, right?

Speaker 6:22

Yeah. Yeah, and I um I loved seventies rock. Just loved it. And so listened to the top forty and bought all the albums and um and then when I was twelve years old and introduced to the band programs, that's when I started from Torn and became introduced to the classical world. So I didn't grow up with it. I grew up with country. Um in you know Midwestern country. So for me, that was just a huge eye-opener to music and what's out there.

Speaker 2 6:52

Oh that. Yeah. Classical is just timeless and you know, without that we wouldn't have any music. That's what started everything, you know?

Speaker 7:02

Definitely. Yeah, definitely. So, um, so on the album, you can for sure hear influences of our classical training. Um there's a couple of songs, especially if I whisper to you. Um Mark plays just just such a beautiful guitar line, and with the cello, I'm I'm sure that's my synergizing of the classical training that I've had.

Speaker 2 7:28

But with the cello, did you say?

Speaker 7:30

Yes. Yeah, so we have quite a bit of cello on our album. Um we have a friend, um Dana Willard, and we've known her for years. We both have known her for years, and I I just kept feeling like as we were doing this, it just needed that and cello so primeval and and so emotionally inducing, I guess you could say, that I just felt like she had to be on there and she was willing, so we got her.

Speaker 2 7:58

It's true. And sometimes it just the cello can sound very sad and longing, and other times when it's played on the higher notes, it almost sounds like a violin. Sometimes it throws me off. I'm like, wait a minute, was that a cello or was that a violin? Sometimes it just throws me off like that.

Speaker 8:18

Well, she is so fabulous that I actually had some higher parts and I said, I know this is in the violin range, but can you do this? And she's like, Oh sure. And she just played it there, and so when you hear that on there, it's all her. There's no violin.

Speaker 1 8:32

It's Yes, you you took a cello and and made a whole string orchestra.

Speaker 8:36

I did.

Speaker 2 8:41

Interesting. Yeah. I I'm glad to hear you both say that. You're like, all right, I don't want these people to think I don't I don't know what I'm doing here with reviewing this music, right? So I like the artwork too. Where where'd you come up with the artwork for this? And the title, actually. I'd like both.

Speaker 9:00

Um well on the artwork, um really honestly, I just got on AI and started exploring with it. And there was an artist a year ago or so that had had clearly done some AI work, and she was nominated for Grammy, and I just thought it was so beautiful, so I started exploring and um taking all the titles and the phrases that I liked from this poem and just plugged it in as a prompt. And out of about 150, this one showed up, and this was clearly the like this is it, and there's no question in my mind. And um some of the sphere, so I I wanted to get the idea of the sphere and the earth and the water and everything that was included, I guess, in this poem. And um, and then in terms of the title, that actually comes directly from the poem. So we have the poem listed on our CD, and I can share that with you if you'd like me to. We have permission to share it. And uh it's just an incredibly beautiful poem. I think John Linhart is probably one of my favorite poets. He he just is amazing.

Speaker 1 10:12

Yeah, as you said. It's so emotional and so colorful in its descriptions uh on so many different levels. If you read the points, you would know what we're talking about.

Speaker 2 10:26

I would like to hear that. And and the title, I just look at that and think, kind is the shade. The shade can be very kind on a very hot day. And you know, the trees are protecting you from the the radiation. But you know, uh on the other flip side of that, the sun can feel wonderful and warm and uh it's the giver of lights. So but there's there's two f there's fine lines there between the two, you know.

Speaker 10:50

Yes, yes, there's a lot of symbolism in this album all over it. And um but kind of the shade, um with the extreme heat, it just felt like I just thought that was brilliant of the the author to see shade is kindness when i it's so hot, um if you're in the desert and there's a single tree or whatever, you know, it just it just seemed like just such a gift and so and kindness is so needed in the world. And so I just thought this is a gift. The the shade is a gift.

Speaker 2 11:28

I can see that. Are are you in the desert? Are you out in uh Mexico, Arizona, up that way?

Speaker 11:35

No, I did go to school down there, so I'm well acquainted with it. Um I went to Arizona State, but we live in Missouri and um and we own land, we have um acreage, and so we think a lot, I guess, in terms of nature and the land and how it impacts us, uh what is kind, what is not so kind with the land. You know, it has both sides. And um so I I suppose that's why part of this album is just so nature oriented because that's w we're outside. Our house has windows all the way around with no curtains. We constantly have the nature coming into us.

Speaker 2 12:17

Like a greenhouse. Nice.

Speaker 12:19

Well it is. Well well, literally, our house is dark green. It's literally a greenhouse.

Speaker 2 12:26

Do you uh have animals and uh grow vegetables and so forth? You know, do you work the land?

Speaker 12:32

Oh we well, we have a little puppy, uh, a little multi um little nine-pound puppy, and she's a soprano. Um and we do have on the land uh um an orchard. So we're not we've just built our house and literally built it for music, and so we're in the process of developing everything. Um hoping maybe to put in a greenhouse.

unknown 12:57

Right.

Speaker 1 12:57

Well, I'm doing some clearing right now of some of the undergrowth and sparsing some of the the smaller trees so we can actually plant wild wildflowers and do a uh for the for the bees. For bees and so on like that and be a beekeeper. So things like that, but not on traditional sense of our farm, kind of farm animals.

Speaker 2 13:17

Nice. And you're making your best life with your your home and and the land that the That's what everybody wants to do, right?

Speaker 13:25

Yeah, oh absolutely. It is just just a beautiful place to live. And pe and and also that's another reason why the album is here, is it just makes you want to create. And I I literally use we have a creek on our land, a little stream, and I used the sound on I think it was track four. Um you'll hear a water and birds, that's from our land.

Speaker 2 13:48

Mm-hmm. I didn't know that. Nice. I love those two sounds too. I um have this I have this device, um, it's like a like goggles and it massages my temples, and there's like three different different sounds I can put on there. And one is the birds chirping, and another is like crickets, and the one I choose every every day is the streaming water. It's just the sound of that sounds so calming, beautiful.

Speaker 14:16

It is. Yeah, one of our um songs uh we have a a baby in the family, and so I've created some sleep music. It's called Peaceful Waters, it's an hour-long sleep music, and with harp and a little bit of sense, but it has the waters that I've recorded. Um and so that's something you might enjoy where it's it's peaceful waters. And so it's so relaxing. She goes right to sleep.

Speaker 2 14:40

Well, you could sit there and play play the harp and put her to sleep, right?

Speaker 14:44

Oh, I do. I do. In fact, when she's having a hard time, um, my daughter-in-law will call me and say, Will you just play your harp for her so she can see you? And she literally stops crying immediately and relaxes. It's wonderful.

Speaker 2 15:00

Oh, that's great. It's like magic. Nice.

Speaker 15:03

It is. It is.

Speaker 2 15:05

Well, it's been wonderful talking to you, Teresa and Mark Bentley of the Bentley Project, and I wish you both all the best. And I hope there's a lot of success uh now and in the future. And kind of the shade is due on February 7th, I'll be putting up that review and this interview for folks to read and listen to. And I hope to hear from you again down the road. Hopefully there'll be some more music.

Speaker 15:32

I hope so. Thank you for taking the time.

Speaker 2 15:35

Yes, thank you. Thank you both thank you both. You both take care now. Have a great year.

Speaker 15:39

Thank you. Take care. Bye.

Speaker 2 15:41

Bye bye.