Pheaturing Alumni Adam Bentley From The Rest

Hello, and welcome back to the Phile. First things first, I wanna say congratulations to Tropical Storm Isaac for being the second largest collection of hot air headed to Tampa, Florida. They're now worried that Tropical Storm Isaac could hit Florida during the coming Republican convention. But Florida is ready for it. Thanks to President Obama's economic policies, many businesses down there are already boarded up. The Republicans are getting ready for the convention. They're busy here in Florida auditioning minorities.  Days after Paul Ryan was picked to be Mitt Romney's running mate, a shirtless photo of him finally turned up on TMZ. The photo of Ryan with his wife was taken six years ago while they were on vacation in Oklahoma, which raises an interesting question: Who goes on vacation in Oklahoma? Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is refusing to release more than the first four inches of his torso, though he insists he has nothing to hide. Swimmer Ryan Lochte won a bunch of Olympic medals. He's trying to trademark his catchphrase "jeah." It's like "yeah" with an "j." A rapper actually came up with that in the '80s, and he asked why Lochte should try to trademark something he didn't create. This could go down as the lamest rap feud ever. They're going to send Lochte a cease-and-desist order from saying "jeah."  The Princeton Review just released its annual list of top party schools in the United States. The number one party college for 2012 is West Virginia University. West Virginia students today celebrated by continuing to celebrate. There's a referee strike in the NFL right now. They're demanding more money and silly shirts.  Nude photos popped up on the Internet of what appears to be Prince Harry having a big naked party in Las Vegas. This has caused quite a commotion in London. But I'd be disappointed if my prince WASN'T having naked parties in Vegas. What's the point of being a prince if you can't round girls up in Vegas and get naked with them? In the olden days, it probably went on every night and if you told anybody about it, they cut your head off. Maybe those poor girls lost their clothes in an accident and the prince graciously gave them his. It's called chivalry. Look it up. I just think it's refreshing to see a famous redhead drunk and stripping that isn't Lindsay Lohan for a change.  The Obama campaign announced that theirs will be the first political campaign to accept donations via text message. The president is hoping it's a way to engage grass-roots supporters to give money. A friend of mine tried to donate money and ended up voting for Sanjaya.  Khloe Kardashian got in an accident. She was on the freeway and rear ended someone. There was no little or no damage. On a scale of 1-to-Lohan, it was a 2.  Well, kids here in Florida pretty much all went back to school, except my son who just went from the living room to the kitchen. He's home schooled. Anyway, at a certain store down the road which starts with wal and ends with the color green they were stocking up on getting stuff ready. Check it out.

Have you seen those Aptiva commercials with Jamie Lee Curtis? There's something very unusual about them.

Mitt Romney said he'll cut funding to PBS if he was elected, and a a website called Dogs Against Romney has released a poster talking about this.

Star Wars Celebration 6 is happening in Orlando this weekend and a lot of people asked me if I was going. I celebrate Star Wars five days a week at my job. Hell, I even dedicated the whole month of May to Star Wars. Anyway, I didn't have the money to go. This is what you needed.

And now let's see who is pushing up daisies...

Phyllis Diller
95 July 17, 1917 - Aug 20, 2012
This is one of those times when being a mortician must be really, really tough.

Jerry Nelson
July 10, 1934 - Aug 23, 2012
Down for the count.

Neil Armstrong
Aug 5, 1930 - Aug 25, 2012
That's one small death for man, one giant death for mankind.

Man, what a big week for celebrity deaths. I like to invite friends and Phile phans to the Phile that are interesting and have something to say. No one has anything more interesting than the newest member of the Phile phamily. He is a a singer, surfer, patriot and renaissance man. Please welcome to the Phile Laird Jim in a pheature I will call...

Good morning, humans. Sigh... I just saw a dog sitting in a locked Mercedes... barking his head off at Stop and Shop. I waited for the woman to come out and I tried to nicely explain why what she did was wrong. She said, "Why don't you mind your own fucking business, dirtbag?" I shook up the bottle of ginger ale I was drinking and sprayed it all over her. She screamed, "Are you a fucking lunatic?" I replied, "No, I'm a dirtbag... remember ?" Be well, my freaky little darlings.

This is unbelievable who the 23rd artist to be pheatured in the Peverett Phile Art Gallery is. He is in one of my favorite, favorite bands of all time, which most readers of the Phile know which band that is. He is also in another band called Thin Buckle. This is one of his pieces of art...

I cannot believe I am typing this. The 23rd artist in the P.P.A.G. is the one and only Kevin Hearn from Barenaked Ladies and he will be a guest on the Phile in a few weeks.

Today's Alumni guest was last on the Phile way back in January 20th, 2009. He is the lead singer of the Canadian band The Rest whose new album "SEESAW" is now on iTunes. Please welcome back to the Phile... Adam Bentley.

Me: Hello, Adam, welcome back to the Phile. Man, it's been a long time since you were here. How are you?

Adam: Great! It has been some time!

Me: A lot has happened since the last time you were on the Phile, Adam. We'll get to that in a minute. The Phile sure has changed since you were here last. I don't think I even had a logo last time you were here. What do you think of it?

Adam: I like it! Gives off the right vibe of the site, informative but relazed.

Me: Alright, you are not here to talk about the Phile, are you, Adam? Let's talk about the band The Rest. Where did that name come from?

Adam: Years ago we were hitting our heads against each other to figure out what to call ourselves, and Blake mentioned "The Rest", and everyone was in quick agreement.

Me: If I remember correctly you have quite a few band members. About eight or so, am I right?

Adam: It's 7 members strong.

Me: Who else is in the band, Adam?

Adam: Blake Bowman, Dwayne Brydon, Matty Buzanko, Anna Jarvis, Steve T. Jones, and Jordan Mitchell.

Me: Didn't one of your band members disappear only to be found a week later in the hospital? What happened?

Adam: Steve Jones was in the hospital for a few weeks. Not sure if he wants me to talk about it too much, but he's doing much better now!

Me: That's good. Also, you lost a member of The Rest, the band's producer who produced the first two albums. He had a heart attack, right? Was it all of a sudden?

Adam: Dan Achen was our producer since we started seriously recording. He was playing ice hockey when he had the severe heat attack. It was all of a sudden, and caught us all off guard. When I got the call in the morning about it I thought it had to be some kind of sick practical joke. I was in utter disbelief.

Me: Were you already working on the recent album "SEESAW" when he passed?

Adam: We had been writing the record at that point, and I was about to go in and show him some songs, set a date to start recording. I always valued his opinion and was looking forward to his criticism. Always opinionated, but he just wanted the best for the tunes.

Me: Who produced "SEESAW"?

Adam: Jordan Mitchell was mentored by Dan, so it seemed the obvious choice for him to take over that role. All of the band was heavily involved, but it was because of Jordan work and skill that it was completed.

Me: Tell me about the album name, Adam, where did it come from, and am I correct, spelling it out all in capital letters?

Adam: We've been spelling it out in capitals, mainly for aesthetic reasons. The name came from our long history of having quite a few ups and downs, never one without the other. It was actually conceived before the album was lost, so we might have cursed ourselves a bit there.

Me: Did you write all the songs on the album?

Adam: I wrote all of the lyrics, but the songs were written in many different ways by a variety of band members. We tend to approach writing different each time out, and you never know how a song will come together.

Me: After "SEESAW" was recorded, you lost the files or something, am I right? What the hell happened?

Adam: The short answer is a hard drive glitch deleted the whole record. There still isn't a solid explanation to how it happened, but one second it was there, and the next it was all gone.

Me: That's another reason I don't like computers, Adam. But then if it wasn't for computers they'd be no Phile and I wouldn't know about half the bands I interviewed here. Anyway, how did you get all the file's back?

Adam: We worked with two companies Glypth out of New York, and Seagate out of Chicago. They worked their magic to find all of the 1s and 0s.

Me: How long did it take this company to retrieve the music?

Adam: It took them about 4 months, and then us about another 2 to link all of the digital files in pro tools.

Me: What did you think when you thought you lost all your hard work? Did you wanna quit?

Adam: We were always hopeful that we would get the record back, but I think if we didn't that could have been the end of the band.

Me: How did you tell the news to everyone?

Adam: I think it may have been through email. I got a call from Jordan, so I might have called some of the guys. It was a pretty insane day, hard to compute how everything actually happened.

Me: What did you think then when the companies you hired retrieved the music?

Adam: I laughed. Uncontrollably laughed. I had 4 months of stress building inside of me. I definitely wasn't dealing with the situation, so when the relief came I lost control. A pure wave of happiness.

Me: What was more expensive, recording the album or getting the files back?

Adam: Recording, most definitely recording. The retrieving of the files just took away time, some money, but mostly time.

Me: Adam, you guys are from Canada, right? Hamilton?

Adam: Yes, mostly all from Hamilton, a couple members are in Toronto, but we work out of Hamilton for the most part.

Me: I interviewed so many bands from Canada, and there's one band I had on the Phile who mentioned you guys, but cannot think who it was. Dark Mean maybe? 

Adam: Dark Mean are friends of ours great guys!

Me: I asked you about Barenaked Ladies last time, and you said you played hockey once with Tyler Stewart, the Ladies' drummer. I always ask musicians from Canada what they think of the Barenaked Ladies music. What do you think of them? I think you told me before but I don't remember.

Adam: I don't have much connection to BNL outside of that hockey game. When I was a little kid (9 or 10) I liked their cassette, but to be honest I haven't followed them that closely. Always seemed like nice guys though.

Me: Anyway, I downloaded "SEESAW" from iTunes and am glad the album is up there. How is it doing? It's a great album and I am glad it was saved.

Adam: Thanks! People seem to be really digging it. Sometimes you work on a project you can lose sight of it, so it's been great to have people react so positively. The shows have been great so far, and we're looking forward to getting the album into more ears.

Me: I watched the video for the song "Always On My Mind", Adam. How did you come up with the concept of the choir and filming it in one take?

Adam: Our friend Mitch Fillion specializes in these one take videos, so we thought it would be a blast to invite our friends over and try to perform the song in an altered way. Super excited with how it turned out!

Me: So, what's next for the band? Are you kids planning on another album?

Adam: I think we're going to sit down in the next week and do some long term planning. Hoping to get out on the road in the fall. Shows! Shows! Shows!

Me: Any plans on coming down to Florida to tour? Probably not, right?

Adam: You never know, haven't made it down that south yet, but we'll be working on it!

Me: Thanks so much for being on the Phile, please take care, and I look forward to more The Rest music. And I won't wait all these years to have you back, Adam. Go ahead and plug your websites. Take care, and come back again soon.

Adam: Thanks, Jason! Always a lot of fun! You can check us out at: therest.bandcamp.com, therestmusic.tumblr.com or buy the new album at auteurrecordings.com.

That does it for another entry of the Phile. Thanks to my guests Laird Jim and of course Adam Bentley from The Rest. The Phile will be back tomorrow with the last Alumni of the month Christine Leakey. Then on Tuesday there's gonna be an extra entry with singer songwriter Maxim Ludwig. Next Sunday it's Mosey West, who I think is a singer or band and on Monday it's Martin Belmont from Graham Parker and the Rumour and Ducks Deluxe. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.