Ridley Bent is spreading his wings again for an upcoming new album. The Winnipeg based musician started his career planning on becoming a rapper then moved to country and for his next album is planning on a southern rock plus horns direction.
“At the beginning of my career I wanted to be a rapper, because my music is very lyrical. I like to tell stories and with rap I could use more words. That was how I got my first manager and my first record deal,” said Bent, celebrating his dad’s 70th birthday in Kamloops.
Bent and guitarist Chris Dunn will be playing an acoustic show at the Geomatic Attic, April 14.
'“ When I was 16 I used to play the Beastie Boys on my acoustic guitar. And I noticed that when I did that at parties, that’s when heads turned,” he said.
He moved on to playing country music because he was attracted to the songwriting aspect of it and saw it as an ideal forum for his own stories.
He is looking forward to returning to Lethbridge.
“We’ll be playing music from all of my albums and some unrecorded songs. We’re going to mix it up,” he said.
It has been several years since he played Lethbridge, when he and his band tore the roof off Henotic. He also opened for Emerson Drive last year.
His next album, which he plans on recording this year with a release date ideally early next year.
“We’ve done the pre-production, now it is just a matter of getting the musicians into the studio, then mixing and mastering which takes longer,” he said.
“I’ve got a song about zombies and one about Brooklyn, Texas, which is a ghost town. It’s going to be my best yet,” he enthused.
“There is a lot of southern rock in it. We have a steel player, but dropped the fiddle, but there will be lead guitar, bass and drums. And horns,” he said adding listening to Little Feat convinced him to add horns into the mix.
“ I was really inspired by listening to Little Feat. The Tower of Power (renown soul and funk band) used to play with them all the time,” he said.
The B.C. born musician has relocated to Winnipeg.
“ I’ve been there for about three years. My wife and I bought a house in Winnipeg. There are a lot of good players there. I really like it. I’ve got a good life going there,” he said.
