Jason Bentley is a disc jockey in the purist and best sense of the term. Over the course of his industrious radio and club DJ career, which includes a 15 year stint at Los Angeles’ public radio station KCRW, Bentley has become something of an ambassador for the dance music scene. Today, he talks about music in the same impassioned way that a true politician speaks about his country, with a charming mix of zenful wisdom and wonder.

 

Bentley always knew that he wanted to be a DJ, almost as if it were his pre-destined purpose in life. “I had a mock radio station in my bedroom when I was eleven,” he says. “Music was just this theater of the imagination for me.” After outgrowing his bedroom radio booth, he moved on to college and joined Loyola Marymount radio station, KXLU. “I found this creative stew of people who wanted to explore what was possible in that area.” Of course, he was also instinctively drawn to the club scene and soon found himself presiding over dance floors full of clubbers, a group he affectionately describes as an “intermingling of people you don’t usually see together.”

In 1992, KCRW recruited Bentley to host his own show and four years later, KROQ followed suit. Since then, Metropolis and After Hours have become a staple for fans of cutting-edge electronica. “People like to feel international, cosmopolitan, in the know,” he explains.


But isn’t DJ-ing in a club more fun than sitting in a room by yourself? “They’re hard to compare, it’s like apples and oranges. Radio is a controlled environment, you can command a range of emotion and
be a storyteller with the sets that you build. In a club there’s more pressure to keep people moving,
but the reward is that you get the immediate feedback of the crowd.” Most importantly, he says, “They’re both ways to communicate togetherness and optimism through music. And I think the bottom line is that whatever I’m doing, it’s always about sharing music…and trying to turn people on to new artists.”

Along with carving his niche as a tastemaker and crowd-pleaser, Bentley has also spent some time in the record business, beginning at London Records, then starting his own label Quango and ending at Maverick Records. “The problem [was] that I’m really interested in developing tomorrow’s artists,
artists that aren’t big yet or may never be big. The major labels are looking for platinum artists, they want to make money right away.”


It’s Bentley’s experience as a radio/ club DJ, his inside knowledge of the industry and his love of music as art that have made him such a steadfast emissary for the dance scene. Indeed, it was his sheer passion for the cause that convinced the stodgy old Grammy bosses to add a ‘Best Dance/Electronic Album’ category to the awards. “I had to go in there and educate and represent my constituency,” Bentley says.

Apart from his continued commitment to promoting new artists and changing how the music industry embraces electronica, what else lies ahead for Jason Bentley? Along with his weekly radio shows, Bentley also acts as Music Supervisor for commercials, video games and movies (Did we mention he supervised the Matrix Trilogy soundtrack?) and is currently working on his own album, a blend of original music and remixes that will be out in early 2008. Thankfully, Bentley’s super smooth stylings won’t be leaving the Los Angeles radio waves anytime soon. “I still feel 100% sure about my shows when I finish them. I do feel like I serve a community, that’s my purpose. Some people never find their purpose, they struggle with the question of ‘What are we here to do?’ But I really love DJ-ing.”

By Carla Thorpe

Photography: Bobby Quillard
Location: Holly's West, Santa Monica