JAY BERNDT

I've decided to keep this site as an archive of all the music projects I've done. I have been a musician now for over 35 years.

I started out as a drummer, playing in marching band in 1984. When I started high school in 1988 at La Salle Academy in Providence, RI, I met the guys who eventually be Kilgore (Smudge). Although I had never sang, I somehow bluffed my way into being the singer & lyricist of the band. We ended up signing with Unsound/Revolution/Warner Bros. in 1995 and toured over nine different countries with acts such as Ozzy Osbourne, Slayer, Fear Factory, Motorhead, Clutch, and Marilyn Manson. We released two albums "Blue Collar Solitude" in 1995 and "A Search For Reason" in 1998 before I burned out and left the band in 1999.

In 2003, I started writing and performing country/rock/blues/garage/roots music with The Revival Preachers, and then with The Brimstone Assembly in 2006. After a couple reunion shows with Kilgore in 2007, I got the bug to sing metal again and hooked up with former members of Seemless to form Bloodwitch.

In 2010, I released my debut solo album "Sad Bastard Songs" on Rusty Knuckles Records. I then released a Waylon Jennings tribute album "Jay Berndt Sings Waylon for Jessica" in 2011, which spent six weeks on iTunes "New & Noteworthy" Country Music Page.

By 2012, I put together a backing band called The Orphans... Which had elements of soul meets rock, Van Morrison meets the Clash, Bob Seger meets Motown and Waylon Jennings meets The E-Street Band. After practically completing the album in 2013, only to scrap the whole thing and start over.... Jay Berndt & The Orphans released their full-length album "Life, Love & Loss" in 2018.

In 2016, Kilgore reformed to play a number of shows resulting in 2018's "Someday This War Is Going To End", the first new Kilgore recording since 1998. Also in 2016, I began working with the former members of Providence, RI band Kanerko, to form the band Bloodriders.

I'm now working on remixing/ remastering a number of recordings that were unreleased or have not been available in quite some time. These archival releases span from Kilgore to The Orphans and will be released through numerous digital formats through my label Moto Destructo Music. 
 

Coming soon will be individual pages to get the bigger story on each of these awesome bands.