For a solo artist, Mateo Naranjo, the mastermind behind DoFlame, is uniquely devoted to unlocking the potential of music scenes. The 21-year-old punk is fueled by a desire to bring people into a world and in turn bring them together, to find the real sense of community that can be attained by immersing yourself in an underground culture. DoFlame’s new album, BENT, bottles that feeling of discovery and camaraderie. Like a hardcore version of a coming-of-age movie, it captures all of the joy, confusion, and determination of being young and unsure of what’s next just as effectively as it blends the unbridled aggression of heavy music with the swagger of hip hop. With BENT, DoFlame is poised to expand his scene from the suburbs of Toronto to the entire globe.
“DoFlame is sort of my first band,” laughs Naranjo. “I was 17 when I started, I was in bands throughout high school that eventually became DoFlame. We’d play shows in libraries and community halls, then Covid happened in my last year of school and they let our whole class out on break but we just never ended up coming back. So I was left with all this free time and my friend Rob [Ortiz who plays in DEAR-GOD] and I just started making a ton of music–that’s really when DoFlame really got going.” Growing up, Naranjo moved back and forth between Toronto and one of its suburbs, Brampton, getting a taste of what was possible within a big city music scene, and then taking that enthusiasm back to the smaller town where he and his friends began to foster a community of their own. “I think something that’s really led my outlook with DoFlame, and part of the reason I’ve always had this really specific vision, is that I got a glimpse of that Toronto punk scene when I was a young kid and I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since,” he explains.
For Naranjo that chase is about more than just going to a good show–it’s about the satisfaction of trying to create something on your own terms and the like-minded people who all have to come together to make it happen. As DoFlame began to churn out singles and eventually release 2022’s debut album, DoStroy, Naranjo also spearheaded the start of OFFLEASH, a collective of friends and collaborators doing everything from filming skate videos and music videos, to designing and manufacturing clothing, to hosting shows and even community bbqs around the city. “I just wanted to make some kind of central hub for everyone to join in and identify with,” he says. “I wanted kids to see that you can do cool things, you can make cool things, you don’t just have to sit around or party. I want to document this scene we have and show the world through our eyes what’s happening with our friends and our city.”
That desire absolutely permeates BENT. The record instantly places you on the streets of Toronto and Brampton with Naranjo and his crew of friends, creating a sense of place that feels so specific and lived in that you know it must be real. “It was a pretty painful record to make,” reflects Naranjo. “I was moving around a lot, in and out of the city, visiting home a lot–I just didn’t know what I was doing. I think a lot of people my age have that experience, where everything feels up in the air and you’re getting to know yourself more and trying to figure out what’s really worthwhile. I think we really tried to make the most with the least: we’re out here broke as hell, life kind of sucks, but all my friends are together and we’re having fun and getting into trouble.”
Naranjo along with his small group of trusted collaborators like Ortiz, producer Brendan Padjasek, and producer/engineer Jesse Turnbull, wrote and recorded BENT over the course of a year, creating a patchwork of sounds and styles that feel varied and unexpected while also undeniably cohesive. The straight up vicious hardcore of “Can’t Stand No One” kicks off the record then segues into the bouncy punk of the title track, a song full of production quirks and personality to spare. The latter also acts as something of a mission statement for BENT, an introduction to the down-on-your-luck charm hidden in Naranjo’s fiery vocal delivery. “It’s about being at this age where things stop feeling reversible, where everything starts to feel more real and people are getting called out on their bullshit. But at the same time we’re trying to have some humor, like ‘I’m just a shithead trying to pay my rent.’”
That blend of genuine introspection with a healthy dose of winking fun is a key part of the magic of BENT, and it’s perfectly matched by the music’s eclectic mix of irreverence, vitriol, and brashness–like some kind of imaginary collaboration between The Beastie Boys, Trapped Under Ice, and Show Me The Body. Tracks like “Flower City Do It” (which fittingly features an appearance from Brampton hardcore mainstays, Mile End) and “Too Loose” pay tribute to the ups and downs of pouring yourself into a music scene overtop of churning riffs and a seamless amalgam of pounding drums and programmed beats, while elsewhere songs like “The Ick” and “Rats” describe trying to get by in the city when you’re up against minimum wage jobs, inflation, and institutions that care more about vapid scandals than the people they’re supposed to be in serving.
One of the album’s most impactful songs is “Hit Where It Hurts” where Naranjo looks at the lives of his recently passed grandparents and can’t help but question the seemingly endless grind that sucks up so much of our precious time on earth. “My grandparents immigrated from Ecuador,” he explains. “They went through so much to come here, they worked so hard, but then still didn’t have that great of a life. My abuelita would always say ‘you work like a horse and live like a rat.’ I think sometimes it just feels like all that struggle doesn’t go as far as you would hope.” It’s a starkly affecting moment of very real life frustration that shows that there’s more than just youthful defiance in DoFlame’s sneering attack.
BENT comes to a close with “Fastlanes” and “Find Out,” two sonically ambitious tracks that seem to hint at the many possibilities of where DoFlame’s daring sound could go next. The former is a blown-out quasi-dance track with Naranjo’s spit-flecked cadences roaring out over the thumping beat, while the latter stretches out into post-hardcore atmospherics and climactic riffs drenched in equal parts reverb and distortion. “That song is sort of about maturing even if you don’t really want to,” he says. “Sometimes it feels like you don’t really learn a lesson until it’s taught the hard way.” DoFlame might not be in a hurry to grow up but like all the best coming-of-age stories, there’s something so relatable and winning about BENT that you won’t want him to either.
