Hetson May 1997 (from Visions - Bad Religion: too good to be forgotten)
VISIONS (German magazine) May 1997
BAD RELIGION-TOO GOOD TO BE FORGOTTEN
(an interview with Hetson)
(thanks to Frank Rueter for the translation).
The whole world is talking only about Epitaph. It is forgotten that Bad Religion, who once started a wholepunkrock-era, were the foundation stone for the most successful punk-label ever. Meanwhile fallen out with Brett Gurewitz and gone to the industry, everybody is nevertheless interested in news about Bad Religion.
With "Punk Rock Song", they have done their German fans a very big compliment. They have sung the song in German and so they have showed where the real roots of their success lie. Not that they were never noticed in America, but meanwhile Europe has become the most important market for THE punkrock-icon. Concerning concerts or concerning sold albums: Europe is the home of the Californian punkrockers.
But that was actually no reason for Greg Hetson to receive me in a most friendly way, in spite of a bad cold, on the telephone.
Being happy about having finished the The Gray Race tour, which has led them even to Australia, successfully, Greg took a few days off. With his little, crying punkrock offspring on his arm, he answered the questions that are relevant at the moment...
Interviewer:Have you already been in the studio again to record new songs? Rumours say that you record new material for the next studio album at the moment.
Greg Hetson: I don't know who has started these rumours, but the only one who is in the studio at the moment is Brian Baker. He works together with Ric Ocasek on Ric's new solo album.
I.:Will 1997 therefore be a Bad Religion free year, i.e. will "Tested" be the only official BR record this year?
G.H.:It becomes definitely calmer than in the last years. We have just returned from Australia and this summer we certainly will play a few festivals worldwide. We will definitely come to Germany.
I.:Among others you play one of the biggest Open Airs at the Duesseldorfer Rheinstadion, namely the 1000th concert of "Die Toten Hosen", where there will probably be 60000 people. How do you feel in such a role?
G.H.:Well, if 20000 or 60000, that doesn't matter up from a certain dimension. Until now we have played concerts in front of up to 40000 people, but the Toten Hosen-thing, to which I'm personally really looking forward to, is one of the bigger concerts of our career. Nevertheless we will play other live-shows in any case, that will all take place in the summer. After that we will take a short break, make some holidays and then start working on our new studio album.
I.:Don't you sometimes think that the way the band Bad Religion works becomes too much routine, and that, because of that, you need a creative break more often?
G.H.:Of course we try as hard as we can to get renewed energy, but still we just don't have the time. Last year, for example, we had hardly a free minute for us. In February '96 we started the tour, and we didn't come home until November.
I.:And right after the tour you sat down to listen to the material for the Tested live album?
G.H.:That was actually more Greg Graffin's thing. He really wanted to do this lot of work, so he let run hours of material and tons of tapes through the tape machines. I think the fun factor was very limited.
I.:Does this mean that "Tested" is actually no homogeneous band project, but more the result of Graffin's creativity? Can the band in this case stand behind it 100%?
G.H.:It's true that Greg Graffin put more enthusiasm and, as a result, more work on this record, but it is nevertheless clearly a Bad Religion product. Greg had made a limited song selection, that we the rest of the band thought was o.k.. Greg also spent much time working on his notes to every
single concert and writing the liner-notes, which I think are really nice.
I.:Were the tons of bootlegs maybe another reason for the first official live album?
G.H.:Bootlegs never really interested us. Many artists chase bootleggers and want to stop them. I don't want to say that this bootlegging is a good thing, but in any case bootlegs are a good advertising and in the case of Bad Religion they were always a nice reflection that our work is respected so much that it is bootlegged. Some assholes try to make a lot of money with them, but in our case I have to say that we often have discovered very good bootlegs on our tours. But the reason why we made Tested is very simple: We wanted to record a few songs for a radio show in America with an 8-track recording device. The recordings the guys from the radio show made were so lousy that we thought: we can do this better ourselves. So we taped lots of shows and the result was Tested. We were all very enthusiastic about these live recordings.
I.:How does it feel when you can, with a document like "Tested", look back to a band's history which expands nearly 17 years? Don't you sometimes get a bit nostalgic and begin to feel that you are too old for punkrock?
G.H.:I wouldn't say that I feel the same way as 17 years ago, after all the band plays a completely different role for us all. Nevertheless it is great that we have reached this point and still can be sure that we have never prostituted ourselves. We watch the entire music business from a very large distance and still do our own thing. Maybe that's why the music industry hasn't eaten us up. We are right in the middle of it, but we work according to our own rules that we set up beforehand. Sometimes some record labels get really pissed off, but that's the reason why we're here.
I.:Now that the punkrock-boom is coming to an end and the new Green Day or the new Offspring album don't sell millions of copies anymore, what mood is there in Bad Religion? Are you glad that you have never been commercialized to such a huge extent?
G.H.:It's almost like in everyday life:people, who had important, progressive or even original ideas, never got the credit they deserved. We were never sad that we weren't appropriately honoured. We have fun anyway, and that's very important. Besides, a lot of people like us, and they aren't the fans who buy our records, because we had one single hit, and this alone is one of the most important reasons to carry on with Bad Religion as long as we can hold our
instruments. We have a good attitude to our music and to our listeners. What also kept Bad Religion very young, is the fact that we live in such a big city that we don't come across each other every day.
I.:What about a new record?
G.H.:We don't know exactly when we start working on it, but we'll go into the studio towards the end of the year. We recorded the last album in New York in
the "Electric Ladyland"-studios, but we don't want to go there again. We'll probably record it in Greg's home. He has built up a little, cosy studio, where
we can work in a very relaxed way. Besides, the weather there is better than in New York. Maybe we'll produce the next album on our own and only have it engineered by someone; we'll see, nothing's settled yet, but in any case there will be some canges in comparison to The Gray Race.
I.:Are these canges a sign that The Gray Race wasn't as satisfying as one might have assumed from the outside?
G.H.:As regards the sound, The Gray Race was a good Bad Religion record, and it also sold very well, particularly in Europe. The only thing that disappointed us very much is the fact that it was almost ignored in the USA. Maybe we can change this with the next record.
I.:What do the band members do when they have some time off like they have now? Do they work on other projects?
G.H.:Brian collaborates, as I said, on Ric Ocasek's new album. Greg is probably on holiday, Jay and Bobby are hanging around at home and I work a little on my project Pogo-A-Gogo. In my case this means that we play old punkrock-classics and one out of the audience has to come onstage and sing.
THORSTEN ZAHN