The members of Bad Religion who are doing our compilation are:
Greg Graffin: VOCAL, KEYBOARDS, ACCOUSTIC GUITAR
Brett Gurewitz: GUITAR, ELECTRIC AND ACCOUSTIC
Paul Detona: BASS
WHAT WAS THE THOUGHT BEHIND JUST THE THREE OF YOU DOING THIS ALBUM?
Greg: Um, that's a weird story cos our drummer broke his thumb first of all, and second... I like accoustic music. I really do, but that's not the only reason. We're doing it as a defiant kind of thing like "Fuck Everybody, we'll show 'em we'll put an accoustic song on there." It's not like that and also, it could be to a good advantage to ease people into our new style.
Brett: For the record, Jay Bentley quit the band, he was not kicked out. For the record...
Greg: Like, before they'll buy our album they'll buy yours for a different reason but we'll happen to be on there. So we're experimenting with a different media. There's different ways to lay down a song. You take one song and do it all accoustic and then you can take some heavy metal guitars and put it in and it's heavy metal, then you speed it up and do it double time and it's a punk song. It's all the same song. We're just experimenting. We like to sit around and jam and we go "hey, this sounds good!"
SO TELL US ABOUT THE SONGS YOU'RE DOING HERE TODAY.
Greg: Well, "Waiting For The Fire", we just wrote about an hour and a half ago.
Brett: No, you didn't you wrote this a long time ago.
Greg: Well, I wrote it a long time ago but I just finished it up a few days ago.
THESE ARE ACCOUSTIC, BOTH OF THEM?
Greg: Yeah, they're both pretty accoustic but this one sounds well... like Jimmy Page apparently.
Brett: I didn't say that.
Paul: I didn't say that.
Greg: You said that! (to Brett)
Brett: Ok, well it doesn't sound like Jimmy Page!
WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE!?
Greg: It sounds like... well... Bad Religion playing accoustic instruments.
Paul: I just joined the band.
Brett: Yeah, Paul just joined us on the new album. (soon to be out) Also, the new record it's a completly new direction.
Greg: Uh, Brett don't you think that's classified information?
Brett: It won't be by the time this album is out. So I guess these songs are kind of an idea of what our new stuff is like. Yeah, L.A. is gonna disown us.
WHY IS THAT?
Greg: That's not true.
Brett: I think the people who like us will still like it. The average ordinary person who just picks up a record and uh, doesn't listen to what is on it is uh, gonna hate it.
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO CHANGE DIRECTION?
Greg: Cos I was tired. We just, when we started out we played what we like and what we were listening to, back then, now we're getting to be better musicians and we'll continue to play what we like. If we continue playing 'punk' simply because we're guaranteed to sell 20,000 records again, we'd be selling out. I think if people can listen to it with a different attitude, then I think a lot of people just buy punk albums, because they like to buy them and don't really sit down and listen to them. You can't really listen to 'em they're more of a party thing. You listen to 'em so you can know what they'll be playing like. This'd be a good record for head phones.
Brett: Yeah, tailor made for "Walkmans".
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU PLAYED LIVE?
Greg: We're playing the Mabuhay Gardens on Memorial Weekend. We haven't really played any of our new stuff.
Brett: We aren't gonna play any of our new stuff yet until people have heard the new album. So they'll know what to expect. You can't just break into a set of easier music when people are out there ready to slam.
Greg: It's not so much, easier music, it's just as powerful, it's probably more powerful than the original stuff. A lot of times when you speed up the beat that fast, you've got a lot of energy but it's dissapating, and it's just going out, and it's getting lost. But if you slow down just a little you've still got it but you've made use of it.
Brett: It's not only that but it also has to do with what the songs say. I think the main reason people say a bands sold out is because they start writing 'love songs', silly stuff, but we're singing basically the same kind of thing as before, we're singing a little more creatively.
Greg: Our attitiudes and philosophies aren't nearly as radically changed as the music has. Our ideas aren't exactly the same cos we change as people but the music is much more radically changed.
Brett: We still say we're gonna go on doing what we want.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TOGETHER?
Brett: Four years, it's going on.
YOU WERE ALL IN SCHOOL WHEN YOU STARTED THE BAND?
Greg: Yeah, we were all in High School, I was 15 when I made my first EP.
Brett: I was 17.
Greg: Our first record sold up the butt. And our last album sold a lot. That's why people should realize, I mean, we're taking a risk. They say we're selling out! That's a bunch of bull - we're taking a chance of losing all of our fans. Most bands want to cling to what they have.
ARE YOU LOOKING TO PICK UP MORE PEOPLE WITH YOUR NEW SOUND?
Greg: No, like we said, we're doing what we're interested in doing. Whoever likes it, if you like it you can buy it and you can enjoy it and we'd really like it. But a lot of people are gonna hate it and we've expected that so we can just say "fuck off" to them too.
Brett: In order to really play well, you have to do what you want to do. See, if we can do it without loosing our asses on it, our main goal is to get it out there. Get it as many places as we can and let people have a chance to listen to it and maybe people will like it. All I can say is, if no one does like it and it bombs we're still not gonna be dead cos we're gonna keep puttin' out albums.
Greg: Yeah, we get letters from Czechoslovakia, West Germany, Italy and all over Europe. One guy from Czechoslovakia, was behind the Iron Curtain, he wrote "I could be arrested for writing this". Yeah, he could get arrested for having our record, he bought it on the black market.
Brett: So, we're gonna get a lot of albums behind the Iron Curtain.
Paul: We're gonna air drop'em.
Greg: We're just gonna get the record out there. That's our responsibility, just get it out there.
Brett: We've all got full time jobs, we want to support ourselves so we don't have to rely on the band to support us. For that reason we won't be selling out cos we do what we want. Even if just one person buys it we still have our life put together.
Greg: We don't care if no one buys it cos it's something we just want to do. It allows us to go into the studio and see what we can develope.
Brett: It keeps us from going 'looney'.
Greg: Yeah, we're just a bunch of wild and busy guys.
DO YOU WANT TO CONTINUE WITH THE BAND, I KNOW YOU'RE STILL IN SCHOOL, ARE YOU HEADING FOR AN OUTSIDE CAREER?
Greg: For me music is a 'hobby' it's a real important hobby and my only musical outlet is BAD RELIGION so all my creativity goes in the band.
Brett: To me my whole purpose of working is so I can support myself and thus be able to be in a band yet not have to rely on it for money. Therefore we can play whatever we want.
Greg: I want to continue with this band as long as we can. If anything ever happened to it I'd continue with music. As far as I can see right now, I'll always continue with this band cos there's no reason to stop. I can't forsee any problems. Brett and I always fight but that doesn't mean anything. The bands not gonna breakup.
Brett: We hate each other, that's why we love each other, that's why we'll have to kill each other.
WHAT'S THE NAME OF YOUR NEXT ALBUM, ANYWAY?
Brett: The next album will be called "And Yet Another Tragic Ectomorph"
Greg: Endomorph!!!
Brett: ECTOMORPH!
Paul: Mesomorph.
Greg: The new album's called "Into The Unknown"
Brett: It might be called "Into The Unknown, Bad Religion".
Greg: Or maybe "Bad Religion, Into The Unknown:.
Brett: Or maybe "Bad Into The Unknown, Religion".
Everyone: SHUT UP!!!