THREE Q'S

Science, vol. 319, no. 5861, p. 265

By day, Greg Graffin teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles. By night, the 42-year-old biologist sings for Bad Religion, a punk rock band he co-founded at age 15. Some of his lyrics draw upon the language of science. In one song, for instance, he laments about "Modern man / pathetic example of earth's organic heritage / Just a sample of carbon-based wastage." Science spoke with Graffin recently while he was on a tour to promote the group's 14th album, New Maps of Hell.

Q:Where does the name "Bad Religion" come from?
I felt that religion was useless as a way to answer the "big" questions about life. I felt that a "bad religion" was an apt name for a belief system that offered incorrect insights into questions of a scientific nature. Today, I recognize that the name implies that there is a "good religion." I guess a good religion is founded on the principle of truth through observation and verification.

Q: How do you use science in your lyrics?
A lot of scientific words are concisely descriptive, and this can be poetic if they are used carefully. I think that questions about evolution particularly are great metaphors that can be incorporated, because traditionally, our songs deal with social hardship, inequality, and general problems with modern man's lifestyle.

Q: Do you keep your two lives separate?
[People sometimes think] that I'm just using my music to promote my science background and vice versa; I'll use my lecture podium to try and enlist new fans. I [try] to never do that. I never talk about music in a lecture hall. If students come by [during] office hours, some of them ask me [about my music], but you'd be surprised how few. [And that] keeps things nice and clean.