Category: | Interview - Internet | Publish date: | 1/25/2013 |
Source: | rockersphere.com.au (Australia) | With: | - |
Synopsis: |
Bad Religion Interview with Greg Graffin
Bad Religion are without a shadow of a doubt punk rock immortals. They epitomise Southern California’s punk scene and helped shape a new wave of punk royalty such as Green Day and The Offspring. I had the chance to catch up with their vocalist and founding member Greg Graffin.
Professor Graffin is also an accomplished academic in his own right. He is a author, has a PHD and I get to talk to him smack bang in the middle of a busy week of lectures at Cornell University where he is teaching evolution at the Ivy League school. Other than educating America’s next generation Greg is as busy as ever with Bad Religion. They are on the cusp of releasing their 16th Album and after 30 years making records he is still as passionate as ever.
“Well the record is coming out worldwide January 22nd 2013 and we are so happy with it” he tells us with acute affection. I try to elicit some of the motivations around their latest record called True North and he recounts how it came about. “We discussed amongst ourselves what can you do when you are trying to follow up a 30 year anniversary album and this will be like our 16th record so it’s very hard to be consistent and not to default to some kind of crap. So the challenge we gave ourselves was pretty interesting. First we said think about your favorite bands that have been around for a long time. I mean what would you like to hear from them. There comes a time when you just want to hear another classic from this band to see if they are still viable. I mean a lot of bands lose their vitality and we were thinking about this during our 30th anniversary tour. Basically we wanted to do a record that reestablished or reaffirmed our vitality and so we gave ourselves a formula to use”.
Ever the academic Greg recalls how they ended up structuring the approach to their latest sonic wall of goodness. “Well we looked at what we determined as our classic period. That’s so hard to determine as some people say 1980 to 1985 and others say it was 1990 to 1995 some say it was 2000 to 2005. When it came down to it we all felt very sentimental about the period 1990 to 1995. That is when we really expanded. We went from being an American band to being a global band”. It is obvious that period in time holds a special place in the bands history and was also a wonderful period of commercial success for them. “There were 3 very important albums we put out in that time. They were No control, Against The Grain and Stranger Than Fiction. If you really look at what symbolises those records it is really that they had very catchy very poppy songs and very poppy song choices. We used that period as the formula for this record. So we decided to try and write songs that are only 2 minutes long and let’s see what we come up with you know. The result was great and we are really very pleased with the way it came out”. I somewhat naively propose whether or not a punk rock song has to be that length to be great and with a serious undertone he replies “I am not sure I would not want to generalise it in that fashion. It’s kind of southern California punk tradition and they are full songs it’s just the tempos are sped up. As a band we have always tried really strip it down to the most basic elements”.
Along with chief songwriting cohort Bret Gurewitz it’s obvious that by now they would have their songwriting process down to an art form. I was inquisitive about the framework and how they still get along considering there have been many bumps in the road along the way. “We are like the Lennon and McCartney of Punk rock. We still do pure songwriting by ourselves and we come up with lyrics and chord progressions and then there comes a time when we get together and we play them for one another and at that point we go through another revision with the band and we get their input”. Looking to generate discussion on if there is any internal problem during the process I ask if they still have disagreements. “Not at this stage of the game, back in the younger years we used to argue a lot. Over the years you learn that arguing does not get you anywhere. Sometimes there are disagreements but as we have learned in the past with disagreements we have all been wrong about songs. So we have learned from each other and we have really learned to trust one another. Now we have got it down to a tee and at least knowing now if it’s a good punk song or not”. That is one thing that is true about this band they know what a true punk rock song sounds like and after listening to this album their pedigree will only grow further.
The album that contains no less than 16 tracks of veritable Punk goodness Greg reflects on some of the stimulus behind the record in particular the title track True North. “The song is about finding your way in this world and it is an anthem about the triumph of finding your own way and navigating all the pitfalls and the experiences. It’s about the never-ending struggle that starts when you are very young and keeps going till you are very old. Finding your owns sense of truth in a world that is pointing away in a direction that you don’t want it to go in”. Lyrically Bad Religion has always had a tremendous knack for writing wonderfully rounded songs that evoke great debate and much thought. This album is no different as they tackle themes of self-awareness and current pressing world issues. You could be led to think that behind the lyrics lays a cynical and pessimistic rocker. Quite the opposite as at the core the songwriting is indeed about hope and a way out. His upbeat dynamism continues as we touch on the evolution of music sharing and MP3’s.“It’s hard to be gloomy about it as I really think it has opened up a lot of avenues for music. It’s a great way for people to discover music and share it. I guess one thing I am disappointed about in some respect is the MP3 format. I know this is really esoteric and it won’t affect most people that listen to music at all but I really don’t like the sound of the file. I am still really a music knob as I would always like to listen to something with a higher resolution. That purely has to do with my own musical listening taste. We have witnessed a revolution in the last 20 years and there are both costs and benefits to that revolution. Nowadays I don’t think people really care who produced an album, I really wish that somehow that information were made available. Instead of just showing the cover of the album on a MP3 there should be a way to scroll through and see the credits. That information has the power to expand your imagination”.
As we draw the interview to a close we discuss how the band will be remembered when all is said and done. “I am not that sentimental it would nice to be mentioned as band from California that really mattered”.