Saturday, July 29

Bad Religion

By Mark Woodlief

Ask 100 punk fans for the definition of punk rock, and you'll likely get 100 different answers. Ask Bad Religion's founding vocalist Greg Graffin, who practically wrote a thesis paper on the subject at the band's website, and you'll get no hesitation.

"Being punk is about a way of thinking," Graffin replies on the eve of the release of The New America, the band's most recent album. "It's an ideology that's a basic part of being human."

Intelligent, critical thought is just a part of Bad Religion's longevity and influence. It hasn't hurt that the group -- first formed in 1980 by Graffin, guitarist and Epitaph Records founder Brett Gurewitz, and bassist Jay Bentley and long-departed original drummer Jay Ziskrout -- is one of America's most tuneful punk bands.

Putting melodies where their muscle is, Bad Religion -- now a five-piece with Graffin, Bentley, former Minor Threat/Dag Nasty/Junkyard guitarist Brian Baker, former Circle Jerks guitarist Greg Hetson, and drummer Bobby Shayer since Gurewitz left the group in 1994 -- has maintained a remarkably consistent sound. The band's razored rhythms, buzzing guitar riffs and supporting vocals form the foundation for Graffin's soaring lead vocals and articulate lyrics. Bad Religion's anthemic catalog has inspired handfuls of younger punk groups, including Green Day, NOFX, the Offspring, and Blink-182, who Bad Religion are currently touring with following May 9 release of The New America.

"What's particularly nice about the tour is that Blink-182, of the few bands who are mega-successful and grew up on Bad Religion, has been the first band who asked us to play with them on tour. I really appreciated it. And the shows themselves are warm-ups for our headlining tour that's happening later in the summer [see badreligion.com for tour dates]. I really think it's a good opportunity to play punk music for some people who've maybe never even heard punk music before and at least give 'em an authentic dose of the authentic sound."

The New America is both a re-affirmation of the authenticity of punk's elder statesmen and a bold statement of purpose and progress. Both the band and Graffin, the principal songwriter, are in particularly fine form on the album. Gurewitz returns as a guest, co-writing the semi-autobiographical "Believe It" with Graffin and playing lead guitar on the song. Gurewitz left the band prior to 1994's Stranger Than Fiction, and battled drug addiction for a period.

"I think Brett may have said some bad things about me, but it never hurt my feelings because, let's face it, the guy was on drugs and was having a hard time in his life," Graffin says. "He's now in a much better place in his life and I said, 'Why don't you write some songs with me?' When we got together and hung out, it was a real treat because it was like nothing had changed."

Whether he's using wordplay ("Streetkid Named Desire") or exhibiting his indefatigable passion ("Let It Burn," "You've Got A Chance," "There Will Be A Way"), Graffin isn't beyond getting a little "silly" on "I Love My Computer."

"I thought about how silly it would be to write a song about someone who's in love with his computer," Graffin chuckles. "But then when I started writing it, I realized it's a real issue today, with people connecting on the Internet together. They don't know if they love the technology because it allows them to interact with new people from far away or if they really just love the person that they're connecting to."

Much of The New America confronts the same issues and concerns -- interpersonal, political, sociological -- Bad Religion has spent twenty years addressing. But Graffin, still working toward his Ph.D. in evolutionary biology at Cornell University, hasn't lost any of his passion. The singer sees a connection between his beliefs and his academic and music careers.

"I saw and know a lot of professors who just sort of go through the motions and don't really inspire students. Those were never the people I looked up to," Graffin says. "The ones I look up to are the professors who still have the ability to get up there and deliver a lecture and open people's minds and inspire them to pursue a valuable or an exciting way of life in academia. So I guess inspiration has always played an important role in my concept of what Bad Religion should be. That means never stop questioning and keep looking for new ways to interpret dogma."

The band brought academia and punk closer together when they initiated the Bad Religion Research Fund scholarship program in 1998. The award is available each year to researchers in the cultural and natural science fields of study. By applying some of the same scientific approaches of his academic discipline to Bad Religion's music, Graffin manages to balance the intelligent with the emotional.

"A pure life of skeptical inquiry is not a bad thing," he admits, "but also paying attention to your human emotional connection to other humans, that's really what Bad Religion's about. When people say we want to live in a better world [as the band sings on the new record's title track], it means we care deeply about our fellow humans and we want to make the world a better place for all of us.

"People tend to focus on punk's nihilism or the violence or all this nonsense that is just so easy to publicize," Graffin continues. "It's so level one and easy to commercialize and market. But that's not what makes punks from all these different backgrounds and ways of life come together and feel good around each other. There's an emotional connection that punks have with each other and it's something that is not so simple to commercialize."

For that reason, the ongoing co-opting of punk doesn't play a part in Graffin's songwriting. "That's benign, it's just a commercial enterprise," Graffin responds. "There's more to life than commerce, and if you really want to get at the essence of punk, you can't analyze the commerce. You can't even let it affect you. As a band member and a songwriter, I haven't focused on the commercial elements because that undermines everything that I stand for. It doesn't motivate me more or less to write the next album. I do it because it's a mission and a goal I've set."