Greg Graffin
The band Bad religion was formed in the early eighties
and has now been
around over 15 years and has released over eight albums, the lead
singer has
continued his schooling and now has one bachelors degree ,a
masters and is
working on his Ph.D.
Greg Graffin was born in 1965 in Wisconsin. His mother
and father were
divorced after his birth. In 1976 his mother his brother and him
moved to San
Fernando valley California, which is now the punk rock capital of
the world.
"Like millions of other victims of divorce in the seventies I had
to deal with
the fact that my father was now living far away(In Racine,
Wisconsin) and that I
would not get to see him very much." While his father was in
Wisconsin he began
work at the university of Wisconsin as a professor. He still
works their today.
Greg was often picked on in high school because of his
"Punkness". "There were
three people at my high school who were punkers, I mean I got
beat up everyday
by long haired people who listened to Rush and would beat me up
because I didn't.
When he was fifteen he started a band with other social outcasts
who didn't
quite fit in. They settled on the name BAD RELIGION.
Bad Religion does not pertain to any kind of sacrilegious
activities or
the like. Instead it is a statement against any establishment
that promotes
dogmatic thinking or punishes individualism and rewards
followers. Greg once
said in an interview "Instead of rewarding uniqueness we, for
some reason
probably because of cultural and social necessity, we chastise
unique behavior
and reward conformity". On 15/10/93 Greg said BR has 108 songs
and 5 or 6 are
about religious issues.
Greg has a very different view point about education then
most punks.
When the band broke up in 1983 he moved back to Wisconsin and
attend the
university of wisconsin-madison. soon the administration had
found out that he
was not an official resident any longer so he was kicked out. (he
had recently
spent several years as a California resident) He traveled back to
California
where he was a resident and attended school at UCLA. in 1987 he
received his
masters degree in geology. He had previously received his
Masters degree in
Anthropology and a his B.Sc. in geology. This work was very
field oriented
since he had to study fossils to get the degrees. In 1990 he
transferred to
Cornell University (in Ithica where he currently lives) for a
Ph.D It will be
a biology degree, but since he studies fossils it will be
evolutionary biology-
paleontology. Because of touring with his band the Ph.D. is on
hold. Currently
he still has to write his thesis on bone tissue , finish up some
of his actual
lab work and take the orals. He is planning to due this in
1997. He was a
teaching assistant in The evolutionary department at Cornell
university. He
taught mainly pre-medical students when they took a course in
comparative
anatomy. His Ph.D. is in evolutionary biology but he sometimes
refers it to
Zoology since the fossils he studies are from vertebrates. The
actual Ph.D. is
on bone tissue he has been referred to as one of the top five
bone
paleontologists n the world. He has had one of his papers
printed in a leading
scientific journal. He says that he plans to stay involved in
science for the
rest of his life. He said "if I could make a million dollars with
Bad Religion ,
I would start an institute that would be for research on early
vertebrates ,
that is what I study."
Greg says he chose punk rock as his medium because he saw
a vacancy in
the music. "Maybe that's what attracted me to it. I saw that
there was
definitely a vacancy. People didn't perceive (punk) as valuable,
and I like
challenges What better thing to do than use a style of music
that the media
characterizes as all negative and use it for something positive?"
says Graffin.
"There has always been this problem because the media stigmatized
punk from the
earliest days. I think what they were concentrating on was the
fashion. When you
say 'punk' people automatically think of spiked hair and leather
jackets and
violent people. And that has nothing to do with what I thought of
it in the
early days, (which was) really thought-provoking music with a
great melody,"
says Graffin. In fact he considers the music he and his band
make as folk music.
"The music is very sparse, the guitars aren't Multi-layered or
processed. It's
not elaborate; it's something that anyone can play in their
garage. It's very
populist oriented. Even the things we talk about are populist in
scope. So it's
very much like folk music. A lot louder of course "
At a concert in '96 Greg announced in a Philadelphia
concert: "This is
about half over not the show, our career. We've been around
16 years and
we plan on being around 16 more!!!" So hopefully they will be
around to
inspire more people to use their minds for exploration and to
create great music.
. Greg Graffin
The band Bad religion was formed in the early eighties
and has now. schooling and now has one bachelors degree ,a
masters and is
working on his Ph.D.
Greg Graffin was born in 1965 in Wisconsin. His mother
and father were
divorced