GregGraffin The band Bad religion was formed in theearly
eighties and has now been around over15 years and has released over
eight albums,the lead singer has continued his schoolingand now has
one bachelors degree ,a mastersand is working on his Ph.D. Greg Graffin
was born in 1965 inWisconsin. His mother and father weredivorced after
his birth. In 1976 his mother hisbrother and him moved to San
Fernandovalley California, which is now the punk rockcapital of the world.
"Like millions of othervictims of divorce in the seventies I had todeal with
the fact that my father was nowliving far away(In Racine, Wisconsin) and
thatI would not get to see him very much." Whilehis father was in
Wisconsin he began work atthe university of Wisconsin as a professor.
Hestill works their today. Greg was often pickedon in high school
because of his "Punkness". "There were three people at my high
schoolwho were punkers, I mean I got beat upeveryday by long haired
people who listenedto Rush and would beat me up because Ididn't.
When he was fifteen he started a bandwith other social outcasts who
didn't quite fitin. They settled on the name BADRELIGION.
Bad Religion does not pertain to any kindof sacrilegious activities
or the like. Instead itis a statement against any establishment
thatpromotes dogmatic thinking or punishesindividualism and rewards
followers. Gregonce said in an interview "Instead ofrewarding
uniqueness we, for some reasonprobably because of cultural and
socialnecessity, we chastise unique behavior andreward conformity". On
15/10/93 Greg saidBR has 108 songs and 5 or 6 are aboutreligious
issues. Greg has a very different view point abouteducation then
most punks. When the bandbroke up in 1983 he moved back to
Wisconsinand attend the university of wisconsin-madison. soon the
administration had foundout that he was not an official resident anylonger
so he was kicked out. (he had recentlyspent several years as a California
resident)He traveled back to California where he was aresident and
attended school at UCLA. in1987 he received his masters degree
ingeology. He had previously received hisMasters degree in
Anthropology and a hisB.Sc. in geology. This work was very fieldoriented
since he had to study fossils to get thedegrees. In 1990 he transferred to
CornellUniversity (in Ithica where he currently lives)for a Ph.D It will be
a biology degree, butsince he studies fossils it will be
evolutionarybiology-paleontology. Becauseof touring with his band the
Ph.D. is on hold. Currently he still has to write his thesis onbone tissue ,
finish up some of his actual labwork and take the orals. He is planning
todue this in 1997. He was a teaching assistantin The evolutionary
department at Cornelluniversity. He taught mainly pre-medicalstudents
when they took a course incomparative anatomy. His Ph.D. is
inevolutionary biology but he sometimes refersit to Zoology since the
fossils he studies arefrom vertebrates. The actual Ph.D. is on
bonetissue he has been referred to as one of the topfive bone
paleontologists n the world. He hashad one of his papers printed in a
leadingscientific journal. He says that he plans tostay involved in science
for the rest of his life. He said "if I could make a million dollars withBad
Religion , I would start an institute thatwould be for research on early
vertebrates ,that is what I study." Greg says he chose punk rock as
hismedium because he saw a vacancy in themusic. "Maybe that's what
attracted me to it. Isaw that there was definitely a vacancy.People didn't
perceive (punk) as valuable, andI like challenges What better thing to
dothan use a style of music that the mediacharacterizes as all negative
and use it forsomething positive?" says Graffin. "There hasalways been
this problem because the media stigmatized punk from the earliest days.
Ithink what they were concentrating on was thefashion. When you say
'punk' peopleautomatically think of spiked hairand leather jackets and
violent people. Andthat has nothing to do with what I thought of itin the
early days, (which was) really thought-provoking music with a great
melody," saysGraffin. In fact he considers the music he andhis band
make as folk music. "The music isvery sparse, the guitars aren't
Multi-layered orprocessed. It's not elaborate; it's somethingthat anyone
can play in their garage. It's verypopulist oriented. Even the things we
talkabout are populist in scope. So it's very muchlike folk music. A lot
louder of course " At a concert in '96 Greg announced in aPhiladelphia
concert: "This is about halfover not the show, our career. We've
beenaround 16 years and we plan on being around16 more!!!" So
hopefully they will be aroundto inspire more people to use their minds
forexploration and to create great music.
. Greg Graffin The band Bad religion was formed in theearly
eighties and has now. schoolingand now has
one bachelors degree ,a mastersand is working on his Ph.D. Greg Graffin
was born in 1965 inWisconsin. His mother and father weredivorced