Bad Religion's Greg Graffin Challenges Authority Through Science
"Ideologically, the pursuit of science is not that different from the ideology that goes into punk rock. The idea of challenging authority is consistent with what I have been taught as a scientist. Science is very vibrant. There are always new observations to be found. And it's all in the interest in challenging the authority that came before you. That's consistent with the punk rock ethos that suggests that you should not take what people say at face value."
This idea extends to the title of the new album. "True North reflects the idea that as young people, we set out on this plan that our parents gave us," Graffin explains. "You can look at a map as a metaphor for this plan. Every map has a legend with an arrow that points to true north. But when you go out into the field with a compass, your needle is always pointing to magnetic north, which does not match exactly to true north. What we experience in life is truly our own experience, and it's significantly different from the course that the map sent us out on. That is the journey of not only every young punk rocker. It's the journey of every human being that doesn't throw in the towel and stop living. We're always searching for our own sense of true north."
Bad Religion performs at The Echo tomorrow, Wednesday, January 23rd.
Follow us on Twitter @LAWeeklyMusic, and like us at LAWeeklyMusic.
Follow Jason Roche on Twitter @JasonRocheLAW.
Top 20 L.A. Metal Albums: The Complete List
The Ten Most Unreadable Metal Band Logos
Top 20 Sexiest Female Musicians of All Time
The 20 Worst Hipster Bands

































