Greg Graffin

Greg Graffin
Greg Graffin on stage with Bad Religion in 2007 at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey
Background information
Birth name	Gregory Walter Graffin
Born	(1964-11-06) November 6, 1964 Racine, Wisconsin, United States
Genres	Punk rock
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, lecturer, producer
Instruments	vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica, synthesizer, drums
Years active	1979–present
Labels	Epitaph, Atlantic, ANTI-
Associated acts	Bad Religion
Website	badreligion.com

Gregory Walter Graffin, Ph.D. (born November 6, 1964) is an American punk rock musician, college professor, and author. He is most recognized as the lead vocalist and songwriter of the noted Los Angeles band Bad Religion, which he co-founded in 1979 and is the band's only constant member, even though it now features two other original members, guitarist Brett Gurewitz (who left and rejoined the band twice) and bassist Jay Bentley (who left in 1982, but returned in 1986). He also embarked on a solo career in 1997, where he released the album American Lesion. His follow-up album, Cold as the Clay was released nine years later. Graffin obtained his Ph.D. at Cornell University and has lectured courses in life sciences and paleontology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Biography

Career with Bad Religion

In 1979, at the age of 15, Greg Graffin and a few high school classmates formed Bad Religion in Southern California's San Fernando Valley. After making a name for themselves in the Los Angeles punk scene, releasing two EPs and two full-length albums, they disbanded around 1985. However, Bad Religion reformed in 1986 with a new line-up, consisting of Graffin on vocals, Brett Gurewitz and Greg Hetson on guitars, Jay Bentley on bass, and Pete Finestone on drums. In 1988, they released Suffer, which was a comeback for Bad Religion as well as a watershed for the Southern California punk sound popularized by guitarist Gurewitz's Epitaph Records. The reunion lineup, now considered the "classic" one by fans, made two more records before Finestone left the band in 1991. Despite Bad Religion's many member changes over their 30-year history, the current lineup of Graffin, Gurewitz, Hetson, Brian Baker, Jay Bentley and Brooks Wackerman has remained constant since 2001.

Bad Religion has been known for its articulate and often politically charged lyrics as well as its fast-paced harmony, melody and counterpoint. Graffin and Gurewitz are the band's two main songwriters, though Graffin wrote the bulk of the material on his own for a three-album period in the late 1990s after Gurewitz left the band in 1994 to concentrate on the future of Epitaph, which grew to popularity when The Offspring had just hit the mainstream with Smash.

After a stint with major label Atlantic Records ended in the early 2000s, Bad Religion re-signed with Epitaph and Gurewitz also rejoined. They have since continued to co-write songs and recorded four records, the latest of which, The Dissent of Man, was released on September 28, 2010.

Solo career

Graffin recorded a solo album in 1997, called American Lesion, which consisted of softer, more pop-oriented folk songs. Most of this album was written during the breakup of his marriage, and the songs reflect this in lyrics and style.

In 2005, Graffin recorded his second solo album Cold as the Clay. The album is an amalgamation of new songs by Graffin and 18th- and 19th-century American folk songs. It was produced by Brett Gurewitz and released on ANTI- Records on July 10, 2006.

Academia

Graffin attended El Camino Real High School, then double-majored in anthropology and geology as an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles. He went on to earn a master's degree in geology from UCLA and received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. The Ph.D. dissertation was officially a zoology Ph.D., supervised by William B. Provine at Cornell. The dissertation was entitled "Monism, Atheism and the Naturalist Worldview: Perspectives from Evolutionary Biology." It is described as being essentially an evolutionary biology Ph.D. but having also relevance to history and philosophy of science.

Greg Graffin spends most of his time in Upstate New York, and teaches Life Science 1 and Earth & Space Sciences 116 (paleontology) at UCLA during the winter or fall quarters of each school year. In a June 2008 interview with Bad Religion bassist Jay Bentley, he mentioned that Graffin would be teaching there from January to March 2009. In April 2011, Graffin revealed that he will be teaching at Cornell University that fall. He will return to the class room to co-teach a course in evolution for 14 weeks.

Greg Graffin received the Harvard Secular Society's "Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism" on April 26, 2008. During the award ceremony he played some acoustic versions of Bad Religion songs as well as songs from his solo career.

Throughout 2003, Graffin was engaged in an ongoing email discussion with Preston Jones, a historian at the Christian John Brown University in Arkansas and fan of Bad Religion. The informal philosophical debate that resulted was published as a book titled Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant? A Professor and Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism & Christianity in 2006.

In 2009 Graffin announced that he had co-written a book with American author Steve Olson entitled Anarchy Evolution, released on September 28, 2010 (the same day his band Bad Religion released their 15th album The Dissent of Man). As of April 2011, Graffin is writing another book, entitled The Population Wars, which is said to be "a bit more in depth about the process of evolution." No release date has been set.

He also wrote on his Twitter page that he was filming and co-producing a television series called Punk Professor.

Solo discography

For all his contributions with Bad Religion, see Bad Religion discography

• American Lesion (1997)
• Cold as the Clay (2006)

Bibliography

• Evolution, monism, atheism and the naturalist world-view (2004)
• Is belief in God good, bad, or irrelevant? with Preston Jones (2006)
• Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God with Steve Olson (2010)
• The Population Wars (upcoming)

External links

• Greg Graffin on Myspace
• Greg Graffin on Twitter