BAD RELIGION have premiered their new song “True North”, the title track from their upcoming album, which arrives next month.
Epitaph Records issued the following statement:
“The song is written from the perspective of a kid who is running away,” Graffin explains. “He says ‘I’m out of here, I’m off to find true north.’ It’s about recognizing that you don’t fit in and trying to find a truth and purpose. Those are all classic punk themes. We still remember exactly what it feels like to be a disaffected kid in this world. And I think we were able to convey that particularly well on this album.”
Produced by the band and Joe Barresi, True North celebrates the power of cogent punk in the face of personal pain and adversity. On the new album, the storied band deliberately revisits and refines the powerful and melodic Southern California sound they helped to define. “We went back to our original mission statement of short concise bursts of melody and message,” co-songwriter and guitarist Brett Gurewitz explains. “The intent was to record stripped down punk songs without sacrificing any conceptual density.”
Bad Religion began in the sprawling suburbs surrounding Los Angeles. As insurgent teenage punks they offered an impassioned musical counterpoint to a dystopian culture of consumerism and anti-intellectualism. Founding members Greg Graffin, Brett Gurewitz and Jay Bentley were eventually joined by guitarists Greg Hetson from The Circle Jerks, Brian Baker of hardcore pioneers Minor Threat and a supremely talented drummer named Brooks Wackerman. In the following years the band was a major force in reinvigorating the modern punk movement, produced beloved international hits such as “Infected,” “21st Century (Digital Boy)” and “Sorrow” and has maintained an impassioned worldwide following of young and old who continue embrace a music that gives voice to, and celebrates, their dissent.
In a world still brimming with rampant anti-intellectualism, inequality and oppression, Bad Religion’s signature brand of sonically charged humanist dissent seems as relevant as ever.
