Epitaph Blog

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Posted by Scott Heisel on 09-Jul-08 @ 11:26 AM

Guitarist Brett Gurewitz and his band BAD RELIGION have schooled you for more than 25 years with nothing more than three chords and enlightened sociopolitical ideologies. On the recent deluxe release of their 2007 full-length, New Maps Of Hell, the band speak to you in more hushed tones–that is, through the bonus acoustic tracks, which include several original compositions by the band and stripped-down takes on familiar classics. Gurewitz recently discussed with Brian Shultz the mammoth release’s veritable wealth of bonus content, as well as the band’s forthcoming 15th(!) studio full-length and the Epitaph Records head’s interesting take on internet piracy–at least in regards to one particular case.

There haven’t been a ton of Bad Religion acoustic recordings through the years. Would you attribute that to reluctance, the idea never coming up, or something else entirely?
It’s because we’re a punk band, and that’s not our style. That’s not what we do. It’s really something off the beaten path for us.

How did the idea come up, then?
Well, I think the way it came up is that… Well, I’m not sure exactly when it first came up. [Frontman] Greg [Graffin] and I have always written songs on acoustic guitar and piano. We’ve always had fun playing acoustic guitar together, whether we were playing Neil Young songs or Bad Religion songs. We’d play together and harmonize for fun. And then, not too long ago I produced a [solo] album for Greg called Cold As The Clay, which was not in any way Bad Religion style, but it was comprised of traditional American folk music and some original compositions that Greg came up with that fit… I wouldn’t say it fit that style–[more that] it was a complementary style. [But] definitely non-Bad Religion acoustic compositions.

We did that and had a lot of fun with it, and I think that’s where we came up with the idea–”Hey, maybe we should do some of our songs this way.”

Read the entire article at Altpress.com

Tags: Brett Gurewitz, Interview

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Brett Gurewitz, Interview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.