7 Seconds

Kevin Seconds - singing Steve Youth - bass Bobby Adams - guitar Troy Mowat - drums
In 1982, the US punk scene was divided between various points on the East and West coasts. While everyone's ears are riveted at the homes of Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco, 7 Seconds set fire to his little town of Reno (Nevada), playing intensely, and managed to quickly make a name through fanzines and word-of-mouth. The band already has two eps, 3 Chord Politics (1981) and Skins, Brains and Guts , published by Jello Biafra on the label Alternatives Tentacles. This release is a real boost for 7 Seconds just before the release of the single Committed For Life.
Around 1983, the band was spotted by Shawn Stern, singer of Youth Brigade (the LA group not that of DC), and boss of the Better Youth Organisation label. So on the verge of releasing their first album on Alternatives Tentacles, 7 Seconds seizes the opportunity to publish it more quickly on his label. Between December 1983 and April 1984, Dan Pozniak (guitar), Steve Youth (bass), Troy Mowat (drums), and Kevin Seconds (chant) met in a California studio to record The Crew, an album that influenced a whole generation of punk bands. Quickly, 7 Seconds becomes a pillar of the hardcore underground US scene and turns alongside Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion or Descendants. It takes three years for the band's second album to come out. Recorded at the Inner Ear Studio and produced by Ian Mackaye, Walk Together, Rock Together includes a studio part featuring such famous titles as "Regress No Way" or "We're Gonna Fight" and a live part captured at LA's Fender in 1985 by a sound engineer named Brett Gurewitz ( Bad Religion). This year 1986 is a turning point for the hardcore scene. With the withdrawals of Black Flag , Misfits , or Dead Kennedys , it is an entire chapter that closes (a new one will open two years later with the advent of the Chain of Strenght , Gorilla Biscuit , Youth of Today et al.). 7 Seconds continues his journey without his prestigious acolytes and releases the album New Wind which marks a turn in the band's discography. From that moment on, the band took a musical orientation in complete rupture with the hardcore of the beginnings, deriving in a fade pop-punk with U2 accents. During this period, 7 Seconds will record several more or less interesting albums such as Soulforce Revolution or Ourselves .
The release of Good to Go in 1999 on the Side One Dummy label marks the return to a punk more faithful to the spirit of 1983. 7 Seconds, in view of his past, has experienced a clear increase in fame that is worth appearing in prestigious festivals such as the Vans Warped Tour or, more recently, the Eastpack Resistance on which he shares the poster with Suicide Machines or Sick of it All. At the beginning of 2005 his latest opus, Take it Back, Take it On, Take it Over, should be released.