Biography

7Seconds is a classic hardcore punk band from Reno, Nevada. Formed in 1979 by brothers Kevin Seconds and Steve Youth and playing their first show on March 2, 1980. 7Seconds is well known for bringing positive ideals into hardcore punk. They helped form the straight edge youth crew movement in the ’80s hardcore scene. They have released numerous albums since 1981, including Skins, Brains, and Guts, The Crew, Old School, Walk Together, Rock Together, New Wind, Good To Go and the recently released Take It Back, Take It On, Take It Over!. In the late 1980’s, the band began to grow musically as they explored other sounds. Critics of this switch to more complex and slower music often compared the band to U2. Albums from this period include the Praise EP, Ourselves, and Soulforce Revolution. However, the band has since returned to their hardcore punk roots where they can claim more of a following. They also appeared on the 1985 hardcore compilation Cleanse the Bacteria. The band is still recording music and touring the United States, Europe, and Japan to this day.

In the February, 2005 issue of AMP magazine, in an article titled, “7Seconds: 25 Years of Our Core,” Kevin Seconds explained how the band’s name originated:

“We were big fans of The Dils, they had this EP, 198 Seconds of The Dils and I was so in love with punk rock that I would just write album titles on my clothes. This was still when Steve and I lived with my mom. We had this desk in this room we shared and I wrote ‘197 seconds of The Dils’, I miswrote the title. Over time, everything else faded, but the 7Seconds part was there, and I circled it, I thought it looked cool.

Trivially, 7Seconds covered German pop artist Nena’s hit song 99 Red Balloons on their second album, Walk Together, Rock Together.