Biography.

By 1984, when what would have become the Offspring formed, the original Orange County punk scene had fractured. "We used to

go this dance club called Circle City, and there'd be 10 different cliques," says Kriesel. "In our high school there was a rockabilly

scene, as well as a mod scene and a New Wave scene, as well as a punk scene," Holland adds.

But at Pacifica High, a large public school in Garden Grove, Calif. Holland wasn't a member of any of those groups. The third of four

children born to a hospital administrator father and a schoolteacher mother, he kept busy being a "good kid" and hoped to be a

doctor. "Sports were a really big thing," Holland says, "I was on the cross-country team." He also happened to be class valedictorian

(thus his nickname, Dexter).

His senior year, Holland's older brother gave him a Rodney on the ROQ compilation album. Before then, Holland was a casual

listener. But soon after, he was devouring Flipside and Maximumrocknroll, fanzines out of Pasadena, Calif., and Berkeley, Calif.,

respectively, that are virtual how-to guides to punk dome. His favorite bands were T.S.O.L. (particularly 1981's Dance With Me),

the Adolescents and Agent Orange County bands that weren't as hung up on politic as their Bay Area counterparts.

Holland's cross-country teammate Greg Kriesel discovered punk even later. His investment-banker father saw law school in his son's

future. And for most of high school, Kriesel was a sports fan and self-proclaimed jock (he also played baseball). The first punk

records he ever heard were the ones the ones Holland played for him. "Music wasn't something that meant a lot to me," he says. "But

I started listening to it because it was around, and I got used to it."

Holland and Kriesel formed their first band, Manic Subsidal, with two other cross-country teammates one night in 1984 after failing

to get in a Social Distortion show. At the time, the two didn't even own instruments, much less know how to play them. "Bryan and

I both learned together," says Kriesel, "and he wasn't even playing chords at the time, so he'd play on one string, and I tried to do the

same thing. By the summer we were actually playing songs, but it took a while."

Kriesel's house was the site of the band's first gigs. "It's just always a hangout," Kriesel says, "on any given weekend night up to 20

people could drop by. I had a big upstairs that was pretty much mine, and my mom was downstairs. But she's always been really

cool about it.

That fall, Holland began premed studies at USC (he's currently a Ph.D. candidate in molecular biology). Kriesel was attending Golden

West Junior College and later recieved a B.A. in finance from Long Beach State while working part time in a print shop (he's planning

to attend law school). Weekends were the only time the band could rehearse.

Once Holland had written a handful of songs with self-explanitory titles like "Very Sarcastic" and "Sorority Bitch," the fledgling band

headed for a cheap studio. Momentarily waylaid when its guitarist jumped ship, the band recruited Kevin Wasserman, an older

Pacifica grad who then worked as the school janitor. Pretty soon, Wasserman was "not doing a hell of a lot except practicing at Greg's

house on weekends and drinking excessively." Being the only member of the band over 21, Wasserman was particularly useful when

it came to buying beer.

"I remember being amazed by Bryan," Wasserman says, "He was valedictorian, he was such a math geek. So when I first saw him

with black hair and plaid bondage pants, I was like 'What are you doing?' But I thought it was cool, going beyond what I thought was

society's role for him."

Ron Welty moved to Garden Grove for part of high school, and it was there that his older stepsister introduced him to Holland. "My

mom's been through a few divorces," Welty says. "She'd get remarried and we'd move, and then she'd get divorced, we'd move." Welt

was only 16 when he begged Holland to let him substitute for Manic Subsidal's drummer who had started medical school and wads

missing lots of gigs.

In 1987, the Offsping paid to release their own 7-inch single. Unable to afford the additional quarter per copy it cost to paste the

front sleves to the backs, the band bought a case of beer and glue sticks and held a party for its friends. "To this day the covers don't

hold together too well," says Holland. It took the band two and a half years to get rid of the 1,000 copies it printed.

Two years and a pile of rejections later, the Offspring scored a contract with Nemesis, a small punk label distributed by Cargo. After

tracking down producer Thom Wilson, who had crafted their favorite albums by T.S.O.L., the Vandals and the Dead Kennedys, the

Offspring recorded another 7-inch single, called Baghdad, and an album debut titled The Offspring. "All punk bands back in '84

wrote about was police, death, religion and war," says Holland. "So that's what we did."

While recording a track for a Flipside compilation with Brett Gurewitz - owner of Epitaph records and then Southern California's

biggest punk success story, Bad Religion - the Offspring glimpsed a rosier future. "A little after that, I got a tape," says Gurewitz.

"But I have to admit I passed on it."

A year later, when the Offspring began circulating demos for what would become their next album to every punk label they could

think of, Gurewitz reconcidered. "It definitely had what people call the Epitaph sound," he says. "High energy, rebelleous punk with

great melodies and cool economical song structures. "In 1992 Epitaph released Ignition, 12 brief but energetic Offspring songs that

summed up the previous decade of Orange County Punk. Other Epitaph bands include Rancid and NOFX.

In 1994 their breakthrough single Come out and Play and top hit Self Esteem helped push their third album, Smash to the best selling

independent record of all time (9 million plus), and heavy MTV rotation. After the success of Smash, new fans discovered Ignition

as it reappeared in stores. Due to the amount of overpriced, poor quality bootlegs, they rereleased their self titled The Offspring in

1995 with their own label, Nitro. Nitro has released albums for several other bands, including The Vandals and Guttermouth.

In 1996, the Offspring signed with Columbia records after disputes with Epitaph. Their next album, Ixnay on the Hombre, was

released in February 1997. Dexter and Jello Biafra stared their own benefit foundation, FSU this year. They are currently on tour. Shortly after Ixnay on the Hombre they released Americana with the hits: Pretty fly for a white guy,Why don't you get a job and The kid's aren't allright. But that's not all.The Offspring got two more albums on contract.

Source: the Offspring.net