Iconoclast/The Iconoclast

Disclaimer: Please note that this bio may be altered from time to time because this is Rene the ex bass players version of the bio. However, I was recently corrected by the original vocalist on some inaccuracies. Here is the latest correction:

Iconoclast was born in the streets of sylmar in mid to late 1981. Nick, the drummer, and Greg, original vocalist, were looking for band members at godzilla's before finally deciding with Ralph the guitarist of Public Nuisance. Ralph was a last option for guitarist because of the potential tension from PN. and, Rene's brother actually named the band; he referred to him and "your friends" as iconoclasts. at the time, none of us knew what the word meant.

Ralph had a leg up on all of us cuz his dad and lil brother were musically inclined. After going to punk shows all of 81 and seeing bands like Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, the feederz, the stains, and the Circle Jerks, Ralph encouraged the likes of Me(Rene aka Yaotl), Greg Holdridge, and Nick Hansen, who could already drum, to form a band. We totally started in the DIY tradition as the bass player(mua) could only play at first with his two thumbs. But we still rocked it anyway. By the end of 81, thanks to ralphs dad who promoted the show, we opened for bad brains and circle jerks. We initially became heavily influenced by Minor Threat and their message of straight edge. It was refreshing because Ole english and black beauties dominated the punk scene back then. I think that kind of critical thinking is what pointed us in the direction of crass and its crass label mates and also of course another great influence: Discharge. Who we came to worship by the time ralph quit the band. We took their message of anti war seriously. We were first introduced to discharge before crass and their crowd. Discharge, being seperate from crass and their label mates, were the perfect introduction to critically analyzing the world at that time for a band from a working class neighborhood like us. Discharge's lyrics were rudimentary and to the point. They definately planted a big seed of resistance for us. They were the perfect stepping stone for going to the next level of critical thinking music bands like crass, rudimentary peni, flux of pink indians to name a few. At first when we were primarily Discharge influenced we were all spiky haired/discharge fashioned out and hooked up in 83 with Crucifix from San Francisco who helped us out a great deal. Thanks to them and Peace Love and Happines, Atrocity, State of Mind,

to name a few bands that existed in SF at the time, we started to question meat eating and wearing leather. So we donated the Docs and leather to Big Mountain and anyone elso who could use it and began wearing kung fu(non leather) shoes and black army pants, t shirts, and let our once spiky hair hang down because Knox gelatin was an animal product and we use to use that back then to make that shit stand up high. This was the emergence of the crusty look that our brothers from Body Count in Long Beach, who we met in 84, coined. As we got turned on to questioning the use of animals and their by products we simultaneously were listening to flux of pink indians lyrics like "I used to graze in a field!" etc. This only pushed us further down the path of consciousness. Shortly after this period is when we lost our singer Greg and guitarist Brendan. Right when we got asked to do a tour of Europe with Raw Power of italy, we were crushed to lose Brendan and Greg. However, Rene and Nick continued. Hooking up with the guitarist of Armistice(another early peace punk presence), Ivan Morley, and a kid named Don DelValle. Who both brought a different kind of intensity and talent into the band. With this line up the band continued learning in depthly about anarchism and doing work like playing benefits for animal rights, anti nuclear, anti apartheid, anti police brutality, and Big Mountain. The band began to write songs in another vein. To be continued

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