7 Seconds (often stylized as 7Seconds) are an American hardcore punk band from Reno, Nevada, that was formed in 1980 by two sets of brothers. The band has gone through numerous lineup changes over the subsequent years, with only Kevin Seconds and Steve Youth remaining constant members.
The current lineup of 7 Seconds consists of Kevin Seconds (vocals), Steve Youth (bass), Troy Mowat (drums), and Bobby Adams (guitar).
History
Formation
7 Seconds was formed on January 17, 1980, by two sets of brothers; the Marvelli brothers, using the punk rock names “Kevin Seconds” and “Steve Youth”, and the Borghino brothers, who were known as “Tom Munist” and “Dim Menace”.
Asked about the origins of the band’s name in a December 1982 interview with Flipside magazine, Kevin Seconds recalled:
“…I was ordering The Dils single ‘198 Seconds of The Dils’ from Bomp and I wrote it on a desk and the ink it said 97 Seconds; and then we saw this movie Day of the Jackals or something and all through it there were references to 7 Seconds, and the Dils were like our idols… So we were looking for a name and we were looking at this racing book and it said 7 seconds and we said, ‘fuck it, must be an omen,’ so we picked it. It’s a short, intense name.”
This story evolved over time. In the February 2005 issue of AMP, in an article titled, “7 Seconds: 25 Years of Our Core”, Kevin Seconds told this tale:
“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 7 Seconds part was there, and I circled it, I thought it looked cool.”
In 1981, Munist and Menace left to form a new band called Section 8.