Keep the Faith was created in 1989 by Dean Adams, Jeremy Dean, Jesse Pires and Bill Kaizen, friends and North Penn High School Students at the time. To escape the bourgeois oppression and total boredom of their suburban hometown the group often found themselves taking the R5 Septa train to Philadelphia to skate and see all-ages hardcore shows. Now defunct venues such as Club Pizazz and Revival served as a vital breeding ground for the attitudes and ideas that would find their way onto the pages of Keep the Faith. Influenced by both the gritty, street-wise attitudes of the New York Hardcore scene and the progressive, eclectic style of the D.C. music scene, KTF was truly a unique mix. Dean’s love of the Jesus & Mary Chain and Zodiac Mindwarp blended perfectly with Jesse’s Hip-Hop and straight edge obsessions. While Jeremy’s artistic vision and pop-punk leanings worked well with Bill’s Sub Pop sensibilities. The end result was a true combined effort. Jesse and Dean formed a band “Instant Justice,” while Jeremy and Jesse later released Homeslice fanzine which featured interviews with Bad Trip, American Standard, Supertouch and Edgewise.