Violent Apathy were a Hardcore Punk formed in March 1981 at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The original band was three high school friends from Jackson, Michigan (Kenny, Dick, and Jim) along with Eliot Rachman, another WMU student who hailed from East Lansing. Eliot had worked on the 1980 U.S. Census in Lansing, MI with members of The Fix and the original publishers (Tesco and Dave Stimson) of Touch and Go magazine. He introduced the other members of the band to the then very new music of the Fix, the Necros, and Negative Approach, and all three bands provided a great deal of support and encouragement to VA.