Whether or not they agree with the title, Rise Against is being viewed as one of the bands at the forefront of the current wave of political punk. They are all over the place at the moment, with a new album,
The Sufferer & The Witness, due out July 4 and a slot on this year's Warped Tour. I connected with Rise Against front man Tim McIlrath just before the Warped Tour kicked off. He had a bit to say about the new album, and about the role of politics in punk.
RC: You guys are often viewed as being extremely political. Do you think that's accurate?
TM: Do I give a s**t about what happens in the world I have to live in? F**k yeah, I do! Don't you? Does that mean I'm political? Does that make us "extremely political"? The only reason our band is viewed as being "extremely political" is because of the lack of bands in the punk/hardcore scene today that are saying anything important.
I don't mind the political tag, but I don't think it's entirely accurate. I don't think we are any more political than a lot of the punk bands that we grew up with. Punk rock or hardcore with politics were always synonymous to me, I don't see the disconnect.
In that sense, I consider us a punk band, or a hardcore band. We do what punk bands or hardcore bands have always done in the past, use their music as a vehicle for change and awareness. When I think of politics in music, I think of really articulate bands like Bad Religion and Anti-Flag. These guys delve into the nitty-gritty of politics and expose it for what it is.
I don't mind the political tag that we seem to carry, that's fine. But I can't claim it. I don't feel right claiming it. We write straight-up love songs and songs that are very personal sometimes, and I think claiming to be a political band and then playing songs that aren't political is false advertising.
I don't think we belong on the same level as bands like Rage Against The Machine. I admire what they did, but I don't want someone reading this interview to think that we are what they were. There are lots of sides to Rise Against, one of those sides is certainly a political side that is very close to my heart, but it's not our only side.
RC: You seem to be closely attached to PETA. How did that come about?
TM: I guess it started with the fact that none of us eat meat. It just happens to be this common ground that we all share, it wasn't planned like that.
For me, personally, PETA was a big reason I became vegetarian 10 years ago. The resources they provided the bands that I was going to see when I was 17 found their way into my pockets and I ended up checking it out. I was a meat-eater and never had any intention of giving that up. But after seeing videos like Meat is Murder and reading more and more about how the inhumane treatment of animals as well as how low-quality and disgusting our meat and dairy products really are, I just couldn't actually physically stomach it any longer.
What helped in this transition was that neither the bands nor PETA ever shoved anything down my throat. They simply presented me with information and let me process it on my own. This is something that I don't take for granted and I now feel responsible for passing this down to the next generation, like the generation of bands before me did.
RC: What do you think punk rock's responsibility is in today's political culture? Does it have a responsibility?
TM: Punk exists to be a sanctuary for those of us who don't relate to the rest of society. Today's political culture is a huge part of that society and therefore punk has a responsibility to keep the doors open to this sanctuary of free thought, so kids will have somewhere to go to be a part of this community.
RC: What about the rise in conservatively political punk bands? Do you think that contradicts the origins of punk rock?
TM: Conservative punk bands are like the kid who walks into the wrong classroom on the first day of school. Dude, this isn't your class, you f***ed up, now go away.
I think it's giving them too much credit to call it a "rise". I've only seen a handful of bands who consider themselves conservative, and they are pretty insignificant bands usually just looking for a little press.
RC: I know you are attached to many causes, but do you have one underlying message for your fans?
TM: Change and awareness are important to me. I know those are broad terms, but I don't think enough people really understand them.
RC: Enough with the politics. Let's talk about the music. How would you describe the new album? Is there an underlying message?
TM: There is a cause and effect theme to this record. There are songs talking about how what we do here right now and the choices we make affect someone on the other side of the planet. There is also a crisis of faith theme on this record. What do we do when everything becomes too overwhelming to handle? When it's so much easier to just give in, why should we continue to fight?
RC: And what's the meaning behind the album's title,
The Sufferer & The Witness?
TM: This ties in to the cause and effect theme. In the information age we live in today, we are allowed to watch the events of the world unfold almost in real-time. Many of these events are examples of suffering. Things like war, poverty, famine, the destruction of our environment and the species that inhabit it. We are bearing witness to this suffering. We are not blind offenders. We can no longer pretend it doesn't exist, because the technology we've created is bringing images of Darfur, Baghdad, the riots in Paris, and the slaughtering of animals right to your living room. You are now a witness. You can't close your eyes to it. What will you decide to do about it?
RC: I've heard a few tracks from the album, and they range from some faster hard stuff on "Chamber The Cartridge" to more melodic hardcore on "Ready To Fall", but it all seems a bit on the dark side. Are these pretty indicative of the sound on the whole album?
TM: I think they are. Now that I have a little distance from the record I can see the darker side to our writing. I'm not sure why that is, but our music has always been a reflection of our surrounding, and the world is admittedly a pretty dark place right now, perhaps darker than it was during our previous recordings.
RC: "Ready To Fall" is an interesting song. What's it about?
TM: It's about getting to the top and having nowhere to go but down. It's about the price you pay to follow your dreams.
RC: You spent a relatively long time putting this album together, spending 12 weeks in Colorado putting it together. How was that experience?
TM: F***ing beautiful. Perfect. We had such a great time. I don't even look back on it as "recording" or working in a studio, I look back on it as hanging out with friends creating something that has a piece of each of us in it. It was a great chaotic and spontaneous process for all of us. Bill [Stevenson] is a genius and so is Jason Livermore. Those guys are at the top of their game right now and they poured their blood, sweat and tears into this record.
It's so rare to find what we have found at The Blasting Room, and it means a lot to us.
RC: Do you think it helped you produce the album you wanted to release?
TM: Without a doubt. This record could not have been done anywhere else. If anyone else did this record, it simply would just not be as good as it is. Bill and Jason were instrumental with what we did as a band. They lit a fire under our asses and got the best performance out of each of us.
RC: What can we expect from you guys on the Warped Tour this summer? What's a Rise Against show like?
TM: Clowns and fire-breathers and strippers on poles and...
All kidding aside, you can expect four dudes who put their hearts into every song and play every show like it's our last. We don't do any fancy s**t, we just rock out and do our thing.
RC: This isn't your first time on the Warped Tour. What's the whole Warped Tour experience like, hitting the road with that many bands and being part of such a huge travelling event?
TM: It's a good f***ing time. For me, I'm a 27-year-old kid who's been granted this extension of my adolescence. I haven't worked a job in like four years and I've been touring the last six years of my life. It's a weird life that not a lot of people can relate to. Warped is where we go to feel normal. We hang out with people who do the same s**t we do. We tell stories, we share new music with each other, you make friends with bands you end up taking on tour. We have bonfires, poker games, and BBQs and there's a lot of dialogue. We learn a lot from each other, and I love being a part of that community.
RC: Any closing thoughts?
TM:
Check our new video. It's the most important video of our career. Kevin Kerslake did it, he's f***ing amazing. It's a video that transcends all the petty bulls**t behind the music world and bands and scenes and scenesters and drama and soundscans and BillBoard charts. It's a video that is bigger than this band or any band and I hope the message isn't exclusive to people that like Rise Against, but instead is a message that resonates long after our band is dead and buried, but the issues we sing about aren't.
