Jim McDonald: How are things with Rise Against?
Tim McIlrath: Things are great man, thanks
for asking. After a break to do the record, we're
back in the saddle right now, rolling around the
country with Alk3, Thrice, and Gaslight Anthem,
which is a treat. We've dusted the cobwebs of
our gear and we're getting back into the swing
of the things with all of the shows. The break
treated us well and we're re-energized to bring
the new record all around the world this year.
JM: The music of Rise Against progresses with
each album. How are fans reacting to the new songs?
Tim: So far so good, to be honest, I
don't read a lot of the reviews. I talk to kids
here or there or maybe get some emails, but when
you have all of these contradictory reports of
what your record sounds like to people, how the
hell are you supposed to keep up? It's a race
I dropped out of years ago. I figure as long as
there are still kids there every night we must
be doing something right, and realistically, we'd
still be doing it even if there wasn't all those
kids there every night too.
JM:. Did you work with producer Bill Stevenson
again on "Appeal To Reason"? What's
it like to have a punk legend in the studio?
Tim: Yeah this is our third record again
with Bill and Jason at The Blasting Room. They
are just the best team. It's perfect. I can't
say enough good things about them. Bill is a punk
legend, but you would never know it. He's just
a good guy, a great producer, a family man, and
a brilliant arranger and songwriter. Every once
in awhile we can pry a Black Flag story out of
him, but he's not one to go around talking about
it.
JM: This is the first release featuring guitarist
Zach Blair. Did that change the recording process?
Tim: Zach is a shredder at the guitar
so it was fun to watch him really hook up some
of the leads on the record. He also does a lot
of the back up vox on the record, which sound
great.
JM: Rise Against is often compared to other punk
bands with a political message, such as Bad Religion.
How important is a message in a Rise Against song?
Tim: To me, it's why I do music. I don't
do it to entertain people or become famous and
rich or whatever. I do it for the message behind
it. I owe so much to the punk and hardcore bands
of my past and all I'd like to do is pass that
on. I love songwriting of course, I love a great
riff or a catchy chorus. But without the message,
that can be so empty to me.
JM: I see Rise Against has posted new tracks
on the band's MySpace page. Do you think MySpace
has changed the way bands communicate with fans?
Tim: Yeah for sure, it seems like that’s
all kids care about nowadays. Seems like people
go to the MySpace page before they go to the website,
it's crazy. It seems to bring people together,
which is always a good thing.
JM: "Long Forgotten Sons" is an amazing
song. It's an example of how Rise Against reaches
outside the boundaries of punk rock. Where does
the band pull its diverse influences from?
Tim: Joe wrote that song, and we all
described it as Fugazi meets the Cure. It kind
of has that sort of Joy Division/Fugazi bassline,
and then some frilly guitar stuff over it that
gives it an 80s feel. We're into all kinds of
bands, including the ones just mentioned. So the
stuff just seeps into our songwriting and then
we make it our own.
JM:. "Audience of One" surprised me.
This one song encompasses aspects of a ballad,
an anthem and straight ahead punk. Is it difficult
to pull such songs off live?
Tim: I guess we'll find out when we try
it! We haven't added that one in the set yet.
But we rehearsed it and it went pretty well so
I don't envision any problems. Some songs are
harder to pull of than others, especially vocally,
for me. I can do pretty much anything we've written,
but some are easier than others.
JM: What's next for Rise Against?
Tim: We're on tour now with Alkaline
Trio, Thrice and Gaslight Anthem, then we head
to Canada in December with Thursday and Sage Francis.
We'll go home for a minute then head back out
to the UK with Anti Flag and the Flobots, and
then over to continental Europe with Strike Anywhere.
When we get home from that, we'll do Australia.
We also have a song on the Nightmare Revisited
soundtrack, and we're hoping to get to Japan somewhere
in there.
JM: Do you have any parting thoughts for our
readers?
Tim: Eating meat is the #1 cause of global
warming. MeatsNotGreen.com. Now go vote!
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