In a new interview with Sophie Dobschall of the Eyes Closed blog and Messed!Up Magazine, RISE AGAINST frontman Tim McIlrath spoke about how he injects political activism into his songwriting. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Very simply, I hope that people walk away feeling hope. The way I look at songs, as a songwriter, is that RISE AGAINST is a band that, like maybe many other bands, we are writing a song and we might take you to a dark place, we might bring you down into this dark cave and show you problems and conflict and sadness and that kind of thing, and then maybe where we’re different, or I hope we are at least, is that before that song is over, I hope that there’s a trail of breadcrumbs that will lead you out of it. We’re not gonna leave you in the dark. We want you to see the underbelly, we want you to see the problems of the world and society and the human condition, but, at the same time, because I think, as a songwriter, I do feel real hope and a lot of our fans give me that hope, I wanna make sure the song is laced with that hope as well. And so by the end of it, it’s, like, yes, these are problems, but they’re not something we haven’t seen before and not something that we can’t tackle and not something that we can’t get through.”
He continued: “So living in a moment — right now we’re watching this rise of a radical right wing sort of ideology sort of consuming the planet. That’s something RISE AGAINST has spoken about since our inception. We’re not a band that veered into politics late in our career; we’re a band that came out of the gates with politics. And so I think we’ve been unapologetic about our position. And I think what I’m focused on now is sort of reminding people the punk and hardcore values that exist in a band like ours have always been anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic. Punk has been pro science, punk has been pro truth and pro facts. And there is some of that that that gets twisted in the world we live in nowadays with disinformation and lack of critical thinking, or just really misinformed critical thinking that turns into conspiracy theories. As a band now, I think our mission is to kind of remind people that there’s a lot of different people out there trying to pull you into their revolution. But if that revolution, if there are elements of racism and sexism and homophobia in that revolution, that’s something that punk and hardcore has always rejected. And that’s a good way to find out if you are in some sort of bullshit revolution or going down the wrong path. And that’s something that we’ll just kind of continue to sing about.”
When Dobschall noted that she “having a really hard time right now being hopeful,” Tim said: “I think that’s normal. I think that there’s stress and anxiety in turning on the news these days, especially for somebody who cares about people and cares about the direction of the planet. And so, yeah, there are moments that I think that we are going to feel a lot of anxiety, and this is when we double down. This is when we put up a fight.
“I think I look at it as sometimes things have to get really bad for us to shake ourselves out of the sort of apathy, and I think there was a lot of apathy that allowed the White House to turn into what it has turned into,” Tim explained. “I think the silver lining is that I think that we’re going to expose what a radical right really looks like and what they really want, something that they’ve been good at kind of keeping secret, but now the secret’s kind of out and we’re seeing all these sort of racist and sexist underpinnings to the policies. And I think people are good and they’re going to reject that, when they get a chance to reject that. And in the meantime, we get to see on full display how backwards, how anti-science and anti-fact like a lot of these ideologies are. And that’s something that I hope is one of the silver linings in this.”
RISE AGAINST recently released a new single, “Nod”, via Loma Vista Recordings. The track, which marks RISE AGAINST‘s first new music in three years, will appear on the band’s upcoming follow-up to 2021’s “Nowhere Generation” album, tentatively due later in the year.
“Nod” was produced by Catherine Marks (BOYGENIUS, FOALS, MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA, ST. VINCENT) and mixed by Alan Moulder (NINE INCH NAILS, PARAMORE, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, THE KILLERS).
Last month, bandmembers McIlrath (lead vocals/guitar),Joe Principe (bass/vocals),Zach Blair (guitar/vocals) and Brandon Barnes (drums) hit the road for an extensive run of shows across Europe, before playing dozens of U.S. arenas, amphitheaters and pavilions with PAPA ROACH, as part of the co-headline “Rise Of The Roach” tour.
In a separate interview with Germany’s Rock Antenne, McIlrath was asked if America’s political turmoil has made the community at RISE AGAINST‘s concerts stronger. He responded: “I’ve noticed that. It sort of sharpens the blade a little bit. It sort of hones the mission. It reminds me why we started RISE AGAINST in the first place, in a post 9-11 America with the Bush administration. It reminds me of that era. It makes you hear the songs differently. It makes people come to the shows in a different way.
“I like to think that people come to our shows no matter what, but there’s something about people coming to our shows now where they need it,” he continued. “They need to be at the show, under the same roof with like-minded people who are concerned about the future of the world. And we’re concerned about the future of America and the future of the world.”
Tim, who has never been shy about expressing his social and political beliefs, added: “A Trump White House is a disaster. It’s been a disaster every single day it’s been there. Lots of sad things are happening, lots of things that make you really angry. And so this is the kind of era that our band was built for. This is what we were made for, this is why we’re here. So we have these songs to play to kind of talk about the same things we’ve been talking about for 25 years.”
Asked how the current political situation in America has changed his everyday life, Tim said: “I guess to answer your question, yeah, you walk out of your door into an ecosystem of a lot of anger. A lot of the things in the news are enraging you. People are divided. What’s happening in America tends to be contagious and it spreads across other borders. And so that kind of stuff, it makes you concerned. People look at you differently as Americans, ’cause they’re watching the news and they’re angry about it, and they should be angry about it. So, yeah, it affects everybody. It’s definitely — it’s concerning.”
Last October, McIlrath told RVA Magazine about RISE AGAINST‘s political activism: “Navigating this band politically in such a divisive era is a little trickier, but it is also more important than ever. We have a direct connection to our fan base, whatever size it is, and I want to be part of the solution and not the problem. I feel a responsibility to steer our fans in the right direction — at the very least, not steer them in the wrong direction.”
Tim further explained that the band started out in punk rock which was “synonymous” with politics. “It was something that was very close to my heart as the lyricist,” he said. “If you would accuse us of anything back then, it was preaching to the converted. It wasn’t that radical to be the guy from RISE AGAINST saying, ‘fuck the war in Iraq.'”
Source: blabbermouth.net
