Rise Against’s frontman Tim McIlrath welcomed us in his dressing room just before the band’s latest concert in Paris at the Bataclan. The singer steps back to tell us about his band, ans their latest record.
“The Black Market” went out a while ago now, did you have any feedback, good or bad?
Tim McIlrath (vocals): The feedback was positive, mostly. When we created the record, I wasn’t even sure it was like a new thing we haven’t done before, or if it was a throwback to our old sound. It was confusing to me. And when the songs came out they were their own kind of entities. And so it was interesting and insightful to hear what other people thought of it. And I felt like you got people who are on very different sides. Some thought it sounds like our old stuff, other told us “oh this is a new sound”. And so I guess it was confusing for a lot of people. But I think it’s cool, when you can’t necessarily categorize it from the first listen. But we were happy with it and proud of all the songs.
We noticed the lyrics were a bit more personal, you’re saying “I”, and talk more about people’s experiences. Any particular reason?
T: Yeah, I think that Rise Against is a band that always kind of looked out in the world for what we’re singing about. And something about this record had me looking more inward, like, who we are as a band and what we do. That was something I wanted to explore because this band is something that’s been going on for like 15 years, and now I’m trying to understand it more, to understand what it is that we’ve created. This band, this music, these songs, these words, our connection with the fans… We’ve been around so long that we’ve definitely build something that has hit some nerve with people, but what is that nerve? So some of the songs deal with that.
You’ve also introduce the album on tour, how did it work on stage? Any feeling?
T: Yeah so we’re paying like three new songs in the set. I felt like there were new fans in our crowd who haven’t seen Rise Against before and coming to the show for the first time. Normally new songs are something the crowd dies down to a little, like “what’s this, it’s new, I’ve never heard this”, but something about this record makes the crowd come alive. We play “I Don’t Want To Be Here Anymore”, “Tragedy + Time” and “People Live Here”, and there always are singalongs. Usually it takes a while for people to consider the songs as a part of the set. And there I feel like they’re already part of it, people are already reacting to it. Which is cool, it surprises us.
Did the writing and recording sessions go differently as well?
T: A little different, in the sense that usually we lock ourselves away for like a month and write all the songs, and instead we took those four weeks and spaced them over four or five months. We got together in Santa Monica at the Red Bull Studios for a week and wrote a few songs, and then we got together in Texas where Zach lives and wrote a few songs, went home, came back and got together in Chicago to write a few songs there, and then we got together in Colorado. And so all of that was something we never did before.
Do you have any favorite songs on the album?
T: I like “The Black Market”, the actual song, and “The Eco-Terrorist In Me” that was a song that came out really fun. Those two especially. I don’t really know why. I think the lyrics were kind of a different feel for us.
Is there any band or artist that you liked recently? Something that might have influenced you?
T: I don’t know. I love what’s coming out of the punk and hardcore world in the States right now. Bands like Touché Amoré or Balance And Composure, bands like that. The whole new crop of bands from that world. It makes me think than music is getting really interesting again. Some cool stuff is happening.
Any plans for the future?
T: Well I just did a Guns N’ Roses cover fir this compilation called “This Concerns Everyone”. It’s a compilation of artists that recorded songs into their phones. Just my voice and the guitar. Then I sent it to Chris #2 who plays the bass for Anti-Flag and him and his label put out this whole thing. We also just finished a video for “Tragedy + Time” which is out there right now. But in the meantime we’re just touring a lot so that’s kinda where our head is right now.
We’ve seen you’ve made a project with East Side Burgers, how did that happen?
T: I’ve met them through a friend of mine, and they said that they wanted to make us a burger, with the upcoming show. And we just said “sure, yeah, that’d be fun!”. We made up our burger after another one. When I was a kid growing up in Chicago and I was still eating meat and going to McDonald’s (laughs), Michael Jordan was a big star in Chicago. And so there were a Michael Jordan burger. And I remember being a kid and liking that burger. So this one’s like the vegetarian version of the Michael Jordan burger.
Last question, we are “RockUrLife” so what rocks your own life?
T: I guess we rock our lives by still giving everything we have on stage every night and still being a part of the cities that we travel to and meeting the fans and all that stuff that keeps us alive and that keeps us wanting to do this. And I just want to say a huge thank you to all our fans here in France, it’s been awesome coming here so many times and this is the first time we sold this place out, it’s very exciting to get better and better every time we come. And we’re coming back soon by the way, for the Hellfest this summer!
Website: riseagainst.com
