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RISE AGAINST: Shots Fired With 'Richochet' · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: My name is Tim mclrath, and I played the band
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Rise against.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Beautiful Things so much. Your latest album, Ricochet, is set for.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: A lase in August.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: And you've always been politically conscious, but Ricochet seems more
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: inwardly focused too. What did you discover about yourself during
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: its writing process?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's a good question, you know. I think going
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: into a tenth album, it's the first time I really
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: considered like the number of albums we've actually made before.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I think before that it wasn't something I thought about.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: And hitting those double digits, you know, you realize, okay,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: like we've really made our name, we have a reputation,
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  Speaker 1: we've ticked a lot of the boxes that we set
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  Speaker 1: out to tick, and now what is it we still
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: want to do? Like what is there left to do?
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: And I think with that came a lot of like
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: freedom to sort of just write whatever is kind of
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: on the top of your skull at that moment, you
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. And I think that's kind of
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: where this one came out. It came out. It's just
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: sort of like less like we must take these boxes
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: and more like what are you feeling right now? What
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: do you want to write? Right now. And I think
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: that's kind of what it's been with Rise Against. It's
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: sort of we have we don't shy away from a
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: political side of this band. You know, we're playing a
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: band called Rise Against. And then we also have songs
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: like our fans like it's it's far more complicated than
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: and complex because as people were far more complicated as
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: complex like all of us, you know. And so there
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: are songs out there, some of our most popular songs,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: like when you really put them under the microscope, they
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: aren't political at all, you know, They're just kind of
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: about life and love and loss and all those things.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: And so this record was I think just sort of like,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: you know, don't go in with any sort of preset
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: idea of what you want to do, just kind of
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: just go overthink it and just do it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, sort of what's there in the moment, let's
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  Speaker 3: capture that.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's kind of what it was.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. And was there a particular event that was the
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: sort of catalyst for this album?
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Hmm. There was no real like event. This was like
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: like a lot of us were coming out of like
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: a post COVID world, you know what I mean. We
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: had like made our album now our generation, you know,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: like a lot of bands like it took us a
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: long time to finally get it out and get it
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: around the world and properly toured all the places that
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: we would like to tour in. And so I think
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: this was sort of like a bit of a like
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: a all right, we made it through that crazy time
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: of all of our lives, and like what's next, Like
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: what's happening in the world next? What did we learn
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  Speaker 1: about ourselves as a society in that time, Like what
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: were some of the good things in the positive things
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: that came out of that and what are some of
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the negative things that came out of that whole world too?
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  Speaker 1: Just like you know that we learned about some of
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the darker sides of like the Internet and misinformation and
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing. And are we ready for the
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: next pandemic? You know, when mother nature and science inevitably
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: creates it, you know. And so I think all those
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: things were kind of like swirling around as we put
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the other album together.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, really interesting how like current events kind of
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: can influence you. But at the same time you're saying
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: like they weren't anything, There wasn't something infic like specifically
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: that made you, guys go, we need to do this album.
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  Speaker 3: It was just like a culmination of everything going on.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that we're always like I think no
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  Speaker 1: matter where we are, we're always suppressed in an album.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Like it's always it's always happening. The next album is
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: always kind of happening. It's happening night here in Sweden,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: you know, when we watch like the opening band and
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: they'll like inspire us, or like it'll happen on a
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: day off or we're just hanging out and watching the
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: news or just seeing the way the world interacts. So
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: like it's there's always a new album like bubbling up,
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  Speaker 1: you know what I mean, And so like it's always
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: a document of like where we are at that moment.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And speaking just quickly on other bands, are there
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  Speaker 2: any bands at the moment that you're really into and
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  Speaker 2: really just loving or inspired by at the moment.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: I guess the obvious one because I'm wearing their T shirt.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Spiritual Cramp. We just saw them in Germany last week,
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  Speaker 1: and we took on tour pretty much around the world
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: like we did the US, and we did a lot
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: of Europe, and I'd love to bring them to Australia.
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  Speaker 3: There.
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  Speaker 1: They're such a fun, cool, live like band that's really
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  Speaker 1: killing it at the moment. They remind me of like
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: a young US and so yeah, definitely definitely watching them.
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  Speaker 1: You know. We just spent a lot of time with
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  Speaker 1: them and Alice Dunes this year and so now al
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the Tudents are just old friends, you know. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 1: so watching those bands like every night was like cool
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  Speaker 1: to see just your buddies killing it every night, you know.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, crazy.
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  Speaker 2: And this is going to sound really fake fan of me,
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  Speaker 2: but I only just discovered that you were in Angelus,
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: like when you first started out, I had no idea.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like that was Chicago back in that there
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  Speaker 1: was a pretty small world. And so I grew up
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  Speaker 1: with like up line trio guys, and I grew up
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: at Pete and Patrick. We did play in a band
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  Speaker 1: together briefly, but we were always like we were like
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  Speaker 1: before that band even started, Like we were always at
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  Speaker 1: shows together, Like Pete and I were always the same shows.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: It's in the hardcore scene. We were both like straight
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: edge kids, like listening to Earth Crisis and Strife and
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: like the part of the hardcore scene. And so it was.
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  Speaker 1: It was cool to see everybody kind of come out
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  Speaker 1: of that world. I feel like a lot of the bands,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people I was hanging out with, turned
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  Speaker 1: into like Alkaline Trio turned it into Pelican, turned into
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  Speaker 1: followup by obviously. You know, there was a lot of
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  Speaker 1: Chicago was a really fun place to be like around
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  Speaker 1: that time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I also love it because I do also
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  Speaker 2: in those bands that you mentioned. He the political undertones,
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  Speaker 2: it seems like there's something in the water there. You
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: guys are really you know, wanting to put your voices
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  Speaker 2: out there and use your platforms.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: It's great.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Nineties hardcore was like all us kind of going
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: to the same school in that sense, Like and nineties
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: hard core was like political and like sometimes hyper political,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: And it was the first time I learned about, like,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: like I really learned about like indigenous cultures and sweatshops
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: and issues that involved the environment and climate change. Like
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of the bands were using the
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  Speaker 1: stages as more than a place just to sell records
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: or sell tickets. They were trying to introduce you to
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: like animal rights, you know, and that kind of stuff.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: So it really was like a secondary education. So we
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: were in those sort of we were in those same
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: audiences together, and I love it, you know, I love
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: seeing fall Up Boy take over the world. I love
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  Speaker 1: seeing all these bands like still people still doing what
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: they do, and even people that didn't end up doing
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  Speaker 1: things musically, Like I have friends who became like human
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  Speaker 1: rights lawyers or like they became great teachers, you know
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  Speaker 1: what I mean, in public schools, you know what I mean,
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  Speaker 1: Like people that came out of that world, you know,
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  Speaker 1: took something from that world, and that in the hardcore
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  Speaker 1: seeing I find it crops up in so many parts
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  Speaker 1: of like the industry, you know, like the guy who
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  Speaker 1: designed our last record Nowhere Generation I found out like
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  Speaker 1: we've been at some of this same shows back in
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  Speaker 1: the day, you know. Now he's like a huge designer,
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  Speaker 1: designing for like Lady Gaga and Sam Smith and stuff,
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  Speaker 1: and so it's like it really was a cool culture
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: that kind of very DIY kind of taught you like
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  Speaker 1: if you want something like go and do it and
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  Speaker 1: take it and don't wait for anybody to like formally
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  Speaker 1: invite you, you know what I mean. I think those
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  Speaker 1: are like in the end, those were like good life
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  Speaker 1: lessons for all this.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, it's amazing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, when you mentioned how many great things and people
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  Speaker 2: came out of Chicago, he.
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  Speaker 1: Has a fun place to be in the nineties.
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  Speaker 3: For sure, that's awesome.
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  Speaker 2: And what's one beliefable worldview you held ten years ago
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  Speaker 2: that's completely changed for you now and that has crept
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  Speaker 2: into your writing.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, a worldview I held ten years ago
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  Speaker 1: that has completely changed. Okay, yeah, big questions. I guess, like,
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  Speaker 1: I guess what has changed mostly is like I think
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  Speaker 1: that so speaking of this like world that we grew
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  Speaker 1: up in the punk and hardcore world in the nineties
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and then having Rise Against and bands like Fallowplay whatever,
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  Speaker 1: we kind of grew out of that world. I think
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  Speaker 1: that there was a point where you were so used
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  Speaker 1: to being in a room with people that were like minded,
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  Speaker 1: you know what I mean, that you started to think
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  Speaker 1: that that's what that room was always going to be.
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  Speaker 1: You were always going to play for people that were
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: like money, You're always going to play for an audience
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  Speaker 1: that was mostly on the same page. And I think
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: the critics would call that like preaching to the converted, right,
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  Speaker 1: you know what I mean, You're just kind of like
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: you're just all just talking to each other like that,
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  Speaker 1: I think. Whereas maybe I had made those assumptions, I
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: now don't make those assumptions. I now know that, like
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: the world is far more polarized, and even our own
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: families is far more polarized. And so I know that
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: our politics will land on some fans and they will
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: ruffle the feathers of other fans, you know what I mean.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I think that's okay. It's a good thing. Actually, if
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: we could find spaces that we can codd this together,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: because there are too many places now that we are
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: so siloed and we don't get to communicate. And I
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: think when we communicate in real life, we find out
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  Speaker 1: that we have a far more common than we are,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: you know, just skit talking each other on the internet,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: you know. And so I think music can be that place.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: And so I don't assume that someone is on like
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: my side or my page or agrees with my band.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: I don't assume that we have the same ideas of
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: what a revolution is, you know what I mean. And
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  Speaker 1: so with that comes to me like a bigger responsibility
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: to more clearly define what I think revolution is, like
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  Speaker 1: what I think changes, you know, to make sure that
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: someone doesn't think I'm on their side when actually I'm
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: singing against the exact opposite things that they are advocating for.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so true. Great answer.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: By the way, do you ever get scared about being
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: so politically open? Uh?
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  Speaker 1: No, I guess it's sort of like the path that
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: we've sort of chosen, you know what I mean, in
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: a way, so like I think fear doesn't really factor
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: into it, Like there are crazy people in this world,
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  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I think that I remember
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: the first time Rides Against got death threats was like
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: so long ago that it kind of made you to think, like,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: all right, do we want to do this? Is this
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: still worth it to do it? You know what I mean?
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Should we be back in the way? Should we be
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: responding to these things? And then I realized that, no,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to respond to this, like I'm going
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to just do what I do, you know what I mean,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Because to respond is to kind of back down from
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: it all, and so we're just going to continue being
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: part of the solution.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, definitely. That's awesome. And how do you personally
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: avoid burnout? Especially as someone who's been speaking truth to
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: power for over two decades in a high stakes, high
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: emotion way.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Oh man, well, I guess, like the simple answer is,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I don't you know what I mean? Like burnout as normal.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: It happens to all of us. Like, don't feel like
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: a freak if it happens to you, Like we all
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: get from story. We all want things to change, and
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: there are all moments where we feel like things aren't changed,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: or maybe they're going backwards, you know what I mean, Like,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: like those moments will happen to you if you are
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: engaged in ideas of change and awareness and that kind
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: of thing, but you find the silver lines, you know
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: what I mean. Like And for me, it's because like
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: I get to go on stage every night. I'll go
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: on stage tonight here in Gothenburg. I get to see
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: people from Sweden, you know, so far away from me
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: and speaking a different language, that are resonating with some
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: of the things that we're singing about. And so I
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: will walk away inspired by that and then connect that
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: audience to Stockholm and then to Oslo and then to
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Germany this weekend and like and all the way to
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: like Australia and Melbourne and Sydney, and I realized, oh
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: my gosh, we are all connected in this amazing way
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and this is cool, and so I think that's something
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I try to remind our crowds at night, like listen,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: like you guys aren't alone, you know what I mean?
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Like this is there's so many of us, and there
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: are more of us. That's kind of the way I
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: look at the world now is that I think that
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: there are people in this world with a very shitty
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: vision of the future, and they're fighting for that vision.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I think those people who are very loud right now,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: but I think there are more people with this really cool,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: beautiful vision of all of us coexisting and that we
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: just aren't as loud. It's as simple as that, because
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I do think there are more of us than there
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: are of them, and we just need to be a
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: little bit louder and kind of own those spaces a
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: little more.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I so agree, And I can feel that as
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: someone who doesn't want a shitty future, I.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: Can definitely feel it.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: I feel like our voices are maybe drowned out a
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: little bit unfortunately.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: But hopefully.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: I think you're right. Yeah.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And last question, I've got so many questions but
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: so little time. How good is there a chance of
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: an Aussie tour that you know of.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Oh well yes, so we are conspiring as we speak.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Australia is really it's kind of our main focus right
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: now because we already know that we're playing a lot
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: of the same places and we are focusing on getting
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: back to Australia because we need to squeeze that in
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: the calendar. So I can't say when exactly because everything
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: is changing, but it is definitely it is being talked
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: about on a weekly basis. Is when are we getting
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: to Australia.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: So, oh we could. That's so exciting. We can't wait, Tim,
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. We can't wait for the world
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: to hear Ricochet.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for your time today.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Hey, pleasures mine, Thank you, Thanks so much.