You can’t force artistry.
True musical creations are typically launched via pure inspiration or
serendipitous moments and ideas that are often baked to perfection
through sheer work and dedication. Still, many musical artists have
opted to churn out songs with a cookie-cutter, assembly line mentality,
cramming albums with formulaic songwriting, by-the-book tolerances and
the kind of bullish one-upmanship that’s more commonly seen in a
corporate — and definitely not creative — environment.
But, as frontman Tim McIlrath confirms, there is no preset framework for
the Chicago-based melodic hardcore band that refuses to adhere to any
established norm in the music industry. McIlrath says the foursome
—bassist Joe Principe, drummer Brandon Barnes and guitarist Zach Blair —
simply engage in their album making activity without over thinking and
precisely planning every step, and that includes the band’s latest
release, Appeal to Reason.
“We took the same approach to this record as we’ve done to our previous
records, which is actually a lack of approach,” McIlrath says. “There’s
no approach. It’s just show up and let’s play. There’s no plan, we don’t
map it out, we don’t decide on a direction. We just kind of let it
happen real naturally. That’s how it happened.”
“We don’t have a set formula,” Principe concurs, “but what we do have is
writing constantly while we’re touring. Any idea we have, we’ll try it.
We don’t want to limit ourselves.”
But looking back at the career of Rise Against, one can see that the
band’s reach also grew organically from its roots in the national
underground punk scene to a phenomenon that has touched the lives of
millions of listeners across the world — nothing was charted nor
prescribed. With equal doses of perseverance, conviction, artistry and
commitment, Rise Against rose from the local Chicago scene through its
earliest independent releases, The Unraveling (2001) and Revolutions Per
Minute (2003). After landing the opening slot on high-profile national
tours and joining the Vans Warped Tour roster, the profile of Rise
Against sharply rose outside of the occasionally insular underground.
In 2004, the band released its breakthrough, Siren Song of the Counter
Culture to an amazingly receptive response, with sales rocketing near
Gold status. With nearly a year of consistent touring and promotion to
reach both potential listeners and its longtime fans, the band’s singles
“Give It All” and the introspective “Swing Life Away” captured the
hearts and honest minds of audiences via alternative rock radio stations
across the country. The follow-up, 2006’s The Sufferer and the Witness
followed a similar path of success, with its engaging lead single “Ready
to Fall” spun on heavy rotation, both on the air and on stage and its
subsequent singles “Prayer Of The Refugee” and “Good Left Undone”
topping the radio charts.
Though the fluke test is seemingly over, Rise Against have not opted to
rest on their laurels with the creation of Appeal to Reason. Working
again with their team of producers, Bill Stevenson (NOFX, Evan Dando,
Comeback Kid) and Jason Livermore and mixer Chris Lord Alge (Green
Day,
My Chemical Romance,
AFI), the band
returned to their “home studio” of the Blasting Room in Fort Collins,
Colo. for two months to track their latest creation. However, this is
where any semblance of a prescribed attitude ends.
For example, instead of writing enough songs to satisfy a full-length
album requirement, McIlrath notes that the band was incredibly prolific
during the writing sessions for Appeal to Reason. In fact, Rise Against
allotted a solid week of just playing time in the studio, and did not
track anything for the first ten days.
“We wrote a gigantic number of songs,” he says. “We’ve always wrote
about the number of songs that would end up on our records. You’re not
going to hear long lost Rise Against B-sides, we rarely have anything
extra. But this time we wrote some 30 pretty solid ideas. Things were
just flowing out of us. We just kept spitting songs out. We had to boil
that down to a record. That was the hard part.”
Also, McIlrath says that Rise Against is continually listening and
incorporating new elements to its trademark sound. For example, “Long
Forgotten Sons” finds the band invoking more of an ‘80s vibe, somewhere
between The Cure and early Fugazi, while “The Strength To Go On” was
influenced by McIlrath’s love for bands like Tool.
The lyrical content of the songs on Appeal to Reason have also greatly
widened Rise Against repertoire’s spectrum. “The Strength To Go On”
finds McIlrath further questioning the information that’s disseminated
into society.
“The chorus, it’s definitely taking and looking at where we get our
information from and who’s telling us the information and who’s right
and who’s wrong and how everything we do has some kind of spin on it and
who can you trust,” he says. “How we were brought up, how we were
raised, everything, and how we separate the truth from the lies, and our
entire upbringing. And when it really boils down, it’s hard to see what
we know is true and what we know is false. It’s interesting thought.”
The touching acoustic-based “Hero Of War” puts Rise Against dead in the
center of a generation of military service personnel who are battling
their own personal wars outside of those in the Middle East. Partially
based on true stories, the song is actually an amalgamation of a number
of characters, starting with military recruitment.
“That’s something we deal with when we play shows that have a
recruitment tent,” says McIlrath. “There’s a guy from the army roping in
kids. We’re talking about those kids who see the army as an option. When
I was 17 years old, I met with an army recruiter, because I considered
joining the army, the armed forces. I wanted to go out and see places
and do this. We get a lot of e-mails from kids who are soldiers, all
branches from the armed services. They come out to our shows. They tell
you their stories and their stories are in the first verse, a sum of a
lot of the stories that I’ve heard.”
The second verse documents situations at Abu Gharib, Guantanamo Bay, and
the Haditha revenge killing for an IED explosion. And the song’s third
verse was based on a true story after McIlrath watched a documentary
called “The Ground Truce.” Moved by the film, McIlrath wrote a majority
of the song inspired by the stories and images presented in the
documentary.
“Neil Young documented the Kent State shootings in Ohio and so many
bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival and Buffalo Springfield did so
much,” says McIlrath. “I learned more about the Vietnam War from bands
like that than I did from the history books. As this war is hopefully
coming to a close, and as stories of what happened are coming out, I
needed to write a song that dealt with the reality of war.”
The album’s first single is the straightforward, four-chord heavy rocker
“Re-Education (Through Labor).” “It’s a good way to start off this new
record, because I think the album has a lot of progression and something
different to offer,” says Principe, “and I think that song represents us
the best.”
Of course, none of the songs on Appeal to Reason are able to make much
of an impact if there isn’t an audience to receive them. And for
McIlrath, creating connections to the band’s audience is of paramount
importance — regardless of size, scenes or musical styles.
“It’s still about reaching people, putting what we’re giving into these
people, making them think and challenge the ways of thought, creating
conversation and dialogue and putting new ideas forth for people to
consider,” says McIlrath. “And when you have a bigger fanbase, that’s
even more fun to do, because all of a sudden your voice is louder. Now
you have a bigger bullhorn than you actually have. It’s exciting and fun
and I look forward to the next couple years with this record. Now that
we have a fanbase, it’s just a question of what are we going to do when
we’ve been given the privilege that we’ve been given.”
Rise Against Videos
Behind the Scenes for
"Audience of One" Video
"Audience of One"
Making Of "Re-Education (Through
Labor)" Video
Listen to Music
News
[January 21, 2009] Few things are more exciting than
watching Bush finally release America as his eight year hostage, but if
anything could rival that news, it's this: We are more than pleased to
announce that we will have the honor of touring the US & Canada with
punk rock legends RANCID this summer. If Tim Armstrong didn't confirm it
personally backstage in LA a few weeks ago, we wouldn't believe it
either.
In the meantime, off to Europe with Anti-Flag, Strike Anywhere and the
Flobots...stay tuned for updates from the road...and go check out our
going away present to W, in the form of our new video for "Audience Of
One."
"Alive and Well" - 2:06
"My Life Inside Your Heart" - 3:02
"Great Awakening" - 1:35
"Six Ways 'Til Sunday" - 2:36
"401 Kill" - 3:19
"The Art of Losing" - 1:50
"Remains of Summer Memories" - 1:17
"The Unraveling" - 3:12
"Reception Fades" - 2:10
"Stained Glass and Marble" - 1:36
"Everchanging" - 3:47
"Sometimes Selling Out is Giving Up" - 1:09
"3 Day Weekend" - 1:03
"1000 Good Intentions" - 3:07
"Weight of Time" - 2:00
"Faint Resemblance" - 2:51
"Join the Ranks"* - 1:26
"Gethsemane"* - 2:30
"Black Masks and Gasoline" - 2:59
"Heaven Knows" - 3:23
"Dead Ringer" - 1:31
"Halfway There" - 3:41
"Like the Angel" - 2:46
"Voices Off Camera" - 2:17
"Blood-Red, White, and Blue" - 3:38
"Broken English" - 3:25
"Last Chance Blueprint" - 2:14
"To the Core" - 1:33
"Torches" - 3:41
"Amber Changing" - 2:52
"Any Way You Want It" (Journey cover) - 2:57
"State of the Union" - 2:19
"The First Drop" - 2:39
"Life Less Frightening" - 3:44
"Paper Wings" - 3:43
"Blood to Bleed" - 3:48
"To Them These Streets Belong" - 2:49
"Tip the Scales" - 3:49
"Anywhere But Here" - 3:38
"Give It All" - 2:50
"Dancing for Rain" - 4:01
"Swing Life Away" - 3:20
"Rumors of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated" - 4:14
"Chamber the Cartridge" - 3:34
"Injection" - 3:19
"Ready to Fall" - 3:48
"Bricks" - 1:30
"Under the Knife" - 2:45
"Prayer of the Refugee" - 3:19
"Drones" - 3:02
"The Approaching Curve" - 3:45
"Worth Dying For" - 3:19
"Behind Closed Doors" - 3:15
"Roadside" - 3:21
"The Good Left Undone" - 4:11
"Survive" - 3:41
Appeal to Reason (2008)
Geffen Records
Album Title (Year)
Label
Album Title (Year)
Label
Album Title (Year)
Label
"Collapse (Post-Amerika)" - 3:19
"Long Forgotten Sons" - 4:01
"Re-Education (Through Labor)" - 3:43
"The Dirt Whispered" - 3:09
"Kotov Syndrome" - 3:04
"From Heads Unworthy" - 3:42
"The Strength to Go On" - 3:27
"Audience of One" - 4:05
"Entertainment" - 3:35
"Hero of War" - 4:13
"Savior" - 4:02
"Hairline Fracture" (with Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio) - 4:02
"Whereabouts Unknown" - 4:03
Filmography
FilmographyGoesHere
Pictures
of Rise Against (click on any
image below to enlarge)
Rise Against
