Tim McIlrath of Rise Against
Formed from the ashes of Chicago bands 88 Fingers Louie and Baxter in 1999, Rise Against has evolved over the course of five albums—including the new Appeal To Reason, whose chart-topping bow was bested only by Metallica and T.I.—into a political punk force that rivals Rage Against The Machine in agitprop. Although it's had nearly as many guitar players as albums, Rise Against has both stayed the course and leaned far to the Left, appearing in ads for PETA and outspokenly promoting its members' vegetarianism. Vocalist Tim McIlrath recently spoke with The A.V. Club about politics (personal and otherwise), encouraging his fans to disagree with him, and professional wrestling. The band plays a pair of shows at the Congress Theater this Friday and Saturday with Alkaline Trio, Thrice, and Gaslight Anthem.
The A.V. Club: Rise Against has become much more “political” in recent years. At this point do you consciously avoid writing songs about girls?
Tim McIlrath: I’m 30 now, and married with kids. I’m not breaking up with girls every day. And we live in a more tumultuous time, even from when the band started. Rise Against has weathered almost the entire Bush administration, so it’s an interesting time to be a punk band. There are songs on the new record—like “The Dirt Whispered” and “Audience Of One”—that are more personal, but there are also some of our most political songs. Those probably overshadow the songs that aren’t as fist-pumping.
AVC: Your audience is mostly younger than you. Do you think you’ve helped shape their worldview?
TM: We do have a predominately high-school-aged audience, and we’ve had fans tell us we opened their eyes to how the other half lives, or to what the news is saying versus what’s really happening in the world. Every time you talk to one of those kids, it validates everything we’ve done. The band was started to have fun, but we also wanted to pass on things we learned from the punk scene. When I was a 15-year-old kid going to the Fireside Bowl and seeing bands like Los Crudos or Earth Crisis, they brought literature with them. I played benefits for East Timor and had no idea where it was. It was a huge learning experience, because that wasn’t being talked about in my school. It was empowering to see that there were no adults there. It was kids putting on these shows and putting out records. Inevitably, a lot of our lyrics are going to fall on deaf ears, because some kids are just at the show to mosh. I’ve had kids tell me that they play Rise Against CDs at football games!
AVC: Do you ever encounter fans who disagree with what you’re saying?
TM: That definitely happens more often than it used to. I think it’s cool that a fan feels they can disagree with their favorite band and not be lost in admiration and follow them like a sheep. I’d rather have people speaking their minds.
AVC: Being on a major label and doing bigger tours, do you find it’s more difficult to keep an open dialogue with your audience?
TM: It’s harder and harder, that’s for sure. I’m not going to say that there aren’t shows where I don’t meet a single kid and then we play for 2,000 of them. We do meet-and-greets whenever we can. We get e-mails where people say they disagree with us about the war, but they love our band. I look forward to that dialogue, because that’s what it’s all about.
AVC: The video for “Re-Education (Through Labor)” shows kids planting bombs at buildings in downtown Chicago. Do you worry some might get the wrong idea?
TM: Art is about taking risks. To be clear, that video starts with a JFK quote: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” That sums it up. There’s a reason people do crazy things. They feel like they have no other option. We live in a country where the more you strip our civil liberties and have things like election fraud, people are going to get sick of making Michael Moore documentaries, and they’re going to start doing crazy things. The government has taken for granted that Americans will swallow any pill they’re given. It’s not our job to hold the hand of the viewer.
AVC: The song is also being used for WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown. Does Rise Against also support professional wrestling?
TM: WWE came to us initially about “Drones” from The Sufferer And The Witness about a year ago. I remember playing a show and getting a flurry of text messages saying, “Dude, your song is the official theme song of the 2007 Royal Rumble!” I made sure to note all of the names that were texting me, thinking, “Wow! All of these people are watching the Royal Rumble!” Very incriminating texts. Wrestling is something that I don’t personally get, but it’s so freaking huge!
AVC: Like punk rock?
TM: Exactly.
