Midway through their US tour with Alkaline Trio and Thrice, Planet Loud spoke to socio-punks Rise Against about their new album and whether they’re having a dig at certain bands.
Planet Loud – How’s it going?
Rise Against – Good man. We’re in Florida at the moment on tour with Alkaline Trio and Thrice.
Planet Loud – How’s that going?
Rise Against – Awesome. We couldn’t have picked a better bunch of bands to tour with. We’re about halfway through this tour and it’s just been amazing to play these shows with these bands.
Planet Loud – Any good tour stories you can tell us?
Rise Against – You know what? Not so far. Everyone has been pretty well behaved but there is time for that to change.
Planet Loud – Have you toured with any of the bands before?
Rise Against – Alkaline Trio are from Chicago and I remember watching their shows when I was in high school. In fact, my high school band actually opened for them at one of their shows. That band are like Chicago heroes. We’ve done some tours with them in Rise Against as well. They’re an amazing band. As for Thrice, we’ve not directly toured with them I don’t think but we’ve done a bunch of things where we’ve been on the road with them – like festivals and things like that. We haven’t actually toured with The Gaslight Anthem until now.
Planet Loud – You mentioned your high school band. What were they like?
Rise Against – Pretty inconsequential I’d have to say. Ha. But they did provide me with a stepping stone to move onto what I am doing today so it was definitely a starting point for me.
Planet Loud – What about music in general? What got you into music?
Rise Against – I have to say when I first discovered punk rock and hardcore. Going to those shows and meeting the people I meet was such a life-changing experience for me. It was like you’d go to these shows and the bands had a message and the kids weren’t just there for the music. It was like a whole community that was brought together for these shows.
Planet Loud – What sort of bands had an impact on you growing up?
Rise Against – Loads of local bands who most people won’t have heard of but then there was also the bigger touring punk bands at the time like Refused, Earth Crisis and Avail.
Planet Loud – Okay, I believe you’re going out to Australia in the New Year..
Rise Against – Yeah, we’re going to be out there in March 2009 with The International Noise Conspiracy. We can’t wait to get back out there. We have such a great time everytime we play there.
Planet Loud – So it’s not your first visit out there then?
Rise Against – No. It took us a while to get there, in fact we didn’t play there at all on our first two records. We’ve been back a few times on the Taste Of Chaos and also the Big Day Out – I think about four or five times now. It’s hard for a band to get out there because it is so expensive so it was a great opportunity for us when we got asked to do The Big Day Out. When we got there though we met this whole community of Australian Rise Against fans who have been waiting for us to go over.
Planet Loud – Okay, onto the new record which has just come out in the UK. What did you want to achieve with it?
Rise Against – I don’t think we wanted to achieve anything particular as such. We just do what we always do and have done since the beginning and go in to a room and knock out a bunch of ideas and they end up forming a record.
Planet Loud – So no particular writing process then?
Rise Against – Not really. It’s always been the same and that’s to go in there with no plan and see what comes out?
Planet Loud – There are a few songs on this album which I wanted to ask about. First of all Heroes Of War. Is it about a particular person or event?
Rise Against – You know, that particular song is about a documentary I watched on TV about the Iraq War. It was a whole bunch of different stories told by people who have been out there. One of the stories was about a guy who had shot a woman carrying a white flag. In fact, that story was told by a marine from Chicago. It’s kind of based on stories from that documentary that are true but not based on personal experiences.
Planet Loud – The other song was Entertainment.. what inspired that song?
Rise Against – That song is about the music industry and why were are in it. It’s not about people or bands but more the reason why you get into music in the first place. Do you do it purely to entertain or is there a message you want to get across. It’s something we’ve questioned about our own band definitely. Sometimes you get up onstage and you wonder why you are doing it.
Planet Loud – Someone asked me if it was inspired by Panic At The Disco?
Rise Against – It’s not inspired by any particular band in fact I’d say it’s more a finger pointing inward to question why you are doing it rather than a finger pointing outward at any particular person or band.
Planet Loud – What else inspires you?
Rise Against – I try to write songs that are timeless. While they might be inspired by something that is happening now I don’t want them to be specific to now. I want them to be relevant even if it is 2038. I still want someone to look at the lyrics or listen to the song and be able to relate to it regardless of the time.
Planet Loud – Okay, going back to Entertainment. Is it hard to maintain your integrity as a punk band now you’re on a major label?
Rise Against – You know what? It’s harder to deal with the pressure that we put on ourselves. Our label are constantly amazed by some of the things we can do as a band and we’re happy that we’ve found possibly one of the coolest fuckin’ labels to be on. They’re really into what we do and are really supportive of us as a band and what we want to do – we couldn’t have asked for a better home.
Planet Loud – You’ve mentioned your message and how you got into punk rock because bands were delivering a message rather than a bunch of songs. Do you find fans get into Rise Against for the same reason as you got into your favourite bands?
Rise Against – Oh definitely. Obviously it’s a split. There are kids who are there because they like the music but don’t give a shit about the message and there are those kids who are out there who believe in the same beliefs as you and actually give a shit about what you are trying to say. Sometimes you do feel like the message is falling on deaf ears but a lot of time fans are interested in what you have to say and really want to talk to you about it.
Planet Loud – And, as with this tour, you’ve got PETA involved again. Do you find that fans who aren’t aware of organisations like PETA are open to checking them out?
Rise Against – Absolutely. One of the most frequent emails I get is from kids saying that they didn’t know anything about PETA or veganism until they came to one of our shows and they checked it out and have now decided to go vegetarian. It’s amazing to think that you can actually change somebody’s life. Obviously, like I said, you get the kids who don’t really give a shit but a lot of our fans are really open to checking out these organisations and the things we talk about in the same way I discovered veganism when I was a kid fifteen years ago.
Planet Loud – How different is it being a vegetarian in a band these days in terms of being on the road?
Rise Against – You know, it has got so much better over the last ten years. I mean, ten years ago, if you’d have told me I could get a veggie burger in Burger King I’d have laughed in your face but these days there are so many more options for vegetarians. The thing is that people who aren’t necessarily vegetarian are eating vegetarian food. It’s about giving people an option and letting them choose what they want.
Planet Loud – Okay, just to finish off, what are your plans for 2009?
Rise Against – We’ve got the UK tour in February and then Australia and then I think we’re going to Japan after that. After that we’ve not planned that far ahead.
Planet Loud – Thanks for your time. Any message for your UK fans who are looking forward to the UK shows?
Rise Against – We can’t wait to come back over to the UK, our shows there are always awesome. We’re bringing Anti-Flag and Flobots with us which will be a really awesome bill. We’ll see you all in 2009.
Planet Loud – Thanks for your time. Anything else you want to say?
Rise Against – No problem, thanks for the support and we’ll see you all in the UK next year.
Interview by Graham Finney
