I've only been able to see Rise Against once before, as they were one of those bands that I always seemed to miss, no matter how hard I tried to see them. I was stoked to be able to go to this show and interview Tim. He seemed like a stand up guy with strong opinions which made for a good interview, even though he's not a Cubs fan. I bet this is one of the few interviews you'll ever read that talk about toasters. This interview went down on January 4, 2005 at the Axis in Boston.

PL: Introduce yourself.

RA: I'm Tim and I'm in Rise Against.

PL: Has commercial success (to the extent of Pearl Jam, Korn, Limp Biscuit) been a goal for you guys when you signed to a major label?

RA: No, it really wasn't. The fact that we're still around and still playing shows, people come to our shows and we're still selling records, that's always been our goal. To be honest, we've passed our goals a long time ago. We always wanted to play in a band, have fun and write music, and that's happening right now.

PL: Was there more pressure writing this album other than the ones for Fat?

RA: The pressure is there, but for us, it was more concerns. One of the key attitudes that we went into when making this record was, no matter what label we're on, we don't live in fear of being dropped from that label. We don't live in fear of a label telling us that it wasn't a success and they're dropping us because this band isn't about selling records, this band is about the interaction. I don't care what label is slapped on the back of our record, as long as we're able to play a show and kids are there to sing along and we can record music and write lyrics and music, then it really doesn't matter what label we're on. We're not one of those bands that's really concerned about that. Its not life or death. If we got dropped tomorrow, we could still come to Axis and play a show and kids would still be there.

PL: Do you think that you can tell a lot about a person's personality by the music that they write?

RA: I think so. I think a lot depends on that person. I think that, a lot of times, the person that we are in public and the person that we are in private is very different, whether you're in a band or not. I think that, especially myself with writing the lyrics, its kind of inadvertently opening myself up to a limitless amount of people. I think lyrics are always a window to someone's personality. For the guys who don't write lyrics, its more difficult to tell what they're about and you can't say that the person who writes the lyrics represents how every single person in that band feels.

PL: Have you seen The Matrix before?

RA: Yes.

PL: Remember the part where the guy with the gotee, who screwed over Morphius, was eating the steak? He goes "I know that this isn't steak, but it tastes like steak."

RA: Yeah. (I swear this is going somewhere.)

PL: From I can tell, you guys are aware of the bad things that are going on in the world and it seems like you'd like to be able to change them. Do you ever wish that you didn't notice that and you just went on with your life: go to work, go home, watch TV?

RA: You have a point by mentioning The Matrix because that definitely has a lot to do with it. Its very symbolic with life in general. It'd be so much easier for Neo to not take that other pill and just go back to his regular life. It would have been very easy for him to go back to work everyday and do the typical recreation-whatever it is, and assume and take part in whatever the next big movie is or buy whatever the best computer is and replace his toaster with the next best one. Society is set up to distract you and keep you focused on nothing but consumption. Its very easy to turn a blind eye and its probably more comfortable for a lot of people. People like to be comfortable. They don't want to hear about problems in the world. They want their Starbucks and their Target and their WalMart and their Abercrombie and Fitch. They want their VWs and their jobs and all these various comforts. Its a brave stance when people in the punk community and in general are willing to look at whats going on in the world and say that this is going on and I'm aware of it and I really want to make something happen, or at least want to make the whole world aware of it too.

PL: Its hard though.

RA: It is hard, and it'd be so much easier if I could just go home and turn it all off and just watch Friends every night and just forget about it all. I think thats what the majority of the world does, but thats definitely not the type of world that I want to live in. I want people to strive for a better world.

PL: Do you think there will ever be a President that people will be happy with?

RA: No, I don't think there will be a President that every single person will be happy with.

PL: I mean the majority of people.

RA: I think that the country is so divided that that will be pretty impossible now. Look at the last election; it was almost 50/50. Obviously President Bush was elected, but half the country stands by him and the other half hates his guts. Its always gonna be like that; the class seperation between the rich and the poor, the priveledged and the underpriveledged, the haves and the have nots. It will always be there because the rich want to stay rich and the poor will always be trying to get themselves out of that situation. There's always gonna be the right and the left. We will continue to go with the status quo and keep the upper class white community be in control of this country. Thats obviously a very selfish way of looking at things, but there's a lot of people in this country and you're always gonna piss somebody off. I think the right and wrong are pretty black and white. 90% of our wealth are controlled by such a few percent of our population; thats just wrong. The rich shouldn't have tax cuts to keep them rich while people are living on the street. Its not a way to live.

PL: Do you think John Kerry ran a good campaign?

RA: I think it probably could have been a better campaign. I saw that he had the opportunity to really take over a seat in the White House in where the was a person who around the world was hated. It kind of seemed like a really easy target. If you could ever get anybody to like George Bush. The whole world was really against him. It was kind of seemed like shooting fish in a barrel. He could have been a litle more up front with the American people about what was really going on. He was afraid to step on too many toes and afraid to really shock people, and its sad. Granted, he's another rich guy too. Its hard to say.

PL: Do you think that the tsunami that just happened will bring the world a little closer together, kind of like September 11 did for the United States?

RA: I think so. Its great that the whole world is reaching out. Its great that the United States is reaching out, even though it took the nudging of some countries to actually do it. This was an event where there was no blame to be put on anybody. I think that things like the tsunami put everything into perspecitive with things like the Iraqi war. You see whats going on with human beings, and this is Mother Nature killing people. This is a natural occurance, and to a little lesser degree, we're doing the same thing in Iraq. These are men, human beings that we're killing, and over what? What are e really fighting for? We shouldn't be concentrating our efforts there. We shouldn't be in there. We have people in there fighting for their country, and we call them insurgents and we get pissed off because they're car-bombing our soldiers and they don't want to be part of elections. In reality, if someone were occupying our country, every single person would be doing the same thing. Americans forget that we are the occupying force in Iraq.

PL: Its really scary when you turn on the news and hear them saying "since we invaded Iraq."

RA: Yeah, we are the invaders. What really sucks is that you have people, guys and girls our age, our friends, put in the position of going over there and doing that, taking part in this war. They've been brought up to really just trust their country, and trust that America knows best for them. They join the military and trust the decision of the President to know whats best for them. What we've found in this President is that he doesn't realize the importance of life. He sends people over there for these petty reasons. We already have Saddam Hussian and they never had any nuclear weapons, but we're still there, and Americans are dying every day.

PL: On a lighter note, what was your favorite childhood movie?

RA: Time Bandits.

PL: Name one album, besides your own, that you feel all kids should have in their collection.

RA: Shit, there's so many. I think the Refused records. Either The Shape of Punk of Come or Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent are just amazing records musically and what Dennis is saying lyrically is just incredible. He's a powerful, powerful lyricist. That band was just amazing.

PL: Are you a Cubs fan?

RA: I'm a White Sox fan. Why?

PL: I'm a die hard Cubs fan, and I was gonna try and convince people from Chicago to record a song like the Dropkick Murphys did for the Red Sox this year to help them win the World Series.

RA: That would be funny. We definitely don't have a lot with common with the Chicago Cubs fans. The Chicago Cubs fans are, and nothing against you since you're not from Chicago, but Wrigley Field kind of represents the whole yuppy, preppy part of the city. Its always like a big ass party all the time. I was raised a (White) Sox fan fom my dad, so I was always a Sox fan. I really don't think that people would want to see us on the field. The Dropkick Murphys are a very fun-loving party band, very neutral about a lot of things. I think what we do is a little more serious. We'd probably end up offending a lot of Cubs' fans.

PL: I just want them to win.

RA: Yeah, yeah, Chicago needs a win, thats for sure. I'll be rooting for Chicago, whoever it is.

PL: Do you have any final comments?

RA: Thanks a lot to all of our fans for supporting us for the last four or five years. We appreciate everyone thats come to our shows. Every show is unbelievable. Its like a first show everytime. We really appreciate every single person that's here. We've never had any expectations with what we're gonna sell or do or if kids are gonna show up. They always show up. Its always great having such die hard fans and coming out every night. It feels really good.

Interviewed by RF

BACK