Rise Against

Bobby: This is your fourth show on the Canadian tour, how’s it been so far?

Joe: It’s been amazing. We’ve been friends with Thursday for like eight years and we just met Sage Francis on this tour and it’s been great. It’s just like hanging out with friends; and all the shows have been great. They’ve been sold out so it’s been great.

Bobby: Somehow you guys always end up playing in Edmonton in either December or January, do you like doing these Canadian winter tours?

Joe: You know, it’s not like a preference. It’s just the way it works out with our schedules. We were just talking about that, we’re always here when it’s freezing.

Bobby: Before this tour, you guys did a stadium tour throughout the States with Thrice, Alkaline Trio and the Gaslight Anthem. What was it like headlining a full out stadium tour?

Joe: Well actually, only like five shows were stadiums. It was probably like two to three thousand people, so bigger clubs. A little bit smaller than this. But that tour was amazing as well. Again, we’ve been friends with those bans for a long time. It always makes the tour a lot more fun and a little easier to be out on the road, away from your family, when you’re with friends.

Bobby: I was actually really tempted to fly out to Vancouver for the show, mainly because I really want to see The Gaslight Anthem live at some point. How were they on that tour?

Joe: Awesome. They’re one of my new favorite bands right now.

Bobby: Yeah, The ’59 Sound is just…

Joe: Perfect.

Bobby: I asked this question to Zach when I interviewed him last time you guys were here but I feel like asking you it too. A few years ago you guys played the Jingle Bell Rock – the first time, not the second time you played it – and at that show, the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to me happened at that show. Long story short, at the end of the night, I ended up walking home in the middle of winter in my boxers with my winter coat in one hand, pants and a Christmas candle in the other. So I’m wondering, what’s the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you at a show either watching or playing?

Joe: I think for me, it was our first European tour. I jumped and I fell through the stage. The stage broke and I was like up to my hips. I think that was the most embarrassing thing.

Bobby: Keeping in tune with touring and hitting Edmonton, I want to go back quite a few years now to April 14th, 2005 when you guys last played at Red’s. At the end of that show, there was a big altercation. I was outside when I saw Dallas from Alexisonfire get escorted out by like six cops and a whole bunch of security guards. What happened at that show? Do you remember?

Joe: I just remember the security guards were really out of line and Dallas kind of confronted them about it. They tried to fight him and they tried to fight Tim, our singer; and it was really just out of hand. They were acting really unprofessionally so we haven’t played that venue since. But yeah, security guards – they’re there to protect the band and the kids and when they’re hurting kids, it’s like they have no business doing that job. So we definitely look out for them, make sure people are in line.

Bobby: Your new CD, Appeal to Reason, came out in October. Is it good to finally have some new material to play live? I mean, you guys played Edmonton three times last year in support of The Sufferer and the Witness. Is it good to have some new material to play?

Joe: Yeah, it always makes it a lot more fun. I think we’re playing four new songs in the set now. It’s cool. It’s tough because you can’t play too many new songs because people still want to hear the old stuff so we try to find a happy medium. I think we got a good mix going.

Bobby: I still want to talk about the new record a bit; first off, it was the first record with Zach on guitar. What was it like writing and recording with him?

Joe: It was great. Tim and I still write all the music and Zach really shines live. He’s really amazing live. Tons of energy and that’s where he really has his place in the band.

Tim (Walking by): All lies. Whatever he’s telling you, it’s all lies!

Joe: It’s true. E equals MC squared.

Tim: Now that one is true!

Bobby: In mid-October, KROQ started playing Audience of One. Does that mean that’s going to be the second single from the album?

Joe: It is, yeah. They just started playing it on their own volition and it just kind of worked out where everyone was thinking it might be the next single and that just kind of gave it the extra push. We’re doing a video for it at the end of this tour.

Bobby: Do you have any ideas for the video yet?

Joe: It’s kind of being worked out now, so yeah.

Bobby: I also want to talk a bit about the album artwork as well. There’s a lot of imagery on it, a lot of hidden meaning in it; but what I want to talk about is the drastic change from when you first released the artwork in July to the final copy. When you first released it, it looked like this (See artwork to the right). Really simple, very plain. Now it’s very cluttered. Why the change?

Joe: You know what, it was intentional. It always looked like that (pointing towards the official artwork on the CD) but when we started showing images online, we purposely did a little bit of it. We wanted people to kind of get excited about it so every couple of weeks we kind of added a new element to it online. So it was always like that. We kind of did that on purpose.

Bobby: One thing I always noticed was how on here (the final CD artwork) you have all this imagery and you have the dog – you see it, but it’s in the background and you don’t make note of it much. But then you look at the first released artwork and the dog is pretty much all that’s there so I was always wondering if there was some sort of hidden meaning behind the dog.

Joe: No, it’s just the artist – Tim Mars – it’s just his style to have a bunch of different elements, almost like layered. All his artwork is very similar and we just kind of liked that. Because, I think, there’s not a specific meaning behind all these elements but you can kind of decide for yourself what it means. That’s what I like the best about it, it’s not so much in your face. But I do think all these images are making people think and that’s what good art, I think, does.

Bobby: Exactly. On this artwork you also decided to bring back the heart and first logo from the Sufferer and the Witness. What made you decide to recreate that on this album again?

Joe: It really kind of took on and set our defining logo. Our fans really responded to the imagery of it and now it’s just kind of a mainstay. It’s kind of like Bad Religion uses the cross. It’s kind of like that for us.

Bobby: Now it’s like you’re specific logo, like Thursday has the dove.

Joe: Yeah, exactly.

Bobby: The record also has a few bonus tracks. Like iTunes got Elective Amnesia and a live version of Prayer of the Refugee while the UK version got Historia Calamitatum. Why did you decide to give those songs to itunes or the UK? And do you think they’ll ever see a wider release like This Is Noise? I mean, you still have a few other b-sides like Generation Lost, Getsamane and Join the Ranks.

Joe: Yeah, yeah.

Bobby: Do you think they’ll see a wider release eventually somewhere down the road?

Joe: Yeah, I’m sure something like that would see the light of day. It’s weird because B-sides, those are the ones that us as a band didn’t all agree on to go on this record; or we felt that the thirteen on this record were the best out of all the songs. Like Elective Amnesia is probably one of my favorite songs but in comparisons to the other songs it kind of got out voted. But yeah, that’s kind of how our b-sides work, it’s majority rules. B-sides, we kind of do b-sides because it’s an incentive for people that live in say England to buy the English release instead of the import and spending all this money. So at least they know they get a bonus track if they wait for it.

Bobby: You also released two of the bonus songs on iTunes. There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal back in September that had a whole bunch of artists blaming iTunes for the decline in the artistic idea of an album. By letting people pick and choose songs, it kind of ruined the complete album idea. Do you agree with that?

Joe: Yeah, it’s kind of tough because it kind of takes the fun out of sequencing a record. *Sage Francis walks by and stares at Joe, he laughs* I thought you were gonna make a comment. *laughs*

Sage Francis: I’ll save that for later.

Joe: Alright. Alright. Yeah, it kind of takes the fun out of the sequence of a record. I always liked when I was younger, buying a record and checking out the artwork and feeling the actual pages. But I think the good thing about iTunes is it’s definitely a more eco-friendly way to buy a record. You’re not using the trees for paper and all that stuff; but it’s a fine line. Everything seems to be going that way and there’s labels that are only doing digital-only releases. So I guess I’m on the fence, there’s pros and cons to both.

Bobby: I think it was last week, Atlantic Records announced that more than fifty percent of its profit came from digital sales. So it’s definitely becoming a major factor right now.

Joe: Yeah, it’s really prominent. It’s kind of weird. I have records that I bought when I was thirteen/fourteen years old and you just can’t beat the feeling of taking vinyl and putting it on the record player. You really have to commit to that time. It’s not like you can just hit a button on your iPod. I kind of miss it but then everyone wants the convenience of the iPod and the digital things. You always have your record collection in your pocket, so it’s definitely a weird thing.

Bobby: Speaking about vinyl, with the new CD you guys released a limited edition white seven inch of Re-Education (Through Labour) with the b-side being a cover of Minor Threat’s Minor Threat which got me thinking about two things. First off, throughout your career you guys have covered a lot of influential bands. Black Flag, Sick of It All, Jawbreaker, Minor Threat, Cosby Stills and Nash and more. But in Lords of Dogtown, you not only got to cover Black Flag, you also got to portray them. What was that like and how did that end up happening?

Joe: You know, the people in charge of casting the movie, they kind of did a survey with a hundred punk rock kids from LA. They had a list of bands, five bands, and they said “what band do you think would be best to be Black Flag?” and they picked us. That was such an honor to do that. We all grew up skate boarding and watching Tony Alva skateboard and it was a total honor. But we think things like that – covering old bands’ songs – are important because it’s our way to give back to our influences and to show our fans “hey, this is why we’re here. These bands.” Especially Minor Threat and Black Flag, all those bands.

Bobby: I don’t know if you’ve seen this or not but back in September, Mean Magazine did a tribute to Minor Threat. It was a two minute live video but portraying Ian MacKaye was the one and only Ben Kingsley.

Joe: I saw that. *laughs* Yeah, that was freaking insane.

Bobby: So you guys got to portray Black Flag. Ben Kingsley was Ian MacKaye. If you could pick, who would you like to have portray you guys in a movie or tribute?

Joe: Oh man, that’s a hard one. I don’t know. I think it would be… I don’t know. That’s tough. I’d like some people that are funny or comedic. Seth Rogen or something for me. I don’t know, that’s a tough question.

Bobby: I remember seeing you guys on Much Music a long time ago. I think it was last October when you were still touring in support of the Sufferer and the Witness and you had just released your video for Prayer of the Refugee. Tim said “All the Dead Kennedys, Minor Threats, and Black Flags of the past were saying ‘Dude, you’re on TV. Do something’” commenting on the political nature of the videos. Do you think you would’ve made all those bands proud with all your videos lately?

Joe: I think bands like that… bands that are still active– like Bad Religion – that are our influences, they definitely respect the fact that that’s the path we choose to use the success that we’ve had. I think we feel that we’ve made good use of the success that we’ve had because of videos like Ready to Fall. A lot of bands they say they signed to a major to get more exposure but for us it actually worked. Being in the position that we’re in, we feel like we’re obligated to use that for things. To expose animal cruelty and things that are damaging the ozone and things like that. But yeah, I think those bands… I know Bad Religion has made comments to us about how they think it’s great that we’re actually doing something.

Bobby: You guys have always been very political – lyrically, visually and actively. Was there any pressure when you signed to the major label to be more political? I remember reading an article where you guys were saying people wanted you to be the next Rage Against the Machine.

Joe: We never really have a goal or end result in mind with anything we do. I think there’s songs on even Revolutions Per Minute that are political – like Blood Red, White and Blue you know? I think the records that we’ve done on a major label would’ve been the same whether it were Epitaph or Fat Wreck Chords or Geffen or whatever. I think it’s just the lyrical content that Tim writes about. As he gets older, as we get older, our music matures and his lyrics mature. I think that just kind of keeps things interesting. I think he feels an obligation to have lyrics with substance. When he first joined the band, he was a journalism major so he’s always been very well read. And I love that because that’s what always appealed to me when I was growing up. Bad Religion and Dead Kennedys, thought provoking lyrics. He’s always written that way, it’s just a step up as we get more successful.

Bobby: As you get more practice you get more in tuned with how you yourself write.

Joe: Yeah, totally, totally.

Bobby: When you guys were recording Appeal to Reason, Tim did an interview explaining why you wanted to keep it organic and work with the same people as always – Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore at the Blasting Room. He said an interesting quote, he said, “the more we delve into this music world and the bigger we get, the more we realize we have nothing in common with that community and it’s a weird, strange, foreign place.” Can you explain that a bit?

Joe: Yeah, I think the agendas of most mainstream bands are a little bit selfish in nature. They want fame. With us, it’s more like giving back to the community – be it our punk rock community of just the world in general. Doing our part, wherever we can. We’ll do radio shows with bands, I don’t want to name anyone specific, but it’s just ridiculous. I feel like it would be very unsatisfactory for me to be in a normal type of rock band like Nickelback or something. I would feel like I’m not really doing anything with my life. No offense against Nickelback, it’s just not my thing. So I think that’s where that statement comes from.

Bobby: Okay, just a few more questions. You guys have the song Re-Education (Through Labor) on Guitar Hero: World Tour and the song Give It All on Rock Band. So which do prefer, Guitar Hero or Rock Band?

Joe: You know what, I’ll be honest, I’ve only played both games like once or twice in my life. Rock band was kind of fun but I’m afraid to get involved in that because I’ll never leave my house if I get wrapped up in it. So I kind of stay away.

Bobby: Yeah, I have one friend who had a few days off school so he ended up playing Rock Band. He ended up playing so much he broke his drum set and had to buy a new one.

Joe: See. Did he leave his house at all? Nope.*laughs*

Bobby: Nope. We made fun of him a lot because of it. You guys also did a cover of Making Christmas for the new Nightmare Before Christmas compilation “Nightmare Revisited.” How did you get involved with that?

Joe: The people involved with the project asked us. They approached us. They said “here’s the songs that are already picked, you guys pick something that isn’t being covered.” It was by far the hardest and the most fun thing we’ve done. It was really insane to try and break down that song and figure out all the parts. I mean it’s an orchestra playing all that music. We broke that song up into thirty six different parts and took each section as its own separate entity and then just kind of put it together. It was fun, I was really happy with the results.

Bobby: Nightmare Before Christmas is one of the best Christmas movies ever. It’s December, it’s snowing outside, what are some of your favorite Christmas movies?

Joe: Oh, A Christmas Story of course. I would say that and I really like all the little animated… I forget what they’re called. Rudolph’s Best Christmas I think. All those really old…

Bobby: Like clay figurines, plasticine ones?

Joe: Exactly. I loved those ones growing up.

Bobby: We’re coming up to the end of the year so everyone’s putting together their top ten lists, yearend lists. What were some of your favorite CDs of 2008?

Joe: I would say Gaslight Anthem, The ’59 Sound. Bad Religion, they re-issued their last record and all the acoustic bonus tracks on it, I really like that. Let’s see, that’s tough. I like the new Killers record that came out, I think that’s cool. I’m totally drawing a blank. This year I bought a lot of older stuff too. A band called Regulations, they’re from Sweden. Just straight punk rock but they’re really, really good at it; but they didn’t have any releases this year *laughs*. I’m trying to think. I can’t think of any other current things of the top of my head.

Bobby: Okay. I guess that’s about it, thanks a lot. Do you have any other final thoughts you would like to add?

Joe: No. Just thanks for the interview and thanks to everyone that comes to see our shows and buys our records.