Why Putting Out A Record Pre-Trump 'Just Wasn't Going To Cut It'

With the current state of turmoil engulfing American politics since Donald Trump ascended to power and claimed the Presidency, it's no surprise that highly progressive Chicago punks Rise Against would use their eighth album Wolves to launch a scathing broadside at the current state of their nation.

Tracks like Mourning In Amerika, How Many Walls, Welcome To The Breakdown, and Wolves itself eviscerate both the current administration and the apathetic state of the political landscape in general, taking no prisoners with their hard-hitting rallying cries.

Yet the record was nearly another beast entirely, until the tumult following President Trump's inauguration just over 12 months ago basically forced their hand to weigh in on the mayhem that was happening all around them.

"Just before the election — the summer before the election — I was thinking about the next Rise Against record and I realised that even if we started recording on that day we would not have a record out before the election, and I kinda got bummed about that," recalls frontman Tim McIlrath. "I was, like, 'This election is such a tumultuous time in American history and it would have been great to have a Rise Against record out around this time so we could weigh in and comment and sort of speak with our fans to hear what they're feeling,' and I regretted not putting a record out before the election.

"Then right after the election happened and you're watching a candidate like Trump who represents the worst of American culture in power, I was so grateful that Rise Against didn't put out a record before the election. Everything just changed, and a new Rise Against record written before that election would just not do it.

"A record that was kinda time-capsuled into a world where Donald Trump wasn't the President, and yet was coming out in the year 2017, just wasn't going to cut it, so I was happy that we had the opportunity to make a record that I think was slightly more relevant. One that was talking about the world that we are now living in, and a world that was constantly changing as well — even by the time we put the record out I feel that so much has happened and is happening."

McIlrath explains that in some ways the unprecedented political turmoil unveiling in the media on a daily basis made it harder than usual for the band to hone in on the targets that would prove most useful.

"We've had to sit back and witness the advent of the Trump administration and the rise of xenophobia and nationalism in this country, and how these ideas that we've always outrightly condemned like racism and sexism we're now giving a wink and a nod to," he tells. "Then when you have those things happen you have a lot of low-hanging fruit for a band like Rise Against to sing about, so after you realise that your record has a mission and your band has a purpose you think, 'How do we effectively inject ourselves into the conversation? What should we be writing about? Where can we voice what we want to say and reach people?' And therein lies the challenge — the material is definitely there, you've just got to figure out how you're going to say it in a way that is hopefully unique but also reaches people."

And while Rise Against are unequivocally behind the rapidly growing 'safe space' movement, which aims to make live music venues a more tolerable environment for anybody and everybody, the socially conscious band is also using Wolves to make a statement against people slow to adopt that premise.

"I kept hearing the term 'safe space' being thrown around, especially in the last year, and I thought, 'Well fuck that, a Rise Against show and each song is an environment where we're not creating a safe space, but we're creating a dangerous place where ideas of injustice can't breathe and where hate doesn't get any oxygen — let's create a place where that shit isn't welcome,'" McIlrath rails. "And it doesn't necessarily have to be a safe space, it can just be a place where if you are somebody who harbours ideas of racism and sexism then you should be afraid to walk into our space because we are intolerant of that.

"And that's kinda the idea behind a lot of what Wolves is, sort of being on attack and not necessarily about being the defence. It's about being the wolf at the gate, not passively accepting the changes for the worse that are taking place but actively trying to tear down the walls and regain control."