| RISE AGAINST and the 'Historia Calamitatum'. |
| Written by Luke Oram |
| Thursday, 07 January 2010 23:40 |
 BRANDON BARNES conveys the kind of laid-back demeanour that can only come from the homeground. The Colorado native and RISE AGAINST back-bone, is settled in at the back-end of a five week European tour with fellow noise-makers Thursday and Poison The Well. With the luxury of ten days off, the musical activist is home. Barnes is quick to express the band’s genuine excitement about their second string of Big Day Out appearances; in his circles, they all call the festival the Big Day Off. He enthuses - “Basically, it’s the most relaxed tour; well-run, the crowds are huge. It’s gonna be awesome.” The last time Brandon and his politico-punk comrades played a Big Day Out was 2005, where the drummer admired headliners Beastie Boys, and caught Joey Jordison systematically destroy Slipknot’s rhythm section. As heroes of the political punk voice, Rise Against have been campaigning as much as touring their “new-old album”, 2008’s 'Appeal To Reason' for a year and a half now. The band maintains the album is their strongest and their fans agree in spades. The Rise Against ethic has always been a fusion of melody and message, punk-rock and solid conviction - waving a flag and pushing a political plight that is uniquely directed at the woes of their own country, but a plight universal enough to ring across the globe. Or as Barnes so eloquently puts it; “If someone puts a mic in my face, it’s nice to say something...”  COUP DE MAIN: After touring 'Appeal To Reason' solidly, are there a couple of songs that are resonating with people? RISE AGAINST - BRANDON BARNES: ‘Saviour’ seems to be the song that everyone loves off the new record; every night we play that you can see people immediately recognize it - it seems to be the song they’re waiting for. ‘Audience Of One’ gets a good reaction. We’ve been opening with ‘Collapse’ the last few tours - people seem to like that one. CDM: In the song-writing process, what comes first - the message or the music? BRANDON: Always the music. Me, Joe [ Principe; bass ] and Tim [ McIlrath; lead vocals, guitar ] - we’ve been in the band for all the records, so we all sit down and build the songs. A lot of times if the music’s aggressive or not aggressive, it dictates Tim’s lyrics. He writes lyrics all the time, so you’ve got the music - and then you figure out which ones are appropriate for each other. We definitely sit down and try to come up with as many shells of songs as we can, then we keep building on them until we think they’re ready. CDM: Obviously the message that you guys bring, is a really big part of your music... BRANDON: Yeah it is. It’s nice too. It’s fulfilling to have another aspect of the band. Obviously we spent a lot of years learning how to play in terms of playing instruments, but it’s also great that we can use our music to try and change some things we feel are wrong in the world. It makes it a lot more fulfilling band to be in, because there is something to talk about. CDM: In terms of political views, are you all on the same page as Tim? BRANDON: Yeah. We all share similar political views; I don’t think it'd work if we didn’t. We’re all pretty like-minded. CDM: Do you think that every artist - as an influential person - has a responsibility to use that influence for social change? BRANDON: I don’t think so. I think people can make up their mind whether they want to touch politics... A lot of bands won't get near politics and I think there are a number of different reasons for that. People think it’s dangerous, career-wise. Sometimes its something they don’t wanna talk about. But punk-rock... I mean, punk-rock always seems to me to be against the grain. I think it started as a political form of music, a reaction to stuff that was going on, you know? So as a punk band - yeah, I think you gotta talk about politics, but there are a lot of punk bands who don’t and that’s fine. CDM: Do you ever get tired of people focusing on the political aspect of Rise Against? BRANDON: Not really. I mean, that’s something that we created. It’s what we wanted to do with the band. It’s a huge part of what we do. I think it’s great. A lot of these things people won’t talk about, and a lot of these things people wont touch, so if someone puts a mic in my face it’s nice to say something - something that will make people think.  CDM: Do you ever wish that someone would just say something nice about your drum fills? BRANDON: Nah, I get that. There’s always drum nerds who point out things they like. CDM: So... If the President called you up tomorrow and asked you to represent the voice of the people, what would you say? BRANDON: The President? Shit, I don’t know how I would feel about that. I mean, he just okay-ed sending 30,000 more troops in to Afghanistan, so... I don’t know if we’re on the same page as the President anymore. It’s a tough one. I think the best thing for our country in general, is to end these two wars that we’re in - I think I would say something to that effect. Pull out. At this point, Obama’s sending 30,000 and he’s gonna send more to Iraq, so it’s headed in a bad direction... I’m worried. CDM: I was checking out your MySpace page and I read a comment from a girl who was begging you guys to come to her town because her boyfriend was in the army and being shipped off in a month - he was a huge fan. What do you guys do when you hear those stories? What does that do to you? BRANDON: It’s hard. We get e-mails all the time from people over there [ Iraq and Iran ] saying - “I listen to your music while I’m patrolling the city.” - there’s mixed emotions, right? Some poor kid’s driving a tank over there listening to Rise Against. I mean, I feel really bad for anybody who’s got to go over and be a part of this war. I think it’s a mess over there. Worse than it was. And I don’t think it’s gonna get better. I think a lot of people are realising that. It’s sad. This war especially, to me seems pretty pointless. I get e-mails from soldiers all the time. You’d be surprised. I feel bad you know? I was hoping Obama was gonna do more. CDM: So, what gives you hope? What are we doing right? BRANDON: We do all kinds of positive shit all the time. We go to soup kitchens. We’ll do work with Habitat For Humanity. We work with PETA. There are all kinds of people out there who are doing great stuff. It’s not all boo-hoo politics. There are a lot of great things going out there that are positive - I think a major event for any American, was Obama. I don’t agree with everything he does, but at least we don’t have president McCain - that would have been terrifying. There’s always positive things going on, but we still gotta talk about things nobody wants to talk about.  CDM: I don’t know if you’ve heard about the Beenie Man controversy [ Beenie Man was pulled from the Big Day Out line-up after a backlash from the gay community regarding anti-gay sentiment in his earlier lyrics ] - the whole thing has brought up a question about censorship and free speech. Rise Against are well known for being an outspoken, openly opinionated band - where does free speech end and censorship begin? Where is the line for you guys? BRANDON: Where’s the line? I guess it’s tricky. Firstly, I would say anyone that’s writing lyrics that are bashing gays... I don’t want that person anywhere near me. Playing a festival with someone that’s gonna take the time to sit down and write hateful lyrics because someone’s gay... I mean, that’s pretty scary to me. So, censorship? I guess I feel the same way about it as I do when the KKK march through D.C. every year. It’s freedom of speech, they can do what they want, but the KKK? You can’t agree with it, you can’t back it. It’s painful to see. It’s a tricky one. I would say that I agree with him not being at the festival. People like that are dangerous and they shouldn’t really have a mic. They shouldn’t be able to get their hands on the mass public. CDM: Do you think it’s more about the product of what you’re saying? Your message is one of hope and it yields great results as opposed to hate-speech... BRANDON: I would like to think that we put out a positive message. And to me that’s completely different. If you’re spewing hatred, anti-gay messages or anything like that... I don’t think people who organize festivals like Big Day Out should put people [ like that ] on the bill. I think that guy can write what he wants in his bedroom and do what he wants to do, but I would hope that a big promoter responsible to thousands of people would keep someone like that away form the mass public. We’re all about a positive hopeful message, and we hope that’s okay. Rise Against's 'Appeal To Reason' is in-stores.  |
