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\n\t\u201cWe just kinda thought, \u2018How many more years can this possibly last?\u2019 We\u2019re getting away with playing punk songs \u2014 this has gotta end any day now,\u201d Mcllrath recalled. \u201cKevin Lyman looked at me and said, \u2018Your band can be a band for the next 10-15 years if you wanna be.\u2019 He had no hard data to back up his claim, but I trusted his instinct. It was the first time someone had said to us, \u2018You might still be doing this in ten years.’\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTen albums later, Kevin Lyman\u2019s prediction became an unbelievable reality. For over a decade, the Chicago punk outfit has crafted relentless, politically charged rock anthems that have continuously resonated with the masses. Five of their previous records debuted within the top 10 on the Billboard 200, with Mcllrath very aware of the band\u2019s bountiful stats, and the award-winning formula they\u2019d shaped over the years.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat\u2019s exactly why for their tenth record it was time to really shake things up. The band pivoted away from its usual production partners, and instead linked up with indie powerhouse Catherine Marks, who recently won a Grammy for her production on Boygenius\u2019 2023 album The Record<\/em>. After four years of grinding it out in the studio with her, the band emerged with Ricochet<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\tOn the new album, out next Friday (Aug. 15), Rise Against\u2019s signature pummeling guitars take on a sleeker, more refined edge, while McIlrath\u2019s voice feels raw and explosive. The political songwriting remains the same, but Ricochet<\/em> showcases a group experiencing its own revolution.<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cWe found some muscles we didn\u2019t really know we had,\u201d Mcllrath said, \u201cand I think we\u2019re kinda ready to flex those muscles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBelow, Mcllrath talks with Billboard<\/em> about Rise Against\u2019s journey to Ricochet<\/em>, the complexities that come with making political music in 2025, and how the most dangerous conspiracy theories are usually the real ones.<\/p>\n\n\tWhy the long break between Nowhere Generation<\/em> and Ricochet<\/em>? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI think part of it was just coming out of a pandemic. Anybody who put music out around that time it came out in a pretty unorthodox and sprawling sort of way. So It took a long time to tick all the boxes as far as like, touring and getting back to all the cities we wanted to go to and making sure the record got love. So I think after that all happened we all needed a minute to come down from all that. <\/p>\n
\n\tSo we just really took our time with this one. We didn\u2019t wanna feel rushed or have to sort of overthink it. Instead we allowed ourselves to just kinda marinate after the [Nowhere Generation<\/em>] tour happened, and then come back to the record being hungry to write more songs. So it took us a while to find the right sound and material that we really felt confident in putting on a tenth record. Because I think a tenth record is\u2026 I mean just saying that: a tenth record. Some of my favorite bands haven\u2019t even made ten records, and here we are making ten records. I think some of that subconsciously was in the back of my mind, giving us license to kinda do whatever.<\/p>\n\n\tWe have our reputation and people have kinda already made up their minds about how they feel about Rise Against, you know? So this record felt kinda free to really just do whatever we want. To a degree, we have that freedom on every record \u2014 but this was something more about looking back at our legacy and being proud of it. Knowing we could take some risks, throw some curve balls and just create something that we felt in the moment.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn that sense, how did your creative approach change going into this record versus records of the past?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI think we felt compelled to sort of switch up the process on this record a little bit, and not go right back to the same studio and do the same thing. We\u2019ve made six of our ten records with the same production team: The Blasting Room out of Fort Collins, Colorado. There\u2019s kinda a signature sound to Rise Against crafted by that studio. It\u2019s an awesome space to be and it\u2019s a safe space to be for us, and I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll go back there again. But this one, we really felt like, \u201cLet\u2019s try something different. We are who we are and that\u2019s probably not gonna change too much, but let\u2019s play these songs for someone who\u2019s unfamiliar with Rise Against and doesn\u2019t come to it with all the baggage that we have and isn\u2019t beholden to anyones idea of what we should sound like.\u201d That\u2019s how we found Catherine Marks.<\/p>\n
\n\tCatherine Marks is more known for her work in the indie space. Why did you decide to make this record with her?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tYeah! Catherine won a Grammy \u2014 while we were making the record actually \u2014 for the Boygenius record. She\u2019s won a Grammy for mixing the St. Vincent record. She\u2019s worked a lot with Manchester Orchestra, which is kinda how we came to her. That was the band closest to our world, and also through our label Loma Vista, who she had worked with. It seemed like every other producer we were considering was Blasting Room-equivalent\u2026 and Catherine was not competing in the same lane as any of those producers. She was somebody so different, that we knew no matter what, even if we are who we are and we\u2019re old dogs you can\u2019t teach new tricks to \u2014 if we change this ingredient in the pot, it\u2019s gonna come out different. <\/p>\n
\n\tSo we did. We tried to change some of the ingredients in our recipe, without any idea of how that was gonna change the outcome. I\u2019m happy to say that it doesn\u2019t sound like our last record. It doesn\u2019t sound like the one before that. That was kinda our only real goal going into this \u2014 because we don\u2019t make songs for the masses, we don\u2019t guess or claim to know what anyone wants to hear in music. We\u2019re just trying to be true to the Rise Against story and what that next chapter is.<\/p>\n
\n\tYour songwriting also feels a bit different here, but it may just be because of the time we\u2019re living in. You guys have always been a political band, but considering this is a time where to speak out politically in any regard is met with some sort of condemnation, songs like \u201cNod\u201d seem to pack a different punch. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tYeah, I mean I\u2019ll be honest \u2014 I don\u2019t even consider any of those things when we go in to make a song. We make the song in a vacuum, and just talk about how we are feeling about what\u2019s going on in the world, repercussions-be-damned kinda thing. We\u2019ve been doing this a long time, through four or five different administrations now, so, I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s funny, because it\u2019s almost impossible to change that. When I pick up a guitar, that\u2019s what comes out. It\u2019s the avenue with which I get to music. So I think even if there were obvious repercussions coming, it wouldn\u2019t stop what we do. Our allegiance to the song and to the fans is bigger than our fear of anything outside of that.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut was there any conversation before hand as you were making this record? After seeing what happened to Bob Vylan or Kneecap or other artists, did you guys talk about what this means now to be a political band? Or did you guys just tune it out and go and make a record?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tWe just tuned it out. I mean, we come from a world where we\u2019re trying<\/em> to get on that list of backlash. We\u2019re coming from a world where if you\u2019re not on that list maybe you\u2019re not doing enough. That\u2019s kinda how you know you\u2019re on the right path, if what you\u2019re doing is actually creating some friction. My favorite bands created friction. So it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you\u2019re on the wrong path, sometimes it means you\u2019re on the right one.<\/p>\n\n\tOn \u201cNod\u201d you sing: \u201cExpecting to grow to infinity\/ It\u2019s like building a boat designed to sink\/ Are you saving the world so desperately?\/ Or are you holding a gun, demanding peace?\u201d What were you thinking when you wrote those lyrics?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI was thinking two things. I was thinking about late stage capitalism and how it relies on infinite growth, and how we have to come to terms with the fact that infinite growth isn\u2019t really a thing, and we certainly live with environmental constraints that prevent us from infinite growth. But unfortunately that is the religion for most people in a capitalist world. So to question that religion and disrupt that process is pretty offensive. Then the next line was sort of how we talk to each other, and how we get each other to see our side. <\/p>\n
\n\tI was a little bit inspired by\u2026it was during the height of Black Lives Matter, and I have young daughters. They were on TikTok or Snapchat following some influencer, and this girl had not posted something about Black Lives Matter on her thing, and she was getting kinda harassed by her audience for not talking about it. Black Lives Matter was something that I was 100% behind. It made common sense to me. If anything, what an innocuous thing to say? Just something as simple as: There\u2019s a disproportionate number of Black men and women being killed by police. How do we address this?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\tSo I was really on board with it, and I watched [my daughters] talk about this girl who was getting harassed to say something. I remember thinking, \u201cMan I\u2019m down with this movement for sure, but there\u2019s something really ugly about this harassment.\u201d For this person to cave to these sentiments, and to pressure her to cave to them. Then the outcome of her caving \u2014 did you really convince her?<\/p>\n
\n\tOr is she just giving in?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tYeah, or does she just want everyone to stop talking about it and just jump on board and surrender to the pressure? Then on top of that, have you now sort of sullied her relationship with activism? This is her experience. That, \u201cOh, these guys are a bunch of bullies trying to get me to agree with something that I don\u2019t fully understand.\u201d I was thinking about that. They have a gun to this girl\u2019s head trying to get her to agree with these ideas of peace. <\/p>\n
\n\tI remember thinking that we have to find a better way to talk to each other about this. Because here I am, very much on the side of the Black Lives Matter movement, but feeling sympathy for this girl who\u2019s getting all this s\u2014t for not being. I found it kind of conflicting for me. I didn\u2019t expect to feel that, but I was like, this poor girl.<\/em> There\u2019s gotta be a better way to have these conversations then to just bully people online.<\/p>\n\n\tWhat\u2019s it like being a dad in 2025, especially with older kids? How has this world they\u2019ve grown up in influenced you? Also, what kind of music are they listening to?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tWell, the music apple fell far from the tree. They\u2019re into 21 Savage and SZA \u2014 and they\u2019ve exposed me to tons of stuff. When they were younger I heard everything from Lorde to Sabrina Carpenter, been listening to Taylor Swift my whole life. They love all eras of her. They thankfully never fell into country, cause I don\u2019t have a taste for country. So they even roll their eyes at it a little bit, which I\u2019m like, \u201cOkay, good, we\u2019re both rolling our eyes at this.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tSo they never listened to anything from my world which is cool, they kinda carved out their own path. I think also I\u2019m just their dad, so it\u2019s just so close, and I\u2019m the singer, so it\u2019s really close\u2026 but it\u2019s so ubiquitous to me, because I\u2019ll be talking to my friends about 21 Savage and they\u2019ll be like, \u201cWhat are you talking about dude?\u201d Like, \u201cWait, you don\u2019t know this song? I know all of it!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBut raising kids in this era, you\u2019re aware of the guinea pigs they are to social media, without any real antidote. Like, I can take you off of it \u2014 but it\u2019s the equivalent to almost homeschooling you at this point. \u2018Cause I want you to understand what the world is, and you should be in the town square. I have young daughters, and I think young women are particularly susceptible to the standards of social media and all of these things\u2026<\/p>\n
\n\tThey\u2019re better critical thinkers now [on social media] then they were back then, but I\u2019m a person who \u2014 I find so many conspiracy theories so offensive and dangerous for a lot of reasons, but some because they cloud the real<\/em> conspiracy theories. The gas and oil industry spreading lies about climate change, which has effectively stalled any real climate policy. These are the real conspiracy theories. There\u2019s no cabal of Democrats keeping children in cages somewhere, and yet it\u2019s getting way more attention. If you\u2019re looking for a real conspiracy theory, call up Citgo or call the people who created the doubt around vaccines and autism. There is hard evidence for these things, so stop looking to the sky for chem trails.<\/p>\n\n\t As a guy who\u2019s always trying to point out these obvious things to people, I found the conspiracy theory culture so distracting and offensive in a conspiracy way. They\u2019re distracting you from something that we have hard science to back up. So trying to protect your kids from that is something every parent struggles with.<\/p>\n
\n\tI\u2019m curious what your thoughts are in regards to how your music can sort of help facilitate that change and be a bridge for people to use to learn about these issues? That seems like it\u2019s been a core value to Rise Against.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIt\u2019s a role that we don\u2019t shy away from. Especially in today\u2019s world where we\u2019re increasingly isolated into our own silos of information and music and whatever else and there\u2019s far less shared realities that we all co-exist in. But there are still a few places where we co-exist, no matter what side of the fence you\u2019re on. I feel like those places are maybe sports and music. I\u2019m sure there are more but those are the two that I think of off the top of my head. So music is one of those places that intersects these normally isolated communities. <\/p>\n
\n\tSo I think musicians should take that seriously if they\u2019re trying to communicate with people \u2014 because we all have our stances. The only thing that cuts through the noise are stories. So we wanna continue to be the storyteller that\u2019s giving you songs that will make you think about something, challenge your way of thinking, create friction, or even just let you know that you\u2019re not alone. We will continue to do that \u2014 and I feel very lucky to be a musician in 2025, because I feel like we still have access to people of all walks of life and on all sides of the fence.<\/p>\n
\n\tI\u2019m thinking about \u201cPrizefighter\u201d now. On that song you talk about how you\u2019re happy to be that bridge for people, but that there\u2019s also this individual need to maintain some sort of creative freedom. Was there a moment where it felt like Rise Against was spinning out of control a bit?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tNobody I know ever prepared for this life and what it would take to do it. Not that Rise Against is a limelight band, but to be thrust into a public position \u2014 especially coming from a punk rock and hardcore and DIY world that we come from \u2014 you have to maintain your own idea of who you are, and remind yourself you\u2019re not beholden to anybody else. Those are why people appreciate who you are in the first place, because those are the things you came to the table with.<\/p>\n
\n\tWe\u2019re now in a world where people are much more connected to any sort of public figure, so you get people who think they have some sort of ownership over you, and I come from a time where that wasn\u2019t the case. I don\u2019t plan on caving to anybody\u2019s idea of what my band should sound like or say or shouldn\u2019t say. That\u2019s something you have to be very protective of \u2014 your band, your art \u2014 and not let anybody tinker with it. Don\u2019t chase the audience, let the audience come to you. <\/p>\n
\n\tI think as we live in a world with clicks and algorithms and likes, it\u2019s easy to fall into that trap. In the end, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a healthy way to be an artist. Because we started when we started, we had pretty solid footing in who we are. I feel like artists who start today and are living in this era, they\u2019re playing a different game.<\/p>\n
\n\tDoes that tap into the idea of Ricochet<\/em> as a whole?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tYeah, and it\u2019s also about how we\u2019re all existing in the same room where those bullets are ricocheting around. We\u2019re all connected and affected by each other\u2019s actions, and that room that we\u2019re in, it\u2019s the globe that we\u2019re all on. We\u2019re so connected that you can\u2019t fire a bullet in that room and really know the implications of your actions and what the outcome could be. That\u2019s sort of what we wanted to convey with that word. How are we going to co-exist out here, and do things that are not in our own best interest but in the best interest of the person next to us.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhy don\u2019t you think more artists are taking a stance against what\u2019s been going on? From Gaza to the Trump Administration, it just seems eerily quiet on the music front. What is holding people back?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIf you are a band or artist and you started your band to sell tickets and sell records, then politics are a dangerous game to traffic in. Because you will alienate people. So for all of these artists trying to cast the biggest net, they are afraid to do that. That\u2019s too bad, because I think music has such an opportunity to reach people. So I think you have those people out there just trying to have a career, but this is how we walked in the door. We never pivoted to politics or away from politics. It\u2019s part of our DNA \u2014 and if anything you have to acknowledge that might be why people have come to us and why we\u2019re still here talking about it. What I always try to tell people is I don\u2019t think every band needs to be political.<\/p>\n
\n\tMy favorite bands were The Ramones or The Misfits; I wouldn\u2019t go back and make them political. But the saddest thing I see is when backstage or off the record they have really deep convictions about what\u2019s happening in the world, and they feel afraid to say them and are suppressing those things. That\u2019s the saddest thing to me. When they feel they can\u2019t say something, \u2019cause they\u2019re afraid their audience will turn on them. I think a lot of them feel bullied into silence, but what I would tell those people who are listening is that there are people out there waiting for you to say something. They have an appetite for change and are hungry for it, and they\u2019re not always the loudest in your messages or comment section, but you will find they\u2019re out there and they\u2019re craving this voice from music. <\/p>\n
\n\tThe loudest voices on the internet are the bullies, but I don\u2019t think they\u2019re the majority. That\u2019s what I tell the crowd every night \u2014 there are people everywhere fighting the good fight they\u2019re just not the loudest representation on the internet. There\u2019s more of us than there are of them.<\/p>\n
\n\tToo many artists are so afraid to see conflict in their social media channels, but I don\u2019t think people need to fear it. I hope that people speak out with what\u2019s happening throughout this Trump administration and how authoritarian to anti-American it really is. It\u2019s antithetical to so many things that we hold ourselves dear to as a country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.billboard.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After breaking out into the mainstream with the success of their 2006 album The Sufferer & The Witness, Rise Against\u2018s lead singer Tim Mcllrath recalls a conversation he had with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman. Mcllrath, who was speaking to Billboard via Zoom, said Lyman caught the group in a state of euphoria as they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1947153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[310617],"class_list":["post-1947152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-genre-rock"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Rise-Againsts-Tim-Mcllrath-Talks-About-Their-Tenth-Album-Ricochet.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1947152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1947153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1947152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1947152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1947152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}