One of our favorite bands of the 21st century headlines Brooklyn Paramount tomorrow night and Franklin Music Hall on Saturday night, and we mean it when we say that we cannot wait.
When it comes to adaptability and longevity in the punk rock scene, few bands have matched the consistent, enduring pace of Rise Against. For over two decades, this Chicago-based quartet has satiated their passionate fans from small sweaty clubs to expansive festivals. Their audience has seen steady growth over the years through their appearance in several movie and video game soundtracks, and though they seem to have done it all, their passion for music that tears the roof off venues big and small has not wavered in the slightest. Their current North American Tour has just begun, and we had the pleasure of speaking with longtime drummer Brandon Barnes about what those heading out to the shows can expect. We also had fun chatting about their influences as a rock group, their songwriting process two-decades in, and more!
There have been rumors of new music on the horizon among the Rise Against fanbase, which was confirmed by a recent fan-shot video of your live performance of a new song, titled “Want It All.” How much can you divulge about this new song, and how soon can the fans expect to hear a new Rise Against record?
We are wrapping up a new record. We’ve been working on it with Catherine Marks – she is a producer from Australia and she has worked with artists like boygenius, Frank Turner, Manchester Orchestra. She’s pretty amazing. We’re almost done. We have been playing that new song, “Want It All,” and we played it on our Europe tour and it went over pretty well. I don’t have a release date yet for the record, but it’s almost done, coming out soon, and we’re really happy about it.
Awesome, so you’ve played it a little bit on your Europe tour. Can your North American fans be expecting to hear it at any dates?
You know, this tour we’re obviously coming to a bunch of cities in the U.S. and we’re playing a lot of deep cuts on this one. We’re not currently playing the new song on this tour, but will we eventually play it on this tour? This tour is almost two months long, so it’s possible, but right now we promised our fans that we’d do some deep cuts, and that’s what we’re doing so far. But, you never know – it could happen.
Having joined Rise Against in 2000 and playing drums on every album to date, your frenetic yet calculated percussion skills have been the backbone of the band for over two decades. When it comes to the songwriting process, is the drumming the foundation that the band then builds around, or are the songs crafted in more of a free flowing nature?
We kind of write songs in every way you can think of. I mean, sometimes it starts as a riff, sometimes one of us in the band will have a song pretty put together and we just need to add some details to it. We do it every way, and as far as the drums, the formula is just to try to always keep it interesting. Tim [McIlrath, rhythm guitar] will have a riff a lot of times, which is how a lot of our music starts, and drums come next. Then we’ll work on it, we’ll change it up, we’ll work on tempos, work on different drum beats, whatever we think suits the song best.
You’ve been drumming since a very young age, having received your first drum set at the age of nine and drawing inspiration from legendary drummers such as Dave Lombardo, Tony Williams, and Terry Bozzio, among others. In what way has listening to your favorite drummers helped you to develop your signature play-style?
I took lessons as a kid, and to anyone reading this who is playing music, it’s always important to take lessons from someone that has mastered their craft and someone who is versatile. I took lessons from a drummer called Charlie Shultz when I was young and I learned to play jazz music. Obviously at a young age I got turned on to metal and punk, so now I think that mixing different styles is always important. It makes your playing interesting no matter what instrument, and that helps create a more unique style, because I wasn’t just locked into one type of music. At the same time, you’ve gotta come up with your own style, right? You can’t copy everybody; it’s good to have your idols and take little bits from each one of them, but at the same time create your own style. Hopefully I’ve done that as best I could.
I certainly think you have, and it definitely helps to be drawing from a variety of genres rather than just sticking to punk.
Absolutely, and just being able to play other instruments, as well, because if you just play the drums, I think it can be harder to relate to what the guitar player is doing, or the bass player, or what the singer is trying to accomplish. I definitely started out with piano since my mom was a piano teacher, so I think just playing other instruments really helps with that.
Who would you put in your Mount Rushmore of great punk bands, and how have they each influenced you, either musically or personally in your life?
Wow, that’s a tall order. As far as this band, we took a lot from bands like Bad Religion, Minor Threat, and some of those early, faster punk bands like Misfits, but as far as who’s my ultimate? That’s a really tough question. I know in the metal world you mentioned Dave Lombardo, and I love Slayer. I loved growing up listening to Metallica. Our main influences I think were Bad Religion, Adolescents, Misfits – those would probably be our three.
One of the many things Rise Against is known for is the incredible energy of the live performance, and while everyone does their part, the full body physicality required to drum for an aggressive punk band cannot be understated. How do you maintain that unwavering energy throughout an entire set?
Very carefully [Laughs]. Lots of water! Drink lots of water! I’m 46, too, and this tour we’re playing a lot of deep cuts – very fast songs that I wrote when I was a kid, around 20 years old. I think you have to love what you’re doing, right? That’s how it starts; anyone that’s crazy enough to tour as much as we do, you’ve gotta really love it or you’ll lose your mind, because being on tour a lot can be rough. Drinking tons of water and practicing a lot. I mean, at 46 I still practice. When I’m home, I still play my drums every day. I go out to my garage and I practice every single day, which is weird, but it just shows you that I love it. I think that’s how you maintain playing well and getting through the shows, you’ve gotta actually like it, you know?
Absolutely, and I’m sure it helps with your endurance to be practicing so much.
You have to practice. Honestly, at this point, if you don’t practice, you’re not gonna make it through the show. I’m not necessarily working on getting better, I am just working on endurance. That’s what it’s all about.
You’ve had the privilege of performing to crowds of all sizes over the course of your career, from intimate clubs to massive festivals. Do you have an ideal venue size? Can you list some of the pros and cons of clubs versus festivals?
Obviously a club is more intimate, so it feels more at home, I guess, since I grew up playing small bars and clubs since I was in my early teens, which is always special. Just being hot and feeling like you could possibly die in a really hot little club show where the crowd is going crazy is kind of the best feeling ever. But at the same time, you go and play a festival with 50,000 people, and sitting at my drum set I have the best seat in the house looking out at that massive crowd; that’s pretty amazing, as well – less intimate, but it’s always entertaining just to see all the kids show up and sing along. It makes you thankful every time you play a show that big, as well – you’re just kind of in awe that you’re still doing it and that many people showed up and they love it and they’re passionate about it. I like ‘em all. On this tour specifically we’re doing clubs, and we’re two shows deep and it’s really fun to go back to playing inside. The tour we did before this was a Europe tour and it was all festivals, so it was all outside. They’re all fun for different reasons.
Rise Against has been featured in several media forms over the years, from movie soundtracks to video games, and, most recently, even a comic book soundtrack. Where would you like to see a Rise Against song featured next?
The movies are always fun. We were in Lords of Dogtown just for a second, and that was really cool just being on the movie set and having that experience. We were playing Black Flag, which was really cool. Honestly, any of it – if it fits whatever medium they want to use it for and it’s gonna help the band and entertain people, great! When we were young, our song “Like the Angel” was on the Tony Hawk video game, and that video game was so popular. That was a huge boost for the band back in the day, because kids would sit there and play that game all day and listen to Rise Against over and over. We were in John Madden football and there’s been a bunch; even when my son was like three years old, he was playing a dirt bike racing video game in the living room and I was in the kitchen and I was like, “Wait – that’s a Rise Against song!” I had no idea it was in that video game. All that stuff… I’d like to see us anywhere.
I was one of those kids that was exposed to Rise Against through video games. I played the Tony Hawk games growing up, but I believe the first time I heard a Rise Against song was “Prayer of the Refugee” in one of the Guitar Hero games.
Oh, yeah, Guitar Hero – I forgot about that. That was massive, also!
Having just begun your current North America tour, with many of the dates already being sold out, what excites you most about embarking on another tour with Rise Against? What would you say the fans could be most excited for on this tour?
This tour we’re playing some deep cuts, and that’s exciting for people that are older like me, who remember records that came out 20 years ago. We’re playing a little bit of stuff from The Unraveling, The Sufferer & The Witness, stuff from our older two records, so that’s exciting. I’m excited just for the challenge of playing these older songs. At soundcheck with some of these songs, [you realize] that they’re just in your brain permanently and you don’t really have to think about them. Those are still fun to play, but they just kind of happen. On this tour, every day we’re sort of coming up with a list of a few deep cuts and then we’ve got to sit down and do the research and figure out what we did and how we did it, and how to do it with endurance like we were talking about earlier. So it’s exciting for us, it’s something new, something we haven’t done in a while, and exciting for the fans. That’s why this tour is fun – every day is sort of a mystery of what we’re going to play.
That’s awesome, so the setlist has been changing a lot from show to show?
Yeah, we’re changing it every show. I mean we’re playing some of the songs that we play a lot, like “Savior” and “Prayer,” and we’re keeping some of those in there for people that want to hear that stuff, but then half of it is older, deeper cuts for the diehard fans.
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