Rage Rages On

The rock renegades talk about the new album

Rage Against The Machine have had a seriously tough 12 months -- they sacked their third management team in as many years, the Rhyme & Reason tour with the Beastie Boys was cancelled and bassist Tim Commerford pissed everyone off when he climbed a stage pylon and disrupted the MTV Video Awards. Oh, and vocalist Zack De La Rocha -- for many people Rage's public face and spokesman -- left the group.
Zack's departure has left the Rage camp at the centre of some intense speculation about both the band's future and its current actions. Amid suggestions of the group continuing with anyone from Cypress Hill's B-Real or Public Enemy's Chuck D to David Lee Roth (ex-Van Halen -- and surely the most unlikely!) on the mic, there are also a few cynics who see Rage and record company Sony trying to cash in on the Zack legacy before the whole thing folds.

A planned live album was set aside in preference to a collection of covers (Renegades, out now) the band had recorded, meaning Sony still has a live album up its sleeve. Also, Sony and the band's management recently kicked thousands of Napster users off the network for downloading tracks from Renegades, further adding to the last minute dollar grab atmosphere.

However, despite the sky falling in larger and larger chunks for RATM, the remaining members of the group Ð Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk Ð are remaining calm and focused, and a few facts are working in their favour. Renegades is a very impressive record and a worthy release, and Morello has made it clear that the band was not consulted about the Napster ban (they have atoned by making tracks available as free downloads from their official website).

Support has also come from all areas of the music community, proving just how much Rage has achieved over the last nine years. When juice.net spoke with Tim Commerford, he was surprisingly optimistic about the future.

So how are things in the Rage camp at the moment?
We're all doing real well. We've got a great new record that I personally think is one of the best, if not the best record we've ever done. It's certainly the most mature album, and I'm really excited to get it out there. Right now that's my main focus.

What makes you suggest this is the best record you've done?
Well, [producer] Rick Rubin is kind of a legendary guy and ever since we've been a band me and Zack used to drive to rehearsal and it was like, "How cool would it be to work with Rick Rubin?" That was what we talked about all the time. Rick at that time had the Def American thing happening and we didn't have a record deal. It was like, "Whoo, maybe we can get signed by Rick Rubin!" So it was just kinda crazy to work with him.

Was he the way you'd imagined he'd be?
I'd developed an idea in my mind of what he would be like -- and he was nothing like that. I thought he was like this hardcore biker guy, you know -- that's the way he looked. But you can't judge a book by its cover because he's a totally soft-spoken, kinda zen sort of guy. You know, a nice sweet guy, really intelligent and really on top of his game -- and he's a bomb producer. This was the first time I just laid back as far as my comments and what I was hearing goes. I thought, "I'll just leave it to Rick and Rick will sort it out." And then, boom! I got the final CD and I just loved it.

This is an album of covers, so how did you settle on songs?
We drew from all our influences and just turned 'em into Rage songs. You know, some of 'em didn't need much and there were a few we didn't do anything to at all. I never thought we would play punk rock music, but I listen to "In My Eyes" [originally by Minor Threat] and it's just like, "Fuck, it's on." And [Cypress Hill's] "How I Could Just Kill A Man." I love that song. It's like traditional, big-hitting Rage music. And "Beautiful World" is cool because we've never done anything like that. That was an arrangement that Tom had, so him and Zack just worked that and I laid a little distortion bass on there and that song is sick, man. I love it. I mean, man, it's every song. After a while I find that I'm loving it all. I'm loving "Housin'," you know, that's a great song. And "Renegades of Funk" -- that one stood out for me when I first heard it. I just thought it was really catchy and a good song.

One that stood out for me was Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm," mainly because it was such an odd choice.
That was one that after we recorded the music I was sort of worried because to get all the lyrics of that song in there we had to make a really long song -- it's six and a half minutes long or something like that. When you listen to six and half minutes of the music without the vocals, it's a little boring -- it gets a little old after a while. But when the lyrics got laid on and I got a chance to hear it all done, in the final Rick Rubin mix, I was like, "Oh my god, that song sounds awesome."

How did you approach making these tracks?
We downloaded the lyrics off the internet of all the songs we were going to play and then we would arrange the music around the lyrics. It worked out, you know.

Is that the way Rage has worked in the past, fitting music to lyrics?
No. Never before. This was backwards. Normally we would do the music first and then put the lyrics on afterwards, so it was just kinda crazy.

Any intention of these songs becoming part of your live set?
It's hard to say. For now, we have other things going on beside shows.

Does the future feel a little uncertain with Zack leaving?
Sure. Ten years of doing anything is a lot and it's all about making changes and adapting and empowering yourself and trying to figure out a way to make life more exciting. That's the way I see it, at least -- and I'm all for it.

So you're not panicking about going on without him?
I'm challenged by things. Here's a challenge, and it's exciting.

It's a pretty big challenge though...
Yeah, but at the end of the day I feel pretty confident. I mean, I know what happens when I'm playing in a show and I know if I were to stop playing bass what would happen to people. You can't imagine how that feels to be moving a lot of people with my finger tips -- it's a subtle thing and I'm into it and I'm not going to let that go down again. I'm excited to make music and I know that our best songs are the ones we all get into, and the lyrics just sort of get put on them. That's how we've always written our songs. We get into a room and just write riffs that make us all laugh and give us all goosebumps, and that's still gonna happen.

So you don't think too much is going to change?
It's not gonna change. When I listen to stuff that we've done with Snoop Dogg, you know, I just love that song. I feel confident that we can make musical arrangements that we feel are exciting and will make people excited, and it doesn't matter who that may be with. So it's a good time ahead. The world is our oyster.

Is there any pressure on to find a replacement for Zack?
There's no pressure at the moment to get anything sorted. This record is the main priority at the moment. This is a record we wrote and recorded and did all this work on before Zack left the band. So I've just gotta go, "OK, let's not lose focus on this because this other thing happened. Let's not lose sight of what's the most important thing." And the most important thing is that I feel passionate about this record.

Renegades was originally gonna be a live album, an idea which got pushed to one side in favour of an album of cover versions. Is there any chance that live album will be released?
I don't know. I personally listened to it and I thought it sounded great and it's a great opportunity to put it out. And I think that was the major thought of the record label. I think they were a bit like, "Gee I hope we can get some music before like Christmas." You know, they thought, "They're a great live band and they could probably make a great live record." And they probably thought, "Here's another opportunity to put out "Killing In The Name" or "Bullet In The Head" or whatever. But when they got a 12-song, brand new album -- even when they discovered it was covers -- they were great. At the end of the day it's hard to explain. It's a Rage record, you know.