Rise Against

Thu 12th May, 2011 in Features

With six albums and a countless number of world tours under their belt including appearances at Rock Am Ring and a number of Big Day Out’s, Rise Against have all but conquered the world of music with their melodic and anthemic take on the legendary punk bands of the 80’s and 90’s. With an impending Australian tour on a truly massive scale, drummer Brendon Barnes took some time out of the bands hectic schedule to discuss technology, society, touring and everything in-between.

You’re currently touring across the US in support of your latest release Endgame, how’s have fans been responding to the new material?
Yeah I mean we’ve gotten such a good response to every part of this record, from the lyrics, to the music. It’s been great being on tour with Bad Religion, who we toured with about 5 or 6 years ago and we wanted to do it again because they’re such a good band and they’re such good friends of ours, but yeah it’s going great, everything’s great.

How exactly did this tour with Bad Religion come about, was it just as simple as picking up the phone and giving them a call?
Yeah well we’ve actually run into these guys quite a bit over the past few years and we’ve crossed paths with them and played festivals with them a lot. We just asked them you know, hey, would you be interested in doing the tour and they said yes. So I mean that was a huge thing for us and I think we’re just at a point where we’re fortunate enough that we can take out great bands.

Well on that note, Rise Against is returning to Australia for a string of shows in July with Sick Of It All, who are widely considered to be one of the greatest hardcore punk bands of all time. You guys actually opened for them once upon a time didn’t you?
Yeah, we did a European tour with them in I’d say about 2002 or 2003 when we were just a small band and we had a great time. You know we’re just sort of forever grateful to them for taking us to Europe and exposing us to their fans, so we wanted to return the favour and they said yes, so once again we’re on another awesome tour with a legendary punk band.

Were Bad Religion and Sick of It All bands that inspired you as upcoming musicians?
Yeah I mean they definitely had a huge influence on us, especially after going on that tour to Europe, they were just so good and had an incredible energy every night. They kind of taught us how to tour, show up and play well every night and I mean I guess you can definitely see that Bad Religion has had a huge impact on our music.

Does it feel somewhat surreal to have these bands who you once looked up too opening for you on a nightly basis?
Yeah it is weird that we’re at this point where we can take all these great bands out, but you know it’s really hard to follow a legendary act like Bad Religion, who sound so good every night, but you know, that’s how the game works.

Back when you were first starting out in the days of the Unravelling, did you ever think that Rise Against would become as popular and influential as it has?
No you know, I mean I got in this band right before our first record and I think all four of us just thought that you know, we would play in a punk band and have fun. There’s was no way that you could predict this would happen. I guess we just worked hard, you know, we toured hard, harder than anybody for a lot of years and I guess it paid off.