RISE AGAINST's TIM MCILRATH: 'We're Trying To Alienate People All The Time. It's Just Sort Of Baked Into What We Do.'

On a recent episode of "Artist Friendly", the podcast hosted by GOOD CHARLOTTE's Joel Madden, RISE AGAINST frontman Tim McIlrath spoke about how he injects political activism into his songwriting. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "That's a fine line, especially as a band who has decided early on to fuse politics into our music. It's, like, 'How do we do this? How do we go out there?' 'Cause I don't like being preached at. Nobody who found a punk scene likes being preached at. If anything, they walked into those doors because they got sick of the world telling them what to do. They don't need me on a microphone telling them what to do also. And so it's a fine line. I don't even think I always walked that line that well early on. I think there were times where I fucked up, and it was, like, 'Dude, you just preached at that audience.' You know what I mean? You don't need to do that. You lost people. And so it's guess and test. It's trial and error."

Addressing some of the risks involved with speaking out on political issues, Tim said: "We're a band that has had death threats for things that we've said. And it was a moment then where we had to decide, like, 'Oh, should we still be saying these things?' It's, like, 'When I walk out on stage tomorrow, has the guy who's promised he's gonna show up and do something about it?' Like, 'Am I gonna walk out on stage?' And it was a moment, especially for me, where I was, like, 'Well, yeah, I have to walk on stage. I gotta do that. I can't live in fear of this person.' It's not a regular problem. It's happened, but it's not like a regular [occurrence]… We took it as seriously as we could and forwarded it to people and said, 'This happened to us.' This was over 10 years ago now. And I feel like political violence has escalated. It was still bad then, but it's become even far more real as of late. But it was something that was in the back of my mind. For sure I had to think about it. But at the same time, I was kind of, like, I'm not gonna live behind this veil and hide from anything. And if anything, I have to say this even stronger because I know it needs to be said. I'm putting water where the fire is, and obviously hitting nerves."

McIlrath admitted that RISE AGAINST's explicitly progressive political messages occasionally cause friction or polarization among casual fans who misinterpret or reject the band's stance.

"I think that that's the backwards part of RISE AGAINST and being in the music industry, is that the idea is that if you're in the music world or whatever, you're not trying to alienate anybody," Tim said. "Like, we're trying to alienate people all the time. It's just sort of baked into what we do. We're just going to. If we're doing our job, there's somebody being alienated from this community that we're creating. 'Cause there's a community that we are creating that people are... We want people to come in, and then there are people that we are trying to actively reject and say, 'You're not welcome in this world.' This world that we're creating is going to be free from racists and sexists and homophobes. If you fall in that category, we'd love to convert you, but you're also just not welcome in this community. So having that compass of RISE AGAINST from the get has made it not a debate. We don't debate about who we are. It's just sort of to where we, like, put our foot down from the day we named our band RISE AGAINST."

RISE AGAINST's first new album in four years, "Ricochet", came out in August 2025 via Loma Vista Recordings. The LP was produced by Grammy winner Catherine Marks (BOYGENIUS, FOALS, MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA, ST. VINCENT) and mixed by Alan Moulder (NINE INCH NAILS, PARAMORE, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, THE KILLERS).

RISE AGAINST's outspoken messages, bulletproof melodies and deep body of multi-gold and platinum hits have reached more fans than ever, uniting millions in a necessary embrace of vital, progressive issues. Whether they are singing about injustice, instability, environmentalism, animal rights or the way the social and economic decks have been stacked against the youth, the Chicago band continues to fill arenas, top charts, break records and earn billions of streams.