TOM MORELLO: PROPHETS OF RAGE's Next Album Will 'Define Who We Are In 2019 And Beyond'

Tom Morello recently spoke to Mary Anne Hobbs of BBC Radio 6 Music about PROPHETS OF RAGE's plans to release new music, following the arrival of the standalone song "Made With Hate", which was made available in June. The guitarist is joined in the supergroup by other musicians from RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, as well as members of PUBLIC ENEMY and CYPRESS HILL.

Morello said: "We had a song come out recently called 'Made With Hate', sort of commenting on the continually brewing chaotic storm that is the United States Of America and the normalization of hate. And we continue to work on songs.

"We talk among ourselves: 'What does an album mean?'" he continued. "There used to be one way to do it — you would write an album, you'd record an album, you'd do six months of promotion and then the record would [do] X, Y and Z. In this day and age, the process has become democratized in a way. The healthy side of that, I think, is that there's more music available all the time, and there are no barriers. Music is cheaper than water now, so there's no barriers to accessing the music. However, it's such a white noise background of so much all the time that finding the crystal and gems within it is a more difficult process than perhaps it once was."

According to Morello, fans won't have to wait very long to hear brand new music from PROPHETS OF RAGE.

"In light of the recent gun violence, we've got a very timely song that we're gonna put out hopefully in the next couple of days," he said. "Then beyond that, I think for PROPHETS OF RAGE, this will be our third studio record and really the one where I think we have to define who we are in 2019 and beyond, rather than just sort of a coming together of groups with notable catalogs, to really find our own sound and to continue to grow.

"When the band came together in 2016, it was a reaction to the chaotic U.S. election cycle," he explained. "And we had to do more than tweet about it. And we had a lot of great arrows in our quiver when it comes to songs, and so by putting this group together, it was a way to move the goal post and address the issues of the time to between two thousand and sixty thousand people a day. And now it's time to really get that musical message on tape."

In addition to Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk, who all played together in RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and AUDIOSLAVE, the band features PUBLIC ENEMY's Chuck D and DJ Lord along with CYPRESS HILL's B-Real.

PROPHETS OF RAGE's self-titled album came out in 2017 and debuted at No. 3 and No. 4 on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums chart and Top Rock Albums chart, respectively.