ZACK DE LA ROCHA Discusses ONE DAY AS A LION Project, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE's Future Plans

Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times recently conducted a lengthy interview with RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE frontman Zack de la Rocha about his ONE DAY AS A LION project and RAGE's future plans. A few excerpts from the chat follow>

On ONE DAY AS A LION:

"This is not simply a burst of energy. We are going to be making records and writing songs. We're still in the process of forming as a band — we need a keyboard player, I'm not good enough to do it all myself — so that will be rectified soon."

About the first ONE DAY AS A LION single, "Wild International":

"That song is a response to the way we saw the U.S. government try to reframe the conflicts of the world. Particularly when the Soviet Union had collapsed, there was no way to subject the country to the kind of fear needed to justify what I consider to be an ill distribution of wealth. After 9/11 you could see that reframing taking place. The specter of Communism no longer haunted the U.S., justifying its actions in Latin America and all over the world. What filled that void were Al Qaeda and the Muslim world in general. That song is, in an abstract way, addressing the way the right has distracted people from this huge rush of wealth from the bottom to the top."

"Beyond that, I'm speaking toward a deeper sentiment that I feel and I know a lot of people feel. Most of the songs have to do with redemptive moments that come in the face of some real indignity. And that's the current that I'm trying to tap into, because I think that for a lot of people — for the real participants who live in the shadows and work at car washes and are forced to cross the border and are struggling and facing the real economic consequences — they're often left out off the debate because of the language they speak or even the terminology that they use. So it stems from my own frustration. It stems from seeing how things have been developing politically, and watching so much dissatisfaction and people very upset about the way the country is going. And watching all of that frustration steered back into a more traditional political process. The problems stem far deeper than anything that Brother Obama can address, and eventually people are going to have to respond."

On RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE's future:

"When you get older, you look back on tensions and grievances and have another perspective on it. I think our relationship now is better than it's ever been. I would even describe it as great. We're going to keep playing shows — we have a couple of big ones happening in front of both conventions. As far as us recording music in the future, I don't know where we all fit with that. We've all embraced each other's projects and support them, and that's great."

Read the entire interview from the Los Angeles Times.