We caught up with Zach Blair of Rise Against back stage before their headline show at Bristol Academy to talk about thier current tour, festival plans, politics and so much more.

Hi, thanks for taking the time to do this interview…

You have been together as a band for 10 years now, how did you first come together as a band and how did you come up with the name Rise Against?
Well the band kind of formed out of the ashes of a band called 88 Fingers Louie and Joe (Principe) and Dan (Wleklinski) started this band and Tim (Mcllrath) had been in local Chicago punk bands, one called Baxter and they sort of knew each other so that’s how Rise Against happened and Brandon Barnes was in another punk rock band called Pinhead Circus. Brandon moved to Chicago but he’s originally from Denver, so we started like that shortly thereafter Fat Wreck Chords picked us up!

How would you say you have changed since your debut album ‘The Unravelling’ to your new fifth studio album ‘Appeal to Reason’?
Well for one, they have me now! It’s funny because we get this question a lot, you got to think that there’s three, four, five people in any given band, two even and there’s 2-3 years between each release and these people are artists and musicians and they’re constantly getting influenced by new things and they’re growing. So I think that the most important thing about Rise Against and what I liked is how they were able to stay true to themselves and to stay true to whatever Rise Against was but for also taking progressive steps forwards which I think as a fan or an artist is really important. Like for example, David Bowie’s records completely re-invent themselves and it alienates his entire fan base and he gets a new fan base. You get people who are like, “I just love David Bowie, I’m going to stay with him no matter what”, but I don’t think Rise Against goes quite to those extremes. I just think to me when I did the record it still sounded like Rise Against but it sounded like Rise Against ten years later and before I was even in the band I always thought they did that very eloquently and very dignified. Some bands do it and it’s a bit like ‘God where the hell did that come from’ and other bands do it in a very cool gradual sense and give their fans just enough, so they grow with them.

In your time you have worked with Fat Wreck Chords, Geffen & Interscope, how differently have all these labels treated you as a band?
Well Geffen and Interscope are basically under the same umbrella so fortunately we got to work with the same people, I mean people do come in and out; it’s the music business so it just happens, unfortunately it’s sometimes just a revolving door but for the most part we were able to deal with the same people. Fat Wreck Chords of course is a really different thing and it’s fun. Before I was in Rise Against they were on Fat Wreck Chords and I was also on Fat Wreck Chords in a band called Hagfish. It’s just a big family over there it’s big, these are people, we go to their weddings and we go to their kids birthdays, fat Mike is everyone’s best friend. It’s like a High School; everyone is old dear friends of ours. So yeah, Fat Wreck Chords was a totally different kind of situation and we also got to work with really good people. Major labels get such a bad rap but we were actually able to work with good people, people who were our friends, people who became family, people who we are on a day to day calling basis with so it wasn’t too drastic of a change you could chat all day to anyone who worked there about anything. As an artist or a musician you can be called sell out until your blue in the face but you’re out there making music you want, unfortunately some labels don’t all allow that so you have to make some decisions.

You released your latest album ‘Appeal to Reason’ back in October 2008 and it has done really well so far, were you expecting it to do as well as it has?
I don’t know, it’s weird! I think you would be cutting yourself a little short if as you were writing a song and you were thinking anything else but what you particularly liked. This sounds cheesy but when artists really loose their fan base or when band really ‘die’ is when they start thinking about what everyone else is going to expect of them, if it’s a band that’s quality or a band that has a fan base and has worked before and so forth, the people are there because they make records they wanted to make and I think if they ever stop doing that then you are going to put a date on yourself. I think while we were making it there were certain times when we though ‘wow – I really like this’. It’s like being a father, you hope your kid is going to the most in life that it can, you hope they’re going to discover their potential and reach it so a records the same, you hope that everyone in the world is going to like it and love it. You’re hopeful and the fact that it’s doing good is amazing, awesome and great but we, honestly, would of made the same record had it been on Fat Wreck Chords or had it been wherever else and hoped for the same.

What are your favourite songs from ‘Appeal To Reason’ and why?
I really like ‘Whereabouts Unknown’ because it’s kind of metal-ish, like a metal guitar effect. It’s really fun to play, we don’t play it live though, not yet! We’re not bowling the fans over with new stuff yet, we’re doing four songs, I mean the records only been out since October so when we hit the States then come back over here we’ll be doing a lot more from this record. Right now we’re doing just enough. I like it when Tim screams, he’s got a great scream!

Where does the album title ‘Appeal To Reason’ come from?
There was a socialist journal in the 20s that came out when communism was such a bad thing and basically a lot of migrant workers and a lot of workers were getting shitty wages and living conditions and people were dying on jobs, getting injured on jobs, there wasn’t unions so this journal went out called ‘Appeal To Reason’ and basically it talked about what they could do if they united and came together and formed unions, so that’s where it came from.

Your latest single is ‘Audience Of One’, what made you choose to release this song over all the other songs on the album?
I don’t know! Well in the States, there’s a radio station called K Rock and they actually just started playing it and we were like ‘Oh shit’, but when we were writing the record it was mapped out for us, it felt natural that it followed up more of a rock n roll kind of song but for us personally, just that hook the chorus and riffs, it seemed like an obvious next choice.

You have made a video for ‘Audience Of One’, what was it like making the video and what is the concept behind it?
It’s probably my favourite video I’ve done so far, when we saw the idea for it, it was like…”man – this would be fucking awesome – if they can pull it off, if they don’t pull it off it could be awful”. They pulled it off a thousand times better than I thought they would and just the fact that they actually got all the little prisoners and everything and when we saw it we were like “holy shit!”, the little Hurricane Katrina sets, all that stuff, I was really impressed with the directors vision and it seemed like he tapped into exactly what our bands morals and idealisms are as well which a lot of people couldn’t do if they didn’t know the band, they don’t listen to Rise Against every second of the day and the fact this guy could pick it up, listen to the band, kind of get the idea and come up with something which was exactly what we were talking about. And being a band with a message it’s so hard to nail it on the head. It happens once in a blue moon, we were just excited the whole time!

You played your first UK tour date last night at the Pyramid Centre in Portsmouth, how did the show go?
It went great, one of the best shows I’ve ever played and I felt like I had jumped in a swimming pool! It was fantastic, the kids were great and it was a great way to start off a tour with Anti-Flag and The Flobots, very diverse as the Flobots are more of a hip-hop band but still with a political message that we all share and Anti-Flag of course are a little more in line with us. For me, it’s just a great package and we just did Europe with Strike Anywhere which was fantastic as well, those guys are one of our favourite bands, it’s been really good.

Tonight you are playing the Academy in Bristol, have you played here before and what can someone who has never seen you before expect from your live show?
Yes I think we have played here before it looks very familiar! What we try to do at our live shows is we try to get the whole crowd unified. If they’re only here for the music and not for the message then that’s fine but we like to maybe send them home with a little bit of question and maybe a little bit of a thought, maybe they picked up a pamphlet from some people, because usually we have organisations out flyering. All the punk shows we grew up at always had political organisations, maybe it was PETA, putting out flyers so we try and keep that in mind. So I think, A, we like to entertain of course because that’s what we’re here for and get them really sweaty and hot and having a great time but also give them a bit of a question and maybe something to think about on the way home.

Your support bands for your current UK tour in Anti-Flag and Flobots, how did you choose these two bands to support you and what’s it like to tour with such a strong line up of bands?
We’re absolutely thrilled and usually when we do a tour we put out a wish list to our agents and everyone has such busy schedules but if those bands are available or actually can go to Europe at the time and if all the stars line up then you are just so excited that if any of the bands on your initial wish list can make it out, I mean we usually try to make it as diverse as possible although it doesn’t always happen, but this tour is definitely the best of both worlds, it’s a diverse tour, a common political message with every band and they were all available and were all on our A list so we’re really excited.

The last show of your UK tour is at the Roundhouse in London, have you ever played in this venue before and do you look forward to London shows more than others?
We haven’t played there before but we hear it’s fantastic, I think London shows are unfortunately bigger so you get a bigger audience, you get kids from almost all over England or even all over Europe so there’s a benefit in that but for our band usually the entire UK is usually a good show! It doesn’t matter if we’re in Bristol or Portsmouth or London or Manchester, we really enjoy playing all of it and I know that sounds like a blanket answer but it’s true. Of course it’s fun to play London because there’s so much great stuff there, you can shop and we’re all vegetarian and there’s great vegetarian restaurants but as far as liking it to play more than anywhere else in the UK then no, although we do still like playing there!

After your UK tour you are off to Australia and New Zealand to play some shows, I believe this is the first time you have been back there since playing the Taste of Chaos tour there back in 2007, how excited are you about heading back?
I think it’ll be great, we have the International Noise Conspiracy going with us, Dennis from Refused, we’re huge fans of them so that’s going to be fantastic and again Australia crowds are great, they accept us and support us and we’re really looking forward to going, it’ll be great, plus it’ll be warm and sunny!

You are heading out on a massive American tour that runs from 4th June right through until the 31st July with Rancid as special guests, how did this tour come about and this must be a massive opportunity for you?
For us, it all seemed like a joke, agents dealt with it and we were like okay these guys are Rancid! So we thought it would be a co-headliner or whatever and they were like, no these guys are actually supporting you which is really odd for us and we’re dumbfounded by the whole thing, we are thrilled and amazingly excited and we met with Tim (Armstrong) the other night in Los Angeles and had a big talk about everything and those guys are super excited and their new record’s coming out the day that the tour starts apparently and they couldn’t be more thrilled and for us, we’re still kind of dazed by the whole thing so I guess it’s going to set in when the first show actually happens but right now we don’t quite believe it! It’s in two portions and the first portion in the States is going to be Billy Talent, Rancid and us and the second portion is going to be the Riverboat Gamblers who are my best friends, they’re from Austin, Texas and I live in Austin, Texas and the bass player is actually my best friend in the whole wide world and that sounds like I’m 14 years old! They’re an amazing live band, the singers absolutely the new Iggy Pop I’m convinced but for me it’s going to be the greatest tour ever so we’ll see.

Most of your summer is already fully booked but can we expect you to head back to the UK to play the Reading and Leeds festival during August bank holiday weekend?
Yes actually I think we are although I don’t want to say for sure, let me get back to you on that one (he picks up his phone and starts writing a text then shouts over to his band mate)...Hey Brandon! Are we playing Reading and Leeds? I don’t know for sure…
(Brandon) Yeah I would say we are yeah.
Fuck it…yeah! Okay so let’s just go ahead and say yes!!!

Now you have five albums behind you, how do you go about picking a set list for your tours?
It’s hard but you have to play the staples, you have to play the ones that if you didn’t play, the show would suck. You have to think about the fans and think what they’re going to come up out and want to hear although they do shout stuff out that we’re not going to play and probably will never play, like the stuff before I was in the band because they’re all like “we’ve played it enough – we’re never playing it again”, but it’s all compromise. You have to play stuff off the new record because it’s a campaign for the new album but you also have to think, if I came to a show of a band I really loved, what songs would I really want to hear?

If you could play with any band past or present who would it be?
For me it would be The Who, I love The Who – favourite band so, The Who and maybe Minor Threat, we’ve played with Bad Religion which was fantastic but I would have to say The Who and Minor Threat!

You are a band that has a big political view, I understand you all voted for Obama, are you looking forward to seeing how America and quite possibly the whole world might change now he is in power?
I’m looking forward to it, I’m apprehensive – I don’t believe much anymore, the last 8 years has just been about getting your ass kicked for 8 years straight. He has a pile of shit to deal with which I wouldn’t wish upon anyone and he signed up for it. I think if it is someone who is capable of doing something it would probably be him and I really do believe his vision and for the first time we actually have a smart person and I’m not having a jab at Bush because it’s easy to do that but Obama is actually a very smart and intelligent person. For 8 years I was like no – really? I’m from Texas, Bush was the governor of Texas before he was president and he sucked then, everybody hated him in Texas and then he becomes the fucking president and I was just like, you kidding me? I don’t think 8 years is long enough to pull us out of the shit we’re in right now, everything’s fucked up and nothing is doing okay so if he could just change some of it, just the face he closed Guantanamo prison within the first few weeks of his presidency then that’s brilliant so if he could just keep doing things like that, doesn’t have to be huge things just gradual things and baby steps I think people support him enough to where he can get the power to legislate things that normally wouldn’t because people are looking to him and are looking at his vision, people are pissed off and he’s running this campaign of hope and change and a lot of people are just apprehensive and waiting but I do think on top of everything else, he has the American public behind him which could be a great thing, I think Bush felt the brunt of not having the American public behind him so if something can happen it will and it’s going to now. I don’t expect it all to change because frankly it’s pretty fucked but if he could do some of it I’d be really excited.

You were recently voted best animal friendly band by PETA, how does it feel to receive an award from a cause that you feel so strongly about?
It’s amazing because they are great people, controversial of course and a lot of people have mixed views about them but I think they can get anything done important like they yell at people’s faces and wake them up because unfortunately we’re programmed from an early age to eat meat and eat dairy and it’s crazy because it’s everywhere, they put it in cartoons, on toys, in McDonalds when you’re a kid and pretty soon you’re addicted to it and it’s all you eat and all you know. So I think PETAS whole point in life is to shock people and to wake them up and make them think so they get a lot of flack for that but they’re great people, they have a great message and you can’t argue with the message. You might be able to argue with their motives and their methods but you can’t argue with what’s behind it all, well if you were a hunter or something you probably could but whatever. But we’re honoured; we’re all honoured to have that sort of prestige with those guys.

Most bands end up getting presents from their fans, have you ha any weird presents given to you in your time as a band?
Not weird! We did have a portrait made of us the other day which was really nice, they’re usually nice, like some kid has taken the time to draw us or taken the time to make their own Rise Against shirt or, I know it’s not necessarily a gift but when a kid has our logo tattooed on them and we put them on our website an d that’s happening more and more now, we see them every day and that’s awesome. I think there’s a kid who has Joe our bass player tattooed on him. A little weird but also cool so I wouldn’t say weird gifts but the fact that a kid would take time out of his day just to make us a gift is such a sweet thought.

What do you think about the current state of the punk rock scene?
Shit, well, skewed view I’m a little mixed. I do believe it’s fallen so far away from where it originally started that it’s a little heart braking but on the other hand, there are some bands that still do things with an older ethic that do impress me. I think The Bronx and The Riverboat Gamblers are great, The Cancer Bats! There are some bands coming out who are really doing some cool things and there’s others who come out who are a little more worried about their image, the press and what everybody else is going to think of them and I mean, when we first got into punk, every band had a political message, they didn’t give a shit about anything else, they had a mic in their face and they were going to use it to do something with. Now whatever that message might have been, everyone had different messages but they all had one, even if their message was to go and be fucked up and party and do whatever at least it was something they were saying instead of some silly love song that was a rip off of a thousand other bands and their look was a rip off of a thousand other bands. Back then the umbrella of punk was The Germs, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, Minor Threat and none of those bands sound alike or were talking about the same thing. I mean there might have been a common political message because of economics in the States at the time but for the most part, they all fall under the umbrella of punk rock and unfortunately that umbrella is very similar nowadays. For me personally the ones with the glimmers of hope are few and far between and that is sad. The ones that are pretty genuine and are good do give me hope that punk’s sticking around.

What bands and albums have you been listening to recently?
I just got the new Black Keys album – Attack & Release, I like that a lot, I got the Fucked Up record which I thought was really good. The new Riverboat Gamblers record which is going to be out in March ’09 but I’ve got a copy because I know them! It’s fantastic, very very good. The new Bronx record is good! I buy a lot of records a lot and listen to them a lot. I’m still kind of that enamoured with music kid which I’ve always been which is good but yeah those records are pretty quality, pretty good, I’m actually waiting on the new Gallows record, I think those guys are fantastic.

What advice would you give to a new band starting off?
It’s going to get really really hard and you’re going to want to give up but don’t, because when it gets real hard it’s like getting your heart broken and it builds character and when you drive 6 hours to play a gig and the promoter leaves and doesn’t pay you or if there’s 4 people watching you or your drummer fucks up every song, you have awful shows, that’s where it starts, that’s the conditioning and that’s the work and that’s what makes you who you are because we’ve all done it, everyone was once a shitty band at one point, everybody has played to 4 people, everybody got kicked out of money and had vans break down on the side of the road. I can’t count how many shows I’ve had to cancel because I was stranded on the side of a road or how many fist fights I’ve gotten in but all of that makes you who you are so when it gets rough you‘re sort of revelling in it, it’s going to get really shitty and you’re going to want to quit. It’s a rough ride at first but if anything’s quality, nothing worth while is easy so it’ll happen, stick with your original vision and you’ll be alright.

Where do you hope to see Rise Against in 5 years time?
Still doing this, if we levelled off and stayed where we’re at as a band popularity wise I would be fine with that, if we are still able to play as a band and have people care about it came out to see us play then I’d be happy with that so hopefully just still doing exactly what we’re doing.

Okay, one final question that we ask every band, if you had a choice, what animal would you be out of a zebra and a giraffe?!
A zebra or a giraffe or any animal? I think a zebra because my name’s Zach and there’s a Z in there but there’s no other real reason – just because there’s a Z and I guess a zebra looks a bit like a horse in prison so he’s probably kind of hard, actually zebras will fuck you up man they’re quite mean! I did this safari, well a Texas safari but the zebras were kind of fucking mean! They look like horses until you get up to them and they like bare their teeth at you, so I would say zebra!

Thanks for your time, is there a message you would like to leave for your fans reading this?
Oh yeah! As far as the UK fans, God thank you so much! This is the second United Kingdom tour we’ve sold out; it’s unbelievable so thank you so much and hopefully we’ll keep making it happen!

Interview by Trigger And Charlotte