Tom Morello & Rage Against The Machine Want You!
Guitar One - February 2000 Interview by Bob Gulla

Tom Morello might not like the idea, but in this post-modern age of anti-technical rock, he’s become something of a guitar hero. As the sonic leader of the rock’n’roll juggernaut known as Rage Against The Machine, Morello, like few other guitarists in the 90’s, has embraced the instrument as a way of life, a kind of wooden lung, through which he breathes ideas, passion, brute strength, and ideology. Rage Against The Machine singer Zack De La Rocha might use actual words, but Morello’s guitar fluency expresses his views with equal eloquence, articulating the kind of firestarting ideas his singer favors. When you hear him play, his notes, chords, and ungodly gobs of noise rival any singer in terms of visceral emotion. Without uttering a word, Morello turns Rage Against The Machine into a rampaging experience of intellect and might.

Through the years, Morello’s development as a player – from novice punk rocker to aspiring shredder to grinding heavy – could serve as a blueprint for every young guitar player. His playing habits, based on passion, drive, and an incredible work ethic bordering on obsession, read like the definitive formula for success as a rock guitarist. Follow that formula and, though there’s no guarantee you’ll end up selling millions of records like Morello, you’ll certainly find yourself at an intensely high playing level, and an impressive musical commodity to boot.

His playing on The Battle of Los Angeles proves that Morello – a 35-year-old socialist with a Harvard degree- has reached a special place. And he’s not afraid to talk about that place, how he got there, what it’s like to be there, and where he’ll go next. Listen and learn.

The crazy sounds and intros on the new album – are those the moments you live for as a player? Aren’t those the times that get you into the heat of your creativity?

On this record, at this stage in my playing, and in our musical development as a band, that creativity comes naturally. Exotic sounds butted up against big riffs is the currency we deal in as a band. So rather then say, "Ah, the beginning of "Testify", what a rich moment!" I feel those beginnings and those sounds are ripe apples dropping from the tree.

Did you ever think this is where you would end up as a guitar player?

The answer to that would be no. It’s been a natural evolution; for the longest time until I was in RATM, I was unable to, for the most part, write music that I loved. I was in a hundred bands, writing a thousand songs, but it wasn’t until this band and the interplay with these musicians that I could write the music I loved. For all the countless hours that I have practiced playing guitar in my life, Rage Against The Machine is just something that came together without any particular rhyme or reason. Now I can regularly toss out stuff I love, whether it’s the riff on "Bombtrack" from the first record, or "Sleep Now in the Fire" on this one. I have somehow been able, with the combination of Tim (Bob) and Brad (Wilk), to write music that greatly pleases me. Then, on the other side of the coin – those odd noises – really feels very comfortable. It’s what naturally spills out. In preparation for this interview, I was looking at a noise chart that I had in the studio while doing this record. It helped me remember solos and noises. Back then, it was almost a bible to refer to, but now it looked very outdated. "Oh, how remedial that one was." Now, it’s just a case of strapping on the guitar and letting the stuff sort of "leak out."

That must mean your growth continues unabated.

I don’t know if it’s necessarily growth. It’s feeling comfortable with this style of playing, growing and getting in touch with the subtleties of it, as opposed to going, "Okay, here is a noise that sounds reminiscent of something off of "The Chronic." It’s now a matter of which shades of the lawnmower sound I want to inflict on the listener!

Would it be safe to say that you had been in a search for what you found in Rage Against The Machine?

Absolutely. I think it has to do with both personal development as musician and finding a unique bunch of people to play with.

Is it kind of magic?

Absolutely, from the very first rehearsals in 1991, when we were playing this first couple of songs we wrote – "Bombtrack," "Take the Power Back," and maybe "Know Your Enemy." Different combinations of us had jammed those riffs with other musicians, but when the four of us played it, and Timmy kicked in the distorted bass, Zack was losing his mind, and Brad pummeled his stripped down drum kit, the sound just blasted off. You just had to go "Shit!" Even then , we still didn’t know whether is was going to connect or whether it was going to be our own little private pleasure, until we played live. When we did, the magic was immediate.

That must have been really gratifying.

It was shocking! It was really, totally shocking! During our first couple of club shows, we amassed a rabid following. It was amazing how quickly people learned the words to the songs. One guy from each show was obviously telling 20 more guys about us, based on how the shows grew from the start.

To what did you owe that immediate success?

There was a kind of feral intensity at those shows due to the political content. It was like a scorched earth policy at the little club, as if to say, "You don’t have a clue what you’re in for right now!"

Is your relationship with the audience confrontational and antagonistic, or are you looking to join together with them?

It’s never confrontational. The relationship that I have with the RATM audience is the most satisfying relationship I’ve ever had in my life. It’s really incredible. Even when the band hasn’t been getting along so well, that thing with the audience has always been intact and precious. We can walk out onstage, and, before even playing a note, the connection is unbelievable.

It must have been really satisfying, especially in light of how the band had difficult interpersonal relationships going for a while.

It’s never – even during some of our darker personal days – affected that time we spend onstage.

Tell me about those darker personal days.

Okay. But I’ll preface it by saying that the personal element, the whole relationship thing, is completely uninteresting. So many bands have similar problems. It’s nothing new – nothing you haven’t seen on Behind the Music a dozen times. To me, it actually saddens me that it has become part of the band’s story and part of every interview. Compared to the musical element of it and the political element of it, and all of the things that I find so richly interesting, that’s sort of the boring corner of it. It’s part of our history, and it’s like "Yeah, sometimes folks don’t get along." Is that a good press angle? Not really.

These are stumbling blocks that make a band stronger.

It can. One thing that I have always completely disagreed with is when someone says, "It’s the band’s internal tension that makes the music great." Bullshit. We made three records in eight years. We wrote 12 to 15 songs in the first month that we knew each other and were getting along like peas in a pod. And those songs include "Killing in the Name" and "Bullet in the Head." The better the band is getting along, the better the music is.

How must input do you have in the lyrics?

Zack has always been very open to our ideas. Everybody has complete confidence in him to come up with the lyrics and the poetry that ideologically defines what the songs are about.

Has there ever been anything that you two did not agree on, politically?

In the whole history of the band, there may have been one conversation in eight years when I thought something wasn’t right. We talked about it and were done with it.

Has there been an opportunity for the band to write something less strident, less political?

I think there’s a great deal of sensitivity in our songs. We sing about things like solidarity, resistance, and struggle. Those things are every bit as much a part of the human experience as love and break-ups and cars and nookie, but it is a corner of human experience that is often neglected in the realm of pop music. There are plenty of bands that cover the other end of it.

Do you think you’ve gone to the extreme end of pop?

Yes, absolutely. I think the lyrics and the music of Rage Against The Machine is extreme, and I think necessarily so. You don’t treat extreme illnesses with mild medicine. We are completely unapologetic about that.

Let’s talk gear.

It’s the same setup that I’ve had. There’s my 50-watt Marshall, a 2205 head with a Peavey cabinet. On hand, I had a little Music Man combo amp, one of those little Line 6 combo amps, and a Pignose. [Producer] Brendan O’Brien is neck deep in vintage gear, and when he realized, I was going to use only my stuff, he gave up and we just set up my little stuff.

You don’t buy into that whole "vintage gear" thing?

I don’t have anything against it. It’s just not an interest of mine.

Is the technical side important to you?

No, not at all. I’m just now wired that way. I don’t have the aptitude. When I was first signed to a major label with a band called Lock Up, they insisted that we go out and get gear. But for me, it was horribly intimidating. "I have to get gear? What kind of gear would I get? How would I plug it in?" Everyone else went hog wild, and I guiltily went to Guitar Center and picked out a piece of rack gear. I didn’t understand the manual, and I seemed to ruin it just plugging it into the effects loop on my amplifier. It ruined the sound. Now it just gathers dust.

Do you lean on your tech for that?

Pretty much. My setup is so easy. It’s five effects on a pedal board, my amp, and my cabinet. I think I bring six back-up guitars out on the road. It’s pretty straightforward.

Tell me about those guitars.

For the songs in Drop D tuning, I use the stock Telecaster. For the ones in standard tuning, I use that mongrel "homeless" guitar. Each one of those has a back-u