Rise Against’s Tim Mcllrath Speaks on New Album ‘Ricochet’ & Why the Band Is ‘Trying to Get on That List of Backlash’ With Its Political Music

After breaking out into the mainstream with the success of their 2006 album The Sufferer & The Witness, Rise Against‘s lead singer Tim Mcllrath recalls a conversation he had with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman. Mcllrath, who was speaking to Billboard via Zoom, said Lyman caught the group in a state of euphoria as they enjoyed their first Warped Tour.

“We just kinda thought, ‘How many more years can this possibly last?’ We’re getting away with playing punk songs — this has gotta end any day now,” Mcllrath recalled. “Kevin Lyman looked at me and said, ‘Your band can be a band for the next 10-15 years if you wanna be.’ He had no hard data to back up his claim, but I trusted his instinct. It was the first time someone had said to us, ‘You might still be doing this in ten years.’”

Ten albums later, Kevin Lyman’s prediction became an unbelievable reality. For over a decade, the Chicago punk outfit has crafted relentless, politically charged rock anthems that have continuously resonated with the masses. Five of their previous records debuted within the top 10 on the Billboard 200, with Mcllrath very aware of the band’s bountiful stats, and the award-winning formula they’d shaped over the years.

That’s exactly why for their tenth record it was time to really shake things up. The band pivoted away from its usual production partners, and instead linked up with indie powerhouse Catherine Marks, who recently won a Grammy for her production on Boygenius’ 2023 album The Record. After four years of grinding it out in the studio with her, the band emerged with Ricochet.

On the new album, out next Friday (Aug. 15), Rise Against’s signature pummeling guitars take on a sleeker, more refined edge, while McIlrath’s voice feels raw and explosive. The political songwriting remains the same, but Ricochet showcases a group experiencing its own revolution.

“We found some muscles we didn’t really know we had,” Mcllrath said, “and I think we’re kinda ready to flex those muscles.”

Below, Mcllrath talks with Billboard about Rise Against’s journey to Ricochet, the complexities that come with making political music in 2025, and how the most dangerous conspiracy theories are usually the real ones.

Why the long break between Nowhere Generation and Ricochet?

I think part of it was just coming out of a pandemic. Anybody who put music out around that time it came out in a pretty unorthodox and sprawling sort of way. So It took a long time to tick all the boxes as far as like, touring and getting back to all the cities we wanted to go to and making sure the record got love. So I think after that all happened we all needed a minute to come down from all that.

So we just really took our time with this one. We didn’t wanna feel rushed or have to sort of overthink it. Instead we allowed ourselves to just kinda marinate after the [Nowhere Generation] tour happened, and then come back to the record being hungry to write more songs. So it took us a while to find the right sound and material that we really felt confident in putting on a tenth record. Because I think a tenth record is… I mean just saying that: a tenth record. Some of my favorite bands haven’t even made ten records, and here we are making ten records. I think some of that subconsciously was in the back of my mind, giving us license to kinda do whatever.

We have our reputation and people have kinda already made up their minds about how they feel about Rise Against, you know? So this record felt kinda free to really just do whatever we want. To a degree, we have that freedom on every record — but this was something more about looking back at our legacy and being proud of it. Knowing we could take some risks, throw some curve balls and just create something that we felt in the moment.

In that sense, how did your creative approach change going into this record versus records of the past?

I think we felt compelled to sort of switch up the process on this record a little bit, and not go right back to the same studio and do the same thing. We’ve made six of our ten records with the same production team: The Blasting Room out of Fort Collins, Colorado. There’s kinda a signature sound to Rise Against crafted by that studio. It’s an awesome space to be and it’s a safe space to be for us, and I’m sure we’ll go back there again. But this one, we really felt like, “Let’s try something different. We are who we are and that’s probably not gonna change too much, but let’s play these songs for someone who’s unfamiliar with Rise Against and doesn’t come to it with all the baggage that we have and isn’t beholden to anyones idea of what we should sound like.” That’s how we found Catherine Marks.

Catherine Marks is more known for her work in the indie space. Why did you decide to make this record with her?

Yeah! Catherine won a Grammy — while we were making the record actually — for the Boygenius record. She’s won a Grammy for mixing the St. Vincent record. She’s worked a lot with Manchester Orchestra, which is kinda how we came to her. That was the band closest to our world, and also through our label Loma Vista, who she had worked with. It seemed like every other producer we were considering was Blasting Room-equivalent… and Catherine was not competing in the same lane as any of those producers. She was somebody so different, that we knew no matter what, even if we are who we are and we’re old dogs you can’t teach new tricks to — if we change this ingredient in the pot, it’s gonna come out different.

So we did. We tried to change some of the ingredients in our recipe, without any idea of how that was gonna change the outcome. I’m happy to say that it doesn’t sound like our last record. It doesn’t sound like the one before that. That was kinda our only real goal going into this — because we don’t make songs for the masses, we don’t guess or claim to know what anyone wants to hear in music. We’re just trying to be true to the Rise Against story and what that next chapter is.

Your songwriting also feels a bit different here, but it may just be because of the time we’re living in. You guys have always been a political band, but considering this is a time where to speak out politically in any regard is met with some sort of condemnation, songs like “Nod” seem to pack a different punch.

Yeah, I mean I’ll be honest — I don’t even consider any of those things when we go in to make a song. We make the song in a vacuum, and just talk about how we are feeling about what’s going on in the world, repercussions-be-damned kinda thing. We’ve been doing this a long time, through four or five different administrations now, so, I don’t know. It’s funny, because it’s almost impossible to change that. When I pick up a guitar, that’s what comes out. It’s the avenue with which I get to music. So I think even if there were obvious repercussions coming, it wouldn’t stop what we do. Our allegiance to the song and to the fans is bigger than our fear of anything outside of that.

But was there any conversation before hand as you were making this record? After seeing what happened to Bob Vylan or Kneecap or other artists, did you guys talk about what this means now to be a political band? Or did you guys just tune it out and go and make a record?

We just tuned it out. I mean, we come from a world where we’re trying to get on that list of backlash. We’re coming from a world where if you’re not on that list maybe you’re not doing enough. That’s kinda how you know you’re on the right path, if what you’re doing is actually creating some friction. My favorite bands created friction. So it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re on the wrong path, sometimes it means you’re on the right one.

On “Nod” you sing: “Expecting to grow to infinity/ It’s like building a boat designed to sink/ Are you saving the world so desperately?/ Or are you holding a gun, demanding peace?” What were you thinking when you wrote those lyrics?

I was thinking two things. I was thinking about late stage capitalism and how it relies on infinite growth, and how we have to come to terms with the fact that infinite growth isn’t really a thing, and we certainly live with environmental constraints that prevent us from infinite growth. But unfortunately that is the religion for most people in a capitalist world. So to question that religion and disrupt that process is pretty offensive. Then the next line was sort of how we talk to each other, and how we get each other to see our side.

I was a little bit inspired by…it was during the height of Black Lives Matter, and I have young daughters. They were on TikTok or Snapchat following some influencer, and this girl had not posted something about Black Lives Matter on her thing, and she was getting kinda harassed by her audience for not talking about it. Black Lives Matter was something that I was 100% behind. It made common sense to me. If anything, what an innocuous thing to say? Just something as simple as: There’s a disproportionate number of Black men and women being killed by police. How do we address this?

So I was really on board with it, and I watched [my daughters] talk about this girl who was getting harassed to say something. I remember thinking, “Man I’m down with this movement for sure, but there’s something really ugly about this harassment.” For this person to cave to these sentiments, and to pressure her to cave to them. Then the outcome of her caving — did you really convince her?

Or is she just giving in?

Yeah, or does she just want everyone to stop talking about it and just jump on board and surrender to the pressure? Then on top of that, have you now sort of sullied her relationship with activism? This is her experience. That, “Oh, these guys are a bunch of bullies trying to get me to agree with something that I don’t fully understand.” I was thinking about that. They have a gun to this girl’s head trying to get her to agree with these ideas of peace.

I remember thinking that we have to find a better way to talk to each other about this. Because here I am, very much on the side of the Black Lives Matter movement, but feeling sympathy for this girl who’s getting all this s—t for not being. I found it kind of conflicting for me. I didn’t expect to feel that, but I was like, this poor girl. There’s gotta be a better way to have these conversations then to just bully people online.

What’s it like being a dad in 2025, especially with older kids? How has this world they’ve grown up in influenced you? Also, what kind of music are they listening to?

Well, the music apple fell far from the tree. They’re into 21 Savage and SZA — and they’ve exposed me to tons of stuff. When they were younger I heard everything from Lorde to Sabrina Carpenter, been listening to Taylor Swift my whole life. They love all eras of her. They thankfully never fell into country, cause I don’t have a taste for country. So they even roll their eyes at it a little bit, which I’m like, “Okay, good, we’re both rolling our eyes at this.”

So they never listened to anything from my world which is cool, they kinda carved out their own path. I think also I’m just their dad, so it’s just so close, and I’m the singer, so it’s really close… but it’s so ubiquitous to me, because I’ll be talking to my friends about 21 Savage and they’ll be like, “What are you talking about dude?” Like, “Wait, you don’t know this song? I know all of it!”

But raising kids in this era, you’re aware of the guinea pigs they are to social media, without any real antidote. Like, I can take you off of it — but it’s the equivalent to almost homeschooling you at this point. ‘Cause I want you to understand what the world is, and you should be in the town square. I have young daughters, and I think young women are particularly susceptible to the standards of social media and all of these things…

They’re better critical thinkers now [on social media] then they were back then, but I’m a person who — I find so many conspiracy theories so offensive and dangerous for a lot of reasons, but some because they cloud the real conspiracy theories. The gas and oil industry spreading lies about climate change, which has effectively stalled any real climate policy. These are the real conspiracy theories. There’s no cabal of Democrats keeping children in cages somewhere, and yet it’s getting way more attention. If you’re looking for a real conspiracy theory, call up Citgo or call the people who created the doubt around vaccines and autism. There is hard evidence for these things, so stop looking to the sky for chem trails.

As a guy who’s always trying to point out these obvious things to people, I found the conspiracy theory culture so distracting and offensive in a conspiracy way. They’re distracting you from something that we have hard science to back up. So trying to protect your kids from that is something every parent struggles with.

I’m curious what your thoughts are in regards to how your music can sort of help facilitate that change and be a bridge for people to use to learn about these issues? That seems like it’s been a core value to Rise Against.

It’s a role that we don’t shy away from. Especially in today’s world where we’re increasingly isolated into our own silos of information and music and whatever else and there’s far less shared realities that we all co-exist in. But there are still a few places where we co-exist, no matter what side of the fence you’re on. I feel like those places are maybe sports and music. I’m sure there are more but those are the two that I think of off the top of my head. So music is one of those places that intersects these normally isolated communities.

So I think musicians should take that seriously if they’re trying to communicate with people — because we all have our stances. The only thing that cuts through the noise are stories. So we wanna continue to be the storyteller that’s giving you songs that will make you think about something, challenge your way of thinking, create friction, or even just let you know that you’re not alone. We will continue to do that — and I feel very lucky to be a musician in 2025, because I feel like we still have access to people of all walks of life and on all sides of the fence.

I’m thinking about “Prizefighter” now. On that song you talk about how you’re happy to be that bridge for people, but that there’s also this individual need to maintain some sort of creative freedom. Was there a moment where it felt like Rise Against was spinning out of control a bit?

Nobody I know ever prepared for this life and what it would take to do it. Not that Rise Against is a limelight band, but to be thrust into a public position — especially coming from a punk rock and hardcore and DIY world that we come from — you have to maintain your own idea of who you are, and remind yourself you’re not beholden to anybody else. Those are why people appreciate who you are in the first place, because those are the things you came to the table with.

We’re now in a world where people are much more connected to any sort of public figure, so you get people who think they have some sort of ownership over you, and I come from a time where that wasn’t the case. I don’t plan on caving to anybody’s idea of what my band should sound like or say or shouldn’t say. That’s something you have to be very protective of — your band, your art — and not let anybody tinker with it. Don’t chase the audience, let the audience come to you.

I think as we live in a world with clicks and algorithms and likes, it’s easy to fall into that trap. In the end, I don’t think it’s a healthy way to be an artist. Because we started when we started, we had pretty solid footing in who we are. I feel like artists who start today and are living in this era, they’re playing a different game.

Does that tap into the idea of Ricochet as a whole?

Yeah, and it’s also about how we’re all existing in the same room where those bullets are ricocheting around. We’re all connected and affected by each other’s actions, and that room that we’re in, it’s the globe that we’re all on. We’re so connected that you can’t fire a bullet in that room and really know the implications of your actions and what the outcome could be. That’s sort of what we wanted to convey with that word. How are we going to co-exist out here, and do things that are not in our own best interest but in the best interest of the person next to us.

Why don’t you think more artists are taking a stance against what’s been going on? From Gaza to the Trump Administration, it just seems eerily quiet on the music front. What is holding people back?

If you are a band or artist and you started your band to sell tickets and sell records, then politics are a dangerous game to traffic in. Because you will alienate people. So for all of these artists trying to cast the biggest net, they are afraid to do that. That’s too bad, because I think music has such an opportunity to reach people. So I think you have those people out there just trying to have a career, but this is how we walked in the door. We never pivoted to politics or away from politics. It’s part of our DNA — and if anything you have to acknowledge that might be why people have come to us and why we’re still here talking about it. What I always try to tell people is I don’t think every band needs to be political.

My favorite bands were The Ramones or The Misfits; I wouldn’t go back and make them political. But the saddest thing I see is when backstage or off the record they have really deep convictions about what’s happening in the world, and they feel afraid to say them and are suppressing those things. That’s the saddest thing to me. When they feel they can’t say something, ’cause they’re afraid their audience will turn on them. I think a lot of them feel bullied into silence, but what I would tell those people who are listening is that there are people out there waiting for you to say something. They have an appetite for change and are hungry for it, and they’re not always the loudest in your messages or comment section, but you will find they’re out there and they’re craving this voice from music.

The loudest voices on the internet are the bullies, but I don’t think they’re the majority. That’s what I tell the crowd every night — there are people everywhere fighting the good fight they’re just not the loudest representation on the internet. There’s more of us than there are of them.

Too many artists are so afraid to see conflict in their social media channels, but I don’t think people need to fear it. I hope that people speak out with what’s happening throughout this Trump administration and how authoritarian to anti-American it really is. It’s antithetical to so many things that we hold ourselves dear to as a country.