Interview with Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine on September 12th, post Astoria gig
At the gig Monday did it feel weird playing old material again?
We've done a number of benefits and an Asian tour so no, that was fine, playing the new stuff was weird, some of which had never been heard by an audience before that night so it felt like our early days when we weren't certain how Bullet in the Head went. It was exciting and recontextualised some of our older songs, the crowds response to the new stuff was great, we were so nervous before that show, like normally when you're touring you get a real confidence and you know everything you're playing but with these shows we have 12 songs and we finished mastering the album about 48 hours ago, it's all new. Sometimes it feels like we're a cover band we're trying to learn this CD and not even being certain how all the songs go

Does the band feel any different now, presumably you've been spending less time together?
Making this record is really a healing process for us, there have been times when we've been really estranged, when we were rehearsing for this I was looking forward to seeing and hanging out with those guys and writing, what we had the growing realisation was going to be the best record of our careers and through that we've been brought together again and occasionally there's some drama but we always greatly valued each other as musicians and playing together rekindles all that friendship

What were you all off doing, having children seems traditional?
Heavens no, no mini me's in RATM. All the traditional hanging out activities through to an ongoing activism each of us pursues in our own lives, all the usual sports and girlfriends, American football, basketball, baseball, I love touch football, that's sorta my game I've got a couple of nice dogs, a Rhodesian ridge back and a mutt the ridge back's name is Beko, to exact revenge against the colonists who used to use the ridge backs to chase off the Africans, I now use mine to chase off my rich white neighbours! The mutts name is Illinois Pete and I rescued him on Xmas eve a couple of years ago. I was visiting some family in Illinois, in the winter there it gets really cold, it was snowing and this dog was chained to a shack and living in his own faeces in about a 3ft by 3ft circle, just laying in the snow and he was so afraid he wouldn't even take food because he'd been beaten and I went to the owner and said- I really like your dog can I take him off your hands and they were like- please do, so I hosed him off and brought him home, flew him home to LA. Now he's a holy terror, there's always dog drama around the house, if I ever have band drama it puts it in perspective, I come home from a tough day and find the kitchen in a shambles because there's been some sort of battle royale. The ridge back is big, 90lbs and he's got a lot of opinions on a number of matters and it's hard to convince him otherwise. They're my boys I'd love to be able to bring them on tour

A lot of your material and benefits have centred on Central America
Zak has been involved in that for a while, we're just trying to keep their very just struggle for land and justice in the public's eye in the States, particularly among students because we feel the second it slips in the shadows, it'll be that much easier for the US backed Mexican govt to eradicate them. Their continued existence acts like a beacon of hope for the impoverished indigenous people throughout Latin America and the govt would love to get rid of them but there's a tremendous support for them in the States so I feel that fire should be kept burning. I think it's also inspirational to anybody resisting in the States to see people who have absolutely nothing and have such courage and commitment to fight for better lives for their society

You commented on the Serbian situation on Monday do you not feel that whole situation is too complicated for easy rhetoric?
In the recent Serbian conflict some things were clean cut, it is wrong to bomb hospitals and civilian buses and then after the Columbine massacre, our president and your glorious leader had the audacity to proclaim violence is always wrong when war criminals are responsible for far more teen deaths in Yugoslavia, than those two deranged fascists were in that high school. Any illegitimate authority is wrong

You've also supported campaigns for fair press reporting
The thing that people don't realise when they pick up the daily paper is that newspapers don't fall from heaven they're made by businesses, which are part of multi national corporations, which are not a-political and so those multi-nationals have their hands on the puppet strings of what information they want you to have

So let's discuss the all access tour passes I've been shown picturing members of your band doing "sack trick" poses with their genitals. A friend of mine even called his band "Sack Trick"
(collapses laughing) That's shameful, I was absolutely appalled not that the sack tricks occurred, but that our tour manager at the time thought it fitting to use that photo on our passes, a dark day. Timmy has some things to answer for, so the next time you think RATM are a bunch of humourless, didactic theoreticians think of that! I have yet to throw my hat in the sack trick arena. It all started when we were on tour in Australia with David Yow of the Jesus Lizard and we were all sitting in a restaurant and David who has no shame, whipped out his equipment and began performing sack tricks on the table. The rest of my band were like- hey that's so cool while waitresses ran screaming