BRISTOL, UNITED KINGDOM - JUNE 5: Portrait of American musician Tom Morello,photographed backstage ... [+]
A lot of artists had their plans derailed by COVID. But few in the way Tom Morello did. Early in 2020, he was all set to reunite with his Rage Against The Machine brothers — Zack de la Rocha, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk— for their first shows in nine years.
Then just as they were set to hit the road, in late March of that year leading up to headlining gigs at Coachella that April, the COVID pandemic cancelled those and all other shows.
So, not sure of what to do, as he explained recently when we spoke via Zoom, Morello started making music just to keep his sanity. What started as a daily routine just for him has evolved into a massively star-studded album, The Atlas Underground Fire, which finds Morello collaborating with a wide array of artists — from Chris Stapleton, Bring Me The Horizon and Phantogram to longtime friends Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Vedder on a cover of AC/DC's "Highway To Hell."
I spoke with Morello about the album, how the different collaborations came to be and much more.
Steve Baltin: It's been absolutely fascinating to watch the way that artists have pivoted during this time. And here you were, all set to take over the world with Rage. So at what point did you make that pivot to, "I'm gonna do a record with Chris Stapleton and Springsteen and all these people?"
Tom Morello: Exactly. Well, March 2020, when the world shut down, that was the first time in my adult life where I had stopped being a musician from 17 years old till that Wednesday afternoon or whatever. There were four months where I didn't touch a guitar. And sort of the daily business of keeping the grandmas alive and keeping the kids from going crazy and being a plumber and a window-fixer, a musician was off the table. And in the midst of that ennui and low-grade, slow-burning depression, I stopped playing music. And it was a Kanye West quote that gave me a kick in the ass. I just read that he had recorded vocals for a couple of his records on the voice memo of his iPhone, so I started recording guitar riffs into the voice memo of my iPhone, and sent some to Bloody Beetroots, and sent some to Zakk Cervini, and sent some to Bring Me The Horizon, and sent some to Refused, and in the middle of this sort of claustrophobic, solitary life in the bunker, all of a sudden I was forging this global rock and roll pen pal community and making songs that would be the building blocks for what became The Atlas Underground Fire.
Baltin: For you, what is that "Different" that you want to come out over the last year and a half, and how does Atlas Fire Underground represent that?
Morello: In some ways, the one silver lining was, of course, being able to spend time with family. We have three generations under one roof here. It's my 97-year-old mom, my 90-year-old mother-in-law, two young kids, and a couple of the dogs, so that sort of connection was great. But it wasn't that I had time to miss music. I have such a motor on me and I'm always like, "And let's climb the next huge mountain then, let's go." I didn't feel any of that. I didn't want to touch a guitar, I didn't want to do anything. But then once I started alone in the studio daily, getting tracks back and forth with friends, new and old, it was this kind of roulette wheel of creative excitement." And then also, the unpredictability of working with such a variety of artists. This record was made both in one room and everywhere on the planet. Springsteen was in New Jersey, Eddie was in the Pacific Northwest, Chris Stapleton was in Nashville, Mike Posner summited Mount Everest and recorded vocals from 25,000 feet in Nepal during the making of Naraka. Damian Marley was in Jamaica, Dennis (Lyxzen), from Refused, was in Sweden, and Sama Abdulhadi was in Palestine. So here I am alone fixing a broken window, fixing the plumbing over here, and yet at the same time kind of in the studio with these tremendous musicians all across the globe.
Baltin: When you work with all these different musicians and you trust them, they're going to bring their own vibe.
Morello: Exactly. And that's why this is both a solo record and it's not. It's a solo record in that I'm the curator, and my guitar is the voice that appears loud and proud in each of the songs. But every note that I play in this record is affected by the chemistry of the artist that I'm working with. And so many unexpected twists and turns like the Phantogram song, "Driving To Texas." They were like, "Hey, do you wanna do a song?" I'm like, "I would love to." And they had some sort of the bones of a track, so rather than my normal. "Here's a bunch of my warmed over Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath riffs. Check it out, what do you wanna do with that?" I had to start with this kind of spooky electro groove. And I was like, "Fantastic. I have no idea what to do with that. That's fantastic. What a great day today is gonna be in the studio to explore." And Sama too. I sent her a bunch of my riffs and she was like, "I'm not sure what to do with that." And I was like, "Thank you for your honesty." And she sent me this eight-minute long kind of Arabic trance track, which I just put on the earphones and my kind of Coltrane hat and went, "Let's not plan anything, let's just explore over it." And that was richly satisfying and helped push me as well.
Baltin: Were there things that surprised you about some of the people you hadn't worked with?
Morell: Absolutely. Chris Stapleton I met at the Chris Cornell memorial concert. And he was just such a lovely gentleman when we exchanged numbers and we got on a Zoom call, much like this one, with guitars in our hands to write a song. And we didn't write a song, we just talked about how crazy and anxiety-riddled our lives were. [chuckle] With older parents and with younger kids. And for two hours, it was just kind of therapeutic unburdening that became the lyrical underpinning for the song "The War Inside." And that was a very unexpected twist and turn. I'll give you another one is 'Charmed I'm Sure,' the song with Protohype. There's three generations of Morellos on that song, which is pretty cool. But one day, it was a fruitful day of writing some big-ass riffs in the studio, and I sent him five of them. He said, "I like number two. Send me some more." I sent him five more. He said, "I like number three. Send me some more." It was great to sort of lean into a process where I have control of what I'm playing on the guitar, but the end result is one that I can't imagine because of the way that we're collaborating.
Baltin: Because everybody brought their own feel are there a lot of things that surprise you on this record?
Morello: Yeah, absolutely. When I started making these songs, I was not self-consciously making this record. It was a life raft. It was an anti-depressant. It was a way to get through Wednesday. But, during this time, what started as an absolute drought became the most prolific recording and time of recording and releasing music. I did a collaboration with K.Flay, one with Dennis DeYoung of Styx, one with The Struts, one with Pussy Riot, an EP with Slash, Comandante, an EP with Bloody Beetroots, The Catastrophists, all of this. I put out a guitar, I put out a whammy pedal, I put out a book, I put out a master 'cause it was like all this stuff to fill this void, 'cause I was losing my f**cking mind every day [laughter]. And then finally there's this pool of diverse collaborators and I'm like, "This is the next Atlas Underground record." And then began to put on my curator hat to hone it into what it became.
Baltin: Take me through the process of how you reached out to which people.
Morello: Sure. I'll save Bruce and Eddie 'til the end but Bring Me The Horizon, when working with producer, Zakk Cervini, he's worked on a number of different things, including Grandson in the past. And I just had some riffs and a while back, Post Malone and I had worked on the bones of a song together. And I was kind of just looking through my computer, and I put some new riffs in there. And I sent them to Zakk and I said, "Hey, do you want to help me kind of get this track together?" And then he happened to be in the studio with Bring Me The Horizon at the time. He's like, "Can I play this for those guys?" And I was like, "Sure." And they flipped out and we began recording that song from Brazil to UK. Phantogram, as I said, reached out. Grandson I've known for a while. Mike Posner, he's sort of maybe more on the pop end of the spectrum, but I love his voice and we just got on the phone, I said, "I don't know if our worlds overlap in any way. But do you want to give it a go?" And he said, "Well, what kind of song do you wanna do?" and I said, "I wanna do one that is so much darker and so much scarier than anything you've ever touched before. Let's use that as a starting point." Damien Marley, he's been a bro for a while, we've rocked together. The name of that song, "The Achilles List," comes from that '70s Planet of the Apes movie, the Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes. Protohype, I was like, "Who's the newest greatest guy who's got one foot in rock and roll one foot in dubstep?" And it's him. Phem was a recommendation, and that song, "Night Witch," is an interesting genesis. I sent her some tracks and she sent me back some lyrics. They were more in a world of maybe sort of traditional break up boy, girl lyrics, and I said, "What if we transplant that sentiment and we put it in the cockpit of a red army World War II bomber?" They were known as the Night Witches, which were these female Bombardier squadrons who bombed the hell out of the Nazis in World War II. And I said, "What if it's a love lost story that has to do with destroying fascists?" She was down. Dennis, from Refused, Refused is one of my favorite bands and knows how to do punk music almost like no other. We had about three or four more Dennis tracks that I could have put on this record. And then Sama Abdulhadi, I read an article about her in the New York Times, and I thought that her existence was one that was political and right up my alley and reached out to her and we did "On The Shore Of Eternity."
Baltin: There is definitely a healthy amount of fun on this record. Was it important to you to remind people they can still have fun?
Morello: Yeah. During this time I have put out songs from the other EPs and stuff, and like the Imagine Dragon song "Stand-up" would have been more explicitly political. But this record, in order to connect, it's gotta be authentic, and I wanted it to reflect the personal anxiety of the times, but also the liberation of music sort of transcending that. There's three lanes of songs on this record, one is the political songs — the Damien Marley song "The Achilles List," Grandson's "Hold The Line." Then there are the songs that sort of reflect the craziness of the now, which is, "Let's Get The Party Started" with Bring Me The Horizon, "Driving To Texas," and "The War Inside." But then very importantly, there are instrumentals on the record, which is an assertion, in capital letters, I am a guitarist. And it's trying to continue to not just push the boundaries of guitar, but to insist that the electric guitar has a future and not just a past. That's why the record starts with "Harlem Hellfighter" and ends with "On The Shore Of Eternity." It's book ended by two instrumentals, both of which are like me putting every last ounce of emotion and technique and inspiration that I could muster during this crazy time, as an assertion that I am a guitar player.
Baltin: How inspiring and exciting has it been to be around all these different people?
Morello: That has been a part of my creative DNA for decades now, working with musicians in and out of the genre that I play in and constantly making great connections and with every collaboration learning. Every time I play with Slash, I marvel at something and maybe steal a lick. Every time I collaborate with an EDM producer, it takes my composing into unexpected directions. In working with a lyricist and vocalist like Chris Stapleton, crafting a song together by a digital, virtual campfire is something that was really meaningful. And so, yes, I could not be looking forward to anything more than the Rage Against the Machine juggernaut, and Tim and Brad and Zack coming down the train, coming down the line, but this has provided a sustenance and like the life raft is the way that I describe it. And it's a life raft that's been populated by some of my favorite musicians and some newer musicians that I've just grown to love.
Baltin: "Highway To Hell" is the only cover. What made that the right song to include as the only cover?
Morello: This is the story. In 2014, I was a guitar player in the E Street Band. We were in Perth, Australia, the home of Bon Scott, the singer of AC/DC. Surprisingly, there is a literal "Highway To Hell" outside of Perth. It was the road that Bon Scott took from his home to the local pub, it is known by locals as the Highway to Hell, which is probably where he got the title. Anyway, I went to go pay my respects to his grave late one night. I could not find it. Surprisingly, the Bon Scott grave is not lit with an eternal flame. But out of the mist came a motorbike through the cemetery, and there's a fellow, heavy set, German World War II army helmet and a t-shirt which reads, "I don't give a s**t, but if I did, you're the one I'd give it to." And I'm like, "That guy is gonna know where Bon Scott's grave is." [Laughter] Sure enough he does. I pay my respects, go back to the hotel. I see Bruce, I'm like, "Do you think that the circle of the E Street Band and the circle of AC/DC might overlap in any way?" And he was like, "I'll think about it." We began rehearsing "Highway To Hell" over the course of the next couple of days at sound check, and then we found ourselves in Melbourne at a big soccer stadium. Eddie Vedder happened to be in town on a solo tour, and a light bulb went off. I knocked on Bruce's dressing room door before the show and said, "We are in Australia where AC/DC is king, where the song 'Highway To Hell' is the unofficial national anthem of rock and roll liberation. What if we open the show with 'Highway To Hell' with Eddie Vedder?" And he was like, "That's a good idea." And we did, and if you think you've seen a crowd go ape s**t, you haven't unless you were there on that night. [laughter] And as I was finishing this record with these great young artists, I wanted to make a song with my rock brothers. And one of the greatest rock and roll songs of all time, AC/DC's "Highway to Hell," with two of the greatest rock and roll singers of all time, Bruce Springsteen and Eddie Vedder.
