Tom Morello has opened up about his recent solo record, explaining he wanted it to serve as the creation of “a new genre of rock ‘n’ roll”.
Over the last 30 years, barely a year has gone by where Tom Morello hasn’t contributed to a new album. From his work with Rage Against The Machine, to Audioslave, Prophets Of Rage, and even a solo career as The Nightwatchman, Tom Morello is one prolific musician.
However, 2018 saw the release of the first album under his own name, with The Atlas Underground being unleashed onto the world.
Featuring guest contributions from the likes of Portugal. The Man, Knife Party, Big Boi, Marcus Mumford, and much more, it’s a bit of a musical mish-mash, with genres ebbing and flowing into each other with each tune.
In a recent interview with ‘Whiplash with Full Metal Jackie’ on US radio station KLOS (via Blabbermouth), Tom Morello explained that a new sense of freedom gave him the opportunity to create a “sonic conspiracy”.
“When you have a rock band and it’s good, it’s because of chemistry, and you create something together that you couldn’t create alone,” Morello explained.
“When you make a solo album, you have a purity of vision, and on this Atlas Underground record, I think I have the best of both worlds, because I’m the curator of this very diverse cast that I had to wrangle to make this album with a purity of vision, but on the individual tracks, you get the chemistry of working with a diverse cast to create something that’s very unique on each song.”
Love Rage Against The Machine?
Get the latest Rage Against The Machine news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
Check out Tom Morello’s ‘Rabbit’s Revenge’:
“I really wanted to make a record that was a sonic conspiracy, that brought together these diverse artists with a bold ambition of creating a new genre of rock ‘n’ roll,” Tom Morello continued.
“A genre that combines my Marshall stack riff-rock, shredding, R2-D2, crazy guitar noise-making analog power with huge bass drops and some of the electronic wizardry of 2018.”
“Basically, if my guitar-playing is the Ansel Adams clear black-and-white photograph, I wanted to create the smashed Picasso version of that — something that was very recognisable as my riffs and my sound, but you hear it in an entirely different way.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Morello revealed that 2019 is set to be a big year for Prophets Of Rage as well, with the band’s new record again being heavily influenced by themes of justice and fighting the power.
“The issues that Prophets Of Rage deals with pre-dated, in some ways, the Trump presidency, and will post-date it as well,” he explained. “The overall arc of the universe and fighting for justice ebbs and flows, but we’re in the midst of making a Prophets record, which is very exciting.”
“[We’re] probably about halfway done right now, so there will definitely be new Prophets music in 2019.”
Check out Tom Morello’s ‘How Long’:
