Rise Against isn’t a band to shy away from putting a message in their music. However, the band’s longtime drummer, Brandon Barnes, recognizes that a strong meaning isn’t always necessary for quality tunes.
“There are plenty of songs that are amazing songs and they’re just about nothing,” he says. “If people want to have a message in their lyrics, or be political, it’s up to them.”
Easy enough. But having political lyrics isn’t hard; making consistently quality music is. Barnes says that the tough part of being in a band isn’t to make good music; it’s to continue to make good music.
“To keep making good music is the hard part, really,” he says. “You’ve got to truly like your job. As far as to write good music goes, that’s a tough one, because not everyone can write good music. You give two guys Casio keyboards, one guy could make a beautiful song and the other guy might not even be able to do ‘Chopsticks.’ I don’t know; maybe you’re born with it.”
While musical prowess may be a matter of nature, having an awareness of social issuesŃsomething Barnes and his bandmates have in commonŃisn’t. For example, every member of Rise Against is a vegetarian, with some being vegans; they take animal rights very seriously.
“I’ve been vegetarian for over 10 years,” says Barnes. “I worked at a grocery store in my early 20s, and it really made me start thinking about where the food comes from, and how it gets to your plate. I started looking into educating myself and reading up on factory farming and the chemicals that go into the food. It just turned me off after a while; it turned me off to the point where I just lost my urge to eat meat. It’s horrible the things that people do to these animals. Anyone that has pets, or brains in their heads, probably wants to end animal abuse.”
Barnes doesn’t limit his social consciousness to animal rights: he feels passionately about many political topics, things that Rise Against aren’t timid to express in their music. For Barnes, along with many others around the world, one contentious issue right now is the American presidential race.
Barnes describes his choice of Barack Obama in the upcoming presidential election between the Democrats and the Republicans as the lesser of two evils.
“People that get close to that position of power don’t seem to be just stand-up, good people,” he says. “Even Obama, in a way, there are things at times that seem kind of schwarmy about him. There is a slickness in big-time politicians, the way they act and move; it’s like a front. He’s probably a really nice guy on the outside, but when you see him he looks like he’s almost been trained to be in the spotlight. There’s something fake about it.”
Despite this sprinkle of cynicism, Barnes remains optimistic, and says that perhaps if Obama is re-elected he’ll have more backbone.
“Maybe he’ll have a little more guts,” he says. “Maybe he’ll go for stuff he truly believes in. Maybe he’ll come out swinging this time.”
Rise Against
7 pm, Thursday, October 4, $43
Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre
sofmc.com