![]() ![]() But still in a big city with big city problems. So you got a lot of that Chicago grit, it's like laced in everything you hear from here. ![]() I came to appreciate Chicago as I traveled the world. I love all the places that I go to and I see, I've seen a lot of the greatest cities in the world over and over again for 20 years. And I come back to Chicago and I realize what a special place it is. So it's made me appreciate what I had here. I grew up in the Northwest suburbs, just 20 minutes outside of Chicago. So when I left high school I was able to go and move only 20 minutes away, but into a whole different f**ing world. And I didn't have to go far to find an entirely different experience. SEC Issues Sudden Warning As Bitcoin ETF Race Primes Crypto For A 17 Trillion Earthquake Boosting The Price Of Ethereum XRP And Solanaīefore I got into music I was a big reader, first into comics, then sci-fi novels. When I read 1984, really just as me trying to pick up the next cool sci-fi novel, I didn't know what dystopian literature was while I was reading it. I just thought this was this cool, futuristic novel. But it left an impression on me because it wasn't long after reading it I realized there was more going on in this book than just an author trying to tell a story about a world he created. He was really making a comment about society and that stuck with me because I learned a lot of lessons about the way society works from 1984. But I also love the vehicle of a story being used to bring a message to somebody. That always stuck with me too, using art as a vehicle for change and awareness. If you think about the book 1984 there are so much politics in 1984, so many comments on society. And then there's this love story happening the entire time. She's kind of a mystery and he's always kind of trying to find her. It's so funny cause in Rise Against that describes our format there are politics, but there's also love stories, love songs, in Rise Against. Some of our biggest songs have nothing to do with politics. That's what makes our band different than say Rage Against The Machine or Anti-Flag. We're a band that can get away with a love song ballad. I feel like reading something like 1984 gave me permission as a writer to do that, to create a love story that is also a political comment. The reason I say that is I got into punk obviously at some point, but there are a lot of bands under the umbrella of punk. And Minor Threat was the band I resonated with. ![]() I heard the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Clash and New York Dolls and all that stuff. But I didn't identify with Johnny Rotten, the guys in the Clash or the pop/punk New York of the Ramones. But when I heard Minor Threat that struck a nerve. To hear this band that was aggressive, that was hardcore, there were angry songs talking about making the world a better place, there were positive songs with positive outlooks. Also I discovered straight edge, all those things, so under the big umbrella of punk rock I found my record that spoke to me. And I loved it cause it wasn't like the nihilistic Sid Vicious style of punk rock. It was more like, "Let's do something important and powerful." So that was Minor Threat to me. It set me off in that direction to make positive songs that were about positive things. At the end of a Minor Threat song you felt energized like you could change the world.
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