Rock’n Me 6: Talking About Western Music - Rage Against the Machine

Hello. I’m Joshua and I love to talk about Western music.
In Part 6 of this series, I’ll be featuring the Los Angeles born band Rage Against the Machine (hereafter RATM). If I had to describe them in one sentence, it would be: “A fusion of rap, spoken word, and rock, with guitars that put the “ee” in screech.

RATM consists of Zack de la Rocha (vocals), Tom Morello (guitar), Brad Wilk (drums), and Tim Commerford (bass), and they debuted in 1992 as Rage Against the Machine. Drawing on his Mexican heritage, Zack was strongly influenced by non-white thinkers and Central and South American activists, so the music delivered politically charged messages with fiery rap. Tom, on the other hand, was born to an African-American activist father and a white activist mother, graduated from Harvard University, and worked as a political aide. However, he couldn’t let go of his dream of becoming a musician, and during his struggling years he was so financially strapped that he even worked as a male stripper. While the political statements are fronted by those two, Brad and Tim devote themselves fully to the performance. Brad displays powerful drumming with a demon-like expression on his face. Tim primarily plays fingerstyle (sometimes using slap), adding color with distorted tones throughout.

Now, I need to explain Tom’s guitar scratching and screeching. Tom’s musical roots lie in 1970s rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. However, he was also greatly inspired by DJ scratching, and to replicate those sounds on the guitar, he developed unique playing techniques. There are three key elements that create his signature sound: (1) the Digitech Whammy, (2) a wah pedal (connected through the effects loop), and (3) a switching technique, in which he repeatedly toggles between the rear and front pickups with the front pickup’s volume turned down to zero. At the same time, he maintains a strict philosophy: “I don’t fuss over guitar tones; I don’t have that kind of time, so I’ll pursue originality instead.” Because of this, he has never changed his amp settings from that period to the present, and the effects he uses have had little major alteration. Yet, despite the consistency of his gear, the sounds he produces remain astonishingly versatile.

DIGITECH / WHAMMY5 Whammy Pedal

Note: The pedal Tom actually uses is the original Whammy.

On their debut album, he set the Whammy two octaves up on “Killing in the Name” and “Bullet in the Head”. In the former’s solo, he creates a distinctive sound by tremolo-picking the same note while pressing the pedal (to go two octaves up) and releasing it (to return to the original pitch) in time with the tempo. In the latter, he combines the switching technique with the whammy arm to recreate a sound like a bomb dropping, matching the song’s title. On “Know Your Enemy,” he simultaneously produces the original note and a note a fifth above, adding the switching technique to create a tone that doesn’t even sound like a guitar.

■ Bullet in the Head

■ Know Your Enemy

The pursuit of original sounds progressed even further on their second album, Evil Empire. On the opening track, “People of the Sun,” Tom creates the steely sound in the riff by rubbing a hex wrench against the fifth string. On “Bulls on Parade”, the intro break features a distinctive wah sound, and in the solo, he uses the switching technique to produce a DJ-style record-scratching guitar solo. On Vietnow, he applies wah wah to a note an octave below using the Whammy, producing a “growl” sound during the interlude, and sets the digital delay short in the ending to create a machine-gun–like effect. On “Down Rodeo”, he uses the same Whammy setting and, during the B section, turns down the tone to evoke a video-game–like sound effect.

■ People of the Sun

■ Bulls on Parade

Another distinctive feature of Tom’s playing is his extensive use of the front pickup. With few exceptions, most riffs are played on the front pickup rather than the rear. While the band members had expressed dissatisfaction with the production of their first album, the second album benefited from the legendary producer Brendan O’Brien, resulting in top-notch sound production.

As the band’s success grew, tensions among the members also increased, and in 2000, Zack announced his departure. The remaining three members formed Audioslave with Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell, but the band disbanded after two albums. RATM has since gone through repeated cycles of reunion and hiatus, including a Japanese tour in 2008. During these hiatus periods, Zack has mostly stayed out of the public eye; although he recorded with other artists, much of this material went unreleased, making his musical activity intermittent at best. In contrast, Tom has remained extremely active, joining tours with American rock icon Bruce Springsteen and releasing a series of solo works. In 2016, the three members excluding Zack formed Prophets of Rage with rappers from Public Enemy and Cypress Hill, releasing a live album and touring, but the project was dropped in 2019 so that RATM could resume activities. Brad has participated in recordings with bands like Black Sabbath, and Tim has released a signature model bass with Ernie Ball Music Man, maintaining steady activity in the music scene. RATM announced a tour to coincide with their reunion, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Personally, I was able to attend their Japanese shows in 1999 (Fuji Rock Festival), 2000 (Makuhari Messe), and 2008 (Makuhari Messe). I vividly remember that during the 2000 show, I nearly collapsed from the overwhelming excitement of the crowd. At the opening, Zack always recites his signature line, and every time I listen to the live albums, that excitement from back then comes rushing back:
“Good evening. We’re Rage Against the Machine, from Los Angeles, California!”

Setlist (actual copy) and ticket from the 2000 Makuhari Messe show

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