NOWHERE MEN

RISE AGAINST’s TIM McILRATH and ZACH BLAIR dig through the roots of their unique six-string interplay — and their brawny new album, Nowhere Generation, a message of solidarity to the band’s young fans

- BRAD ANGLE

IN MARCH 2020, TIM McILRATH WAS heading straight for what he calls a “post-album emotional collapse” — and then the pandemic hit.

The Rise Against singer and guitarist had just wrapped work on his longrunning Chicago political punk crew’s ninth record, Nowhere Generation, and he was ready to retreat into a “dark room with blackout curtains and not see anyone for a while.” So when Illinois issued its stay-at-home orders, McIlrath’s plans weren’t quite as upended as many other folks across the country.

“I turned the TV on and they’re like, ‘You can’t go outside and do anything,’” he recalls. “I was like, ‘That’s cool — that’s what I was planning on doing anyway.’ [Laughs] So the world falling apart dovetailed nicely with my calendar!”

It’s April 2021 when Guitar World connects with McIlrath, and his spirits are high. Nowhere Generation’s release is right around the corner (this past June via new label Loma Vista), and the COVID-19 vaccine rollout has the country entering what seems to be a much different, hopeful phase of the pandemic. Despite McIlrath’s gallows humor, the guitarist is keenly aware of the toll the coronavirus crisis has taken on people’s health, emotional well-being, income and more. After all, social consciousness has been intertwined with his creative output ever since Rise Against dropped their first album, The Unraveling, in 2001.