“We’re smelling bodies burning worldwide, and no-one is doing a thing.” Rage Against The Machine’s Tim Commerford on his new band 7D7D, RATM, Trump, media censorship, government lies, and why a world on fire needs musicians to stand up and speak out

Tim Commerford is on his way to work. Rage Against The Machine‘s bassist reckons that it takes him approximately an hour and a half to complete the drive from his home in Ventura to the North Hollywood rehearsal space in which he and his bandmates in 7D7D are tuning up for their first visit to the UK and Europe, and while California’s overcrowded highways may be a source of irritation to some, Commerford says that his morning commute affords him some welcome quiet time to be alone with his thoughts. It soon becomes evident that he has a lot of thoughts.

A classic power trio, 7D7D features Jonny Polonsky (guitar) and Mathias Wakrat (drums) alongside Commerford, with the vocalist/bassist also responsible for the group’s politically-charged lyrics. When announcing 7D7D’s upcoming shows exclusively via Louder on September 6, the 56-year-old musician declared, “We’re at war and I need to sing about it,”and today, during our 45-minute conversation, he’s extremely passionate when sharing his strongly-held views on a world on fire.

Exactly what his fellow commuters are thinking when they see him thumping the steering wheel while animatedly discussing America’s military-industrial complex, government lies, media censorship, Palestine, the Ukraine and more is open to question, but Commerford isn’t about to hold back for anyone. 

You’ve been working with 7D7D for a couple of years, with your first single Capitalism appearing online in November ’22. Your tour announcement suggests that you’re genuinely excited about taking this music to the world.
I really am. That’s the truth of it. I’m feeling blessed, for lack of a better term. I’m not a religious person, but I really believe that being in a band is a blessing, and you don’t always get that opportunity. A lot of people would love to be in a band – there’s a lot of people that go to see bands and think, ‘I could do that’  -but they don’t ever do it. It’s only the select few that put a band together and play music and all be on the same page and and be excited at the same time about the same thing. And there’s something powerful in that. I’ve been dealing with a lot of personal things, like cancer, and the beauty of music, for me, really, is I do not think about any of that bullshit when I’m playing music, I get to just blank that out and go into this other place that has nothing to do with that. And for me, that is a saviour, that is helping make my life worth living.

So let’s talk about the band. From the singles you’ve released so far, there seems to be a sort of a jazz sensibility to 7D7D as much as a rock band set-up.
Oh, for sure. I never thought that I would be in a band with two guys like these guys. They can play bebop jazz together, they’re incredibly talented, and the music we play is extremely challenging: it’s odd timings, it’s advanced chord progressions, it’s exciting. That’s one beautiful thing about being a musician rather than, say, an athlete: you can get better as you get older. I hope people like it, and if people don’t like it, the way I am looking at it right now is that those people are stupid. [Laughs] But no, seriously, I’m really confident about this band, put us in front of people and no-one’s leaving.

I watched your live rehearsal video for Ouchi, and to me, that recording is on another level to the singles you’ve shared so far, in terms of energy and excitement.
Exactly! I agree! And the way we play it now is even better. But yeah, we shot that in our studio on an iPhone, and that’s us, what you hear is what you get. I’m never going to release another song that’s anything but that: I just want to realise live tracks like that, and we already recorded another one that’s sick. I’m not psyched to have this band looked at like, ‘It’s the guy from Rage’s band’, I’m not interested in that. I want to play in front of people that don’t know who I am, that want to judge me for what they hear and what they see. Playing in front of 100,000 people isn’t hard, what’s hard is playing in front of 10 people in a room that holds 200, that’s where you find out who you really are. Like, the last show we played, we were first on on a three band bill, playing at 7:30pm, for $100, and the next one, on October 12 in Hermosa Beach, we’ll get $250. It’s insane, and I’m so into it, it’s so fun.

In the UK, your first show is going to be at The Underworld, in Camden, which was also the venue for the first Rage Against The Machine show in the UK. There’s a video of that show online, and before playing Bullet in the Head, Zack talks about “the blanket of media that has been thrown above our heads” and about “using your strength as an individual to attack systems like America who continue to rob and rape and murder people in the name of freedom.“ Are you on a similar mission, lyrically and philosophically, with 7D7D?
Oh, absolutely. I learned from Rage, and from Zach and Tom and Brad, I learned how to be who I am. I was politicised by that. And one of the things that comes from that is feeling an artistic obligation to say something. I can’t not do that. The songs are all about different issues, and they’re subversive, and twisted, and maybe things that you think are funny in the lyrics, are not.

When you were announced the European tour, you said, ‘We’re at war, and I need to sing about it.’ Could you elaborate upon that? What’s your take on the state of the world right now?
Oh, man. My true passion is geo-politics, I’ve never been paying more attention to what’s happening in the world than I am right now. And I’m scared. I have a 21-year-old son and a 20-year-old son, and I know we’re all being propagandised by the party line news that most people watch. I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but in Europe, they’re making military transport corridors in Finland, where they’ve been landing F-35 fighters, and American Raptor jets for the first time, and I believe that there will be war in Europe. Joe Biden’s a fucking warmonger, and Donald Trump is a racist fuck, and a warmonger too: he’s saying stuff like, ‘Oh, I would give Israel what they need to finish the job in Gaza’. Then there’s Benjamin Netanyahu, that motherfucker scares me. There’s hundreds of people being killed in Lebanon, there’s  American bombers striking Syria, and hitting Iraq, and hitting Yemen, but the news will tell us, there’s no war. And we’re supposed to believe that? We are at war.

What was your take on the two alleged assassination attempts on Donald Trump?
I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that when I heard it, the first thing that went through my mind was, Is that real, or is that fucking staged? That was my kneejerk reaction. But this is the environment that’s been created, this world of division in America, and it’s being deliberately engineered. And our presidents do not run the show, they’re fucking Broadway actors being controlled by people with real power.

The only places that give me hope for America are the colleges. I have a son at UCLA and I’m proud that he’s involved in the anti-war protests there. I want to see people out on the streets, protesting. Believe me, when I see Benjamin Netanyahu in Congress calling those people ‘useful idiots’, that makes me more fucking mad. And the coverage of the wars worldwide is a total scam, the military are cleaning things up before the news media roll in. They learned from Vietnam not to show children on fire anymore.

Obviously this is all stuff that you’re highlighting with 7D7D. But people might think that it’s a shame that we don’t also have Rage Against The Machine out there at the moment saying these things, given the size of the platform that you had with that band. Is Rage over as far as you are concerned?
Dude, I already said my piece on that before. I’m just the bass player.

I spoke to your friend Tom Morello during the summer and he said something similar, like, ‘I’m just one quarter of the band, I can’t speak for the band’.
Look, being in a band, like I said, it’s a very, special thing. And I hear it around me, like, [adopts complaining, whining voice] ‘Why don’t you guys just do it?’ People don’t understand. It’s hard enough to be in a relationship with your significant other. Okay, now, imagine now trying to do that with three or four other creative, independently-minded people. The stars have to align.

My career as a musician is not over. As a rock star? Maybe it is, you know, but am I bummed about it? No, man, I’ve been so lucky to be a part of it. That’s what it is at the end of the day, it’s luck. It was luck that I grew up with Zach, and that I got to meet Tom and Brad. And they were all so pivotal on where I am today. And there’s not a day goes by that I’m not just thankful for everything that I have.