New Music Discovery: Rise Against - 'Talking To Ourselves'

Each Tuesday and Sunday, Taylor rounds up this week’s best new music with the New Music Discovery Show. Here’s one of our favourites.

Rise Against – “Talking To Ourselves”

Rise Against have shared a new single off their latest album, Nowhere Generation. Entitled “Talking To Ourselves”, the song details the band’s frustration with being reduced to mindless entertainment.

Frontman Tim McIlrath told Kerrang!, 

“This song was an accidental way of not only talking about Rise Against, but also anybody that does something like we do, anyone who feels like they’re standing in a crowd, trying to get everyone to pay attention and no-one’s doing it. Either they’re not doing it, or they’re just placating you, like, ?‘Oh, how adorable, he’s angry!’ Sometimes you end up just feeling like an entertainer, like, ?‘Oh, I guess this is just a transaction – this is your Friday night.’ When it feels like that, it’s so sad, it’s like, ?‘That’s not why I got into this, this isn’t punk rock – why didn’t I just become a magician or juggler? This is supposed to be something more.’

Especially as a band gets bigger, you’ll play some big festivals where you’re the only punk rock band on the bill and you realize, like, ?‘Wait, are we just one of these acts out there?’ And that’s nothing against those acts and what they do, but it’s just not why we put our foot in the door to do this. You’re always trying to figure out what to do when it feels like that: what can you do to pivot and create a moment? If you really think you stand out, then fucking do something that will make you stand out. That’s your job.”

Stream Nowhere Generation below.