PROPHETS OF RAGE Completes Work On New 13-Song Album; New Single To Be Released This Weekend

PROPHETS OF RAGE bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk were interviewed by Kaaos TV before the band's June 30 show at Provinssi in Seinäjoki, Finland. You can now watch the chat below.

In addition to Commerford, Wilk and guitarist Tom Morello, all of whom previously played together in RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and AUDIOSLAVE, PROPHETS OF RAGE also features Chuck D and DJ Lord from PUBLIC ENEMY and B-Real from CYPRESS HILL.

Asked what the response has been like to PROPHETS OF RAGE's debut album, which came out last September, Tim said: "As far as I'm concerned, it was a great imprint of us as a band. We made a record, and it was an imprint in time, and we did that. And we're on to another record now; we've already finished a 13-song record that we are just in the process of just putting together at this moment in time. So there's a lot going on. We have a new song that comes out on July 7th. And it's on to new territory, new sounds and new music."

Although PROPHETS OF RAGE was originally formed as what Morello described in a 2016 interview as an "elite task force of revolutionary musicians determined to confront this mountain of [American] election year bullshit," the band has since made it clear that they would still be together even if Hillary Clinton was in the White House.

"I don't think anybody was putting expiration dates on it when we got together," Brad told Kaaos TV. "So we got together and started songs, and it started sounding really good and we all were into what we were doing. So that made sense to continue. And so we continued to write music. We just spent a few months writing new music, and it was an awesome experience with this guy [editor's note: referring to Tim] and with B-Real and Chuck and Tom and Lord. I think that we can continue making new music. The more new music we play live, the better it'll be."

Asked if PROPHETS OF RAGE has found more of its own sound and style with its new music, Tim said: "Here is the thing. This is the beauty of this group. And first of all, to just be in a band and be able to play music and be able to get together with other artists and make music, art and collective consciousness, work on it together and create something that we all feel great about, that is a beautiful thing. It doesn't matter if you're playing at a festival or if you're playing in your living room with your buddies, that's a great thing. But in our situation, which is that we get to make art together, but we also get to make whatever kind of art we want. We have guys like [me and Brad] who played some of the heaviest music that's ever been made, and we have people like Chuck and B-Real, who, if it weren't for their bands playing some of the heaviest music ever made, we wouldn't even exist here today. And we can make any kind of music we want. We wanna make a rock record? We make a rock record. We wanna make a hip-hop record? We can make a hip-hop record. There's so many things that we can do, and so I'm excited about just the future of making new music and what that means. And, like I said, we just finished our new musical outlook, and it's a beautiful one."

As for the musical direction of PROPHETS OF RAGE's upcoming disc, Tim said: "It's a different direction, it's not the same, and I love that. I grew up, and Brad grew up, listening to bands that made records and you were waiting at the record store to hear what it might sound like — the new record by some band. And so that's the way I feel like we're doing it right now. We're growing and we're creating and we're going in a new territory and I feel really good about it."

PROPHETS OF RAGE's self-titled debut album was recorded with legendary producer Brendan O'Brien who has done notable work with RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and AUDIOSLAVE.