Tom Morello Talks About "World Wide Rebel Songs"

Jason LaVeris/FilmMagicOn Tuesday, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello unleashed his fourth album under The Nightwatchman moniker called World Wide Rebel Songs.  Morello tells ABC News Radio that there’s a common theme to all his Nighwatchman albums. “The thread that runs through them, and that runs through this record as well, is trying to answer the question for myself: 'Is it possible to find personal redemption by fighting for justice through music?’”  Morello adds, “The muck and mire that is your life from the bad decisions…to the things that you’ve done wrong to good people -- can you make that right?  I don’t know, but that’s what I attempt to do on these records and in every show I play.”

Morello notes that even though the album was recorded about seven months ago, civil unrest has escalated around the globe since then.  “The Arab Spring has occurred,” explains Morello.  “From Greece to Spain to the UK, the cities of Europe are on fire due to the austerity measures…there was a certain amount of premonition in the record as well apparently.”

Morello says that World Wide Rebel Songs is unique because “this is the first record where I’ve really built a bridge between my electric guitar playing from Rage [Against the Machine] and Audioslave and my acoustic singer songwriting.”  He is confident experimenting with his sound because “this is the fourteenth record of my career and if I’m not going to be comfortable in my own skin by now, I don’t know if I’ll ever be.”

World Wide Rebel Songs is available now in stores and at all digital retailers.

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