When the band first began, McIlrath stated how they weren't seeking to gather such a large audience in their pursuit for originality, and this defined them as the "black sheep" of punk rock. The original goal of the band was only to create music, never seen as a long-term group until the band came to a realization of similar activist beliefs that led McIlrath to describe music as a vessel for change. These beliefs started to get integrated into the music most prominently after the release of
The Sufferer & The Witness, when McIlrath said that he sought to make a difference in the world he lives in as opposed to being one of the bands in the punk/hardcore scene today that are[n't] saying anything important".
Political lyrics Having not grown up in a political family, McIlrath says that he was never particularly involved until he began playing punk rock. After entering the music scene, though, he began to feel a strong connection towards his convictions, specifically animal and human rights. While not all of Rise Against's material is political, songs such as "
Swing Life Away" and "
Make It Stop" have risen to prominence as McIlrath seeks to speak to a generation that he believes is lacking conviction towards their world, as explained throughout the storytelling narrative of the band's albums. The band has begun to seek after more politically and socially challenging lyrics as time progresses, responding to current events such as the song "
Help Is On The Way" and its use of support for victims of
Hurricane Katrina.
PETA McIlrath became a vegetarian at the age of eighteen as a result of his own understanding of the meat-industry as opposed to having it "shoved [...] down my throat". The realization of
PETA, an animal rights support group, came through the music scene and McIlrath's own realization of the events that occur within meat-processing and inhumane conditions that animals are forced to live in. As time went on, these beliefs got integrated into his lyric writing such as Rise Against video for the single "
Ready to Fall" contains footage of factory farming, rodeos, and sport hunting, as well as deforestation, melting ice-caps, and forest fires. The group has called the video the most important video they have ever made. In February 2012 the band released a cover of the
Bob Dylan song "
Ballad of Hollis Brown" as part of a benefit for
Amnesty International. After the release of the film
Blackfish, McIlrath worked with PETA to create a video in support of releasing animals in captivity, exclaiming how "I make a choice every time I go out on stage, I choose to perform. Animals in captivity don't get to make that choice".
Straight edge ideals McIlrath, along with most of the rest of Rise Against, follows the subculture ideology of "
straight edge", a belief that promotes refraining from using alcohol, tobacco and other recreational drugs, in a reaction to the excesses of punk subculture. ==Discography==