Tom Morello names one of his “primary influences” as a guitarist: “He approached the instrument in a totally irreverent way”
Rage Against The Machine inspired an entire generation with their bruising breakdowns and fierce rap metal aggro. However, guitarist Tom Morello wouldn’t have been able to unload his politically enraged riffs without the influence of Gang Of Four’s late guitarist, Andy Gill.
In the latest issue of Uncut, Morello has explained how Gang Of Four’s records were pivotal when he was fine-tuning his personal style. “There’s never been a band like Gang Of Four,” he says. “Andy Gill was one of my primary influences as a guitarist.”
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Morello notes Gill’s varied approach to the guitar as highly inspirational. It was one of the first times Morello realised it was possible to pair different playing styles to craft your own signature sound. “He approached the instrument in a totally irreverent way,” he explains. “Not The Ramones’ irreverence where you only needed three chords, but the idea that any sound the guitar could make could be spliced into a funk groove or off-kilter riff.”
Ferocity was also a key element of Gill’s playing, and it’s something Morello aspired to emulate and inject into all of his own projects. “Andy was really like a lion on the plains of guitar players,” he says. “He attacked the instrument like a raptor, but the band’s ideological point of view didn’t stop with the lyrics. It was the entire way that they approached making music.”
“The pounds that came out of the guitars were a deconstruction of the instrument in the same way that lyrically they deconstructed everyday life in capitalist society,” he concludes.
It’s not the first time Morello has voiced his love of Gill’s playing. Following Gill’s passing in 2020, Morello featured on the 2021 release, The Problem Of Leisure: A Celebration Of Andy Gill And Gang Of Four. Morello collaborated with System Of A Down vocalist Serj Tankian, the pair reimagining the 1979 track, Natural’s Not In It.
At the time, Morello spoke of Gill with equal measures of enthusiasm. He again commended his ferocious, “raptor”-like approach to his instrument. “Andy Gill was one of a handful of artists in history who changed the way guitars are played,” Morello said in a statement at the time. “His jagged plague-disco raptor-attack industrial-funk deconstructed guitar anti-hero sonics and fierce poetic radical intellect were hugely influential to me.”
While Gang Of Four took a hiatus following Gill’s passing, the post-punk unit are embarking on one final tour this year. Frontman Jon King and drummer Hugo Burnham are joined by Gail Greenwood of Belly and L7 on bass, with Ted Leo stepping into Gill’s role on guitar.
The Long Goodbye tour will kick off 20 April in Boston, and will run until a triumphant finale on 29 May in San Diego. The tour will have the gang performing their debut album, Entertainment, in full to mark its 45th anniversary.
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