FIRE DOWN BELOW

WHEN RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE were forced to reschedule their 2020 reunion tour to 2021 — and then to 2022 — Tom Morello found himself at home for the longest sustained period of his adult life. While dealing with family demands, the guitarist also experienced something he had encountered before: a seemingly incurable case of writer’s block. “It was a drought in my head, like, ‘I’ve got nothing,’” he says. “For the first four months or so, I was completely uninspired.”

A breakthrough came from an unlikely source, however, when Morello read a Kanye West interview in which the rapper boasted about recording vocals for a new album straight to his iPhone. Taking the same approach, Morello set his phone on a folding chair in front of a Marshall halfstack, started playing riffs and assorted noises, and before he knew it, the spark of creativity had returned. “It sounded great,” he says. “I began sending these riffs and licks to producers and artists around the world, and that was the genesis for my new record.”

 (Mom+Pop Music) is Morello’s follow-up to his 2018 solo album, , and like that set it’s a collaborative affair, only this time all