Spring Music Preview: Fifty Must-Hear Albums

Q&A: Tom Morello, The Nightwatchman

Tom Morello spoke to our Brian Hiatt about One Man Revolution, his solo album under the moniker "The Nightwatchman," out April 24th.

I'd seen you play at least once as Nightwatchman, and this is, it's actually, even though you knocked it off in four days, it's a little more polished than I expected. It's not just -- you and Brendan [O'Brien] kind of fleshed it out a bit.
Right, right, right. I mean, the foundation of all the songs is acoustic guitar, vocals, and a harmonica. But we did augment them a bit to add depth and character. A lot of songs are first takes. The thing was to capture a moment in time. These are songs that had been written across the last four years, and I chose the selection of them, and I think were pretty representative of the Nightwatchman's world view.

Why record the album now since you've had this going?
Well, over the summer there was some time to reflect, and I thought this was something that I very much wanted to get out. Also, I played a benefit show for Amnesty International, with Incubus up in Portland. And at the time Incubus was making a record with Brendan. Nightwatchman was not something I pushed on Brendan or anybody, but the Incubus guys called them up after the show and gave them a favorable review. Brendan called and asked me for some demos, I sent them, and you know, he called me up the next day and said "Let's make a record!" I went down to Atlanta and worked a few days at his house and a few days at Southern Tracks?and all of a sudden a record came together that surprised the both of us.

The influences seem fairly pronounced. Would you agree with that?
Yeah. In my electric guitar playing, I shoot for as varied influences as possible, from shredding to lawn-mower noises to DJ scratching. As the Nightwatchman, I've really tried to narrow the influences to one or two albums, you know, maybe a handful of songs?from the vibe of Springsteen's Nebraska to Dylan's "The Times They are A' Changin'" to maybe a pinch of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen. I came upon acoustic music later in life. I've always written my heaviest rock riffs on the acoustic guitar. You know, the only guitar I have in my home is a nylon-stringed acoustic. But it's really been the last five years or so that I've realized that I really love dark and heavy music, and I found that sometimes the darkest music can come from just acoustic guitar and vocals and doesn't need a Marshall Stack.

So you're going to tour behind this [album]?
Yeah, absolutely.

And your live shows will be like that -- just vocals and acoustic?
Well, the solo shows will be just like that. I mean, at shows at the Hotel Café [in Los Angeles], we've been doing these more collaborative numbers where a bunch of friends gather and we each play a few songs together. But it is likely that the solo tour will be all acoustic, all me -- depending on who I tour with.

Right, right. So why call [the project] The Nightwatchman? Why not just Tom Morello?
Well, from the very beginning I wanted to separate these songs from my day job, (Laughs) you know, as guitar hero. Sort of take a step in the realm of full mythology. And that required a moniker. And it's also a very exclusive way to separate the points of view in my daily life, you know, as I am a very affable, rational activist and musician, and the Nightwatchman is much more concerned with, like I said, bitterness and revenge.

Also, [the nice thing about a solo project is that] I could be anywhere in town or in the world just by picking up that guitar case and start playing for the people. And there's something about that that's just very liberating and kind of the core of the one-man revolution. Self-reliance.

So you're going to be playing with Rage Against the Machine at Coachella later this month. Why did you guys wait til now to reunite?
Well, I mean, again, over the course of the last six months there was time to sort of think about what we were going to do, and there was clearly not going to be an Audioslave tour and Timmy C. reached out to Zack and established a friendship and shortly thereafter we decided it was time . . . Rage Against the Machine! It's a return! And we're very thrilled about playing Coachella as well as playing the shows with Wu Tang Clan.

Have you guys all rehearsed in a room yet?
No. We've all gotten together, but we haven't rehearsed yet.

What's it going to be like to get on stage and play that show?
What do you think, man? There's already, like, the electricity. You know, it's going to be crazy.