Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) with Grandson

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got two guys from different generations who’ve collided with big riffs in recent years: Tom Morello and Jordan Benjamin.

Tom Morello is best known as the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, which smashed together heavy music and activism in the 1990s, inspiring countless bands—some good, some bad, as he’ll freely admit—to sprinkle some hip-hop into their rock. Morello went on to form Audioslave with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and find a whole other area of success, but he didn’t stop there: Morello goes wherever the muse takes him, from playing with Bruce Springsteen to doing acoustic sets as The Nightwatchman. He’s always working on new music—and always outspoken politically.

Morello tapped Jordan Benjamin to contribute to his 2021 single “Hold the Line,” which makes perfect sense, because the music that Benjamin records under the name Grandson is certainly inspired by Rage, among other artists of course. Grandson has been releasing records for the past decade or so, fusing hip-hop and alt-rock elements with unabashedly political lyrics. For his latest album under the Grandson name, Inertia, Benjamin leaned into a more organic rather than electronic sound—you’ll hear him talk about the transition in this chat. Check out the song “God is an Animal” from Inertia right here.

In this lively conversation, Morello and Benjamin talk about working together, about the magic of band chemistry, and about the “technological hellhole we find ourselves in.” It’s still fun, though, check it out.

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Jordan Benjamin and Tom Morello for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great shows in the Talkhouse Podcast Network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

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