“ADJOURN IT“, the recently released collaborative track from Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, his teenage son Roman, and System Of A Down vocalist Serj Tankian, has newly been given some more context. The aforementioned three musicians/activists sat down to discuss how the song came to be in the below interview. Tom said of the inspiration behind the lyrics [transcribed by Blabbermouth.net]:
“The idea to create a song like this came up during the DHS and ICE raids in Los Angeles, when the streets of L.A. were being terrorized by Gestapo-like tactics, people combing through the neighborhoods, businesses having to shut down, children being abducted from school — an absolute reign of terror on our city. And I thought, ‘We have to do what we can while we can with what we can.’ And with us, that’s making music.”
Morello has frequently denounced the tactics used by DHS and ICE under the current Trump administration, and actively protested the aforementioned Californian immigration raids, along with other activities by DHS and ICE in the United States over the past year and a half. Tankian went on to say of the track:
“Like [Tom] said, we’ve done a lot of songs together, a lot of projects, and been friends for a long time. And this disturbed all of us. It’s still disturbing all of us, the kind of tactics that have been used by the administration in cracking down on families, separating families, and children without parents. I mean, I read that there’s 27,000 children whose parents have been deported. And it’s really a trauma for this country. And we have to learn how to deal with these things the right way. We have to learn how to stand up to fascism in the right way. And so this is a great way for us to do [it]. This is what we do. We do music.”
Tom then delved further into the track [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“I think the idea of “ADJOURN IT” is one that is… it means to end something, to dismiss something, to get rid of something. And so, in this day and age, we want to get rid of the rising tide of fascism. We want to get rid of these horrible Gestapo tactics. We want to get rid of this rule of billionaires. We want to get rid of this white supremacy, which is this terrible fog that’s choking us all right now. We want to adjourn it, adjourn it, adjourn it. And I think that’s a brilliant lyric to go with Roman‘s kickass riff.”
Tankian added:
“It’s also adjourning a lot of those court trials — people were showing up to court, and they were getting handcuffed and taken away, not allowing the judges to actually adjourn their case. So it’s almost like, adjourn it. Let’s let these people who have been living in the country for so long, contributing to our society — culturally, morally, financially — stay.”
Morello then continued:
“‘ADJOURN IT‘ is a song to rile up our base. It’s to rile up people who are willing to standup for justice. This is a song which is the next single from my upcoming solo rock record. It will be my 22nd record that I’ve made. And it’s 22 records of riling up the base, doing what we can, while we can, with what we’ve got, and we’ve got quite a lot.”
Tom and Serj‘s shared passions for activism and social justice were already well documented before their shared passions brought them closer together in the early 00s. In 2002, the pair launched their Axis Of Justice non-profit. That organization set out to raise awareness for social justice issues and facilitate grassroots political activism and more among the metal and hard rock communities.
Both Tankian and Morello will be playing the upcoming ‘Power To The People‘ festival which Morello is organizing for October 03rd at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD.
