Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against The Machine has a new solo album coming out, and the first single dropped online on Thursday.
While his former bandmates have been touring the world with Chuck D and B-Real, the Rage frontman has been working on music of his own. After his departure from the band in 2000, it seems that de la Rocha is finally making good on his promise to release a solo album.
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His first single as a solo artist is titled “Digging For Windows.” The highly energetic new tune, produced by Run the Jewels’ El-P, is now available for free download via BitTorrent.
For more than a decade, de la Rocha has recorded upwards of 20 tracks that have never been released. He worked with producers such as DJ Shadow, Questlove, El-P, Trent Reznor, and many others but none of those tracks would see the light of day. Questlove described the tracks as “dangerous” and scary” with “crazy-fast beats per minute, a theremin, crazy synthesizer energy, Moogs, [and] a lot of drum ‘n’ bass sh*t.”
However, none of those tracks fit the direction that de le Rocha was wanting to take his music. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2008, de la Rocha stated: “I felt that I was going through the motions. Not that what was produced wasn’t great, but I feel now that I’ve maybe reinvented the base sounds that emanate from the songs.”
Producer Trent Reznor stated in 2011: “We did some stuff that I thought was pretty cool, and it was frustrating because I also knew it would never see the light of day. It would get to the point where – Zack, I’m saying this with love – but it was the riddle of ‘I can’t do this, it sounds too much like Rage.’ ‘Ok, let’s do that.’ ‘I can’t do that, it doesn’t sound enough like what you’d expect me to do.’ There’s a few good tracks laying around, but it’s up to him. I doubt that’s going to see the light of day.”
Earlier this year, RATM drummer Brad Wilk accidentally revealed that de la Rocha was “making a record right now,” and today finally ends the long wait for new music from the singer.
Do you look forward to buying Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha’s solo album?
[H/T Consequence of Sound]
