Tim McIlrath

Timothy James McIlrath (born November 3, 1978) is an American rock musician.

He is the lead singer, rhythm guitarist, songwriter and co-founder of the punk rock band Rise Against.

He is vegan and straight edge.

McIlrath was born in 1978 to Jim and Michelle McIlrath.

He attended Rolling Meadows High School in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

This was also the set for the music video, "Make It Stop (September's Children)."

In college (Northeastern Illinois University), McIlrath majored in English and Sociology.

In his junior year, he met Joe Principe at a Sick of It All concert.

Principe asked McIlrath to sing over a few tracks that he and Dan Wleklinski had recorded.

His first band was the post-hardcore band Baxter, formed in 1995 along with future The Lawrence Arms drummer Neil Hennessy and future Killing Tree and Holy Roman Empire bassist Geoff Reu.

Their first release was a full length, self-released, cassette, Troy's Bucket, which was released in 1996.

Troy's Bucket was met with warm reception from the scene, and Baxter became a popular band in the Chicago underground scene.

In 1997 they released a 7-inch EP Lost Voices on Static Station Records.

After some local touring, the band split up.

McIlrath played bass and sang backup in the first incarnation of The Honor System.

He sang one song on their demo.

He and drummer Neil Hennesy were also in a brief lineup of the grindcore band Yellow Road Priest, whose members went on to form Pelican.

It was at this time that Transistor Revolt was formed.McIlrath left college after Transistor Revolt was signed onto Fat Wreck Chords in 1999.

The band broke up in 1999.

McIlrath joined the band Arma Angelus, a Chicago metalcore band fronted by Pete Wentz, who would later be bassist in the pop punk band Fall Out Boy.

McIlrath played bass in the band until 1999 when he quit to form Transistor Revolt, which became Rise Against, and The Killing Tree.

In 1999, Tim McIlrath formed the band that would become Rise Against with former 88 Fingers Louie bassist, Joe Principe, guitarist Dan Precision (A.K.A. Mr. Precision), and drummer Toni Tintari under the name 'Transistor Revolt'.

Drummer Brandon Barnes did not join until 2001; it was at the same time the band was renamed Rise Against.

They officially recorded their debut album The Unraveling on Fat Wreck Chords in 2001.

In 2002 guitarist Mr. Precision left due to arguments with the band, and Todd Mohney filled his role.

Later that year they released their second album Revolutions per Minute which was greeted with warm success.

They toured the U.S. steadily that year, though by the end of it, Mohney left.

In order to replace him, former Reach the Sky guitarist Chris Chasse joined in 2004 and they released their Geffen debut Siren Song of the Counter Culture.

With the release of the singles "Give It All", "Swing Life Away", and "Life Less Frightening", Rise Against became more popular with mainstream fans, but still kept their underground sensibility.

After more touring (including a European tour and spots on the Vans Warped tour), the band went back to the studio and recorded their fourth album The Sufferer & the Witness, which included four singles ("Ready to Fall, "Prayer of the Refugee", "The Good Left Undone", and "Behind Closed Doors".)

As of 2021, McIlrath has recorded nine studio albums with Rise Against (The Unraveling, Revolutions per Minute, Siren Song of the Counter Culture, The Sufferer & the Witness, Appeal to Reason, Endgame, The Black Market, Wolves and Nowhere Generation), as well as a compilation album (The Ghost Note Symphonies, Vol. 1), and has remained as the main lyricist of the band.

McIlrath has played in his metalcore side project The Killing Tree along with former Rise Against guitarist Todd Mohney and former Baxter and Holy Roman Empire bassist, Geoff Reu.

During the early years of the band, all members used pseudonyms (Tim's being James Kaspar) out of concern for it.

The Killing Tree has not produced any music or toured since 2004, but contributed their previously unreleased song "Dressed to Fuck" on the 2006 Thick Records compilation album Hair: Chicago Punk Cuts, which featured Emily Schambra (of Holy Roman Empire) as guest vocals on the song.

Schambra also contributed backing vocals on Rise Against's album The Sufferer & the Witness for the songs "The Approaching Curve", "Roadside", and the b-side "But Tonight We Dance".

When the band first began, McIlrath stated how they weren't seeking to gather such a large audience in their pursuit for originality and social justice that defined them as the "black sheep" of punk rock.

The original goal of the band was only to create music, never seen as a long-term group until the band came to a realization of similar activist beliefs that led McIlrath to describe music as a vessel for change.

In Fall of 2020, McIlrath returned to college to finish his Sociology degree.

McIlrath has a condition called heterochromia, where his left eye is blue and his right eye is hazel.

McIlrath began his musical career in his teens and was active in the Chicago local punk rock scene.