Zack de la Rocha: Turnstile Are a “Bridge” to Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and The Clash

Turnstile recently played a landmark show at the Washington Monument, with 60,000 fans showing up to watch the Baltimore hardcore band perform in support of humanitarian aid to Palestine, Sudan, and Lebanon.

A musician who certainly knows about political activism is Rage Against the Machine singer Zack de la Rocha, who believes a band like Turnstile can serve as a “bridge” for young music fans to discover acts like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and The Clash.

The usually reclusive RATM frontman recently attended an exhibit in Barcelona, Spain, featuring the works of legendary punk and hardcore photographer Glen E. Friedman, who was with de la Rocha when they were approached by the Spanish music website Binaural for a few questions.

When asked about Turnstile taking the baton from Rage Against the Machine, de la Rocha responded, “It’s interesting to see how this style is resurging. I don’t know if it will have the same impact, but, once again, there are a lot of kids who are discovering it for the first time. And they are doing so through their first experience with bands like Turnstile. Afterward, they start discovering Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Negative Approach, The Clash… So these bands occupy a really interesting space, like a sort of bridge. I hope that through them, people look back at the original groups.”

The RATM vocalist then acknowledged Friedman’s contributions to the punk and hardcore scene by continuing, “Personally, I don’t think a band like Turnstile could exist without something like Bad Brains. And I don’t think Bad Brains would have gotten the visibility they have without Glen’s insistence and perseverance in promoting them. A lot of people would have never discovered that band if it hadn’t been for him. He will tell you the stories himself; he has quite a few.”

Friedman added, “An artist has to do what they want to do. And I think everyone needs to raise their voice to try and make the world better. There are too many problems. Too much is going on. You can’t just sit idly by and do nothing… I mean, first and foremost they are musicians, but they are also activists. They pick up their instruments to practice that activism and make themselves heard more.”

Check out footage of Turnstile performing at the Washington Monument this past weekend, as well as video of Rage Agains the Machine performing at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles in 2000, in the videos below.