“My friend put his headphones on me, and I was hooked”: Stray From The Path’s Tom Williams on the album that changed his life

Four years on from their incendiary, self-titled debut, by 1996 Rage Against The Machine had become one of the biggest bands on the planet. Uncompromising in both their musical sound-blending and their outspoken politics, with their second album, Evil Empire, the LA quartet doubled down on both. The title was taken from a reference to the USSR in a speech by 1980s U.S. Ronald Reagan, and the rest of it was equally unapologetic about who and what they were. Not only that, guitarist Tom Morello had gone even further against the '90s grain – not just of being a guitar hero, but also one trying to push the boundaries of the noises you could make on the instrument.

It solidified Rage's place as one of the most important bands of their time. Out in upstate New York, a young Tom Williams was about to have his mind blown, and the course of his life changed completely. And all he was doing was getting ready for gym class…

“Evil Empire changed my life, man. I remember the first time I heard it well: sixth grade, James Watson gave me his cassette player, I heard it open with People Of The Sun, and I was hooked. This was maybe 1998, a couple of years after it was released, but you knew about this stuff because of word of mouth. I remember I was sitting in what we’d call ‘squads’, where you’d line up for attendance in gym class, sitting on the floor, and this James Watson kid came over and put the headphones on my head. ‘What is this?’ ‘It’s Rage Against The Machine!’ I was like, ‘This is awesome, and they have the coolest fucking band name, too!’

“They’re obviously a huge influence. I mean, I don’t hide it! I write music for myself, and I love Rage, and they haven’t made music in 25 years. So it’s like I make what I’m missing. The first thing I learned on guitar was Bombtrack, which is on the first album, and that beginning sounds like the hardest thing ever. My friend Dan Shapiro taught me it to play it over a dial up phone on an acoustic guitar. It’s really easy, but when I played it, I was like, ‘I'm unstoppable!’

“I did try to copy some of the sounds Tom Morello makes. I bought a wah pedal, and used it once. It’s just not for me. But I also got a DigiTech whammy, and now I own 10 of them! It’s such an integral thing to Stray that I have back-ups of it. I tried all his tricks. I read an interview with him where he said, ‘We got a bunch of money with our record deal, so I bought a bunch of stuff for the studio, and I never read the manual. I just fucked around.’ That’s what I’ve done!

“I got to meet Tom once, actually, and it was awesome. It was at Download France, when Prophets Of Rage played. At the time, that was one of the best shows I ever saw, because I never saw Rage before then. The stage was friends and family only, and I just snuck up. There was this bald guy, and I don’t know if he was the tour manager or whatever, but this guy was chasing me around, like, ‘Who you here with?’ Then he’d get distracted by a walkie-talkie, and I would literally slip out and go somewhere else.

“Backstage, their dressing room was across from Stray, and after the set I was like, ‘I have to get a picture with Tom.’ We finally see him, and he’s talking to the bald guy, and they’re having a serious conversation. They’re three-feet away from us, so we hear the whole conversation, and he’s saying to him, ‘I don’t ever want to see you treating people that way ever again. If they want to watch, let them watch. That is important to us.’ He literally stuck up for us, and he had no clue! He’s so fucking cool. He's the man.

“It’s been almost 30 years since I heard them. I’ve loved Rage ever since, and they’re still my favourite band to this day. Evil Empire is still my favourite album of all time. And it hasn’t aged – it’s actually got better!”

Stray From The Path's album Clockworked is out now via SharpTone

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• Tom Morello: My life in 10 songs