Credit: Dana KleinOn Tuesday, Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave bassist Tim Commerford revealed himself as the man behind the band Future User. In previous Future User videos, Commerford wore a mask and headphones to conceal his identity, but for the band's latest video, "Mountain Lion," he removed his mask to reveal his face and distinctive tattoos.
"For me, the mask is important because I didn't want to use either of my previous bands to help this band," Commerford tells ABC News Radio. "I wanted to launch this band as a regular person in today's world and see how it works, and I was excited about that."
That mask then evolved into a character of its own, which Commerford and his Future User band mate, Jordan Tarlow, felt represented the ideology of the band. The masked character was dubbed S.W.I.M., a popular Internet acronym that stands for "Someone Who Isn't Me."
The presence of S.W.I.M. adds to the political nature of the videos, which tackle everything from waterboarding to genetically-altered food. The new track "Mountain Lion" sets its sight on the controversy around performance enhancing drugs, or PEDs, in sports which Commerford feels has been overblown in effort to distract people from real problems.
"We as Americans and as earthlings should be focused on much more important issues," he says. "If our presidents decide to divert our attention with PEDs, we should realize that there probably is something really bad happening that they're doing while we're focused on Lance Armstrong or Barry Bonds."
Lance Armstrong, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after he admitted to blood doping, appears in a cameo role in the "Mountain Lion" video. In fact, Commerford emulates the infamous cyclist by actually blood doping in the video himself
"I actually blood doped in the video -- it was my second attempt at blood doping -- and I just wanted it to be real," he tells ABC News Radio. "My first attempt I did in Jordan's studio and didn't do it right, and ended up squirting blood all over his mixing console, he had to spend tons of money to have in cleaned. Then I got it right for the video."
Future User's debut album, #SteroidsorHeroin, will be released on February 24. The record will be seven songs long, including "Mountain Lion," as well as the other three tracks already released: "Clockwork," "Supernatural" and "Medication Nation." All four of these tracks are accompanied by equally politically charged videos, and Commerford says that the three songs yet to be released might get videos, too.
"We do have a couple other video ideas, and we have seven tracks that are going to go on this record, and with two more ideas, so maybe we will get every song," he says. "I think that would be neat. Because I really feel like we're making sort of a rock opera for 2015."
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