Giving Cruelty the Finger
Animal Liberation Youth caught up with John Feldmann, lead singer of "GoldFinger" for this exclusive interview
ever one to miss an opportunity to spread the word about animal rights, John Feldmann, was only too happy to chat. Not your average punk rock mega-star, back in 2005 he accompanied Animal Liberation Victoria Openrescue activists on a broiler hen rescue, and has never lost sight of what's most important to him, despite the sort of fame and success that'd turn a lesser rock legend into a golf-playing, carcass-munching corporate sell-out...
"A lot of things got me involved in animal rights
I guess about 25 years now, when the driftnets were killing all the dolphins. I did a bunch of protests and a few benefit shows. And then the movie Babe really turned me on to veganism because for some reason that is what made it click.
I mean my sister's been vegan since she was fifteen. For most of my life I didn't get what she got, but i saw this movie and I realised they could train a pig just like they could train a dog so I thought why do i pet the dog and eat the pig? It didn't make sense any more to me so I just started doing the research online and found all this great food i can eat.
I've been vegan for eight years now. I was veggie for about two years before that. It was progressive for me, pigs cows, then chickens fish, then gave up the cheese and eggs.
"I realised they could train a pig
just like they could train a dog,
so I thought why do i pet the dog
and eat the pig?"
"I'm true to myself - that's all I know
I know what's right in my heart because no matter what in my life I know what's right. People try to say you can't stage dive at this show because there's kids, or you can't invite people on stage, people tell you you shouldn't eat meat because you're going to wither away to nothing. Whatever it is that people tell you they think they know what's best for me. I know in my heart what's right for me and a lot of people hate me because of it, because I stand by what I believe. A lot of the guys in the band they get sick of hearing about me talking about vegan activism, because that's what I talk about most of the time- vegan outreach and animal liberation. I mean that's what I believe. It's what's in my heart you know?
"I've done maybe four or five animal rescues
I wish it was easier. I wish in the States I didn't have to face jail time and getting my passport revoked. I mean that's the thing. I support the Animal Liberation Front because I'm into complete animal liberation, I want to see every animal rescued from every fur farm and every factory farm on the planet. I don't want any animal to suffer. But it has to be baby steps because I can't just go out there and release all these animals because then I'm in jail and then what good am I? What good an activist am I?
It's a tough thing but i think what i do playing shows and doing vegan outreach and talking to kids after shows and kind of educating them is what I do. Because I've been a musician since I was twelve, so I figure this is my way to do outreach.
"I want to see every animal rescued from every fur farm and every factory farm on the planet"
"One of my legend hardcore superstar guys is
Ray Cappo
I've become really good friends with him over the last 8 or 9 years. He would tell me stories about the hardcore movement in the early 80s when his band 'Youth Of Today' were just starting out. Hardcore was just in its infancy and he went vegetarian. The day he went vegetarian he told the crowd, if you're really going to be straight edge then you can't put any chemicals or any poisons in your body and meats filled with antibiotics and growth hormones and stuff so you can't say you're straight edge and eat meat.
And he says it split the movement right in half, he told me stories of, you go to shows and this band would be just, you know, when people would just put baloney all over his band, throw fucking hot dogs at him during the shows, you know man that is like fucking true, kids will say like i'm an environmentalist and I eat meat, and I'll say well how can you truely be an environmentalist when you know factory farms are the biggest polluters on the planet, how can you truley be that, and they'll be like fuck you and you know what and, I'll give them some debate. And then sometimes, i remember this one kid and was fucking so agro to my face and he was like fuck PETA and fuck you and all this shit, and i'm like, right now lets fucking arm wrestle, you think i'm weak beacause i'm vegan are you fucking kidding me, right now, let's get it on, he was just a little kid though. So once in a while I lose my temper, for the most part it's like mellow, people respect the fact that i have my own beliefs, and most kids are uneducated, they are, they just don't know.
"Kids will say like i'm an environmentalist and I eat meat,
and I'll say how can you truely
be an environmentalist when
factory farms are the biggest polluters on the planet?"
"Brian (from the band) is vegan
You know I guess he's been vegan probably for 5 years now and he does a lot of protests with me, yeah he's good.
"People who actually work in the slaughterhouses
I mean these are people, they literally cannot work anywhere else, and most people who work at slaughterhouses don't want to work there, it's probably the job with the highest turnover, people do it and i mean they know what they are doing is wrong for the most part, there are some idiots who are just fucking drunk and beat their wives and stuff, because they always say, i mean every single serial killer started with animals, every single one, when they've done psychological profiles on them, they always started torturing animals first and then they torture humans next, they always do. and i mean really when people, kind of, want to just like fuck around, and say when I'll go to do a protest at KFC, and they are going to eat KFC in front of me and just hassle me, and there's just too many fucking people that I can talk to, for me to waste my breath talking with someone who just wants to be ignorant, you know because ignorance is bliss, and I get it. You know I was in that state for a long time, so I try to move along to people who are open minded.
"It's hard to watch dogs being
skinned alive, no anesthesia and screaming for their lives..
but it's harder to be those dogs"
"The thing that really gets me motivated the most
When I watch the video footage, you know I just watched the China Fur Farm footage that they got about three months ago, and everyone says it's so hard to watch, and it is, it's hard to watch dogs being skinned alive, no anesthesia and screaming for their lives, it's fucking hard to watch it, but it's harder to be those dogs. You know I can't ask those dogs to do that with their bodies, what I can do with my own eyes, I have to do it, I have to watch it, and that gets me motivated more than anything else, I watch that and I go, when I'm out there and someone else, they fucking throw a chicken bone at me, or say fuck you go get a job, or whenever they want to hassle me, I go, you know what i'm out here for because I'm here to speak for the voiceless.
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