In an interview with Metal Magnitude at last month’s Metal Hall of Fame in Anaheim, California, ARCH ENEMY vocalist Alissa white-gluz who follows a vegan and straight-edge lifestyle, was asked whether it is challenging to maintain her choices while touring.“I’ve been touring for about 20 years and I’ve been vegan for 25 years and vegetarian before that, so I’ve definitely seen it become way easier,” she responded (as transcribed). “I’ve done it all across the world, with language barriers and cultural barriers and lack of time or money or transportation, and I’m still able to do it. So I have to say it is totally possible.
“Moby, obviously, is a well-spoken animal rights activist as well, and he’s a friend of mine, and so he did this documentary [Punk Rock Vegan Movie] sort of diving into the connection between the punk mentality and, by extension, the metal mentality and veganism. And I think it’s a really cool aspect and an interesting facet of the movement.”
At the 2023 Tuska Festival in Helsinki, Finland, Kiki from the “Bleeding Metal” podcast. In response, Alissa said: “Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I am an activist before I’m a musician even. That’s really what drives me forward every single day, is hoping that in some way my existence on this planet can make it a little bit better for everybody else who is currently existing on the planet and who will exist in the future. And that’s first and foremost animal rights.”
When asked whether she would define that as her life’s purpose, Alissa responded: “I don’t know if people have, like, a purpose in life. I think it’s nice to think that we do. I don’t really know if we actually do. I think someone’s purpose in life can just be whatever they attach themselves to — you know, whatever drives them forward. It doesn’t have to be some big grandiose thing. But with that definition, then yes, I would say that it’s my purpose. Yeah.”
Regarding the specifics of her activism, Alissa stated: “For me, I mean, I don’t look at it as a job or something that I can really detail out because if I did, I would do that and not this. So it’s really just… Deep down inside, I love animals. I think it’s amazing that we share this planet with so many different, uncountable species in the sky, in the water, on land, these amazing creatures. They look different than us. They have different abilities than us. I mean, a fish can just live underwater; we would drown. You know what I mean? Like, just even simple things like this. A bird just flies. They just jump off a building and then fly. I still have this childlike awe over animals that can do this. And I think it’s so sad that we have built an industry that doesn’t care about that and actually only cares about profiting off of exploiting animals.
“And so as much as possible, I like to just show people that you don’t have to take part in those industries,” she continued. “You can actually still have all the things that you wanna have in life — everything that you like; your food, your makeup, your whatever — you can still have all those things without involving animals at all. And now, actually, I’ve been more and more involved in the tech space when it comes to this. So there’s some really cool innovations happening in the tech space when it comes to the future of food and also just reducing animal testing.”
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