DENNIS MERRICK

***“We started and continue with Earth Crisis for two main reasons - we love playing hardcore music and we have a message that we feel is important enough to share with the world.”***

Veganism is 4 things for me. It is caring for the lives of animals. It is caring for the environment and for human’s ability to continue to live and thrive on earth. It is caring for human health. And it is a way to live in opposition to a system that tells us what to eat and drink, what to believe, what to watch, who to love and who to hate; and who to blame.

What was the moment or experience that first pushed you toward veganism?
Did your path into veganism come before or after getting into hardcore / straight edge?
Was there a specific band, record, or scene influence that opened that door for you?
How did your friends, family, or local scene react when you made that shift?
Was it an immediate commitment, or something you grew into over time?
The final push to veganism was joining Earth Crisis, but the journey began some time before I joined in the Spring of 1993. Punk and hardcore certainly opened my eyes to animal rights. Like a lot of straight edge hardcore kids in the late 80’s, Youth of Today was a big influence with their song No More. I also grew up with Tim Redmond, the drummer from Snapcase. He is still a close friend. Tim became vegetarian very early on, before anyone else I knew. He encouraged me and our group of friends to become vegetarian. I think he became vegetarian when he was 14 or 15 as a freshman in high school. I remember him handing out an article called Meet your Meat - which turned out to be from Playboy or Penthouse or something, which was pretty hilarious for the time - at a hardcore show in Buffalo. I also remember a birthday or grad party at his house being fully vegetarian. His mom had put out a sign with the food that said something like “all the food is vegetarian at Tim’s request.” I tried off an on throughout high school to make the shift to vegetarianism, but could not do it. I have another memory or Tim and our friend Paige being at my family’s house while my parents were eating hamburgers for dinner and they told my parents that if they were eating those burgers they might as well take a bite out of my arm because it’s the same thing.
For me, it was not until I moved away to go to college in 1991 that I finally became vegetarian. Shortly after that, I read the John Robbins book Diet for a new America. The case for veganism was quite strong in that book. It made me realize that if I was vegetarian for ethical reasons, I needed to progress to veganism. It took me about a year and a half of making a modest effort to transition. Then, when EC asked me to join the band in early 1993, it was the kick in the ass I needed to make the change. I have now been vegan for over 33 years and have never looked back.

For you, how connected are veganism and straight edge— are they inseparable or distinct choices?
Do you see veganism as an extension of straight edge ethics, or its own independent stance?
How do you respond to people in the scene who embrace one but not the other?
For me, veganism and straight edge are connected. Karl puts it quite well in the lyrics to Gomorrah’s Season Ends when he says “There’s far too much to experience and accomplish to waste a precious second drunk or hazed. An effective revolutionary through the clarity of mind that I’ve attained.” I see straight edge as a vehicle to use the clarity of mind to do good things for the world. Straight edge as self improvement is a great thing, but it is only a first step for me. If it starts and stops there, it seems short sighted.
What role did the hardcore/metal scene play in shaping your beliefs?
Do you feel like the scene today is more or less aligned with vegan values than when you started?
Hardcore played a huge role in shaping my beliefs. Music in general played a huge role, actually. Before I got into punk and hardcore, I got into hip hop, which opened my eyes to a lot as well. From Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy to Minor Threat and Uniform Choice, music introduced me to many of the beliefs that I have today. I heard about Assata Shakur (actually, in the PE song, they refer to her by her original name - Joanne Chesimard). I was introduced to animal rights by Youth of Today.
There are still some bands now repping straight edge, veganism, environmentalism and human rights, but I feel that it is less so than when Earth Crisis started. Especially in the early 90’s, most shows had people tabling with info about animal rights, gay rights, anti-racist struggles and radical environmentalism. People put out fanzines that centered around ethical, political and social issues. I do not see that at shows anymore, for the most part. It may be because the tools for sharing information have changed so much with social media; but I feel that something has been lost. On social media, things are put out publicly; but our interaction with that information is very individualistic on our phones or devices. When people were tabling at shows, we interacted with the information communally. We argued about it, sometimes fought about it. But there was a human interaction that has been largely lost.

What kind of impact do you hope your band has on listeners?
Have you ever heard from someone who changed because of your music?
Do you think music can genuinely shift people’s behavior, or just reinforce existing beliefs?
We started and continue with Earth Crisis for two main reasons - we love playing hardcore music and we have a message that we feel is important enough to share with the world. There are countless times that people have let us know that one of our songs or records or an interaction with us changed their lives. That is truly the most rewarding thing for me as that was kind of the whole point. Most recently, a friend brought us a bunch of vegan baked goods to our show in Toronto. We met her 20 years ago when her life was pretty rough. I believe she was homeless and addicted at the time. She was a stranger to us, but liked our music and we invited her out to dinner, fed her and were simply kind to her. She thanked us and credited us with helping her on her road to sobriety. That means a lot.

Do you see veganism as inherently political?
How do you balance music with direct action or activism, if at all?
What issues within the broader movement do you think aren’t being talked about enough?
Veganism is certainly inherently political. It is a way of living in opposition to a dominant consumerist, selfish and destructive culture. Veganism, if embraced in its truest nature, embraces a life that leads with the heart and soul rather than money.
Music, in many ways, is our activism for EC. As much as standing in the street and marching or protesting, we spread the word of our beliefs as widely as we can through our music. It should not end with activism. We have much love for those that have made the ultimate sacrifice of their freedom to participate in direct action.
The broader movement - all movements for that matter - should focus more on intersectionality. To fight for animal rights but not care about Palestine, or to fight for Palestine and not care about heterosexism, or to care about heterosexism and not be concerned about the BIPOC community - any of this would be short sighted and would miss the true nature of the struggle for human, earth and animal liberation.

Looking back, would you approach your message differently?
What keeps you committed when it gets difficult or isolating?
Where do you see the vegan / straight edge movement going in the next decade?
What would you say to someone on the fence about embracing these ideas?
Not that Earth Crisis was perfect, by any means; but I do not think I would change much about how we approached our message. We tried to learn and change over the years as we went on and we never shied away from our beliefs. We are all still committed to Vegan Straight Edge and all that it means. I do not find it isolating. I just do my thing and I find it liberating.
For someone on the fence about embracing these ideas? Like Nike said, “Just Do It!” It is so easy now! When I became vegan, people did not even know what the word meant. There were 2 brands of soy milk and one brand of rice milk and they were awful. It you wanted a veggie burger, you mixed a powder mix from a box with water, tried to cook it and it fell apart and was dry and awful. There are so many choices and alternatives now for animal based foods. It really is easy.

Final Thoughts:

First band that made you think differently:
Minor Threat.
A lyric you’ve written (or heard) that still hits hardest:
“Don’t let your outrage for injustice end where your selfishness begins.”
- Earth Crisis, Eden’s Demise
You cannot say it much more clearly than that. Nice work Karl.
One misconception about vegan straight edge:
One time at one of our shows in Cleveland, a heckler yelled at us from the back of the crowd and called us “straight edge virgins.” I’m pretty sure none of us were virgins. Haha!
One non-negotiable value:
Truly lead with the heart and the rest will come. Don’t eat animals. Don’t sedate yourself.
One thing the scene needs to do better:
Embrace intersectionality and truly listen to each other.