Rise Against

Rise Against is an American hardcore punk band, formed in Chicago in 1999. The current line up consists of Tim McIlrath on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. Joe Principe on bass, Zach Blair on lead guitar and Brandon Barnes on drums. Currently, three-quarters of the band are vegan and one member is vegetarian.

In the 20 years since 2001, Rise Against has released nine albums. Their highest charting album was Appeal to Reason, released in 2008 and reaching number three in the Billboard 200.

The band’s frontman, Tim McIlrath, became vegan in the mid-nineties when he picked up some animal rights leaflets at a concert. McIlrath’s lyrics address all kinds of social injustice from animal rights to human rights. He told Forbes:

“I got into animal rights at a young age from going to punk rock shows and hardcore shows and people bringing literature and pamphlets, that kind of stuff, to shows talking about animal rights, vegetarianism and veganism (…) It was letting you know there are things we aren’t told or we aren’t talking about. There are things we just accept as truth, but they are things we should be questioning. So getting into animal rights and when I stopped eating meat and looking into the environmental aspects, the suffering and all those things, it was a gateway drug and it made me look at all kinds [of stuff]. It made me want to look at Indigenous communities, police reform, all kind of things. And that was sort of one of my steps into politics and activism.”

Joe Principe, the band’s bassist, came to veganism a little later, after being vegetarian for years. He told VegNews:

“I’ve been wanting to make the change for years but wasn’t quite ready to commit. I feel like you have to be ready mentally to take on such a commitment. There are some minor challenges that come up (especially on the road) with being vegan. Convenience is the only benefit to unhealthy eating, so I had to retrain my brain to look for healthy vegan options to things that I would normally get on the fly while touring or walking around a city. Pizza was hard to give up at first, but now the thought of eating dairy-cheese pizza repulses me. I’ve always felt guilty knowing the horrors of the dairy industry but still supporting it financially.”

Since going from vegetarian to vegan, Principe has felt healthier:

“I experience less sinus issues. Also, I have more energy in general. More energy means more physical activity, leading to more endurance. If you treat your body right, it will work the way you need it to work.”