“I think I’m gonna be sick,” sings Juicebox’s Benny O’Toole, launching into the chorus of their new single, “VOMIT.” The Canadian punk band gets right to the matter of challenging the status quo on nearly everything that makes the world go round, and they’re not shy about how they feel about it.
Given that we’ve managed to set the Gulf of Mexico on fire and set recording-breaking temperatures in British Columbia this week, it’s not like Soapbox are alone in their opinion that we, as humans, should take a moment to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves.
“At what point do we classify planet Earth as post-apocalyptic?” asks O’Toole. “For the thousands of species we’ve driven to extinction—for the hundreds of billions of farm animals we’ve slaughtered, one could certainly say, that for them, the apocalypse has already happened.”
Prepared to back those concerns up with actions, the band did their part to curb greenhouse gas emissions (or a major source of them) by going vegan, beginning with drummer Morgan Zwicker in 2016.
Zwicker’s motivations to make the change were, perhaps, more direct than most. Apparently, when the threat of finding your house underwater in the next 50 years isn’t enough, the universe provides something a more tangible message.
“I celebrated my 19th birthday at a steakhouse. I woke up the next morning with food poisoning, so I jumped out of bed to go vomit but fell on my ass because my foot was swollen to the size of a football—turns out I had gout! It was a clear sign from veggie gods that my warpath of animal consumption was taking a turn.”
The rest of the band quickly followed suit, leading them to make their claim that Juicebox is “one of Canada’s first all-vegan punk bands.”
“I can only write about a topic if the underlying emotion is sufficiently strong,” says O’Toole. “For me, animal rights and climate change trouble me as much as my worst break-up. Such emotions build up and condense to a critical mass inside me until the point is reached where I need to grab a guitar and get them out. Or in the case of ‘VOMIT,’ scream them out.”
Mind you, climate change and animal rights are hardly the only topics of dispair on “VOMIT.” We’re treated to a slew of challenges that threaten our species, right down to the questionable motives of our politicians. The band say that challenging the status quo has become integral to creative process.
“It’s very easy to become disconnected. We need to resist those who profit by exploiting us, our species, other species, and our planet,” says O’Toole. “If a subject is labeled controversial, it usually means it needs to be talked about. And this, is I think, one of art’s most important functions in society: to explore these controversies so that their nature can be better understood; and once they are understood, they can either become popular or be put to rest.”
“You want to make a difference, but as an individual living in rural Nova Scotia, you feel pretty powerless,” says Zwicker. “Most of the time all you can do is hit the instruments as hard as you can and hope someone’s listening.”
“VOMIT” is the first single to be released from Juicebox’s upcoming Blame it on the Bleach EP, which is scheduled to enter the world in September 2021.