Brave Combo, in the words of the Chicago Tribune is "a party band with a purpose." Founded in 1979 by vegetarian Carl Finch, Denton-based Brave Combo plays dance music from all over the world, including polkas, mambos, cha-chas, and twists. In addition to being the band's lead singer, Carl also plays guitar, keyboards, and accordion. Dallas Vegetarian Magazine met with Carl on his way to play a benefit concert at the Denton State School to talk with him about vegetarianism, animal rights, and his personal philosophy.

Dallas Vegetarian Magazine: When and why did you become a vegetarian?

Carl Finch: Jane and I got married in 1976 and she was vegetarian, and gradually my awareness for feeling creatures expanded beyond dogs and cats and started including pigs. Although I loved bacon and ham, I stopped eating pork. Maybe a year later I stopped eating beef. I stopped eating chicken probably in '85, and stopped eating fish a little bit later. The entire reason was I didn't want to be part of the chain of suffering for animals. Because of their similarity, I couldn't imagine eating a cow or pig any more than eating a dog or cat.

DVM: Do you see your diet changing in the future?

Carl: It seems we are eating less cheese, from a health perspective. I do think a lot of vegetarians eat too much cheese, especially when they first stop eating meat. But since we do so much traveling, we'd be in big trouble if we didn't eat cheese, especially in Europe.

DVM: What's the food like when you're on tour?

Carl: We end up eating a lot of junk food like french fries, potato chips, candy, pizza. When we're on the road we don't leave the club until 2 or 3 a.m., so there's nothing open. If we can find Thai or Indian food we would definitely eat that, but that's rare. It's also hard in Europe, although you can get green salad anywhere. Japan is really hard.

DVM: So how do you manage in Japan?

Carl: If you know how to order, you can go into a lot of restaurants and order a noodle dish with tofu or something but you're running a risk because they might cook with meat or have a big meaty thing lurking inside the dish. But we found a great corn soup that's not cooked with meat and is available everywhere. And the fruit is really good. On our first trip to Japan, our promoters wanted to take us out for a traditional Japanese meal. Four people in our group were vegetarians. They sat the meat eaters at one end of the table and the vegetarians at the other end, and dish after dish of recently living creatures came our way. We ended up not being able to eat a single thing on the menu.

DVM: Would you say your wife has been the biggest influence on your vegetarianism?

Carl: Yes, definitely. But not from making me feel guilty! It was both Jane's and my own conscience about animals. I do miss eating meat a lot but that's what I was conditioned to like. I would never eat meat now -- it's a commitment. The only way you can get a chicken fried steak is to kill a cow.

DVM: Have you influenced other people?

Carl: On one hand I want everybody to see that there's an alternative to the way they are living, but I don't want to make people feel like I'm trying to force them. It's everyone's individual journey. In a real deep way I want to live a life where I don't have to form judgments or be judgmental or create situations where I force other people to be judgemental about anything. Things aren't a matter of right or wrong, it's a matter of the whole world being on a journey of consciousness. We are going to have to live on this planet and respect the life on this planet.

DVM: How have your beliefs influenced your music?

Carl: More and more my writing is about looking at the whole scheme of things, the puzzle of life. Asking what is it? What's the big picture? It's hard to write about animal issues and social issues directly without sounding preachy or corny. But if any of our songs make a reference to meat or fur I am not going to sing that. For example, I changed a line in "Julida" about someone who sells fur to be about someone who refuses to sell fur.

DVM: What's your diet like on a typical day?

Carl: Jane and I will work around the house for a while after we get up and then we'll go eat Mexican food or go to a cafeteria and get vegetables, or we might fix sandwiches. Maybe have a snack in the afternoon. When we are at the studio we usually call in an order of Thai food and sit there and eat with chopsticks. Then probably eat some sort of snack late at night, maybe even another meal. I want to tell you that I have diminished the importance of food in my life. So many people are living from meal to meal or meal to cigarette to drink. I've been reading a lot about Buddhism in the last few years and it's about trying to break the cycle of desire, and not eating meat has helped me get out of that habit.

DVM: What animal rights issues concern you the most?

Carl: All of them, really. Product testing, vivisection. I have very little tolerance with that. Factory farming is a a terrible, terrible thing. Puppy mills -- creating more animals that don't have homes bothers me as much as anything. And people not taking care of their pets. It comes down to people expanding their idea of which species of life are precious.

DVM:: Are you concerned about the environmental impact of all the traveling that you do?

Carl: I've thought about that and I wonder what in the world we can do. Because if we decided not to travel and make more recordings, that concerns me too -- the amount of paper and plastics used for CDs, for example. The idea is to make more so we can sell more, and that really bugs me.

DVM: I know that Brave Combo plays lots of benefits for various causes. What have you been doing lately?

Carl: Today we are going to the Denton State School. We used to play there twice a year. We did a benefit in Fort Worth recently for a memorial fund. Also we played for the Animal Rehabilition Clinic in Midlothian. We were asked to do a benefit for CLEAR [Citizens for Legal and Ethical Animal Research]. Medical research is a gray area for me. Previous generations didn't give any thought to animals but I think it's time to reevaluate that. It's very difficult for me to just to draw a line, but then that's not something I would want to publicly endorse, either. The only thing I feel strongly enough to endorse is animal rights. I wrote them and told them I couldn't do it. I worked hard on my letter because I don't want to alienate anybody. If you can figure out a way to let someone know how you feel without making them defensive,you might open the door for them to see more of your point of view. If you can see that dogs and cats have feelings, it should not be too hard to see that cows and pigs have feelings, and to take it a step further.

DVM: You have a very high energy level when you are on stage. Do you follow an exercise program?

Carl: No, I don't. I get a lot of energy from performing and from the music. I actually hold myself back the whole time.

DVM: How would you state your philosophy or outlook?

Carl: I believe that it's important to enjoy life, although like everyone else I get caught up in the day-to-day things that drag you down. But it should be amazing to everybody that we're all alive and living on this planet in outer space. I try to remind myself of this.

DVM: What would you say to someone who was thinking about becoming vegetarian?

Carl: Do it, don't think twice! If you do it because you're expanding your idea of what kind of life is precious, it opens up the rest of your life to other things. It could go beyond that -- you'll feel good about getting out of that cycle of terror and suffering for animals.

DVM: Why do you think so many musicians and artists are vegetarian?

Carl: Maybe because you are exploring your emotional side a lot more. The more you do that, the more you feel that emotions are important to other creatures. It makes you more aware that people and animals experience a rainbow of emotions and feelings.