Famous Vegans - High Places

High Places, 2008.

High Places

High Places is an American band consisting of multi-instrumentalists and singers Mary Pearson and Rob Barber. They met in December 2005 and have been working together ever since. Their debut album High Places was recorded in their Brooklyn's Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood in 2008. They use a wide variety of musical instruments and household objects to create their sound. You can check out their music and their website.

Quotes by Mary Pearson and Rob Barber:

When asked why he became vegan, Rob answered:

Rob: "I actually was vegetarian for a couple of years before I went vegan. I was around 14, in 1988, and then in 1990 I went vegan. When I was a little kid I never understood why we didn't eat the fish in the fish tank — why would we eat certain animals and not others. And basically, when I was a teenager everything was black and white and I was a punk rock kid. So after I got out of that phase, I weighed the pros and cons. I kind of realized that I didn't eat it, that I didn't crave it, and so for the last 20 or so years I've been that way."

Mary: "Luckily it’s gotten really easy to find vegan food in the States. I will admit that I’m a bit of a Whole Foods junkie on tour. I can get a muffin and a coffee and a salad in the morning before we drive to the next city, and then I’m set until dinner. There’s a sameness about the stores that is comforting to me when I’m on the road."

Rob: "Whole Foods makes me feel confused and disoriented. I walk in and it is so big, I just forget what I am hungry for."

Their High Places Flicker account shows a wide variety of vegan foods.

Mary: "A big reason we have that Flickr account is to share our food discoveries with our other vegan touring friends. Having a specific diet makes us that much more excited when we’re presented with nice things to eat. And colorful produce is very photogenic."

Mary: "Vegan desserts have come a long way since Rob and I started following vegan diets many years ago. Back in the day, if I wanted a sweet, I had to suffer through cement-like cakes or crumbly, bland cookies. But these days, I have encountered dairy-free, egg-free versions of most common (and plenty of not-so-common) confections."

Rob: "I never feel like if I am suffering on tour because of my choice of diet. I think being vegan just allows you to appreciate the simplicity of really basic food."

Quotes are from their 2010 interview with PopGun, a 2011 article in MTV Hive, their 2011 interview with Eater.