Vans Warped Tour – Incredibly Green

We had the chance to talk with Tara of the Warped Eco-Initiative! Here’s what she had to say…

Tara: Hi! I’m Tara and I’m Incredibly Green!

IG: How did the Warped Eco-Initiative start and what is the driving force behind it?

Tara: Kevin Lyman started the Eco-Initiative several years ago and the driving force behind it is to not be an environmental disaster while we come into all of these cities and make these little villages for the day.

IG: What do you think is the most important environmental issue today?

Tara: The most important environmental issues today are water and animal agriculture which are related, in my opinion. And those are two things that we are trying to educate people about out here.

IG: Who are the people or bands that you think are the most environmentally conscious on the tour?

Tara: The most environmentally conscious bands and people on the tour besides obviously Kevin Lyman and our production crew would be The Polar Bear Club, Set Your Goals, and All American Rejects are recycling on their buses and at their tent. They’re also doing this big effort with a charity – charity water – and they’re raising money to build wells in Haiti, so obviously those are our top.

IG: What can concert goers improve upon at Warped Tour? What can we do better to be green?

Tara: Concert-goers can be more green at Warped Tour by recycling, bringing your own reusable water bottle to the tour, eating vegetarian/vegan at home and on the tour and basically in general being more conscious of what you do, where what you buy comes from and consuming less and caring more. So just recycling in general. The tour is huge on recycling. We have 20 volunteers every day. You can help us by not littering, recycling, and if you recycle on tour, you get cool stuff.. you get to cut the lines for bands, Ragged Magazine lets you get in line early for The Cab signing. There’s all sorts of things if you just walk around the tour, you’ll see. So, recycling, not  littering, using your refillable water bottles… etc.

IG: And finally, what kind of experience has it been working with Incredibly Green?

Tara: Incredibly Green is awesome. We love working with them. We love all of the street teamers that come out and we love everyone sending in their “GREENSPIRATION” messages and photos. It’s just great because it’s a lot of people who care about the same stuff we care about. And we like to say we’re making a difference and everyone on that website is making a difference, so it’s awesome!

**Some of this is not verbatim. The video is a little hard to understand. Sorry if it isn’t all word-for-word!**

John: What’s up I’m John!

Josh: And I’m Josh.

John: We’re the Summer Set.

Together: And we’re Incredibly Green!

IG: What member of your band is the most eco-friendly?

Josh: I’d say we all are, we’re all vegan/vegetarian, we’re very cautious of the environment, and we do everything we possibly can to take care of it.

IG: Do you feel as a band you could have a positive impact on your fans to become green and environmentally conscious?

John: I think that any time you bring music and opinions about whether it’s political or eco-friendly situations and you bring them together…being in a band, sometimes you have the power to influence kids in certain ways and if you’re pushing hard for something then they’ll back it as hard as you are.

Josh: You know we’ll constantly hear, “You inspired me to be vegan,” “You inspired me to be vegetarian, thank you so much.” And that’s a huge compliment to us, you know?

IG: What do you think is the easiest thing a person can change to become more environmentally friendly?

John: I’d say the easiest thing that I see the least is recycling. Recycling is the easiest thing to do. It’s a matter of “hey, I’m gonna throw this cup away in a trash can or in a recycling bin.” And it’s just that maybe you have to hold on to that cup for like, one more minute until you find a recycling bin, but they exist and they’re out there. It just takes that one choice in your brain.

Josh: I know it sounds really cheesy and really corny, but you know every time I throw something on the ground I’d be like “Wow, karma’s gonna come back and bite me in the ass.” Like, I don’t know if you believe in fate or karma or whatever it is you’re into; if you’re gonna do something shitty it’s going to come back to you. If you’re littering and you’re doing something that makes you feel conscious and guilty, you shouldn’t do it.

IG: Do you and your families recycle when you’re at home?

John: Yes, absolutely!

Josh: Absolutely!

** Special thanks to The Summer Set for sporting our “Green Is The New Black” shirt on stage in MD! If you would like to purchase one of our shirts click on the MERCH tab on our home page! **

Travis Clark: I’m Travis Clark, and I sing and play guitar in We the Kings and I am Incredibly Green!

Incredibly Green: What does being green mean to you?

TC: Being green to me just means making the world a better place via recycling, saving energy in ways that other people may not think, and using things that are energy efficient and not so polluting to the Earth.

IG: If you could change one thing about the environment, what would you change?

TC: I would tell the environment to stop being so hot on Warped Tour, because I’m a read head and I get sunburned. I would try to raise the awareness of all the little things that you can do to help the environment and make it a better place for our kids and grandkids! I don’t have grandkids or kids yet. One day!

IG: Eventually!

IG: Do you feel that as a band you could have a positive impact on your fans to be green?

TC: Absolutely! I’d like to think that we have a positive impact just in general; the music that we write I like to think that it makes people smile. And on top of that I would love to be more than just a band and actually give back to the community, to the environment, to the people who made us who we are!

Justin Richards: I’m Justin from A Rocket to the Moon, and I am Incredibly Green!

IG: What do you think the biggest environmental issue is today?

Justin: Just the lack of care I guess… That’s a broad statement but it’s just kinda gone out the window. Just with littering and all that…There’s some things we can do to help that but then some things will just never change and that’s just the snowball effect of nobody caring.

IG: What member of your band is the most eco-friendly?

Justin: I don’t know…We’re all pretty good. You know, when we open up and all our trash falls out we’ll pick it up. We’ve been trying to do stuff, like at shows go for walks. The plan was to plant trees and go for a walk and clean up the park, help out homeless people and stuff like that. It’s hard to get situated with the tour…We’re all pretty good about it.

IG: Have you ever come across a venue that was exceptionally green?

Justin: Yeah, there’s better ones, there’s ones that don’t care that are just kinda trashing the place, which is sad because it’s just a disgusting venue. There’s ones that recycle and have little things… I don’t know. We have!

IG: Do you and your family recycle when you’re at home?

Justin: Yeah definitely, me and my family always have. Growing up, which I think is cool, growing up in a family that recycles, when you throw away a bottle or a can you kinda feel like you’re doing something wrong. And that’s a good thing! We always do, we crush our cans and our bottles. It’s a good way to make money too.

IG: Why is it important for today’s youth to care about environmental issues?

Justin: I think it’s important for our youth to do it just because it seems like a lot of people in our past have cared about it and made the way for us the way we live today, and if we don’t care about it then it’s gonna be worse than how we live.

IG: Is there anything you want to say to your fans to urge them to be green?

Justin: It’s more important than you think it is! Just a little thing like recycling or not smoking, that’s a great thing.

Story by Sydney Fontaine

We all know the shape our planet is in right now. It’s important that everyone gets involved in order for us to make a steady change to today’s environmental issues. Bands and venues are no exception. This summer,Incredibly Green is hosting tour updates for the Warped Eco-Initiative on the Vans Warped Tour!

On July 5th, the St. Louis, Missouri Warped, I hung out with Hey Monday’s lead singer Cassadee Pope and bassist Jersey Moriarty to ask them some of your questions requested over at Incredibly Green.

1) Why do you think it’s important for the youth to be involved with and care about the environmental issues today?

Cassadee Pope: As cheesy as it sounds, the youth is the future. So if we don’t care and if we’re not taking care of the earth and aren’t caring about the things that are happening, then we’re kinda screwed. So I think it’s important that we all keep informed.

2) What does “going green” mean to you?

CP: Not overdoing it. When I bush my teeth I make sure I turn the water off. I don’t take hour long showers, don’t litter .

Jersey Moriarty: I recycle. I know that sounds like “duh”, but I know so many people who just don’t at all. I’ll say “Why don’t you recycle that?” And they’ll say “Why would I do that?”

It’s such an easy thing to do.

JM: Absolutely.

3) Do you think it’s easier to stay green on or off tour?

JM: Off tour.

CP: Yeah, probably off.

JM: We don’t have a recycling bin on the bus. It’s not that easy to just have a separate trashcan for everything else. We have tons and tons of recyclables (water bottles, water cans and other cans and bottles) and they’re taking up the room for the trash, and we can’t just leave it out.

4) Have you come across a venue that’s been really eco-friendly and has recycling bins near every trashcan that you can recycle all of those things?

CP: I think so.

JM: Yeah, not on warped, but in California they’re pretty green.

CP: And warped tour, after a couple weeks, goes through and recycles all they can.

Yep! The Warped Eco-Initiative.

CP: Yeah, that’s been great!

5) Who in the band is the most eco-friendly? Who’s always going around, gathering cans, recycling a lot etc?

CP: Oh man.

JM: That’s a tough one. I’m very very conscious of when I’m throwing stuff out and if I’m throwing something out that I really should recycle. It’s not so easy on the bus. I’m not saying I am, but I’m definitely-

CP: Jersey.

JM: Yeah.

6) Have you come across a band that’s incredibly green? Whether it be on Warped Tour or any other tour?

CP: I mean, I know bands that definitely support Incredibly Green- All Time Low, Automatic Loveletter.

JM: A lot of our friends in bands are vegetarians and I feel a lot of the time those two go together. They’re always looking out for the environment and they’re all very conscious about that stuff.

7) Did you grow up in an environmentally-friendly family?

CP: Absolutely. Yeah I mean, I grew up not littering. There were times when I was younger where if I would do that my mom would yell at me and that was how I learned!

JM: My car is always a mess because instead of throwing a wrapper out the window, I’ll throw it on my floor.

So when you have a family do you expect to teach them how to respect the environment? And how would you do that?

CP: It only takes a few minutes to explain and it’s pretty easy to do. It only takes a few extra minutes out of your day. I can’t even think of being a parent right now, but when the time comes I’ll probably sit ‘em down and talk to them about what they think of the environment and how they think they can help.

9) What do you think is the easiest way that you’ve made your life more green?

CP: Definitely the water thing.

JM: It’s definitely something that most people wouldn’t think of. People think of cans, littering, recycling, but that’s one that really passes people by and it’s one of the easiest things to do. And sprinklers and stuff. In my neighborhood, we have a water system for sprinklers and stuff. It’s literally a hole dug through the ground and water comes up through it and provides water for every house.

10) What do you think is the most environmental issue today? Besides the oil spill because that’s really obvious.

CP: Right. I would say pollution from cars because it’s just too easy to carpool to stuff. Stuff like Warped Tour, for instance.

JM: I think like landfills and stuff. I’m from New Jersey. It just stinks cause of all the landfills and factories and stuff. So there’s air pollution AND land pollution. And I don’t know what else to do with it other than shove it in the ground or in the air. Of course we could recycle some of it, but a good portion you can’t recycle.

11) Last but not least, what’s your favorite green tip that you wanna give to your fans?

JM: Dig a hole in your neighborhood! Build a well! haha

CP: That AND: if you don’t have to use the dishwasher, don’t, because that actually uses way more water than washing the dishes with your hands. So if you’re not a real “high maintenance” person, I highly suggest doing that too save a lot of water.

Check out www.incrediblygreen.org for more tips on going green and to join your state’s street team. Join the online community. Tell us all of YOUR favorite things about being green! Also, head to www.incrediblygreen.org/warped for more interviews, updates on the Eco-Initiative, challenges and chance to win a pair of free tickets to your warped date!

Stay Green!

Automatic Loveletter: I am Juliet, with Automatic Loveletter; here I have my brother Tommy with Automatic Loveletter; and our drummer Ryan with Automatic Loveletter, and we are INCREDIBLY GREEN! IG to the extreme!

IG: What do you guys think is the biggest environmental issue today?

Ryan: Right now would be the oil spill, that’s pretty bad. It affects us a lot, because we live in Tampa Bay, it’s only a matter of time before it hits us.

Juliet: And the Ozone! Holes and stuff…

Tommy: No, I think that’s not the biggest environmental issue; I think it’s a popular environmental issue…

Juliet: Well, I’m saying it’s just one of them.

Tommy: I think recycling is a big one.

Juliet: Yeah, recycling…

Tommy: And, we’re talking planetary scale, we have an oil spill in this little area, but on a much bigger scale recycling; the landfills are just overflowing, turning into cesspools of germs and bacteria.

IG: What does being green mean to you?

Juliet: Being green? Um, recycling, reusing containers, having –

Tommy: She literally eats out of one thing all of Warped Tour.

Juliet: Yeah, I have just one thing. And getting those spoons and forks that are um…

Tommy: Bio-degradable! Warped Tour uses all bio-degradable plastic ware, paper and cups.

Juliet: I don’t know if this has anything to do with being IG, but I eat organically grown food, locally grown, I eat mostly things that just come out of the earth.

Tommy: Like little baby bunnies!

Juliet: No!

IG: What member of your band is the most eco-friendly?

Ryan: Actually, it’s probably Tommy! He doesn’t do laundry, he doesn’t shower; the amount of water that he saves is amazing.

Tommy: I clean the bus too! We recycle a lot; we have a recycling bin right outside our bus, everyday we throw all our cans and water bottles in there.

Juliet: This is our bassist Clint!

Ryan: Yeah, he’s green because he doesn’t even have laundry, he doesn’t wear clothes. He saves a lot of water.

IG: Is there anything you want to say to your fans to urge them to become greener?

Tommy: Make sure that this planet’s around for the people that come next.

Juliet: Yeah, your babies are gonna die if you don’t save the planet. It’s the truth! Yeah, it’s true; we need to create a place where our babies can live!

Check out the Warped Eco team hard at work. If they collect this amount of recyclables in ONE day… imagine how much they’ll collect over the entire tour!

Direct from Warped 2010

Check out this awesome interview with CrookedHook! You can catch them on Warped this summer!

Check out these flyers made by a fellow Street Teamer! Print on recycled or reused paper and hand them out at Warped Tour.

IncrediblyGreenFlyerDownload