No Age

For the release party for An Object, No Age’s Randy Randall and Dean Spunt served up vegan pizzas in pizza boxes adorned with their album art. Contrary to what people say, being vegan when you’re on tour isn’t that hard; you just need to stock up on fruit and vegetables, they explain. Dean shared his special recipe for roasted veggies with tahini sauce that he likes cooking when he’s not on tour eating out of a rice cooker with Randy.

Interview by Zofia Ciechowska, image of food by Carlijn Potma

Do you associate any particular places or periods of your life with particular kinds of food/drink?

Randy and I are both vegan; I’ve been vegan for 15 years now. It’s not as difficult to be vegan as you think, and more and more vegan options are available. And if all else fails, being vegan means eating fruits and vegetables. I was thinking about my relationship with the world and animals and I decided when I was 15 that I didn’t want or need to eat animals any more. I couldn’t convince myself that just because a chicken tasted good that I could kill it. I asked myself if I could actually slash a cow’s throat, cut it up and cook it and I knew I couldn’t. As a kid it was difficult to get used to, I didn’t have much knowledge, but I’ve learned a lot since.

But then I realised that my mom cooked a lot of vegan food anyway – like brown rice, vegetables and potato soup. At the same time I went to Chicago to visit my aunt and my cousin knew I was newly vegan and he took me to a vegetarian restaurant there called The Chicago Diner, one of the oldest vegetarian restaurants in town. It was the first place I ever went that made a lot of intense vegan food like burgers and vegan buffalo wings. I thought, Wow, this is cool, it feels like a gross diner! The place is still there and we go there when we’re on tour.

Do you have any funny eating habits?

Randy has got all sorts of food quirks. Randy hates tomatoes. He likes to put tofu cream cheese on his pizza. He likes to do a rice cake with soy cheese, Sriracha hot sauce – he actually has a Sriracha tattoo – and Tofurky. I make my own sauerkraut, I ferment it in a jar. I’ll eat it straight out of the jar for breakfast. Because I make it, it’s kind of like a labour of love. I use caraway seeds and organic cabbage, it takes about 12 days and then you’re ready to go. Two years ago, for the holiday season I made a bunch of sauerkraut and gave it away as gifts. I’m not sure if everyone was happy about that. I was really excited about it.

If it was a foodstuff, An Object would be a vegan pizza with organic tomato sauce, grilled onions and swiss chard . There’s a pizza place in LA called Pizzanista and it’s run by this pro skateboarder Salman Agah. He actually printed our album cover on to the pizza boxes for our album release party and served that pizza in them.

Can food be loud and noisy too?

One time my girlfriend and I went to the movies and we ordered a bag of popcorn. We didn’t want the butter so we bought a small jar of nutritional yeast. We opened the jar and put some of the nutritional yeast on the popcorn. I like the smell of nutritional yeast, but if you’re not used to it, it can be very unsettling. So we were sitting in the theatre eating our nutritional yeast popcorn and people were turning around trying to find out where that funky smell was coming from.

How to make No Age’s Roasted Veggies with Tahini Sauce

 2 beetroots
500g Brussel sprouts
3 potatoes
3 carrots
fresh rosemary and thyme
olive oil

tahini
lemon juice
apple cider vinegar
water
salt and pepper

• Cut the vegetables into half-inch pieces, put them in a dish and coat them in olive oil (I like Brussel sprouts, caroots, beetroot and potatoes).

• Add the fresh rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper, and roast for 40 minutes at 190C

• Mix olive oil, apple cider vinegar, tahini, lemon juice, fresh herbs and salt and pepper to make the sauce. If the sauce is too thick, add water.

• Pour the sauce over the vegetables and it’s ready. I tend to make a big batch and eat them the next day with toast or a baked sweet potato and salad.

No Age are at DOKA, Amsterdam on 15 October for what’s sure to be a third ‘Best of the Year’ title for the pairing. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.