Goldfinger: punks with a conscience

Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann, centre, honeymooned here.

When Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann was roped in to write a song with Ashlee Simpson, he skipped the pleasantries.

"I said, 'You have to tell your sister [Jessica] to stop wearing fur, you have to' ... Then I showed her this video that shows animals getting killed for food."

It's no wonder that Feldmann, whose band plays a joint gig on Wednesday with long-time friends Reel Big Fish, has few non-vegan acquaintances.

He refuses to work with anyone who would "pay someone to slit a living pig's throat". So it seems ironic his favourite place in the world is little old meat-eating New Zealand. He had his honeymoon in the Bay of Islands and this week he hopes to check out the surf at Raglan.

"I understand the ignorance but if I was living 150 years ago in the south and my neighbours owned slaves, would I still be friends with them because it's socially acceptable? I don't think so."

Goldfinger were heroes in their native Southern California when they broke into the mainstream 10 years ago. After signing a major-label contract with Universal, they released their self-titled full-length debut spawning the hit Here in Your Bedroom, and opening up tour opportunities with the Sex Pistols, No Doubt, Reel Big Fish and the multi-band festival the Vans Warped Tour.

Several albums and line-up changes later and Goldfinger - now featuring bassist Kelly LeMieux, guitarist Brian Arthur and drummer Darrin Pfeiffer - still command more respect than their younger contemporaries.

Although they've struggled to reach the heights of their debut, they've maintained a loyal, worldwide following.

Feldmann is now content to work with the next generation of pop-punk acts, such as Good Charlotte, with whom he's written songs.

"I'm friends with a lot of bands," he says. "I talk to the guys from Good Charlotte almost every day. Those guys are onto it. They own their own record label, they're writing songs for pop divas, they have their own clothing company which has been hugely successful."

That might not seem particularly punk but Feldmann says it's the reality of the music business these days. After a Goldfinger track Superman appeared on a Tony Hawk video game, the band performed sell-out tours in England, marvelling at the publicity their label hadn't been able to generate.

"I've been in enough bands [where] I've been screwed," he says. "But it doesn't have to be bullshit."

Over the last few years he has also helped out Mest, the Used, and Story of the Year, inviting them on the road and producing their records. Utah band the Used, for instance, were living in trailers "in the middle of nowhere" when Feldmann came along. "And to be able to fly them to LA and make their dreams come true and see them turn into one of the biggest rock bands in the world is like, so awesome."

Feldmann jokes that Ashlee Simpson is "my most credible artist to date" but the collaboration does seem out of sorts with his more underground cache. He explains he had a number of songs sitting around that didn't seem to fit the band.

So he went to EMI and signed his first publishing deal. Through the label he met Simpson, who was yet to unleash her Avril Lavigne-style punk on the mainstream.

"We wrote a song and that was it. I've gotten some amount of shit for working with someone who became such a pop star compared to most of the bands we work with, the rock bands who come from trailers and crystal meth and stuff like that.

"My first band was this straight, hardcore punk band - what if I never experimented with reggae or ska? I have to be able to do anything I want and feel like. And it was fun. But I probably won't do it again."

Elements of Feldmann's songwriting will always be contradictory, such as the songs on Disconnection Notice that refer to his past. There's a self-explanatory song called Wasted about the time he wound up with an ulcer and messed up his liver.

Yet he says he longer drinks and hasn't touched drugs for 17 years.

"That's what that song was about, remembering how different I am and how different my life is since I've been clean." Then there's Damaged, which he wrote about a period of depression he went through a few years ago.

"I've always felt disconnected. I've been beat up by jocks in high school and I've always felt like a punk rocker as a kid and even now, people wanna hassle me because I'm such a hardline vegan; they wanna make fun of me. The way I live my life is not really acceptable by most society."

Who: Goldfinger

When and where: Transmission Room, Wednesday with Reel Big Fish and support from Kitsch