Getting in touch with the frontman of Alternative Influence proved to be a challenge. Between recording videos, activism, working on the album’s visual component, and fighting censorship algorithms, he has little time left for interviews. He’s been an artist and activist for over twenty years, has been a member of the Green Party for the past two years, and has witnessed their membership base grow from 50 to 180 thousand people. A vegan, animal rights advocate, supporter of open borders, and opponent of capitalism. All of this resonates in the songs of the new album.

The album’s title—LOVE & LET LIVE—might seem conciliatory. Love as a driving force for change, opposed to fear. “Let live” in its purest form: harm no one. This applies to all species on the planet, including animals. A vegan version of any food is now available, so there are no more excuses. A system that needs violence and threats of violence to maintain order—such a system shouldn’t exist at all. That’s exactly what we have now. Capitalism is a system of theft and ransom. It’s absurd that people’s living conditions are determined by how intelligent society considers them to be.

We talked about how to make revolutionary music memorable, why YouTube censors videos about animal rights and the queer community, how musicians can survive without Spotify, and whether it’s possible to encompass all forms of oppression simultaneously—to speak about veganism, climate, human rights, and LGBTQ in one album. The frontman of Alternative Influence believes it is.

Lee, you say the album sounds “catchy as hell” and is full of sing-along choruses, but at the same time the tracks feature Greta Thunberg speeches, footage from pro-Palestine marches, and harsh political messages. It’s quite a risky combination—making revolution sound pleasant to the ear. Don’t you feel an internal conflict between creating music that people will dance to at festivals and the seriousness of the issues you’re addressing?

Every song articulates what it has too and when you’ve been writing songs as long as we have –its easy to do that and combine and say what we need too..and make it sound truly great. People will undoubtedly sing and dance to these songs.These songs are a CELEBRATION and embrace HOPE AND LOVE AND TRUTH. This is about Glory, Joy n Triumph.

All THESE SONGS ARE A CELEBRATION –they are about inspiring hope and love over fear and hate. We get very specific in addressing issues and champion the marginalised sections of society that are being targeted by the far-right and the cabal that is looking to scapegoat people that are frankly not the problem. This is about values. Decent people have had enough of hate and lies and violence targeted towards the victims who are being scapegoated

200,000 views in the first week on YouTube—that’s real success for an independent political project. Have you encountered any restrictions or issues when uploading this content? And if so, how do you decide whether to compromise with platforms or seek alternative distribution paths, even if it means smaller reach?

The views now have passed 300k –with the YouTube ones clocking 280k and and other 28.5k views on our Facebook page. Two songs Cognitive Dissonance and Polyamorously Yours received Community Guidelines restrictions-so the YouTube algorthymn restricts how many people can see them..

Cognitive Dissonance shared the accounts of 3 slaughterhouse workers who spoke about what they experience in that job and showed graphic footage in a slaughterhouse that was then restricted through the YouTube algorthymn. Polyamorously Yours ‘dared’ to highlight the relationships that people have that are not conventional monogamous relationships and highlighted aspects of the beauty of the LGBTQ community…. People should go watch them and see the truths that the ‘censorship is used to silence truths’ brigade don’t want you to consider. AlternativeINFTV3 channel- all there to watch. Guaranteed you will watch every video from 1. To 12..

You talk about “parallels between human liberation and the pursuit of equality for ALL—regardless of gender, species, or ethnicity.” How do you respond to those who say that attempting to encompass all forms of oppression simultaneously makes the statement diluted?

Clearly that’s not the case. Cognitive Dissonace song shows the prejudices of sexism= racism=speciesism= it’s an oppressive structure being imposed on someone based on the set characteristic that is being used to discriminate against them.. Reality is now that theres a tasty healthier vegan version of every food now easily accessible and available.. Every hour 2 acres of Land is destroyed through deforestation to make way for soy to be grown to be converted into animal feed to sustain animals in the animal agricultural farm enslavement system that kills 90 billion animals a year. Animals enslaved and brutalised and killed in a barbaric slaughterhouse. The footage in the videos shows that explicitly. Land owning elites have created a tradition that too many people haven’t questioned and those who still fund this are far from progressive if they continue this. A plant-based diet uses 1/3 of the Land and resources in comparison. Its ethical. Its sustainable and the most important way to address climate change catastrophe. You can take the aggregate emissions of all the planes, trains, cars,lorries and buses and it still doesn’t do as much damage as animal agriculture.. The Green Party are the only real eco-socialist party who will address this. I’ve been a member for 2 years and seen their membership grow from 50,000 to 180,000. Zack Polanski articulates the views of many in regards to immigration and addressing the inefficient system and the hate peddled by all parties. Refugees are people and deserve to be treated with compassion. We need more people here ,not less. Macro-economics shows that. Too many uneducated people frankly have little clue in regards to this.Negative displacement ratio of more people no longer working through retirement and combined with falling birth rates and also accentuated through Brexit cutting the numbers of people here from the E.U. means we have a shortage of Labour and need more Refugees and their families. People spending

their money in local communities is not the issue.. The issue is off-shore tax evasion from Corporations and millionaires and billionaires paying the least percentage of tax and PAYE people paying the highest percentage..

BBC Radio Manchester and 70+ radio stations picked up “Time 4 Her To Shine.” It’s a song about women’s football, about the Lionesses, about visibility—relatively safe territory for mainstream media. But next to it on the album sits “She Is the Revolution” with footage from the Gaza flotilla. Do you feel there’s selective support—when some of your tracks are easily accepted because they fit into an acceptable progressive narrative, while others are ignored or actively avoided?

Yeah. I’m sure the mainstream media is controlled . But Bob Vylan and Kneecap showed earlier in 2025 that you can try and silence the political message and it will make the band and the message even more powerful.. so bring it on if you wanna try and censor me.. These songs are so good and the message so pure in its truth that TRUTH WILL SHINE THROUGH

You created a 32-page artbook for the physical release. In 2025, when most people don’t even properly look at streaming covers. Who, in your view, will buy this CD with the artbook? Are these collectors, hardcore fans, or do you see something fundamentally important in the physical medium for perceiving the work—something that gets lost in streaming?

If people wanna stream it they can do. They can pay via our website to download via Bandcamp and pay £8 or above through donation. If you want it for free you can watch it on YouTube. If you have a Record Collection and value it you can buy the Limited Edition CD. The first 2 singles- Come On In & Join The Party and Time 4 Her To Shine are on Spotify-but nothing else from us is going on there. Spotify just wanna rip off artistes and peddle a disposable culture that doesn’t value any Art. If as a consumer you wanna pay £5 for a cup of coffee but not pay for music and pay so people can continue to reinvest in their Artforms-frankly I think we have little common ground in that respect. You are displaying herd-conforming behaviour that’s causing the issue. Every record the Do what they do-you are part of the problem.. you are creating the vacuum that sees less Art reach the places it should be seen. This Limited Edition CD contains muy Artwork and includes some exclusive pieces and also has a poiece that went viral and got over a million views on Sky TV News in Australia-titled Birds of a feather.. feauturing Chales and Jimmy Saville

I myself have bought Limited Editionj vinyl releases or CDs from Fontaines, Wolf Alice and up until ,recently all that Sleaford Mods have done-I’ve bought.. even if I don’t listen to it and just watch on YouTube.. At least I’m helping support their work- or people can watch LIVE and pay a relative ‘fortune’for ticket prices.. if so. Don’t complain when bands do decide to charge £100 or more for tickets or inflate their merch prices.. HOW ELSE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE THESE DAYS?

Alternative Influences has become firmly associated with the alt-right pipeline, with how YouTube and other platforms created radicalization funnels. There are entire academic studies about “alternative influence networks,” and they’re not about you. When I google your name, I have to add “band” to avoid getting articles about online right-wing extremism. Was this a conscious decision—to take a contaminated term and try to reclaim it?

Seeing as we were formed in 1998 and had our first Album out in 2005 and made the front page of the BBC Manchester music website on the same day as Oasis and Johnny Marr back in October 2006 and our name is a Registered Trademark.. They are the ones clearly tryna hijack what we have already established… WE in this Record have songs that clearly display our championing of multi-culturalism and inclusivity, of being in Support of LGBTQ and Pride, championg Human Rights, Animal Rights, Equality and in total support for Freedom of movement and International Law to protect all peoples Rights to freedom of movement and residing in whatever place they want to live

You’re a conceptual artist, you write all the lyrics, you direct the visual component. Essentially, Alternative Influence is your authorial statement, just made in a band format. To what extent were people from the communities you write about involved in creating the album?

I’ve been an artist and an activist for over 20 years. I’ve been involved in campaigns around equality based issues and the songs are solidarity and support and protest and championing the causes that I have been involved with in that time. We are talking about the very clear battle that is now polarized more than ever. Decent people who have ethical and compassionate values want equality and fair treatment for all. They oppose oppression and exploitation and the hate that is being pushed and peddled by the far-right. I urge people to join The Green Party . Subscribe to Fight Racism Fight Imperialism which is available in digital or print formats and subscribe to Novara Media on YouTube . These articulate the reality of how decent people want common sense, honesty and humanity and more importantly =how we can achieve it.

The album came out in late November. It’s now December 2025. We’re living in a moment when the news cycle is so fast that the context around your tracks can change radically in literally a week. What was relevant in August, when you were likely finishing work on the album, could have already become yesterday’s news by November. And a physical release lives for years. Does it scare you that the album might become dated faster than people hear it? Or did you initially build in some timeless component that will work regardless of specific news headlines?

Nothing I have stated has changed in that respect. And I’M NOT IN THE LEAST SCARED. These songs deal in pure truths and they sound great. Great songs will stand the test of time. I guarantee that if people listen to this Album from track one COME ON IN & JOIN THE PARTY right through to Track 11 SHE IS THE REVOLUTION (WE ARE THE REVOLUTION) They will be taken on a journey of high after high. Great songs do that. You will be walking round singing them for days and months after..

The title Love & Let Live sounds almost conciliatory. What’s more important to you in this title—”love” as a driving force for change, or “let live” as a philosophy of tolerance?

LOVE over fear is the way to change things. AND LET LIVE in its purest form. Cause no harm to ,others-its doesn’t mean that people should attack others and try to

dismiss it as ‘free-speech’. Theres a vegan version of every food now available-so theres no excuses anymore- LET LIVE applies to all species on this planet.. not just some. We should seek to protect those that need protection-and that’s all members of society-including animals and all people LOVE is the only way for Revolution to succeed and stay in place. Any system that needs violence and hate and implied or explicit threats of violence to be kept in place is a system not worth having. That’s what we have now.. we don’t have civilization when 22,000 people die daily from hunger through poverty. Capitalism is a theft and ransom system and its absouletly ridiculous that peoples living conditions are decided by how intelligent society deems they are. Why should people receive less than others and is life only meant to be about wage –slavery and oppression. Advancements in technology should be used to re-address the work/leisure balance and see it become about people having 5 days leisure and only 2 days working –as an example- the opposite of what it has been for too long now. Profits of individuals and shareholders shouldn’t take priority over human liberation.

How do you yourself not burn out from this? And what can you offer to a listener who looks at this list of problems and thinks: “I can’t care about everything at once, I simply don’t have the strength”?

If I need a rest. I take one. And come back refreshed.. People don’t get defeated doing what I do.. They decide to quit and walk away. Life is like that. You can either do and be what you really want to do and be-or you can settle for things you don’t really want.

Theres no problems in this Album- I deal with issues and offer solutions and positivity and show support and solidarity to marginalised sections of society who are being true to who they are..THIS IS A CELEBRATION OF LOVE,HOPE, AND JOY. IF you cannot be true to who you really are-you have little,if anything worth having…

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