The cover of Today Forever issue 03 belonged to Restraining Order, veterans of the Western Massachusetts and Connecticut hardcore scenes who marry a ’77 attitude with a gritty, aggressive hardcore sound. At the time, the band had just released Locked In Time, an album that looks closely at the relentless passage of time and the challenge we each face to evolve and improve with every passing day, and, once again, Restraining Order have done just that.
Tomorrow, September 12th, Restraining Order will be releasing their third full-length album, Future Fortune on Blue Grape Music, and their latest effort is yet another evolution for the band, as they maintain the same wildly aggressive energy and heavy sound, but lean even further into their punk, glam, and rock influences. The result is an album that brings you all of the intensity the band is known for, but with 100% more sauce. The first single from the album, “Know Not,” sets the tone – this is Restraining Order turned up to 11. This album proves that Restraining Order truly offers something for everyone, whether you want to ricochet wildly around the pit or raise a pint at the pub, Future Fortune has got you covered.
For issue 03 I had the opportunity to speak with the band about their influences and inspiration, connection to hardcore and punk as not only a sound but a lifestyle and ethos, and what drives them to keep pushing and evolving night after night, album after album. Enjoy the interview, be sure to check out Future Fortune and, if you’re on the East Coast, do yourself a favor and head to one of the record release shows happening this weekend in Amherst, MA, Hamden, CT, and Massapequa, NY.
(This text and interview originally appeared as part of Today Forever issue 03…)
Born out of a New Year’s resolution for 2017, Restraining Order play ’82 hardcore with a ’77 punk attitude. Fast, loud, and aggressive, the band draw inspiration from a wide variety of sounds, but they are a hardcore band through and through. “If I could do it again, this is the life I’d choose,” affirms Restraining Order vocalist Pat Cozens on the opening track of their latest album, Locked In Time. “They don’t know what this means, this life it chose me.” That clear statement about Cozens commitment to not only hardcore and punk music, but also the lifestyle and ethos that it goes hand in hand with, tells you everything you need to know about Restraining Order, one of the hardest working and most dedicated bands in hardcore today.
Veterans of the Western Massachusetts and Connecticut hardcore scenes, Restraining Order released their first LP, This World Is Too Much, in late 2019, and were just hitting their stride when Covid19 sidelined not only their upcoming plans to tour in support of the album, but all live music for the better part of the next eighteen months. Instead of becoming discouraged, Restraining Order found a way to use livestreams to connect with audiences and keep the fire alive, taking advantage of the forced downtime to write new music. The band emerged from the pandemic ready to pick right back up where they left off, hitting the road hard and releasing their 2023 LP, Locked In Time.
In the midst of a nearly nonstop tour across the globe that would take them to Europe, Australia, the Pacific Rim, and beyond, Pat, Keith, Dylan, and Will took some time to talk about the origins of the band, their influences and inspiration, and what’s next for the band with the biggest heart in hardcore.
**All text copyright Today Forever 2024, please do not duplicate without express editorial permission.
Photos by Danielle Dombrowski
Nikki: Let’s start with the basics, who are the members of Restraining Order and how did you end up coming together to form the band?
Will: I’m Will, I play drums, I have Pat, Keith, and Dylan joining me. Pat sings, Keith plays bass, Dylan plays guitar. We also have two guitarists named Jake and Kyle who don’t tour with us, but they play on our records. Me and Keith had the idea of starting a more traditional early ’80s style hardcore punk band for a while, but didn’t really get the ball rolling until the fall of 2016. I think Pat and Keith seeing Career Suicide in Toronto also inspired the formation of this band, I unfortunately missed that show. All of us had been friends for a long time from going to shows in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and figured this group of people would make the most sense for this band. I think the immediate catalyst was [that] we made a new year’s resolution for 2017 to start jamming after the holidays, and we wrote the demo like the first week of that year.
Restraining Order play fast paced, in your face, straight up hardcore that seems to be influenced by your regional roots in Western Massachusetts and CT. How would you describe your sound for anyone who hasn’t heard Restraining Order before? Is there anyone (or anything) you could say directly influenced the band in terms of songwriting or sound?
Will: Straight up hardcore punk is a good starting point. Although, I’d say we take as much influence from traditional punk rock music as we do early hardcore at this point. Since the demo, I’ve wanted to incorporate a garage rock element to our sound which I think has become more apparent with every release. I’d say early hardcore, punk rock, the No Way Records scene of the 2000s, and garage/psych/classic rock are the most apparent influences. The list of bands we bite would be a mile long.
Your first full length album, The World is Too Much, was released in October of 2019 on Triple B records, shortly before Covid19 made touring and promoting new music next to impossible for a long period of time. How did you manage having brand new music to promote right as the world was grinding to a halt? Were you able to still promote the album and maintain the momentum you were building even though you were unable to tour?
Will: Covid hitting about five months after our first record came out was a huge blow for this band. Especially since we had just finished up a tour with Terror that was really big for us. It’s kind of a toxic way to think, but I often imagine where this band would be had Covid never happened. However, the silver lining of lockdown was we were able to write our next record sooner than we would have if we had kept touring. We did two live streams while shows weren’t happening. Those were fun and reminded people that we were still a band. The shows we played after lockdown were incredible, so I guess that’s another positive of it all.
Locked in Time opens with the track “Addicted – Reprise,” a clear reference to the final track, “Addicted to this Life” off your previous release, This World Is Too Much, creating an immediate bridge between the releases in the mind of the listener. What made you want to frame your new album from the perspective of your previous one right from the jump?
Will: I engineer and produce all our records, so in the spring/summer of 2020 we had two compilation songs to finish for AHC Vol 5 and the first One Scene Unity comp. Those songs were unfinished from the first LP sessions. When I opened up the multi tracks, I revisited the ending of “Addicted” and remembered that there were a bunch of layers, one of which is a whole new riff which we then decided should be the basis for a new song. Also, bridging your records is a cool and almost cinematic way to present your new music to the world. Hatebreed did it with Perseverance and Rise of Brutality and it’s one of the coolest things ever.
The tenth track on Locked In Time is obviously the titular inspiration – what made you choose that name and song to represent the entire album? The song describes the frustration of reaching for memories of times and experiences past – is there a specific time or inspiration behind the song?
Pat: I wouldn’t say there’s a specific time or inspiration, just a consistent feeling. Looking at your past, good and bad, and seeing how easily memories seem to fade over time. When I wrote the first LP it was about all the things I’ve had on my mind from years prior that I finally got to write about. Writing this one, I wanted it to be the next step in that process. Now that I’ve taken in all these various difficulties, what can I currently do to make it better and keep pushing forward? Through the process of writing the record I started to realize how many things from the past seemed to sort of fade away. Even stuff we had done at the beginning of this band felt like a distant memory. But, that’s just life, and you keep moving forward and making new ones. So Locked In Time really just came from the feeling I had while writing this. Honestly, I didn’t intend on it to be the album name at first, but it sounded good and fit the vibe of the record.
Many Restraining Order lyrics, including several tracks off the new album, reference hardcore as a lifelong pursuit, and, between you, the members of Restraining Order have decades of experience in various bands and other elements of hardcore music and the community at large. How have you seen the scene grow and change over your tenure in hardcore and how does it feel to play in a band that exemplifies a straight up hardcore sound and ethos at a time when hardcore seems to be ever changing and progressing?
Pat: I’ve seen it grow in many ways. From watching how well my home state of Connecticut is doing to traveling all around the world and seeing things change. There had, for sure, been a lot of ups and downs. Since we’ve started this band, we have seen a lot of scenes, including our own, go from being dead to blowing up and having a whole new community around it. It makes me proud to be a part of a band that helped do that. That [we] got to get out in the world and not just make a name for ourselves, but [for] our scenes. It’s been cool, too, playing in a band that sticks out a little more to people. We all grew up on the same music, so it’s been fun to write stuff we’ve always loved and that others love, too. I know hardcore comes in waves, and all this hype right now probably won’t last forever, but I do know that a lot of good people will come out of it, and that there will always be a new younger generation to pass it down to.
When it comes to creating music, what is the process of writing for Restraining Order like? Is there one band member who is primarily responsible for writing music or lyrics or is it a collaborative process?
Will: We’re pretty spread out geographically, but the main music creative group of the band lives in Western Massachusetts. Usually, me or Kyle will come in with a riff or an idea for a song, or sometimes even a completed song. We’ll usually jam on it, demo it, and workshop it until it sounds the way we want it to sound. Keith will also be there with ideas and input on how to improve the songs. Once we have it worked out, we’ll do a pre-production style demo of it that we send to Pat to write lyrics. Now that Dylan’s in the band, I’m curious to see if he’ll have a creative role in our next record.
It seems like the members of the band have diverse musical interests from a variety of genres – what is everyone listening to right now? Was hardcore always your first musical love? What other genres and/or artists have influenced your lives and musical trajectory?
Keith: Musically, I’m all over the place depending on the mood, but lately I’ve been heavily listening to Brux from Barcelona and Aresi from, I think, Basque Country, both on the punk/oi vibe.
My actual first love was probably electronic music as I was very heavy into the arcade game Dance Dance Revolution as a kid, but hardcore has probably impacted me the most overall and will probably continue to do so.
Dylan: Right now, I’ve been listening to some newer hardcore punk bands like The Losers, Cross, Sacricide, and Bulls Shitt.
Growing up, my first love was skateboarding and that’s what brought me into the subculture of punk and hardcore. Between watching skate videos like Zero’s Welcome to Hell, or Flip’s Sorry and playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, it really opened the door to hardcore punk, and I was just down ever since.
One band that definitely influenced me a lot growing up was The Ramones. Watching the way Johnny Ramone played seemed unreal to me, all downstrokes nonstop, definitely influenced me on how to play guitar.
Will: I wouldn’t say hardcore was my first musical love because I grew up with two older brothers who gave me a lot of music when I was very young that I still listen to today, but hardcore was certainly my first musical tribe.
Restraining Order is known for trying to keep as many aspects of the band “in house” as possible, from managing your own tours to taking charge of all aspects of your recording and production process. Is it possible to still be a strictly DIY hardcore band in 2024? Do you ever see yourself outsourcing any of the facets of the band as your momentum builds?
Will: I think it’s possible to be strictly DIY, but it all depends on how much you want to grow your band and how much bullshit you can handle before you pull your hair out. Despite most of our operations being in house, it’s never something we’ve flexed or adhered to strictly. If someone trustworthy comes along and can help us out, we will let them. I’m very suss of “industry” types now suddenly giving a shit about hardcore, not that I think we’re any sort of “asset” or anything. There’s a ceiling to how successful a band like us can get, and I strive for long term sustainability over anything. Also, the second anyone outside of the members of this band tries to impose creative decisions on us, it’s over, I’m out.
RO drummer, Will Hirst, was the longtime proprietor of Gate4 Studios where countless influential albums have been recorded and mastered, and the studio also served as the de facto headquarters for Restraining Order and many of your other projects. After a long run, Gate4 closed in 2023 and Will has now begun recording bands again at Sonelab Studio in Easthampton, MA. Can you tell us a little bit about the history behind Gate 4 and what you’re up to now in your new endeavor?
Will: Gate 4 Studio started in 2016, at that point I had been recording in practice spaces for about two to three years. Having my own recording studio had been a goal of mine since I was a kid getting into music. Even before I had the skills and gear to do it, I would always act as the de-facto “producer” on most of the recording sessions I’d be a part of. In the mid 2010s I was running a tape label called Rat Trax and decided it was time to start building a project studio to record my own music and any music I released. As time went on, I realized the label business wasn’t for me and decided to continue recording. I’ve been extremely lucky to have great friends in bands who trusted me early on, when I wasn’t very good at recording, to really push me to get better. The studio had to go on the back burner when Restraining Order started touring a lot post lockdown, but still remained a good side income for me on top of working other jobs when not on tour. Cut to summer of 2023, I received an eviction notice from the building Gate 4 was in because newer tenants were complaining about the noise. I had been the longest tenant on that floor of the building, and stayed even when everyone left during Covid lockdown. After that ordeal, I was ready to throw the towel in on recording, as trying to find an affordable place to run a studio didn’t seem likely, especially with Restraining Order’s heavy touring schedule looming. Cut to the middle of our headlining tour in September last year, I received an email from Justin, the owner of Sonelab, after I reached out to him about recording studio space he was offering. I had heard through the grapevine he had been looking for engineers to use his studio, but almost found it hard to believe because it was such a nice place, and I assumed a more established engineer would get first grabs. I was familiar with Justin’s work as he has recorded Dinosaur Jr, Parquet Courts, Witch, The Pixies, and a bunch of cool Western Massachusetts bands. He even worked on some of the later Sonic Youth material, which is awesome. So anyway, I was able to secure one of the control rooms at his studio. Being here has put me in a position where I have to record several bands a month to be able to afford the overhead, which is stressful, but it’s an incredible studio and I couldn’t be happier about it.
In 2023 Restraining Order did some of your most extensive touring yet, traveling across the country and the world with bands including Fiddlehead, Angel Dust, Militarie Gun, Drain, Fucked Up and so many more. What were some highlights of touring in 2023?
Will: We’re extremely lucky to be able to tour with a diverse array of bands and be able to fit on a lot of different bills. Just looking at that list of bands alone is pretty insane. I can’t think of many bands that could tour with all those bands and it not be weird. I guess some of the highlights would be playing to new kids, playing new songs, [and] good energy at the gigs.
Keith: Doing a weekend with Fucked Up is probably a highlight of 2023 for me, as they are one of my favorite bands and playing with them was a huge bucket list thing for me. Aside from that, every tour we did in 2023 was very memorable and fun! We’ve done so much touring in 2023 that it’s hard to pinpoint my favorite parts, but every tour was great!
Dylan: So, on the last day of the Drain Tour, we played in Austin Texas at a venue called Mohawk. It was an outdoor venue and it was over 100 degrees that day, by the end of the set we were all drenched in sweat and exhausted. As soon as we finished, we hopped in the van and drove nonstop back home ’cause we had three days to get back or else we’d miss our flights to Europe. We ended up driving 35 plus hours, all sweaty, dehydrated, and exhausted. (hahaha)
With a year of new music and extensive touring behind you, what do you have planned for 2024? Do you have any plans for new music or shows you’re excited to play?
Will: Right now, our plan for 2024 is touring outside the U.S. and hopefully writing some new music. The recording studio is gonna be taking a lot of my time and I will go broke if I don’t get work there, but we do have a few American shows. We’re going to try and not tour as much in America. If people want to see us they can catch us at the unannounced shows we have booked this summer.
As we close the interview, is there anything we missed you’d like to mention or any shouts you’d like to give?
Will: Thanks for having us, Nikki, and thanks to everyone who keeps this band going!
