IE: Hey guys, Fixation play an old-school style of hardcore at a time where the more metal influenced kind of stuff seems to be the cool thing or the in thing. When you guys started putting together ideas to start Fixation what was talked about as far as the direction you wanted to go in?

Fixation: We all have been playing and listening to hardcore punk for the better part of our lives. It is sort of just what comes out when we play. There is always nuances and varied goals with the different bands we start, but it all generally falls in the realm of hardcore punk.

IE: What bands would you say directly influenced the style you guys are putting out?

Fixation: When we first started jamming we wanted to do something straight forward in the vein of Tear It Up and Cut The Shit, but pretty quickly our mutual love for bands like The Rival Mob and The Boston Strangler started to show itself in the writing. The 7" has more variety. We all decided during the writing of the last record that developing musically was important, so I guess we'll see where that takes us on the next release.

IE: The band formed in 2017 and you already have put in a lot of work in a short time frame. Most notably is probably your debut EP on War Records out of California. How did that connection with Andrew from WAR (who is also the guitarist for Strife and Berhold City) come to be? When you announced you would be working with WAR did you sense the bands profile was raised even just a little from having that backing/label?

Fixation: Andrew approached me before our dates with Leeway in January. Spending some time with him when his other band Berthold City came through with Kill Your Idols and Fireburn was what solidified the decision. Working with him has definitely helped. I feel the attention that's come with WAR backing us has allowed us to do a lot that may have been more difficult otherwise. 

PHOTO BY: VINCE GUDAUSKAS

IE: Your “How Riots Start” EP starts off with the song “Last Man Standing” which has an old audio clip from a Vietnam veteran trashing the medals he had been awarded. Upon further review this song’s lyrics were written by your wife. Can you give us some insight to the songs meaning and why you felt she was qualified to write the lyrics to this song?

Brian: The music was actually written by Lee a few years ago. We were playing around with it, with our old band that my wife sang in, so she wound up writing the lyrics and we maybe played it live once or twice. Later on Lee wound up adding the "Cro-Mags" style intro and we just played it heavier and faster. There was no point at all in changing the lyrics around, since she is a professional writer and wrote the song about her dad who is a Vietnam Veteran who left Nam with a Purple Heart, only to find out later the whole platoon was wiped out a short time after. He was injured jumping out of a plane and his chute didn't open properly. He still walks with a limp to this day and he has never spoken about his time in Vietnam. She can't pry a word out of him to this day.

IE: Brian, you are a New Jersey transplant now living in Florida and I believe the other band members are not native to down there either. How did The F.A. come together and what kind of mutual ideas did you all agree on as far as how you wanted this band’s music to be constructed? 

Brian: I guess it all started with an ad on Craigslist where I met Lee. We are cut from the same hardcore cloth, basically, and we needed to fill our veins with hardcore since I took about 13 years off from playing music and all. After our old band broke up, we hooked up with Joey Chainsaw who we knew from The Stamp, and was looking for a band. He pulled Jeff and Dave out of his hat and boom! We were ready to go. Florida is pretty much where everyone goes to die anyway, so almost nobody is from here… except maybe Jeff.
 

IE: What bands would you say directly influenced the music we hear on your EP? 

Brian: A lot of our music has 7 Seconds written all over it. Definitely Cro-Mags, Dag Nasty's in there. A little Warzone, A little Agnostic Front. Vocally, I'm pretty much a blend of Hatebreed meets Wisdom In Chains kind of thing!

IE: Hey Keith. So the press release that came along with your new EP from New Age Records stated that Restraining Order started as a New Year’s resolution to start a 1982 style hardcore band. Can you talk a little about this time early on in the bands history (that actually wasn’t all that long ago) and what you guys were all thinking and talking about leading up to this resolution you all seemed to be on the same page with?

Keith: Well me and Will have always talked about doing a band like this for quite a long time. We’ve both been in other active bands so we were never really too motivated for it. Pat was in a CT band called Contempt at the time and he was such a good frontman that we felt we needed to recruit him for this band. So as a New Year’s resolution we decided to finally make it happen. We set up a practice and had Kyle play guitar since he also wanted to do a band like this. Kyle was actually gonna try to do vocals but once we saw Pat and Contempt we knew he was the one.

IE: Bands you feel directly influenced the songs on your new EP? 

Keith: The thing with us is we’re all influenced by bands of all different eras for a variety of things. Everything from Wipers to Black Flag to more recent bands like Fucked Up and Career Suicide. For me it’s the same thing. It can range from someone like Zero Boys to someone like Social Circkle. I take it all in.

IE: Just a few weeks after you guys started jamming you played your first show at a pizzeria without even a demo out or even a band name. Can you talk a little about that show, where was it? Who else played? How do you think you guys did?

Keith: Yeah, a band I sang in at the time, Violence To Fade, had a show in Poughkeepsie at a spot called My Place Pizza and it was with Ends Meet, Rochdale, High Card, Limit and Mase. Restraining Order hopped on right before VTF and did the demo and I think it went over really well. Ended up playing our official first show a little bit later and that was also in Poughkeepsie which is funny.

IE: How was the pizza?

Keith: I don’t recall ever eating it because everyone said it sucked so bad!

IE: Just a few days ago you played out in California as part of the New Age Fest. Can you talk about the whole weekend? The flight out there, the vibe, your set and how it felt playing early on in the lineup considering you guys are pretty new and still not widely known.

Keith: We flew into San Diego on Thursday. We have a lot of friends there so they set up a show. The record is doing pretty well on New Age, but since a lot of the current New Age fan base I feel are more of an older crowd, I wasn’t sure how we’d really go over. The vibe of the weekend was awesome. We had a lot of fun. Usually traveling out we treat it like a vacation, you know? San Diego was badass. Good vibes all around and we played well. We did a pre-show at Programme in Fullerton on Friday and thought we did well there too. Honestly, we killed it all weekend in terms of playing and our actual set at New Age showcase was surprisingly a little wild! Like you said, we’re still basically babies compared to the roster of that line up and it was cool of some of those guys to approach us after and tell us we were good or whatever. It was a badass time!

IE: What is in store for the band for the rest of 2018 and into 2019?

Keith: We have some shows and fests and stuff we’re gonna be playing this fall and winter. Currently writing songs for an LP we hope to put out at some point in 2019. Keep an ear out because so far we think it’s gonna be a banger! We’re also putting a song out on a 12” compilation from Rhode Island’s Atomic Action Records which should probably be out later this year!

https://www.facebook.com/restrainingorderhc

IE: Hey guys, the songs on your new demo are really fast. What kinds of ideas were you guys kicking around when you started this band and is this the fastest music you all have been a part of playing?

Drew: I have no interest in being in a slow band. Speed is what attracted me to punk rock as a kid, and I have only ever wanted to play as fast as possible while still conveying some kind of emotion. That was the goal when we started, and I assume that is always going to be the goal. I’m not sure if it’s the fastest band I’ve ever done, but it’s up there for sure.

James: Slowed down hardcore makes my fucking balls itch. I like Todd Jones’ approach to the Carry On records, so that’s basically what I wanted to go for when I was demoing out songs to send the guys. The demo is just a big love letter to early 2000’s hardcore. This isn’t the fastest band I’ve ever been in but this is easily the best sounding band I’ve ever played in.

IE: What bands would you say have directly influenced the songs on the demo?

Drew: From a lyrical standpoint, I’ve taken a ton of influence from American Nightmare in recent years. They were a band that was sort of lost on me for a long time, and in 2015, something really clicked, and I became obsessed with Wes’ writing. I think his word choices are extremely precise, as if every single word is deliberately chosen to convey a specific feeling. The same with George from Blacklisted, especially in later albums. His use of imagery is just incredible and I love his way of making that which wouldn’t typically be considered hardcore and making it fit in an aggressive song. I’m also influenced by a ton of non-hardcore bands and lyricists, like The Menzingers, Mountain Goats, and Julien Baker, just to name a few. I could go on and on about really great writers.

James: Musically it’s definitely Carry On, Count Me Out, American Nightmare, Ruiner, Sinking Ships and things along those lines. 

IE: There seems to be a lot of motivation behind this bands start. Within a very short time you have put out a demo, have played a decent amount of shows and have more lined up already for the fall. What would you attribute this fast start to?

Drew: There’s a definite cohesion with the four of us, which absolutely helps. For me personally, I just want to play shows. That’s been the drive for me. My and James’ last band eventually got to a point where some of the members were losing steam and they just didn’t care to play that often anymore. That isn’t how I operate. I want to play any show possible all the time because it just makes me happy. Having like-minded bandmates certainly helps.

James: We’re all older, some of us have kids, and we all have careers. I’m not trying to be in a band that has no interest in doing cool things so from the get go, our attitude has always been do as much as we can when we can. The whole point of this band was to hit the ground running as soon as we were able to. I managed to book us two small tours before we even recorded any music just because that’s the attitude we’ve had since the beginning. There’s a definite cohesiveness with our band and we’re all on the same page with things which helps immensely.

IE: What's going on these days in the STL scene? What other bands, venues, labels, promoters are doing good things where people should check in with them if passing through your gateway to the west?

James: St. Louis Hardcore is the single greatest thing on the fucking planet, don’t @ me. For a long time, Drew and I booked a good majority of the shows going on in the city but since he’s taken a step back to be a lame ass teacher, Travis and I are doing it now. We book under Gateway City Hardcore, so if you’re tryna come through, holler at me and we’ll set you up right. Shouts out Better Days, Brute Force, Life Sucks, Chalked Up, Redbait, Kill Their Past, Slow Damage, Murtaugh, Coffin Fit, Tensions Rising, Magmadiver. Big up to the Sinkhole for being the best DIY venue this city has had in years, Matt and Emily are good people. Also shouts out Safe Inside Records for being a consistently good label that puts out shit worth listening to.

IE: What's in store for Time And Pressure for the rest of 2018 and into 2019?

Drew: We’re gonna start writing some new music soon, and I’m hoping we get to play in a few places I’ve never been before. I don’t know exactly what’s coming up soon, but I’m excited about it in a way I haven’t been in a long time.

James: Bruh, we’re about to do so much cool shit next year. Touring, recording, releasing some new music. You better fuckin’ ask somebody.

https://twitter.com/timepressurehc

https://www.facebook.com/TimeAndPressureSTLHC