What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences?
This is exactly how it went about our name: It was march 2018 and I (Johnny, singer) was in Montpellier at “this is england festival” playing one of the last gigs with my former band, and I was speaking with Nigel, a very good friend of us from england. I was telling him about the new project and basically as a joke I asked him a name for the band. And he immediately goes: No Restraints…. Eh? Why? What it means? – It’s like don’t put limits in what you do and in how you live, break your chains, nothing can hold you back!
…Nigel are you fucking kidding me? This is exactly what I had in mind, I am writing a song about this, I also used some of these words…and it is also exactly how I want to write the music, I love Oi!, Street punk, hardcore and many other things, I want to put in our music all these influences without caring too much about the genre…you know just let it flow…No fucking Restraints…and that’s it…i still owe him a t-shirt and a record for that.
So basically this applies to everything we do, in life or in music, just be yourself, do what you like, do it your way!!
Our main influences as said are streetpunk and new yor hardcore, but we all listen a lot of different kind of music, from Metal to reggae and I think that is natural that all different styles gives you something that inevitably ends up in your songs.
if I have to pick some names I’d say blood for blood, Ramallah, Bruisers, Madball, Agnostic Front, Warzone, Cro-mags, Biohazard, Toxpack, Slapshot, Business, Cock Sparrer, Rancid… I could go on for hours haha. Also Fere and Fax (Bass & guitar) are super Misfits fanatics.
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
I usually write down an idea everytime I have one, like immediately, on a piece of paper or on my phone, that is mainly because I have a bad memory haha. If I have time I write the whole song or at least the main part, if not I writ just the concept to develop in a second moment. The themes can be various, things that happens, things I see/live and make me angry, things that are all around me. I don’t plan it for themes, like “this thing is good/bad I want to talk about it” it’s something that happens in a more instinctive way, it can happen that from a moment to another I start to write and I write the whole song in like 3 minutes…then of course later I will modify it to fit to the music, bit basically the main part start like this.
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
I usually write down an idea everytime I have one, like immediately, on a piece of paper or on my phone, that is mainly because I have a bad memory haha. If I have time I write the whole song or at least the main part, if not I writ just the concept to develop in a second moment. The themes can be various, things that happens, things I see/live and make me angry, things that are all around me. I don’t plan it for themes, like “this thing is good/bad I want to talk about it” it’s something that happens in a more instinctive way, it can happen that from a moment to another I start to write and I write the whole song in like 3 minutes…then of course later I will modify it to fit to the music, bit basically the main part start like this.
Why do you write the sort of music that you do?
I think is totally natural, like we didn’t really have a choice, we all are involved in the punk and hardcore scene since we were kids, it is what we love and mainly it is what we are…i think I would not be able to play any other kind of music. Also because you know, punk and hardcore it is not just a matter of music.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
We decide the songs all together, but like the 75% of the songs that go on the set list are obvious choices, we discuss about the remaining 3 or 4 songs to add, and the choice generally is based on where we play, the kind of audience and things like these.
The order of the songs on the set list is given by this criterion (more or less): We start full energy, then slow it down a bit, back full energy and then a sing-a-long ending.
but we haven’t invented anything, I think that the most of the band to like this. At least in our genre.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
We decide the songs all together, but like the 75% of the songs that go on the set list are obvious choices, we discuss about the remaining 3 or 4 songs to add, and the choice generally is based on where we play, the kind of audience and things like these.
The order of the songs on the set list is given by this criterion (more or less): We start full energy, then slow it down a bit, back full energy and then a sing-a-long ending.
but we haven’t invented anything, I think that the most of the band to like this. At least in our genre.
What plans do you have for the future?
our new album will be released the 22nd of april on Sunny Bastard Records and Demons Run Amok Entertainment, and it will be available on CD, Vinyl and digital. The first single extract from it is coming out on january 28 with a videoclip. After that we hope to play around as much as possible to promote it, we already have some european gigs planned, so keep an eye to our social, we might come in your neighborhood 😉
You can find socials, music on digitals and everything about No Restraints at this link: https://linktr.ee/norestraintscore So to all of you who reads this interview don’t forget to follow us and feel free to get in touch, but mostly we hope to meet you at one of our gigs.