EMQ’s With NO RESTRAINTS
Hello everyone. Welcome to another EMQS, this time with Italian Streetcore band, No Restraints. Huge thanks to their Vocalist, Johnny, For taking part.
What is your name, what do you play, and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
Hi, I’m Johnny and I am the singer of the band. No Restraints born officially in June 2019, when I finally found all the members to complete the line-up of the band. That took me one and a half years, since I wanted to find the right people to develop this project – not simply musicians but someone that can love and have passion in what we were going to create.
After few practice we immediately went in studio to record 2 songs for our first single that has been suddenly released in February 2020. We started to play live in September 2019 and in the following months we had the chance to share the stage with some great bands like Exploited, Crim and Maid of Ace, just to name a few… we had in planned some nice gigs in Germany and other European countries, but we all know how it went from march 2020 on…
No Restraints are: Johnny – Voice, Fax – Guitar, Fere – Bass, Dave – Drums
How did you come up with your band name?
This is exactly how it went about our name: It was March 2018 and I 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 ours 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 does it mean? – 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!!
What Country/Region are you from and what is the Metal/Rock scene like there?
We are based in Vercelli, in Northern Italy. The scene here is not bad at all, there are some Punk, Hardcore and Metal kids and some nice bands. There was also a great live club called Officine Sonore, we saw many nice bands and met a lot of crazy people there. We also used to practice there in the first period of the band. Unfortunately it had to close at the beginning of 2020.
There are some great bands here in town and in the nearby, the Italian HC Punk legend Indigesti are from Vercelli, but many other nice bands are from here around like DiscoMostro, Il Complesso, Middle Finger. Regarding rock / metal band from here the best are for sure Niamh, Deflag and my favourite: Tesla Shamans.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
We just released our new single and video ‘Street Core Worldwide’ on all the digital platforms (link: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/norestraints/street-core-worldwide) that is the first extract from our upcoming album “Stand Our Ground”. It will be released the 22nd April 2022 on Vinyl, CD and digital.
Who have been your greatest influences?
I think that the definition of Street Core fit perfectly to us, we basically play a mix of Street Punk and New York Hardcore, but of course with many other influences, I never wanted to put limits in what we do… No Restraints, right? 😉
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.
What first got you into music?
I started to play music when I was like 15/16 years old. I began with bass and later I started to play drums, I kept playing drums for years. Singing is a new thing for me…at least in a band.
I always loved music since I was very young, like 6 years old. I started to buy music independently when I was 8.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Madball for sure, they are one of my favourite bands ever.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
There are some festivals I’d like to play in, like Rebellion, Punk & Disorderly, Mighty Sounds, Revolution Calling and many others… but if I have to pick one I’d say Hellfest, it is simply the most amazing line-up.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
I never got any presents but they did throw me a bra during last gig we played. A big one…
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Support the underground. Go to see bands playing live, even band you don’t know, there are many amazing bands around. It’s funny, you meet amazing crazy people and you keep the scene live.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Freddy Mercury, He’s a Legend and Queen are the best rock band ever.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
Going on tour to me is like the best thing in life, visiting places, cities and play with other bands. I’m not saying it is proper hate but I don’t like anymore being in recording studio, it is stressful and boring ha ha!
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
I think that there is no space for rock bands, mostly here in Italy, few clubs to play, no radio plays, no chances for promotion in anyway… the only two rock radio stations whichs always play the same song by Red hot chilli peppers, Lenny Kravitz and things like this… this is so mediocre, always the same twenty songs, no space for something new or different, no space for Italian bands at all, and some of them really deserve it. It is all so boring and conservative, Like these “old” punkers or metalheads that only sticks to the same few old bands like nothing happened after the 80’s… all these things are killing rock’n’roll.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs, or Downloads?
Vinyl 100% I’m an avid record collector. But I like Spotify too, you find out a lot of new band or record just released, also I like playlists for travels or walking around.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
With No Restraints our best moment until now was in Turin last 3 December, it was a great night with other cool bands and many people, like almost 300… It was a blast!
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Probably dying of cirrosis… I would never be able to stand life without music.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Dave Chappelle, Pope Francesco I, George Bush senior, Elon Musk, Fabiola Gianotti (she’s the general director of CERN in Ginevra). Yes, as you may imagine there are many things I want to know in life ha ha!
What’s next for the band?
As said in the beginning of the interview we have a new album coming out in April, together with a new video. After that we want to play as much as possible to promote it, so keep an eye to our socials, we might come to your neighbourhood 😉 Also we are going to start to write some new songs… covid permitting is going to be a busy year.
What Social Media/Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
You can find all our socials, digitals, merch store etc. under one link, this: https://linktr.ee/norestraintscore
Jaffa Cakes! Are they a cake or a biscuit?
Definitely A Biscuit, I’m prepared to fight on this!! Na I’m Joking, I had to google them to see what they are, you can’t find them in Italy.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
I would like to thank you for having us for this interview, we are really happy for this. And to all those who reads this don’t forget to follow us on social and feel free to get in touch, but mostly we hope to meet you at one of our gigs.
Keep the faith – Johnny
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