The Chemical Restraints to perform at benefit concert Aug. 30

Echo (KEPW, Underground Echo): This is not your average band story. This is The Chemical Restraints. A name that doesn’t just sit on your tongue but burns into it. A name that dares you to ask what it means and then dares you again to listen to the answer.

[00:00:13] The Chemical Restraints didn’t begin in a garage or a dive bar. They began in the most unexpected of places. Lane County Behavioral Health. What started as a small music group inside a mental health program quickly became something bigger, louder, and unstoppable.

[00:00:29] In those rooms, music wasn’t just expression, it was survival. Guitars and notebooks became lifelines. Drumbeats became therapy, and lyrics became testimony. What began as a way to process pain evolved into a way to transform it, and soon the project spilled out of the clinic walls and into the community as a full band.

[00:00:50] This is the kind of band that reminds you that no matter what cages the world straps around your chest, the pulse of rebellion still kicks inside. This is The Chemical Restraints. Welcome to the show, Elijah, Zach, and Steve.

[00:01:05] The Chemical Restraints: Hi. What up? Hello.

[00:01:07] Echo (KEPW): Where are you playing this week, Elijah?

[00:01:10] Elijah: We got the show at the White Church on Oak Street coming up on the 30th, and we’re excited for that one. It will be our second time playing there. Absolutely. Yeah. Excited for that one.

[00:01:24] Echo (KEPW): Aug. 30, folks, Carnival of Cracked Mirrors from 7 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. at 1166 Oak Street. (Big White Church.) Big white church. What is the thing you’re most excited about this show?

[00:01:40] The Chemical Restraints: There’s some pretty good bands playing with us there too. I know Unbranded and Face Transplant are on the bill to play that show. Mm-hmm. Excited to see those guys.

[00:01:47] Echo (KEPW): I just spoke to Face Transplant today. They’re excited to do this show with y’all. Awesome.

[00:01:51] The Chemical Restraints: I think I’m most excited for just the noise because that room that we’re playing in was made almost 100 years ago and was like completely made for acoustics. And so having really loud electronic music in there. It was just a bunch of noise and it’s really fun.

[00:02:14] Echo (KEPW): I’m excited about the other artists, they’re high-caliber artists and I am really looking forward to the open mic lottery, which is happening in the middle of the show where everybody’s going to get a chance to come up on stage and have their five minutes of fame and do a five-minute set.

[00:02:32] I think we’ll be able to put six people up on stage is what they said. (Fun.) So like we get to platform other artists while we platform our music, which is amazing.

[00:02:44] The Chemical Restraints: Well, I’m thinking of wearing my Jesus Lizard shirt. (Okay.) It’s got a clown on the front. And two lightning bolts. (All right?) And on the back it says, ‘Your face or mine.’ I mean, it is always kind of interesting what I pick out to wear at shows and stuff. (Absolutely.) Yeah. But, I think we’re going to kick a.

[00:03:10] Echo (KEPW): All right. Y’all started as a mental health music group at Lane County Behavioral Health. How has carrying that origin story shaped the way you show up on stage? And how do you hope audiences walk away from your shows?

[00:03:25] Elijah: I would like to say I’m really proud of the way that our band formed together and started out of the music therapy group and evolved to the point we are at now. I’d like for people to walk away from our shows understanding and like seeing the realness of what we’re doing,

[00:03:43] We’re very much a very raw and very naturally formed band, and I’m really proud of the way we came together and the music that we make. So I hope people walk away from the show, just kind of taking away from the experience in a good way, you know.

[00:03:59] Echo (KEPW): I hope that the audience connects to our flow state and that they feel like they’re drawn into the flow state and that our lyrics really hit home. I think that that matters to me the most when I hear someone come up to me and say, ‘That song was really powerful.’

[00:04:20] We have this song called Fentanyl, and it’s about the struggles that people go through when they’re addicted to fentanyl. And I try to announce that before every song because I want people to know what this song is about and I want them to listen very closely, because I want them to understand what it’s like to have an addiction and be stuck in that liminal space.

[00:04:42] And that’s, I think, what I strive for in all our sets is that we connect and promote understanding personally and that feeling of family that we all have together.

[00:04:54] Elijah: Definitely. I think our songs are very real and just kind of have like that unspoken understanding with each one. It’s kind of in its own experience, you know? Yeah.

[00:05:07] The Chemical Restraints: Unique for sure. I think we have a unique sound. (Yeah, absolutely.) It’s kind of, it’s different. It’s raw and it’s real. It’s real.

[00:05:22] Echo (KEPW): Every band is a family, but yours includes Cheyenne and Michael. Members who shape the group but can’t always perform. So how do you honor their presence in songs and the story you’re building? And as far as Michael goes, does anyone want to speak to Michael’s playing?

[00:05:40] The Chemical Restraints: Oh yeah. I could say, I mean, as far as like anyone that comes into the group and openly expresses themselves and jams along with us, you know, we are totally welcome to that. And Michael was, you know, Michael’s been a part of the band longer than me, I guess, you know, a part of the group at least. And it’s always fun seeing him there. Like (We love Michael!) and we love Michael. You know, he’s always in his own world when he plays and it always fits into what we’re doing in its own way.

[00:06:05] We’d love to have him play with us sometimes. It just speaks for all the different kinds of people that we get in our group that, that we just welcome in and, you know, they’re as much a part of the band as the four of us, you know?

[00:06:16] Echo (KEPW): Absolutely. Yeah. well, I think I can speak for Cheyenne, who is really close to me and dear to my heart. We share a birthday actually. (That’s great.) Yeah. she’s our screamer. And she really inspires me to come out of my shell when it comes to like pressing my vocals to go further because she came to our group having been intubated after some health issues and could barely speak, and I brought her to the group and said, ‘Hey, this is a good way to get your voice back.’ And this is a good way for you to express the issues you’re having right now.

[00:06:58] And she loved it. She didn’t think she was going to love it, but she did. So I think that like I really carry that spirit of Cheyenne beside me when I go on stage. She’s with me when I sing. And Paddy too. Does anyone want to speak on Paddy? (Especially Paddy.)

[00:07:18] Steve: I love Paddy. He came to me with a flyer with the Dead Kennedys on the front, you know, Jello Biafra. He’s like, ‘Steve, I’m starting a punk band, dude.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, let’s do it, man.’

[00:07:30] Elijah: This was like, how long ago was that? Like,

[00:07:32] Steve: Oh God. I want to say nine years, 10 years?

[00:07:37] Elijah: The group itself has definitely gone through, the musicians and transformations and just evolved into many different things. But I feel like, yeah, Chemical Restraints are definitely the byproduct of what it’s evolved to now. So yeah.

[00:07:51] Steve: What we’ve got now is really good. We started out doing covers and stuff, you know? Yeah. Kick Out the Jams by MC5. Search and Destroy by Iggy and the Stooges.

[00:08:03] Elijah: Absolutely. And I would just like to say Paddy definitely helped us learn all of those songs. Paddy was a big help in us just forming this band on our own. And he really pushed us to playing our first shows, and he just taught us a lot about, especially, I know Steve, you have your own experience in bands, but especially for like me and Zach, I know it’s our first time around in like what feels like a real band and getting the opportunity to play.

[00:08:28] I’m just really proud of how we formed and especially thankful for Paddy in helping us out in that way and starting this group with you in the first place.

[00:08:36] Echo (KEPW): Paddy knows how to really build up a musician and he knows how to take you from like your rawest and refine it to something sharp and beautiful and worthy. So, and I think he just, he has this gift of bringing out the best in everybody. (Yeah, for sure.)

[00:08:56] Steve: And we want him to be a part of the band right now, you know? We’ve got seven songs with Paddy. We’ve got a whole nother when we start out, they last 15 minutes.

Oh yeah, we’ve got a whole ‘nother set of songs with Paddy that we’d love for you guys to hear if you guys wanna push for him to be in our band because Yeah. Definitely, definitely a whole nother layer of sound when he’s with us.

[00:09:16] Echo (KEPW): Elijah, you stitch riffs like they’re open wounds, sometimes jagged, sometimes almost surgical. When you write, do you feel more like you’re building something or breaking something down?

[00:09:25] Elijah: That’s a great question. Wow. I think I like to take from a lot of different influences and inspirations and uh, I try to do a little bit of both.

[00:09:34] I always try to throw dynamics and feel like we should push dynamics into our music and have always been a fan of changes and just, you know, trying to do a little bit of everything with what we do.

[00:09:46] Echo (KEPW): I’m going to go to Zach, our bassist. Hi. The bass is often called the unsung hero of rock, but in your case it feels like tectonic plate the whole band stands on.

[00:09:58] Zach: I like playing the bass because I get to be the foundation. Like I guess that’s what I strive to be as a person. Something that you can rely on and something that will always be there. And like you may not notice its presence like in that moment, but you’ll feel its impact.

[00:10:18] I find that bass gives music soul, like that’s, I heard once, like the bass is where you dance, just, I don’t know, candy to the soul, I guess.

[00:10:29] You know, just something that’s always there and something you can always lean on. That’s, that’s what I want to be.

[00:10:36] Echo (KEPW): That’s amazing. Steve. Drums are the heartbeat, but your heartbeat often sounds like a war drum. Do you see yourself as a timekeeper or a chaos conductor?

[00:10:46] Steve: Maybe a little bit of both. My dad always said with the bands that I’ve been in, that I carried some of the bands ’cause I stayed sober with the bands and stuff. So, you know, he was like, ‘Well, you carried that band, you know?’ And yeah, I really respected that.

[00:11:06] My father brought me my first drum kit when I was 11 years old. This guy had it in the bottom of his basement. He gave it to my dad to me and then I started playing drums from there and just worked my way up. But I’ve been in many bands. I’ve gone from band to band to band. I’ve been in around, up to 20 bands, I think.

[00:11:33] Echo (KEPW): Wow. What is your favorite song to play and why?

[00:11:38] Steve: Okay. I’ll tell you the one that gets in my head the most: Sad Little Psycho (Oh!) is one of my favorites. Rogue. (Yeah). It’s melodic. It’s cute, you know? I love it. (Okay. Alright.) (Catchy, catchy.) So that, that’s, that’s definitely one of my favorites of ours. Yeah.

[00:11:59] Echo (KEPW): So when you play, what do you hope the audience brings back with them?

[00:12:04] Steve: That we played a good, tight set and that we sounded good, and hopefully they’ll leave saying, ‘Well, I hope I can see The Chemical Restraints again.’

[00:12:23] Echo (KEPW): Well folks, when the main amps finally quiet, when the sweat has dried and the echoes fade, what’s left isn’t silence, it’s resonance. Elijah’s riffs linger like phantom limbs. You can still feel them long after the last string goes still. Zach’s bass remains in your heartbeat. Steve’s drums echo in your pulse and Cheyenne, Michael, and Paddy’s unseen but undeniable contributions remind you all that not all power is visible under stage lights, and not all presences need a spotlight to shape the world.

[00:12:55] The Chemical Restraints are more than music. They’re proof that sound can be survival. They’re proof that a band can be a family even when the world tries to tell us to split apart. They’re proof that the noise we make together —our raw, furious noise—is sacred.

[00:13:10] This Saturday, Aug. 30 from 7 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. at The White Church at 1166 Oak Street, The Chemical Restraints.