October 16, 2025

Whole Community News

From Kalapuya lands in the Willamette watershed

Local punk band celebrates 1st album release Oct. 16

6 min read
Elijah, Zach, Steve Zorn, and Rogue will perform the songs Fentanyl, Adelaide, D.I.D., I Need Better Meds, and more from their album, Safe Place.

Presenter: Eugene punk band The Chemical Restraints will perform Thursday night to celebrate the release of their first album. We spoke with lead singer and lyricist, Rogue.

Rogue (The Chemical Restraints): So we are a group that started as a mental health music therapy group, then we formed into this band, The Chemical Restraints, that’s kind of like a family at this point. And we just dropped our first album on Bandcamp. The album’s called Safe Place.

[00:00:32] And we’ll be performing, headlining and debuting for the first time at The Space Bar, which is 150 Broadway on Oct. 16 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Definitely, you should come. We will be doing two sets.

[00:00:51] I am so lucky to get to perform alongside these guys. I’m so lucky to have formed a group that feels like a family.

[00:00:59] It started out with Melissa and I and Paddy and Steve. Paddy is our visionary leader, our conductor, our muse, if you will. He saw the potential in all of us before we saw it in ourselves and really like, kind of nurtured those seeds to bloom in each of us. And so we really owe this all to Paddy.

[00:01:24] And then Elijah came and he’s our lead guitarist. He plays like a rock star god, like that boy could give Jimi Hendrix a run. Let me tell you guys, he is leading our band to the new future.

[00:01:39] And there’s Zach. He’s our foundation. You know, the bass guitar. He has got this beautiful rhythm that he brings to the group and keeps our music cohesive, which is hard to do with a punk band.

[00:01:53] And then there’s Steve Zorn, the infamous Steve Zorn. Yes. that Steve Zorn. He’s on the drums. Steve Zorn has been in a lot of bands in Eugene. He’s been around for a while, and he plays those drums like the gods of thunder, let me just say.

[00:02:10] And then there’s Cheyenne, who sounds like OTEP or In This Moment. She lost her voice for a while, which is why she’s not currently screaming on the stage with me right now. Otherwise, you can hear her voice on our album Safe Place, and you can hear the spirit of her through every song. We sing and scream in her honor. ’cause she really inspired me to find my screaming voice. I have a very, like, I would say, very girly, waily kind of scream, which is very different than her screaming voice.

[00:02:48] Presenter: Rogue discussed the origin of the title for their debut album, Safe Place.

[00:02:52] Rogue (The Chemical Restraints): The building says ‘Safe Place.’ It’s a big orange sign and basically it’s a safe place for people to leave their child should they want to abandon their child. But I think it speaks to a deeper metaphorical meaning. Because it became a safe place for us.

[00:03:12] And even though the world is not a safe place, when you get in that flow state and you allow the music to just pour out of you, in that moment, you are in your safe place.

[00:03:24] This is kind of our debut night promoting this album, but also promoting The Space Bar, which is owned by a man named Bradley. He is an amazing host. You’ve just got to see his bar. It’s a whole vibe, kind of like you’re an outer space tucked into this little corner in Eugene that people just don’t realize is there. And it’s where Spectrum used to be, 150 Broadway. And the vibe is very communal. And we as a band, we want to play in those areas that feel communal.

[00:03:59] You know, we played at the skate park on Sept. 14, we opened the show, so it’s our turn to headline a show, I guess. And that’s what we’re doing, is we’re headlining our own show.

[00:04:11] We’re incredibly blessed to know a bunch of really talented musicians that want to play alongside us. Eugene’s music community is very accepting. I’m sure there’s parts of it that are very cliquey, but we haven’t experienced that. We have experienced some wonderful, warm musicians, and I will build a community around that all day long.

[00:04:37] Presenter: She said she hopes to perform some day at another Eugene venue with that strong communal vibe.

[00:04:42] Rogue (The Chemical Restraints): I definitely want to do one at the Wandering Goat. Shout out to the Wandering Goat. I was homeless for 21 years, a lot of that’s throughout my music and it’s reflected in my lyrics, the things that I’ve seen, the things that I felt, things I’ve seen others feel. And Wandering Goat used to feed me and keep me sheltered when it was raining.

[00:05:03] And I would sit there and do art for hours. They would give me either biscuits and gravy or a coffee, and sometimes both when they were having a good day. I just shout out to the Wandering Goat, shout out to Acorn Cafe that did the same thing, keeps people fed. That would be a cool place to do a little show. It’s tiny, tiny, tiny. But so are we.

[00:05:23] The Hybrid Gallery: The Hybrid Gallery is an art gallery or, you know, partner alongside someone like MECCA, which is an amazing organization. Shout out to Lexi Starr, manager of MECCA. If you want to support your local nonprofits, they do a lot for the community too, and they’re really struggling in these times.

[00:05:43] We also collaborated a lot with First Christian Church. Shout out to Pastor Zane and for everything he has done for the community and for me personally. The White Church is a great venue. It’s like a natural microphone in there. Phenomenal acoustics. Probably my best stage I’ve played on acoustically.

[00:06:03] Presenter: We asked Rogue what songs they’ll be playing from the band’s first album Thursday night.

[00:06:07] Rogue (The Chemical Restraints): Some of our songs are really heartrending, like Fentanyl is about the drug, what it has done to our community, what it does to an individual. And it is for everyone who has ever died from fentanyl, who has ever been exposed to the horrors of fentanyl or who struggles with fentanyl at all, or knows someone who does, this song’s for you.  

[00:06:28] And then there’s I Need Better Meds. Elijah and Cheyenne started out writing it. I just added some vocalization. That’s Elijah and Cheyenne and my song.

[00:06:39] Then there’s Adelaide, which is about a couple of girls I used to know combined. Their names were not Adelaide. Their names have been changed for the safety of the girls. But they didn’t live very safety-oriented lives and they kind of got lost in the scene of clubs and the drugs and the mental health just dissolved and life on the streets got weird. I got out and they didn’t.

[00:07:08] One of the songs is about having D.I.D., Dissociative Identity Disorder, which is a hard one. It’s a hard diagnosis because like a lot of times, people think it’s like it is in the movies and it’s really not. It’s this sense of being there and not there at the same time and losing chunks of time and really having a different personality that comes out and takes over and drives for you for a little while. So those are some of the songs we’ll be performing.

[00:07:36] Presenter: As the band members continue to grow and challenge one another, listeners at The Space Bar Thursday night will also get to hear one of their newest songs.

[00:07:45] Rogue (The Chemical Restraints): We have a surprise for our listeners that come to our show on the 16th at Space Bar. We’re going to give you a sneak peek of what we’ve been working on.

[00:07:55] ‘Cause typically what has happened has been, I wrote the lyrics and then I’ve come to them with this tune in my head. And then take it to my band and I say, ‘Well, this is what I have.’ And they take that.

[00:08:10] Elijah has challenged me recently and said, ‘I want you to put your lyrics to the music, not us put the music to the lyrics.’ So, expect some fun times with the band.

[00:08:24] Presenter: The Chemical Restraints will celebrate the release of their first album, titled Safe Place, with two sets at The Space Bar Thursday night starting at 8 p m. You can find their music on Bandcamp by searching for ‘The Chemical Restraints.’

Whole Community News

You are free to share and adapt these stories under the Creative Commons license Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Whole Community News

FREE
VIEW