Time X Heist
Audio By Carbonatix
For a band that only officially formed in September, Denver’s Time X Heist has hit the ground running, playing its first live show in early October, and then putting out an EP, The Odds Against Tomorrow, at the end of November.
Guitarist Robert Cheeseman says that Time X Heist was more of an idea than an actual band when that first show was booked, but he and his bandmates have taken it all in stride. “We were put on the show without actually having practiced or having any songs,” he recalls, adding that the EP came together quickly, too. “I think I wrote all of the music for all six of those songs in a four-day period. I fully demo’d them out. I just made full-band demos with fake drums and sent them to everyone. I have a very, very, very deep riff pile.”
The straight-edge band is now working on its full-length debut for 2023. Cheeseman notes that Crimewave Records is going to be doing the physical release stateside, and the U.K.’s Conviction Records plans to do a small run of tapes. The band certainly isn’t wasting any time, and is even opening for New York City hardcore legends Madball on Wednesday, December 14, at HQ. The World and Over Time are also on the bill.
Even though Time X Heist is only a few months old, the concept of starting a straight-edge hardcore outfit was in the back of vocalist Mark Frandsen and Cheeseman’s minds for a while. They had previously played together and are lifers within the scene.
“Since I became straight-edge and became sober, I always wanted to do a straight-edge band. When we had the idea and it seemed like it was going to work, I was like, ‘I’ve got to go for it and try to make it happen’,” says Frandsen, who also books and promotes shows throughout the city. “I always wanted to do it, because it’s something that impacted me so much when I was younger. I got introduced to straight-edge and became straight-edge in a time when it was really beneficial to steering my life in the right direction.”
Frandsen, Cheeseman, Billy Fabrocini (bass) and Xavier Contreras (drummer) are influenced by the NYC youth crew sound, which was the hardcore, straight-edge subculture that rose to popularity in the late 1980s and centered around shared values, including being sober and vegetarian or vegan. While bands during that time used the stage as a pulpit to preach a certain lifestyle, the message and muse behind Time X Heist is more about spreading positivity and perseverance.
“Music is really subjective, right? People kind of take from it what connects with them or makes the most sense to them. I think even people who aren’t straight-edge can connect with some of the themes and some of the messages I talk about in my lyrics. People who are straight-edge will connect to that in a different way more specific to straight edge. If people want to come to our shows and sing along, I don’t care if they’re straight-edge or not,” Frandsen says. “I think a lot of messages in hardcore and straight-edge hardcore is universal, like preserving through difficult times. In the last three or four years, the world has been a really fucked-up place, and I think people can use some positivity. I love real negative, harder bands, but I also love the [positive] stuff, too. That’s what we kind of bring to the table – that positivity, but still fast and aggressive.”
Cheeseman, who has also lived a straight-edge lifestyle for more than twenty years, is more direct about the sometimes-cliquey subgenre.
“I feel like there are some people who are real assholes about [being straight-edge], and others who aren’t. I feel like the previous band I was in [Spirits] and this one, it’s all people who aren’t assholes about it,” he says. “I feel like the older you get, all of my friends that I’m in bands with or play music with, it just makes being in a band easier, because everyone’s on the same page. I want to play music with my friends, and it doesn’t have to be as hard as people make it out to be.”
Frandsen agrees, adding, “For me, it’s always been a very personal thing.”
“Freak what you feel,” says Cheeseman, referencing the motto of a former bandmate.
“I think that perfectly defines stuff like that,” he continues. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, man, do what works for you.'”
While the straight-edge tag is often perceived as a pretentious proclamation or barometer for passing judgment on other lifestyles, Time X Heist has made it about the music more than anything.
“What we hope we create in a live show is a lot of participation. A lot of people just jumping around and having a good time and singing along,” Frandsen concludes.
Time X Heist, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 14, HQ, 60 South Broadway. Tickets are $20.
