Patrick Dolan sat on a leather couch, hands twisted over a notebook. The first record he ever bought was “Siamese Dream” by Smashing Pumpkins, an introduction to all things rock. Dolan is an art teacher for Temple ISD. He sat behind his extensive record collection as his dog, Riz, folded by his feet.

Music was brought up to be celebrated in his house. “Rolling Stones” was what his parents listened to, springing forward a love for all things rock in high school. As he found his own taste for music, vinyls were always seen as something worthwhile. He saw them as a part of history and a tradition worth continuing.

“I had a friend who broke into some old trash metal dude’s trailer and stole a bunch of records,” Dolan said. “He gave me a few as a ‘keep your mouth shut’ kind of deal. I guess that’s when my punk and hardcore collection really fell together,” he added with a vague smirk.

One of the vinyls from this memory was a Chronic Disorder record,  a hardcore band from Seattle in the 1980s. He even managed to buy a record off of this friend, trading a pack of cigarettes for a well sought after album.

His focus retained to hardcore and punk. The three records that boosted his interest in hardcore were Minor Threat’s “Out of Step,” Bad Brain’s “Rock for Light,” and Cro-Mags’ “The Age of Quarrel.” Cro-Mags was a constant influence throughout his own music. Black Flag was also an influence vocally.

“I just really like fast-hardcore and a lot of my collection is fast-hardcore,” Dolan said.

Hardcore was seen as a therapeutic outlet. Dolan feels connected to the audience when he plays in his band. He feels connected to the musicians when they play.

The rawness and emotion play in an intense match for individuality when it comes to being a punk kid. Hardcore not only helped Dolan through life, but pursued him to question life itself as he moved through the motions.

It caused him to not only pursue one band, but multiple within the central Texas hardcore scene. His roots brought him to embrace Fvrorem, his Temple-based hardcore band.

“Fvrorem, which is Latin for anger, was created from the ashes of another band that broke up around this time. And all the guys in the band were a bunch of friends who always played around each other [musically],” Dolan said. “Our sound is old-timey hardcore, very traditional hardcore with that New York and Boston punch-in-the-gut type influence.”