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An important problem with Korea's scene is that we don't cooperate with other countries enough. Sure, we all have friends in Japan, but how much do any of us know about things in China, or Malaysia, or Indonesia? This summer we'll get a taste of Hong Kong first-hand. King Ly Chee is ready and waiting. I conducted an interview with frontman Riz Farooqi over e-mail.
Q) First, can you tell me a bit about the Hong Kong scene? How big is it? How old? Do punks and hardcore people cooperate?
A) What's up Korea! Our scene is tiny bro, much like what I assume Korea's scene is like. The whole hardcore scene only started up in 1999 with my band being the first.
There was a punk scene prior to this but it was basically an expatriate scene and most of the local kids weren't into it?they labeled punk rock as "foreigner music."
Punk rock and hardcore had a huge impact on my heart and my overall well-being?it turned me from someone who didn't care about shit, to someone who cared so much about the world.
So I realized that local kids weren't getting into it because everything was in English?the bands were singing in English, the zines we had were in English. The English level in Hong Kong is very low?much like I presume it is in Korea?and so I decided that to open this whole punk/hardcore thing up to more of the local Hong Kong kids that things needed to be in both English and Chinese.
So I started a zine called "Start From Scratch" which was a bilingual Cantonese/English zine that focused on trying to introduce punk rock/hardcore to kids in Hong Kong in a language that would appeal to them.
King Ly Chee started at the same time as the first issue of the zine because I realized that just having the words wasn't enough, kids here needed something in their face so they could feel and absorb the energy of hardcore. For us, the message of hardcore is even more important than the music. Without the message, hardcore is just regular old metal (especially these days?we love metal; don't get us wrong!). So we are passionate about making sure kids understand what we're saying in our songs.
The entire first year of the band we sung only in English. We got an alright following?but once Alex joined the band and started singing in Chinese, the reaction from kids was phenomenal. All of a sudden all these kids didn't need to spend time translating our lyrics to understand; they could just hear it on stage and it blew them all away. The fire would ignite in their eyes and the spirit from the lyrics and the music would just take over their entire being...it was incredible to watch it all unfold from the stage.
King Ly Chee is proud of being from Hong Kong. This is our home and where we all come from?I've lived here my entire life from when I was a month old. We're into promoting Hong Kong culture to the world?how can you do that if you sing in English? Cantonese is what's spoken here and Cantonese is what will forever have the most power in transforming minds in this city.
Q) On your MySpace account you say you guys were tired of Hong Kong's music situation. Why was that? Did you mean punk or in general?
A) No?we mean music in general. Hong Kong is such a tiny city that all types of music cross paths all the time. On any given show, a band before us could be a hip-hop act, or a pop/rock band, and the band after us could be full-on death metal, or an acoustic duo. That's what's so special about our music community here?kids are into everything. It's super healthy. We're all part of the independent music scene which is small and unsupported by mainstream Hong Kong. Canto-pop is what rules the airwaves here and no bands have ever made it to the mainstream (except for like 5 in the history of Hong Kong including Beyond, LMF, etc).
We have been trying to create our own underground community since Day One and have come a long way in the past six years. We're definitely not just a hardcore scene?punk kids, metal heads, rock kids, indie-rock people are all mixed into this underground community. It's fucking rad!
But when we started off the environment was so different. Kids back then who were playing in so-called "heavy" bands didn't even play original music. They'd get on stage, hype the crowd up, and break into some fucking Limp Bizkit/Kid Rock cover.
Thank god things have changed so much. Just these past two years we've seen a whole new explosion of unbelievably good hardcore and punk bands. The future looks so bright for our little city...
Q) How is it being a foreigner in a band there? Are there any problems with that?
A) Nope...I don't consider myself a "foreigner" and people don't either because I speak Cantonese. My band members are all local Chinese kids and we all communicate with each other in Cantonese. Even when we're on stage, I'm speaking Cantonese to the audience.
Q) What was the impact on Hong Kong's scene of rejoining China?
A) It's great! Hong Kong is a Chinese city?it belongs to China and all local Hong Kong people are proud of their heritage and are proud to be Chinese. Now, if you're asking me about the Chinese government?that's a different story. Oh look! That's your next question!
Q) How do you feel about the Chinese government, and does it ever cause you trouble?
A) I think there definitely has been progress made but they're a long way away from actually understanding what "human rights" entail. Recently, a Hong Kong reporter was detained in China for supposedly "spying" on China. It doesn't matter that this HK reporter is known for his patriotic spirit and love for China and was actually gathering data for the government?the Chinese government is just overly sensitive up there and lives in constant fear of their own people uprising.
Yes we've had problems with the Chinese government?supposedly our band has been blacklisted by the Ministry of Culture in China. That's horrible...and we feel horrible about it because we're all so proud to be a part of China. We were invited to be part of an annual music festival in Beijing, but we played a show in Taiwan that unfortunately was a bad move by us and since then we've been blacklisted by the Chinese government. The Beijing festival organizers immediately cancelled us from the festival.
Q) Is there much cooperation with mainland China's scene?
A) Yes, there is lots of cooperation and communication with the scene in China. It's mainly punk rock up there though?but it's awesome...punk bands in Beijing are so fucking good! Bands like Reflector and Recycle are seriously international-level bands?they're so good.
Q) Is there any trouble selling your releases in your home country? I know a lot of Chinese punk bands can't.
A) Yeah?we haven't been able to release anything in China. We've been able to smuggle our stuff into Southern China and sell it there...but none of our stuff will be released legally because we have such strong leanings towards human rights, personal freedoms, civil liberties, democracy, etc.
Q) You list lots of influences from Malaysia and Thailand on your MySpace account. Why there?
Because we had just finished a Southeast Asian tour when we set up our MySpace page and we just wanted to let people around the world know that Asian bands are just as incredible as American bands. I mean come on, how many Asian bands' websites have you seen where their influences are a huge list of American bands? There are millions! It sucks! So we were like, "Fuck that!" We just got back from a Southeast Asian tour where we played with such incredible Asian hardcore and punk bands and so we listed them as our influences. They're so good down there! Just the overall standard of bands down there blew us all away.
I think, in general, Asian hardcore/punk kids need to stand more united in supporting each other. The American scene is huge?but do they really need even more support from Asian kids? It's the Asian bands around here who need the extra encouragement from scenes in neighboring areas; scenes in Korea, Hong Kong, etc. who are so small that we need each other's help to keep the fire going in our hearts.
Q) Do foreign bands tour there much?
A) No, foreign bands don't come here...there's no market for heavy music in Hong Kong. So no big sponsors will offer to pay for bands to come out here. We've had some good stuff come, like Himsa, 100 Demons, Envy (Japan), Rambo, and a tiny bunch of others...but they all came out here on their own account.
Q) I heard you opened for Korn. How did you feel about that?
A) Yeah we opened up for Korn?we collectively have always hated this band. The reason we did this was because for the longest time Hong Kong labeled all nu-metal music as "hardcore." Since 1999 we were fighting an uphill battle with all of HK's music media, huge music chain stores, and radio DJs about getting them to redefine this garbage music as "nu-metal" not hardcore. They have nothing to do with the hardcore scene, culture or purpose. Since we're considered one of the biggest heavy bands in Hong Kong, we were invited to open for Korn. We thought it over for a good 2 or 3 weeks before we agreed to do it. Our rationale was that there was no better way to show people the difference between hardcore and nu-metal than actually putting the two styles together on one stage so people can hear the fucking difference loud and clear.
It was rad dude! There were over 4000 people there and we blew Korn right off the stage. Radio DJs the next day were all like, "Wow! King Ly Chee was amazing!" and then went on to shit on Korn because honestly, they sucked live. The Korn dudes didn't even talk to the audience?just the regular insincere thank-yous in between the songs. They were so lame...but we accomplished what we set out to do. It was such a great feeling to show up an American band that we've always said sucked and we'd do it again to any of the other shit bands that we've never been fans of. Bring it on Limp Bizkit!
Q) Do you tour much? Ever been outside Asia?
A) Yeah we've played in lots of places around Asia...but we've never been outside?can't wait to get out there someday. More power to our brothers in Vassline for being the first Korean hardcore band to tour the States! Let the American scene know what Asian hardcore is all about!
Q) How was the previous show in Korea?
A) Unbelieveable! We played six shows in three days and got to become very close with our Korean brothers in Johnny Royal. Their friendship, camaraderie, and hospitality all reminded me of what hardcore is all about. Those dudes have been ingrained in our hearts forever.
Seriously, when we were on the plane, we were all in tears leaving Korea?that's how much of an impact Korea had on us...we can't wait to be back and have been looking forward to this for years.
Thanks for interviewing us, Jon?it means a lot to us! We owe a huge thank-you to Jin from Vassline for our July 30 show, and Dokyo from 13 Steps for setting up our July 31 show, and I'd like to thank my Korean brother Kim Hwan from Johnny Royal for getting this whole thing started. We can't wait to be back! See you all soon!
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지금 현제 한국씬이 가지고 있는 문제중에 하나가 다른나라의 씬과 많은 교류가 없다는 점입니다.
일본과의 교류는 좀 이루어지는 편인데 우리가 과연 일본을 제외한 나라 중국,말래이시아,인도네시아 등등…… 의 펑크/하드코어 씬에 대해서 얼마나 알고 있을까요?
이번 여름 홍콩의 킹라이치가 홍콩하드코어에 진수를 보여주러 한국에 옵니다.다음은 킹라이치에 프론트맨 Riz Farooqi 와 이메일 인터뷰한 내용입니다.
Q) 처음으로,홍콩하드코어 씬에 대해서 알고 싶습니다.씬이 시작한지 얼마나 됫으며 씬이 어떤지 좀 설명좀 해주시고 펑크 와 하드코어 키드들이 교류하는지 여부도 알려주십시요.
A) 안녕하세요 What’s up, Korea! 먼저 홍콩씬은 한국과 많이 다를게 없다고 생각합니다.저희도 이제 시작단계죠. 99년 저희가 시작하면서 부터 홍콩하드코어씬은 시작됫습니다.그 전에 움직임이 있었지만 별로 활동적이지 않았고 사람들도 펑크락을 “다른나라의음악”이라고 치부하고 별로 관심을 두지 않았습니다.
펑크 와 하드코어 음악은 음악을 떠나 제 인생에 커다란 영향을 끼쳤습니다.
한국씬도 예외가 아니라고 생각하는데 씬이 시작할즘엔 모든 밴드,팬진들은 모두 영어를 사용했습니다.이 문제가 펑크,하드코어 키드 들이 씬에 참여하지 않는 하나의 이유라고 생각했습니다. 이런점을 생각했을때 홍콩의 펑크/하드코어 씬이 커지기 위해서는 저희의 언어 와 영어를 같이 사용해야 겠다고 생각했습니다.그래서 펑크/하드코어 키드 들에게 더 다가가기 위해 캔토니스(중국언어중에 하나) 와 영어로 팬진 “Start From Scratch” 를 발행하기 시작했습니다.
이쯤에 킹라이치도 활동을 시작했는데 팬진으로는 느낄수 없는 라이브의 에너지를 보여줌으로써 키드들의 씬에 참여도를 높이려는 노력으로 이어졌습니다.저희에게 하드코어 는 음악보단 메세지가 더 중요하다고 생각합니다.메시지가 없는 하드코어는 그저 옜날 메탈음악이나 다를게 없다고 생각합니다.(오해하지 마세요 저희도 메탈팬입니다.)그래서 저희의 메세지를 키드들에게 전해주고 이해시키는것도 정말 중요합니다.저희가 처음 킹라이치를 시작했을땐 가사들은 모두 영어였지만 Alex 가 밴드에 들어온 이후에 중국말로 부르기 시작했습니다.그 이후 반응은 엄청났습니다.자연스럽게 키드들은 영어를 중국어로 변역할필요없이 저희 메세지를 좀 더 이해하고 음악에 좀 더 빠져들게 되었습니다.저희는 저희가 태어나고 자란 홍콩에 대해서 자부심을 갖고 있습니다.저희는 홍콩문화를 세계에 알릴려고 합니다.그러기 위해서는 우리의 언어 우리가 사용하는 언어,우리가 모든걸 표현할수 있는 언어, 캔토니스 로 알려야 되지 않겠습니까?
Q) 마이스페이스 사이트에서 홍콩뮤직씬에 대해서 “지쳤다” 라고 얘기한것은 펑크특정적인것을 말한거 였나고 아니면 전체적으로 말한거 였나요?
A) 전체적인 씬을 말한거 였습니다. 홍콩은 여러가지 음악이 한데 섞여 생존하는 곳입니다. 당연히 씬이 좁기 때문에 이런현상이 벌어지는거죠. 하드코어 밴드가 힙합밴드와 공연을 한다거나 펑크밴드가 데쓰메탈밴드와 공연한다는게 종종있는일입니다.그게 또 씬에 있어서 장점이라고 할수도 있죠.그러나 이상적으로 씬이 가야할길을 못가고 있습니다. 인디씬에서 메인스트림으로 가는길이 너무나 좁은 거죠. 캔토-팝(캔토니스 팝) 이 모든 미디아를 장악하고 있으며 락음악을 하고 있는 밴드가 올라가기 위해선 너무나 높은 산입니다.저희가 밴드를 처음시작한 첫날부터 지금 6년째되는 지금까지 저희는 커뮤니티를 만들려고 노력해왔습니다.단지 하드코어씬말을 말하는건 아닙니다.펑크던,메탈이던,락,인디…..모든 사람들이 함께 참여할수 있는 커뮤니티를 만드려고 노력해왔습니다.그러나 생각같지 쉽지 않았던게 “빡센” 밴드들이 라고 불렸던 밴드들은 모두 림프비즈킷 이나 키드락같은 밴드들의 곡들을 커버하기만 했습니다. 그러나 지금 이렇게 바뀐걸 생각하면 정말 다행이라고 생각합니다.홍콩씬의 미래는 이렇게 발전할것이며 아주 밝다고 할수 있습니다.
A) 외국인(프론트맨 Riz) 로써 밴드에 몸담고 있는데 어려운점은 없는지요?
Q) 아니요 사람들도 그리고 저도 “외국인”이라고 생각하지 않습니다.그리고 대화하는데 전혀 지장이 없고 뭐 공연할때도 관중들에게 캔토니스로 말하는데요 뭘~~
Q) 이제 홍콩씬이 “중국씬”이 되었는데 어떤 임팩트가 있을까요?
A) 저희는 홍콩이 중국이 일부가 되었다는걸 아주 자랑스럽게 생각하고 홍콩은 중국의 한 도시라고 생각합니다.그러므로 아주, 아주 잘된일입니다. 그러나 중국정부에 대해서는 물어보신다면.
Q) 본토 중국의 씬과 얼마만큼 교류하고 있나요?
A) 네, 많은 교류가 이루어지고 있습니다.그리고 베이징 밴드 Reflector 나 Recycle 은 아주 멋진 밴드라고 생각합니다.
Q) 중국에서 앨범을 발매하는게 어렵다고 아는데 어떤 트러블이 있는지요?
A) 네, 그렇습니다. 저희역시 중국에서 앨범을 릴리즈 못하고 있습니다.저희의 사상과 메세지등등이 강하기 때문에 더 어렵습니다.
Q) 마이스페이스에서 많은 말레이시아 ,태국 밴드가 영향을 준밴드로 거론되었는데 이거에 대해서 설명해주십시요.
A) 마이스페이스를 만들때에는 저희가 아시아투어를 마치고 난 후였습니다.그래서 많은 사람들에게 멋진 아시아밴드들 알리고 싶었습니다.미국밴드가 미디아에 많이 노출된 반면에 아시아에 좋은밴드들은 그렇치 못한게 현실입니다. 그걸 안타깝게 생각해서 써포트 하는 차원에서 그렇게 적었습니다.
Q) 그쪽 씬의 외국밴드 참여도(투어)는 어떤가요?
A) 안타깝게 홍콩의 씬이 외국밴드가 올만큼 크지못하다는 겁니다.큰 스폰서가 있기 전까진 어렵습니다. 그러나 좋은밴드들 Himsa, 100 Demons, Envy(Japan), Rambo `같은 멋있는 밴드들이 자기 자비를 들여서 온적이 있습니다.
Q) Korn 의 공연에 오프닝밴드로 공연했다고 들었는데 어땠는지요?
A) 네 , 그렇습니다. 저희가 아주싫어하는 콘의 공연을 오픈한졌이있습니다.홍콩씬에서는 뉴메탈을 하드코어 라고 부릅니다.1999년부터 저희는 이 하드코어 와 뉴메탈 은 다른음악이라는걸 각인시켜주기위해서 노력해왔습니다.그리고 저희밴드가 홍콩씬에서는 아주 큰 헤비뮤직을 하는 밴드로 알려젓습니다.그래서 하게 되었는데. 2-3주간 생각한 끝에 결론을 내렸습니다.그리고 뉴메탈과 하드코어는 틀리다는걸 많이 사람들한테 보여주고 싶었습니다.그리고 생각한대로 저희가 콘을 아주 눌러버렸죠. 4000명이 모인 공연에서 아주 멋있게 콘을 눌러버렸습니다.그리고 콘을 라이브를 너무 못하는 밴드입니다.다음날 디제이들은 킹라이치에 칭찬을 아끼지 않았습니다.우리가 평소 좋아하지 않는 미국밴드를 그렇게 눌렀다는데에 너무 기분이 좋았고 다시 미국밴드가 온다고 해도 기꺼이 받아드릴생각이 있습니다…다음밴드누구 ? Limp Bizkit??
Q) 투어를 많이 하는 편이나요? 아시아 이외에 투어한적은 있나요?
A) 네네..아시아안에서는 투어를 많이 했습니다. 그러나 아직까지 아시아밖을 나가보지 못했네요.바세린이 미국으로 투어를 가는 첫한국밴드가 되었는데 아시아씬에 대해서 많이 알리고 왔으면 좋겠습니다!!
Q) 한국에서의 전공연은 어땠나요?
A) 너무 좋았습니다.삼일동안 공연을 여섯번했는데 자니로얄하고 아주 친해졌습니다.그리고 너무 잘해줘서 아주 저희 기억속에 자리잡고 있습니다.그리고 한국을 떠날때 진짜로 눈물을 흘릴정도로 아쉬웠습니다.그만큼 한국의 기억이 너무나 좋습니다.빨리 가고싶어서 미치겠네요.
마지막으로 인터뷰해주신 Jon 그리고 7월30일 공연에 도움준 바세린의 박진씨 그리고 31일청주공연에 도움주신 13스텝스 Dokyo13 과 저희 브라더 자니로얄 김환씨에게 너무나 감사드립니다.그럼 곧 뵈요~~ 여러분~~
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