Japanese punk band embarks on cross-country Korean tour

Japanese punk band Stone Leek / Courtesy of Stone Leek

By Jon Dunbar

The Korean and Japanese punk scenes are tight with each other, despite the political climate lately, so it's only natural that one of the first overseas bands to tour Korea in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic would be from the nearby island nation.

Stone Leek, a skatepunk/melodic hardcore band from Kyoto, is coming to Korea this weekend for a four-day cross-country tour. It all kicks off on Thursday at the Daejeon venue Santa Claus, moving to Gwangju's Club Boojik on Friday, heading to Seoul's Club SHARP on Saturday and ending up on Sunday at Club Jijik in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. Each show will feature a selection of local punk bands as well as a few from around the country, with 15 bands participating overall.

It's all to celebrate the release of "All Kinds of Victim Vol. 3," a compilation album put out by the Seoul label Victim Records. Most of the bands on the tour, including Stone Leek, are on the 24-track compilation.

Yoon Ki-sun, who founded Victim in 2014 originally as a clothing brand, told The Korea Times that his label has been receiving promotional materials from bands he'd never heard of from around the world, but when he heard from Stone Leek asking to tour Korea, that got his attention.

"Stone Leek has been active in Japan for so long that some of the Victim Records crew enjoy listening to their music. When we received the mail, we were all happy," said Yoon, who is also a member of the hardcore band Sink to Rise, ska-punk band Modjett and nu-metal band Bad Flip.

"Stone Leek is a pretty typical Japanese punk band; when I first heard their music, all I could think was, 'They're really good at playing.' I get this reaction a lot when I listen to Japanese punk. However, it's good because you can feel the unique sensibility of Japan as you listen to it. I think that is the charm of Japanese melocore music and the charm of Stone Leek."

Unfortunately, Stone Leek's mail to Korea arrived in 2020, and the pandemic put a stop to any touring plans. Rather than trying to organize international tours amid travel restrictions, Yoon invited Stone Leek to contribute to the compilation.

"I like to do fun things, such as touring and recording. If there's a punk band that has more originality, I want to produce their album," Yoon said. "I want to do many fun things, but for that, I think it will be more fun if I do it with friends from all over the world."

Stone Leek's music is an unusual mix. As Yoon said, the band is highly energetic which is typical of Japanese bands, driven by intense, almost metal-style drumming backing more typically skatepunk vocals and guitars.

"That is really often said, but I don't know much about metal," Akira Fukurai, guitarist/vocalist of Stone Leek, told The Korea Times in an email interview aided by translation software. "I think punk since the 1990s has become a fusion of earlier punk and metal music, as exemplified by the bands on (U.S. label) Fat Wreck Chords. I think that the influence of those bands has naturally brought in elements of metal."

Whatever you call it, it's a mix that should ignite Korea's mosh pits.

Fukurai founded the band in 2002, and as he recalls, they were invited to play a gig on short notice, before even coming up with a band name.

"We had not decided on a band name at that time, so we needed to decide on one right away," he said. "We had decided to use an English name. For some reason, I was looking up vegetable names and found 'Stone Leek.' We decided on it because it sounded good and most Japanese would not know the meaning of the word."

Fukurai is no stranger to touring. In 2019 while touring Canada, the owner of Canadian label People of Punk Rock Records saw Stone Leek play in Quebec City, and not long after that the band was signed to the label.

He has also been to Korea, but not with the full band, also in 2019. "I would like to have a good meal. Something not too spicy. I love Korean dramas since my quarantine and I am looking forward to meeting the streets and people," he said."

In July 2020, he wrote the song "But I Think There's Hope Inside," which he said is about the pandemic.

"At that time, everyone was afraid of the unknown virus. We were also depressed because we had to cancel our European tour in April," Fukurai explained. "However, there is always hope. Let's look forward and move forward. It was with these positive feelings that I created this song. I believe that there is hope, and not only for the pandemic."

When travel restrictions started to lift earlier this year, Fukurai said his band decided to finally come to Korea.

"We are a little apprehensive about COVID-19, but we don't think it will be a problem since the regulations are already almost non-existent in Europe," he said. "We all received three doses of vaccine."

Yoon, meanwhile, gave a thorough ― and sobering ― answer regarding any possible complications caused by the pandemic, now that infections are once again resurging in Korea.

"There's a lot to worry about because of that," he said. "First of all, PCR tests for Stone Leek's entry and departure will have to be conducted in the middle of the tour."

He added that PCR tests for foreign arrivals and departures such as a Japanese touring bands are not insured and are expensive.

"Also, if Stone Leek is infected with COVID-19 in Korea, it will be difficult to return home," he said. "So we have to always be careful or their return to Japan will be disrupted."

He said he'd asked around looking for Japanese bands with members who have all been triple vaccinated, and found that not many bands qualified, other than Stone Leek.

Yoon said he plans to help bring another punk band to Korea later this year. "But I don't know what the entry and departure situation will be," he said.

Visit stoneleek.bandcamp.com to hear the band, and fb.com/victimrecordsnet for more information about the tour and the compilation.