'Death Punk Disco' band 18Fevers to infect UK
Fevers / Courtesy of Blair Kitchener
By Jon Dunbar
COVID-19 is fading into the background, but is the world ready for 18Fevers?
The Seoul-based band is about to embark on its first U.K. tour, where it will play four cities ― London, Brighton, Birmingham and Liverpool ― before showing up at Rebellion Festival in Blackpool for a set on Friday. The band, which features both Korean members and Americans, is touring with
who will play a few dates in Europe first. And 18Fevers also just released its latest album, “
,” and a new music video for the song “Gate Keeper.” Also, its own beer, though that's unlikely to make the journey across the world.
“Back in 2019 I submitted
to play and got the invite just as COVID-19 was breaking,” Mathew Nolan, the band's American bassist, told The Korea Times. “Needless to say, that year's Rebellion didn't happen but we didn't know that for a while so I was able to build a relationship with the organizers. By the time the pandemic cleared up I had moved on to a new band but they told me I was welcome when we were ready. And we are definitely ready now.”
Christmas Kwon, the band's Korean vocalist and guitarist, has led the charge, showing up in England a week early so she can enjoy her first visit to the country. “It's my first time visiting the U.K., and I'm excited about everything!” she said. “Going to the U.K., the birthplace of punk, feels significant. I hope to make many good friends there!”
The tour narrowly avoided a serious pitfall a couple of weeks before, after a car cut her off in traffic on her motorcycle and she wiped out while trying to avoid it. Fortunately, nothing was broken, but for the “Tour Cheer Up Party” show at Club Steel Face on July 7, she performed most of the set while sitting down.
Fevers vocalist-guitarist Christmas Kwon performs while seated due to an injury at Club Steel Face, July 7. Courtesy of Jinny Park
“Recently, I got a lot better with the cast being removed and my limp has improved significantly,” she said, “so I don't think there will be a big problem in the U.K.!”
The band will be accompanying Rumkicks, the all-girl Korean punk band that played the festival last year.
“I've been a personal fan of Yeawon ever since she sang and played guitar in the band About Jane,” Christmas said. “It feels like we're a perfect match as sister bands.”
According to Nolan, Rumkicks frontwoman Yeawon played a big role in the formation of 18Fevers. “She actually encouraged me to meet with Christmas and encouraged YuHee to join the band when we needed a guitarist,” he said. “We always joke that Yeawon created 18Fevers.”
The band added YuHee, vocalist of the band Veins, as lead guitarist last September.
“She has changed us for the better,” drummer Garik Luallin said. When she joined, her style and range fit perfectly with the sound we needed. Sometimes she plays straightforward and melodic, other times it's noisy and experimental. She's the great spice that rounds out the flavors of the 18Fevers pasta party platter.”
“She's our darkness and our melody maker. She brings a bit more raunchy rock n roll influence to the table that I always wanted to have,” Nolan said. “At our first rehearsal when we met her for the first time she introduced herself as a vampire. So we've called her our vampire since then. Actually I believe she said, 'I'm a vampire and I have a hangover.'”
When asked if she really claims to be a vampire, Nolan added, “I've seen her eat garlic.”
Ahead of the tour, the band on July 13 released “Death Punk Disco,” a five-song EP presenting a couple of updated recordings with the current lineup, and three more first recordings.
“The name 'Death Punk Disco' was coined among us as a half-joke, but now it seems to actually represent our musical style quite well,” Christmas said.
“We wanted to differentiate ourselves from the usual bands here that just call themselves punk while only sharing minor aspects of the genre,” Nolan said. “Also it's a notice that we want to explore many genres like postpunk, dance punk, disco, funk and maybe even hip-hop.”
Nolan considers 18Fevers part of a new wave of punk bands in Korea, one that doesn't deliver vague messages or stick to sappy topics.
“Punk is about calling out the bullshit in life and society,” he said. “If you aren't rustling jimmies can you call yourself a punk band?”
The first song on the album, “Save Your Venom,” was originally recorded with Zhong from Sino Hearts while he was stranded outside his own home country due to pandemic rules. The new recording has been relabeled “Vampire Version” to note YuHee's contribution. According to Nolan, the song is “about how jealousy becomes so toxic and people feel like they have to inject you with it, maybe in a bid to make themselves feel better.”
“Never Fall” has a similar theme, with Christmas wailing “We never fall” repeatedly. According to Christmas, Nolan gave her that line and she wrote the whole song around it. “We all felt that there was always someone trying to antagonize us or bring us down for no good reason,” she said.
In “Let Me Live,” she sings “I can drive a tank / I can shoot a gun / I can fight for my country / I can kill a man / I can throw a grenade / So why can't I fight for my country?”
The song is dedicated to a transgender soldier who took her own life in 2021 after being dishonorably discharged from the military.
“The song is dedicated to
, criticizing the ongoing discrimination in South Korea, a country still boiling with prejudice,” said Christmas, who identifies as pansexual.
“'Let Me Live' is at its core an anti-transphobia song inspired by Byun Heesoo's tragic story but also commentary on how society tells us to be ourselves and chase our dreams but only in the way it sees fit,” Nolan added.
The band also recently released a
music video for “Gate Keeper,”
filmed with a big crowd inside the pretty small Tom's Pizza near western Seoul's Hongik University.
It's not the band's only dive into the local F&B industry, as Chillhops Brewing has collaborated with the band to release two branded beers, both Triple New England hazy IPAs with an alcohol by volume of 10 percent.
Nolan said that collaboration came out of a conversation he had when meeting Chillhops head brewer Nick Lennan, when he was ― unsurprisingly ― drunk.
“We started talking about music and he mentioned he had wanted to do a collab with some underground musicians. I was pretty buzzed so I dove right in and mentioned my wife Jenikah is a fantastic designer. Chill Hops makes fantastic beer but they're also on the right side when it comes to social issues so it was a
moment,” he said. “I always wanted to do something like this with my bands and we pulled it off. 18Fevers has been very good at pulling off my dreams.”
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