Ska-punk supergroup Mutiny's fictional universe expands to Korea

U.S. ska-punk supergroup Mutiny includes members who have played for Voodoo Glow Skulls, Death By Stereo, Dissidente, Adolescents and Manic Hispanic, among others. Courtesy of Mutiny

"At the dawn of the 22nd century, after generations of harm, Earth struck back against her abusers. Rising seas swallowed entire coastal cities and ushered in an endless onslaught of storms."

This is the introduction to "Prologue I: This is a Mutiny," a graphic novel included with the ska-punk supergroup Mutiny's debut mini-album released last year. Their upcoming mini-album, now up for pre-order on Ska Punk International, follows up the story with a zine set in the same universe, featuring a couple of Korean musicians well-known in the country's underground punk and hardcore scene.

Mutiny features musicians coming from well-known U.S. bands, including Voodoo Glow Skulls, Death By Stereo, Dissidente, Adolescents and Manic Hispanic.

"Eventually I think we want to just be one giant sentient skacore blob created from all of the misfit punk/hardcore/ska/skacore bands from all around the world," Eric Fazzini, the band's sax player, told The Korea Times. "That's the most exciting part for me — the fact that everything we do seems to add another member or members to our little universe to expand on and just grow the entire project/band."

Mutiny's musical narrative occupies a futuristic dystopia that, as of 2024, doesn't sound all that implausible.

"The world our songs are about has two major factions: the elite who left Earth when faced with impending planetary disaster, and those who were left behind," said Chris Ruckus, vocalist/guitarist of Mutiny. "The majority of the people who stayed on Earth work as indentured servants for the elite that left them behind, in exchange for safety from the mega-storms, scavengers and cannibal cults on Earth. The resistance group helping to free those indentured servants uses the cover as an in-universe band called Mutiny to gather intel and weaponry to fight the oppressors."

Ruckus, also a member of the political punk band Dissidente, explained how Mutiny's fictional universe came into being, after immersing himself in the news to write political punk songs.

"Honestly, I was getting so depressed writing about children getting shot at school and endless wars waged for profit," he said. "I thought if we had our own fictional story, we could write about all of the same topics, but not be reduced to tears when singing. Because, unlike real life, we get to control this narrative. And that means the good guys can win in the end."

The latest installment in the Mutiny saga is pending release, hopefully in time for Mutiny's upcoming Seoul tour.

"Everything is in the hands of printers and pressing plants, so it's up to them now," Ruckus said.

Titled “Avant Guardian Vol. 1," it will come in the form of a "mini-zine" set within the story, featuring album reviews and ads from the universe, along with a flyer for a concert that has yet to happen.

Ruckus says it will "explain how two children of the elite who have lived their entire lives off-Earth, come to find that they have been lied to and that life does still exist on Earth. This becomes the catalyst for the entire rest of the narrative."

The details aren't fully revealed yet, but it appears these two elite children could be Christmas Kwon of the Korean punk band 18Fevers, and Lee Hee-yeon from local hardcore band Turn For Our — or they could just as easily be the zombies. The two sing vocals on a Korean-language version of Mutiny's latest single, "O Salutaris."

"Christmas and Heeyeon absolutely crushed their version of the songs," Fazzini said. "One of my favorite things about our band is being able to ask other very talented artists to be a part of it and being able to listen to our music as fans. When other artists come in that have immense talent and do such an amazing job, it allows us/me to be able to experience our music from a fan's perspective. That's my absolute favorite thing about everything that we do is creating a unique version that gives not only fans options and puts eyes on other bands but that we get to be related to others with a similar goal and just expose people to new bands in the process."

The song is written from the perspective of a cannibal cult that formed on Earth after the elites' exodus. Trapped in a mine collapse, the cannibals succumb to their own paranoia, justifying killing and eating their own for self-preservation. "Had they worked together to escape, they could have fought back against the mining company that mandated unsafe working conditions," Ruckus said. "But as is too often human nature, the immediacy of paranoia begets violence, and they turned on the very same workers who were sent to rescue them."

He explained that the song is about class solidarity and human nature. "How often we see people hurt their peers in the same position as themselves, rather than those in power who would pit the lower class against each other," he said.

The guest vocals by Christmas and Hee-yeon, as well as the upcoming three-day Korea tour, came about in 2023, before the fictional disaster.

After the interview but right before deadline, Mutiny released a second Korean-language version of one of their songs, this time "Monarch."

Fazzini, a former (or off-and-on) member of Voodoo Glow Skulls, was at Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, U.K., when he bumped into Mathew Nolan of Korean punk band 18Fevers, playing on the same day.

"I'm not sure how we struck up a conversation, but we sort of became instant buddies," Fazzini said.

Plans fell through last year to bring Voodoo Glow Skulls to Korea during their Japan tour. They stayed in touch, and he sent Nolan some of the Mutiny stuff and asked half-jokingly, "Korea later this year?"

"Then it became more like a 'well why not? Let's do it!' and he just took the ball and ran with it," Fazzini said.

The poster for Mutiny's three-day Seoul tour later this month / Courtesy of Victim Records

Mutiny will play three shows in Seoul, starting with Channel1969 on Friday, then Club Victim on Saturday and Club SHARP on Sunday. For the first two shows, they'll be with the Japanese bands Quikdead and Oweak. Korean openers over the three days include Sunn-Row & Deathood, Monkey Gang War, Ska Wakers, Cockrasher and God of Universe, with more likely announced soon.

"In the internet age, it's easy to see how small the world is," Ruckus said. "We watch in real time tragedies happening 10 thousand miles away while scrolling our phones on our lunch breaks. Pain is universal. But we don't often get to share that same joy of creation because of language barriers. In Mutiny, with every release, we make it a point to work with incredible musicians from all over the world to make our world smaller in a positive way. Yes, pain is universal, but so is music. So are stories."

Follow @thebandmutiny on Instagram for more information.