At the merch stand at any Sailor Honeymoon show, you’ll find t-shirts emblazoned with a tongue-in-cheek statement: “Korean girls invented punk rock not England.” A nod to the iconic (if less geographically specific) shirt Kim Gordon wore in the nineties, it embodies the spirit behind this ferociously fun new punk band – playful but ready to reckon with the outdated attitudes and stereotypes embedded in our world.
“The idea that music has to come from a certain place and be a certain way is something we definitely want to challenge,” drummer and singer Abi Raymaker says, sitting across from NME in the corner of a bustling Shoreditch cafe. “The fact we’re Korean and not making K-pop is the same as [us not being] English and making English-rooted music. It doesn’t matter anymore – not that it ever really did – but people are so patriotic about, ‘This music is from here’.”
Sailor Honeymoon might have formed in Seoul in 2022, but their roots spread worldwide. Their label, Good Good 굿굿 Records, was formed in collaboration with the London-based producer Luke Smith and A&R Russell Crank, while Raymaker grew up in the US before moving to South Korea. While working on a video project at the music venue Senggi Studio, she met guitarist Shin Zaeeun, who was doing some techno DJ sets there. At first, they were both too shy to chat to each other – “Zaeeun was so cool, I was too scared to talk to her,” Raymaker laughs – but became closer when they both began jamming together with other local female musicians, including singer-songwriter Meaningful Stone, who became the band’s first bassist, and indie-pop artist HUNJIYA.
Those jam sessions started without any preconceived notions or grand ambitions. “We just wanted to have fun and a space where no one was judging us,” Raymaker explains. “The first couple of sessions we had were just a lot of screaming, laughing and cursing – very ridiculous – and switching instruments and doing whatever we wanted.” Although Shin, Meaningful Stone and HUNJIYA had all made their own music for a while, those jams were a revelation for Raymaker, who had only dabbled in other projects before. “[I felt] the genuine joy of playing that kind of music for almost the first time. Our first jam was the most fun thing I’ve ever done.”
Slowly, those moments of screaming random thoughts into the microphone became real songs, accelerated by an offer to play at the inaugural edition of Seoul indie festival, Block Party. With no more than a month to prepare, they planned four covers and wrote four original songs. Among them were the band’s first two singles, ‘Cockroach’ and ‘Bad Apple’, which provoked the same headbanging, air-punching reaction as their versions of ‘Rebel Girl’ and ‘Molly’s Lips’.
As they began writing songs – inspired as much by The Ramones and Bikini Kill as by Korean artists like Soumbalgwang, Slant and Seoul’s electronic scene – they realised they were creating something that challenged both the pristine nature of the music Korea is often associated with, and the expectations of perfection that are placed on women in Korean society – and further afield.
“I don’t mean this in a bad way, but none of us are necessarily the typical Korean woman,” Raymaker says carefully. “We’re all messy people to some degree, and none of us have ever been into those kinds of spaces where you have to be perfect.” Rather than Sailor Honeymoon – who are now completed by rock soloist TOMYO on bass – be a “conscious rebellion”, she reasons it is “more just getting a chance to express ourselves in an environment that doesn’t always have those opportunities open”.
So far, the band’s singles have exhibited that same playful but challenging energy as their merch. ‘Cockroach’ introduced them with a punchy, dynamic tale of trying to get rid of the titular pest, while the stomping ‘Bad Apple’ tackles the realisation a friend is actually kind of a bigot in a metamorphic punk anthem. They’ll continue that streak on their upcoming debut EP, due later this year, which will include the spiky ‘PMS Police’, the confrontational ‘Fuck Yourself’, and more.
The latter, which tells a cheating ex, “Go fuck yourself / I’m gonna fuck you up”, has become an incendiary part of Sailor Honeymoon’s gigs. “Since the summer, we’ve been calling girls [in the audience] to get on stage and dance with us,” Raymaker smiles. “If we have instruments, we’ll give them to them or if not, we’ll just let them bang on stuff and run around.” The idea was inspired by Raymaker seeing British band Anteros at SXSW a few years ago: “The singer dragged me up, and I didn’t wanna go, but it ended up being super fun.”
Whether in London, Seoul, or elsewhere, Sailor Honeymoon hope they can build a community around their music and the Korean independent music scene in general. Last year, they threw a holiday party where friends and fans could hang out, take part in a costume contest and white elephant gift exchange, and gear up for Christmas together. “We really try to invite people in,” says Raymaker, noting that they want to pay forward the inspiration, help and friendship they’ve received from others.
“If the first person who let me use a practice room or let me use their guitar hadn’t done that, I never would have made music at all. If we’re able to make a community where we can encourage other people – especially women around us – to make music or just see that it’s easier than you think, that’s really meaningful to us.”
Sailor Honeymoon’s new single ‘Bad Apple’ is out now via PIAS
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