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| Singaporean punk band Iman's League |
By Jon Dunbar
Iman's League, a Singaporean punk band, will start a three-day tour to Korea, Friday, performing in Daejeon, Gwangju and Seoul.
Iman's League become the first punk band from Singapore to win Best Band and Best Song (Singapore) at the Anugerah Planet Muzik (APM) Awards on Oct. 9, honoring music makers from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
"I guess mainstream culture is slowing accepting underground music in Singapore, but it's still hard for mainstream listeners to accept our kind of music," said Nuriman (Iman) Bin Mohd Nor, frontman of Iman's League, who admitted they even received hate mail from pop fans after sweeping the APMs.
Last year, the group shared the stage with Seoul punk band, Whatever That Means (WTM), during their Southeast Asian tour. WTM frontman Jeff Moses took a liking to Iman's League and decided to bring them here under his promotion label World Domination, Inc. (WDI).
"They just seemed so excited to be on stage and playing their music for everyone," said Moses. "I know that might seem obvious and like something you could say about any band, but there was just something more sincere with Iman's League. They had a huge amount of energy and just plain joy while playing."
Inspired by Japanese bands such as Dustbox and Totalfat and American bands NOFX and No Use for a Name, Iman started his band as a solo acoustic act in 2007. After recording his first album in 2011, he brought on friends Lal (bass) and Anhar (drums) for live performances.
They've since released two more albums and toured Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan. Their 2013 single "Nafas Terakhir" (Last Breath) spent 20 weeks on local charts. Next, Iman and his band turn their sights toward Korea, where they will debut their latest recording, "Destiny" on the three-day tour with WTM.
The two bands will visit Daejeon Friday, joining local punk band Burning Hepburn for a show at Club Mustang. On Saturday, they hit Gwangju's Club Boojik with local skatepunks BettyAss and pop-punk Monkey Pee Quartet as well as Seoul's Full Garage and Daegu's Mr. Headbutt. Then Sunday they return to Seoul for a show with Full Garage and the Kitsches at Channel 1969.
"I'm excited about having Iman's League, BettyAss and Full Garage all on the same bill," said Jeff. "They're all skatepunk but each really shows off different aspects of the genre."
"Our intention of touring is to make new friends and learn the culture of the countries we visit, and also the local underground scene there," said Iman. "We also want to spread our music to other parts of the world but most importantly we want to make lots of new friends along the way."
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