It’s a heavy weekend in Cambodia – alongside the Punkocalypse Festival in Siem Reap, Oscar’s on the Corner in Phnom Penh presents Wasted Laika on tour from China, supported by local band Radioactive Deathmonkey. Wasted Laika founder and leader singer Tu Junnan was good enough to answer some of LengPleng’s questions.
LengPleng is always interested in a band’s origin myth. How did Wasted Laika come to be, and what is the story behind the name?
Let me quote directly from our bio: ‘With the stray dog Laika aboard, the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 launched into space on November 3, 1957, the 40th anniversary of October Revolution. Laika was then killed by overheating on the fourth Earth orbit. The following year when the Soviet Union recovered the spacecraft, Laika was reduced to ashes in the atmosphere.’ Wasted Laika is a Chinese rock band of five carefree drinkers. Formed on campus, they loaf around in society. None have steady jobs, always struggling to eat.’
Me and Tanghua, the guitarist, met in Beijing Normal University, at first none of us ever thought about forming a band or writing original songs, just hung around and got drunk and passed out with loud music in the rehearsal room which we used as a temporary dormitory as well. Why don’t we write songs by our own? One day this idea came to my mind. Several months later we got our first show in a bar, played four songs. The first time I read Laika’s story I realized something within there was just what I felt and tried to express. ‘Wasted’ was a pun: getting wasted everyday as our way of life and the lives being wasted by the system.
Do you have a genre affiliation or tendency? For Cambodian live music fans, what should they expect from your shows?
Not really. At first we were always described as a garage punk band, but we never care about genre all the time actually. Every member of Wasted Laika has his own taste and sometime it could be very different. Also quote directly from the bio: ‘The band is known for explosive and passionate live performances, witty and twisted lyrics, and a strong DIY spirit. Musical style undefined – garage punk base, exploring beautiful, touching, quirky sounds. Using intricate guitar rock to support poetic, incisive lyrics.’ For Cambodian live music fans I guess the main problem is the lyrics, we sing in Chinese, and write it in a quite unique way, but also that’s what I expect most, because the emotion the feeling won’t lie. I wonder what will Cambodian audience feel in our songs while the lyrics are all strange to them.
You are based in Beijing – what is the scene like there? What opportunities do you have for touring within China and beyond? Where else are you playing on this tour?
I’ve been living in Beijing for 10 years, the scene changed a lot these years. Though everyone from everywhere of everytime would say the old time is always the good time but as for Beijing，I think it’s true. This city used to be very open and energetic, musicians from all over the world met here, so many bands, so many places of every size, every night every week you could always find a show you want to see. For many reasons , this city changed and hard to see a so-called revival. Beijing is still the center of indie music in China, as a young musician or a music fan, it’s still a good (and harsh) choice for you which many opportunities there, but it’s going down and down. Scenes of many cities in southern China is getting more interesting.
On this tour we play in four countries, 16 cities – ten in southern China and six in South East Asia including Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.
Where can we sample your music?
Spotify and Apple Music, we have 1 EP and 2 albums. As it’s our first overseas tour, we didn’t have enough materials on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, you know in China they’re not emm…legal? haha. Anyway we still put some videos on them.
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