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“Extreme metal, extreme people is everywhere. Don’t lose your faith and stay brutal! Hail from Viet Nam!” – Trung, of Wu’u
Hey, you. Yeah, you. Do you realize how fucking spoiled you are? With your high-speed internet connection, your smartphone, your surgically straightened teeth, with an organic grocery store on every corner, and a government that busies itself blowing up everything in sight but generally leaves you well enough alone? (Unless you decide to “occupy” “their” land in the name of freedom… but that’s another story.)
You’re pretty lucky, kid, but no, that’s not enough for you. You’re pissed off. You can’t afford college, can’t find a job, can’t figure out why the girl or guy you like doesn’t care about your near-complete collection of Agathocles 7-inches. You feel alienated by the mainstream, misunderstood by your dad – “disenfranchised” is probably the word, but you’re not too clear on the definition. Either way, you’re not happy, so what do you do? What’s your grand gesture, your Great American Novel, your fist in the face of god?
You start a fucking grindcore band – and now you feel a little better.
Imagine that scenario playing out against an entirely different backdrop. The government takes none too kindly to Western influences, let alone the godless, unnervingly dark exterior of extreme metal. You’re cut off from the global metal community, at least as far as the touring/festival circuit goes, but you’ve still got that internet connection, and a helluva lot more reasons to be pissed. You form your own scene, patch together your own recording gear, write your own songs, and draw from the bands that you like, free of any input from foreign genre police. You start that fucking grindcore band, and you make it the best damn grindcore band that Vietnam has ever seen. And you name it Wu’u. - Kim Kelly
Wừu is :
Trung (Siu Bleh) – Guitar
Hoang (Y Voyh) – Vocals
Khoi (Ia Koi) – Vocals
Pi (Kpak Klong) – Bass
An (Nub) – Drums
When and where did Wu’u form? What does your band name mean?
Trung, Wu’u guitarist:
We formed January this year. The band name is taken from Bok Wuu, a local hero in Gia Lai providence, where I was born. He fought for his brothers and the village during the war between Viet Nam and France. He got caught and was tortured three times but he never said a word. Last time [he was caught], he was killed, with just one eyeball left. But he still kept the secret about the barracks. That’s why he became a big hero deep in the hearts of everyone.
What brought the members together? Had you guys played in other punk or metal bands previously?
We played together for a long time before this happened. But we were in different bands. I play in Disgusted (death metal), Khoi plays in Multiplex (metalcore), Pi plays in Co-exist (melodic/core), An and Hoang play in Omerta (old-school death metal). We hang out all the time, because, you know, the metal scene here is kind of small, we all know about each other from different bands. And thank the lord, we all love extreme metal. That’s why we all have the same interest in grindcore.
What is the metal/punk scene like in Vietnam? Who are the most popular bands, labels, and distros, and how does living with Vietnam’s government and culture affect them?
It’s kind of small, as I said. There’s around 10 extreme bands here and around 20 bands play some popular rock or mainstream metal. I think the most popular band is Da Vang, a progressive metal band formed in 1991. Not any label exists here. Maybe only mine, Bloody Chunks Records, a small studio record label for metal bands around the city, but the products are just free to download – we don’t sell much so maybe we can’t call ourselves a record label. Vietnamese people are still afraid of this kind of music. Black, death, brutal, grindcore is still something that can’t be understood by them. Just a small community with 100 to 200 people in Ho Chi Minh City know it well and enjoy the gigs.
What is it like to be a grindcore fan in Ho Chi Minh City? How difficult is it to get your hands on Western music, especially underground metal?
I got some records from my friend 10 years ago through post office transfer. It was kind of hard getting those CDs at the time. But now with the internet, we can find anything. To me, I like CDs more than mp3. But after 2001, internet really killed the CD in Viet Nam, so now everyone downloads and downloads every day. I can tell you that there’s no difficulty at all in getting our hands on Western music. Back in the ‘80 or ’90s, we had some big metal coffee shops here, we knew about Sepultura, Suffocation, Slayer [etc.] at the same time as you guys from the West. But it’s really underground! Some students sent CDs back to their home and the others just spread it out into the community.
Do you ever run into problems with your families or the authorities because of the kind of music you play?
No. They let us do anything we want. Just don’t try to use drugs or kill anyone and everything will be fine, hehe.
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How did you first become interested in extreme metal? What were the first metal/punk/grind records you got, and where did you get them?
I heard Metallica in 1998 and began to like metal music since that time. In ‘99 I found Cannibal Corpse and was really attracted by them. Everything is so gory and violent at the time. I heard them for a long time and when I saw them in a live DVD from around 2001, I say, “Wow, this is fucking cool, I wanna be like them in the future.” After that, I grew my hair, learned to play guitar. That’s my story. The first metal CD I got was Metallica’s Black Album as a gift from my uncle. The first grind CD I got was Napalm Death – Inside the Torn Apart. I bought it on a summer vacation to Ho Chi Minh City, when I was in high school. Made me wonder for a while, hehe.
When Wu’u plays live, what kind of venues do you usually play – bars, clubs, or DIY spots? What is a live Wu’u performance like? Have you ever been shut down by the police?
We usually do it ourselves in bars or clubs around the city. We perform craziness in normalcy. Actually, we like to concentrate on the music quality more than anything else. Sometimes the vocalists jump and mosh or lay down on the floor, or dance some discotheque melody 
). That’s all. We’ve never been shut down by the police.
What is the meaning of your album title, 888?
In Viet Nam, a person who talks too much will be called a “8 person”. And we think we got too many songs about too many problems here, so maybe we are “8″ too ). And beside that, some other band used the number 666 too much, and we feel ashamed about that. So why not… 888! Our humor, our style!
What were your major influences while writing the songs for 888?
Lots of influences! I like old style, like Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Cancer, Solstice… The others like new styles like nu metal, metalcore, deathcore. So I think, why don’t we bring them together in one song? That’s the way we write the riffs for the songs. A band doesn’t mean everybody has the same style, so I don’t want to make anyone feel bored. As the main riff writer, I want everything to be fresh, humorous and extreme! You can’t go on the same way for every song. That will kill your passion. And at the beginning, we agreed to make this band become a funny, “non-style” extreme band, to fulfill every passion of every member. That’s why sometimes you hear dance elements or acoustic guitar in there, hehe!
What are your lyrics about? What are you guys fighting for?
It’s about the people we meet every day. Some of them make us want to spit on them, because they’re liars, stupid, hypocrites… or anything we don’t like. Besides those, some songs we wrote about the problems in the system in a funny eye sight [funny point of view]. Or some, just a sentence about something, such as the song called “Khong le tao danh may ngay tai day” (“Do you want I beat you up right here?”). The vocalist said this to the bassist in the morning when they argued about something. I heard that and I wrote the song for them right in the afternoon. Maybe, after playing that song together, they will love each other more than before, hehehe.
How did you guys hook up with Grind To Death and end up working with Grindcore Karaoke?
Facebook. We posted some demos and videos. Then Alex came to us. Thanks a lot for that. He helped us to find out about Grindcore Karaoke. I think they’re cool and we did it!
What do the members of Wu’u do when they’re not playing grind? Are you guys involved in any other bands or projects?
We played in another project called Wind Slider, an alternative/punk band. We use this band to earn money around some bars, clubs in the city a couple of nights every week. Beside that, I’m a DJ at a rock coffee shop, An is a graffiti artist, Pi and Khoi are still students, Hoang is a chef.
What are your plans for the rest of 2011? Any new releases or live gigs coming up?
We’ll have some new songs this year and will film a video clip for a song which hasn’t been released before. About gigs, sure, some DIY gigs are still waiting. But we are trying to find chances to play overseas too. That’ll be great if we can make it!
Last words: Extreme metal, extreme people is everywhere. Don’t lose your faith and stay brutal! Hail from Viet Nam!
Keep the faith, indeed.
. . .
HEAR WU’U
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Wu’u – Live Video
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Wu’u – Di Dao Pho
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BUY WU’U
Grindcore Karoake (Digital Download)
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Gimmick Grind Band Is Gimmicky.
Hmm. You know, not too sure the Vietnamese govt actually cares a whole lot about the West’s supposedly “godless” influence.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=92324
The first paragraph of this almost made me not read the entire article. I’m pretty sick of every “edgy” writer thinking it’s forward thinking or new to tell an American audience how spoiled we are. Don’t even get me started on the naivete of the punk rock politics.
Aside from that, as much as I like this band, the interview was utterly uninteresting.
I really liked how the author signs her name to this piece THREE times. Once in a graphic, once after the intro you hate so much, and then finally at the bottom – just in case we didn’t know.
This band rules and this interview is awesome!
Multinational grinding lunatics!!
What qualifies you to give interviews? No, really. A pretty self-righteous introduction that misses the point completely.
Feeling a sting of guilt there, Girtus? As any patriot would know, criticism is worth far more than praise…
You guys should probably take note that I wasn’t serious in this intro, at least not in a serious judgmental peace punk white guilty way. I have a smartphone too. It’s not some grand societal commentary. It was intended as a tongue in cheek intro; guess y’all didn’t catch that part. Sorry if it came across self-righteous – it was genuinely just written as a set-up to emphasizing how awesome Wu’u’s achievements are. Which is the important part anyway.
And Girtus? Rather than defending myself or snapping back at your shitty comment, I’ll let my writing (and nine years of published experience) speak for itself. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. I don’t see what you gain from making mean little comments on a messageboard.
Hey Kim Kelly, no worries. When you place your work on a pubic site, you are prone to the public – responding. The fact that i think your writing is self-rightous and smells of posturing insecurity shouldn’t detract you from writing, it is my own personal opinion. When i read writing, i look for intention, and point; yours lives under a moss of misdirected references and empty commentary on i’m not sure what exactly? Your questions are ok but i find your introduction wholly disadvantageous and quite frankly insulting to the common reader of this site. But like i said, it is just my opinion; but awaiting strictly praise from ones writing seems a bit counter-educational. That is the only thing i seek to gain [at least by your stream of logic] – good writing that i like reading…
“it was genuinely just written as a set-up to emphasizing how awesome Wu’u’s achievements are. ”
So why didn’t you just write about that? Instead of making some sort of parodic intro about young [presumably American?] kids forming grindcore bands? The contrast is already quite obvious.
Don’t underestimate your readers.
Sorry if it sounded mean, it was just honest.
Hope you have a super day.
=)
Hey, Kim, I appreciate that you commented back. I take back the first part of my comment. I don’t know if it’s because the sarcasm just didn’t transfer well, or if I was just too dumb to see it, but I apologize regardless. Still being totally honest, I didn’t find the interview interesting, but I’m probably in the minority on this one.
Also, I still occasionally listen to the raw primitive black metal podcast that you did for this site ages ago, haha.
yeah, the sarcasm didn’t transfer too well. 2nd paragraph would have been my suggested start.
@Watt Par: I think Jess Blumensheid did that podcast. Judging by her taste in music, though, Kim should definitely do one in the near future.
Oh, wow, you’re totally right. Haha, I have NO IDEA why I thought it was Kim. Wow.
People are so touchy. It’s just solid writing…or not apparently. Yes I know how fucking spoiled I am.
These dudes should do an East Asian Grind tour with Wormrot and 324. That would be fucking ace.
Wừu Tang Clan. That is all.
Given that the band say they’ve never been shut down by the police and the authorities let them do what they want, I’d say the “tongue in cheek” (ahem) intro totally misses the point. What are these “amazing” difficulties they’ve had to overcome? By their own admission they’ve had plenty of access to the internet to discover music and discuss music with others. It doesn’t seem like they’ve “overcome” jack shit – certainly no more than any other grind band out there. If anything, they benefit from being from Taiwan – it gives them a unique selling point that grabs people’s attention.
The article clearly states these dudes are from Vietnam.
Yeah, I fucked up.
Vietnam… but I echo these same sentiments. This bit:
“Do you ever run into problems with your families or the authorities because of the kind of music you play?
No. They let us do anything we want. Just don’t try to use drugs or kill anyone and everything will be fine, hehe.”
Negates this bit:
“Imagine that scenario playing out against an entirely different backdrop. The government takes none too kindly to Western influences, let alone the godless, unnervingly dark exterior of extreme metal.”
Grindcore ain’t really my thing, but I’ll call this the “Wormrot effect”–grind bands from East Asia on the radar. But fuck it, more power to them.
I think that asking the band a bit more about their ideology – if they have one – would have offered more insight into this interview. Also, perhaps if you asked them more about the government’s attitudes towards the “Western” influences you’ve mentioned in your introduction?
Other than that, it’s an interesting topic, Kim!
i’m not really sure how the introduction connects with the interview, other than placing them geographically. The calling out of the perceived typical IO readers privelege in comparison to Wu’u’s existence isn’t really demonstarted in the body of the interview and just makes it look like a “wow, how weird, a grind band from Vietnam, American bands don’t play there, they’re cut off from ‘real’ grindcore…”
Nice job Kim. Since someone else is using my absurdly generic handle I’m going to start using this one. Cheers.
Judging by how the previous comments were written, I already knew that wasn’t you.
Spit on those who pose (as J.M. Norton)!
I lived in Vietnam from 2009-10, and to say that what this band is doing is completely outside of mainstream Vietnamese culture is an understatement– Vietnam is very socially conservative and believe in a far stricter social order/appearance than many of their neighbors, especially compared to Thailand or Laos (and while not immediately neighboring, Indonesia and Singapore is absolutely crazy in comparison). I never saw or heard of anyone into any thing resembling extreme metal when I was living there (Korean pop is king); that said I was also situated in Hanoi which is a lot more conservative, being the center of gov’t and having a historically less Western influence than their more relatively freewheeling friends in the South. But even in my time in Saigon I didn’t see any of metal/punk influence (I did see a dude riding a motorbike with a small Anti Cimex patch at one point outside Danang, which had me pointing it out excitedly to my less than impressed girlfriend). As for people giving Kelly shit for his intro, there’s no doubt about it — the authorities over there are far more repressive than anything we’re used to in the West; it’s by no means easy doing anything outside the mainstream there, or anything AT ALL that could be construed as some sort criticism of the social/political hierarchy there. They are putting away democracy advocates/social malcontents and throwing away the key all the time over there– which might explain the cheery tone to some of their answers btw, as you don’t last long saying “goddamn fucking government is always giving us shit, dude. Fuck the police.” The last time I heard, the gov’t took down facebook as it was a negative influence on the “youth” (although the always inventive Vietnamese kids figured out a way around that pretty damn quick). Anyway, the fact that these guys exist at all is cause for celebration. And frankly, I’m really excited to hear more from them and the S. Vietnamese scene and will be checking it out more. I wish I had known about them when I was over there. Thanks for the interview.
listening to the 888 album, the weird/silliness they throw into the equation doesn’t detract from the fact that they are fucking brutal as all get-out. there are plenty of gimmicky grind bands out there but these dudes stand a cut above most of em, despite the occasionally overlong/bad interludes. i give em credit for being heavy as shit where it counts.
Ignor the hater
can we collectively agree to refer to the post-cosmo transitional period as the ‘era of the whining comments’?
if you find yourself offended when confronted with your state of privilege, you should probably stop and reflect on that for a minute.
Yep.