INTERVIEW: Amazing Myanmar Punk Band NO U TURN Discuss Their Start

INTERVIEW | No U Turn
MYANMAR
Punk Rock
Photos: Djavanshir Nico
https://www.facebook.com/nouturnpunkrock

It is always a pleasure to check out punk and hardcore bands from all over Asia for our website. We get a lot sent to us from the typical places like Indonesia and the Philippines, which is all great and of course speaks VOLUMES of how healthy the hardcore punk scenes are in places like that. But for us, it’s always those more “underdog” types of places that we get most excited about.

Myanmar punk band NO U TURN just released this phenomenal punk track and IMMEDIATELY got us hooked on the band:

We fell so in love with the song and the band that we had to hit them up for a quick interview! Go learn about your new favorite punk band from Myanmar!

UA: When you guys formed back in 2002, what were your main influences?
NO U TURN: When we started the band we were influenced by main stream bands mostly like Green Day, Blink 182, Rancid and The Ramones.

UA: In Myanmar, how did you hear about punk rock? Were CD’s available back then?
NUT: We grew up listening to cassette tapes (pirated copies). When we got internet in 2002 we explored more about punk music and we were into bands like Bad Religion, Pennywise and AFI (old music).

Debut Album Released in 2015

UA: How and why did you start the band? Was it easy to find members? Were there any Myanmar punk bands that inspired you?
NUT: Ye Ngwe Soe (frontman) and Eaiddhi (guitarist) met at a guitar school and we have shared the same music taste, so we decided to start a band. It wasn’t easy at all, especially to find a drummer. We have changed different bass and drum members. Since 2011, Yar Zar joined as a permanent bass player until now. And Ye Khine Oo joined shortly after we released the ‘Muu Yit Say(Drugs)’ album in 2018. Since then we are always the same line up. QUERY QUERY is the only band that inspired us the most.

UA: And what are your songs about? Anything political or more just every day topics about life?
NUT: We mostly writing about things that are happening around us. For example, a lot of our friends goes through drug and social problems. All these issues can be political sometimes. We also write about having fun playing punk music and its culture.

UA: When it comes to performing in Myanmar, is it easy to do? Do you guys get in trouble with the government or police?
NUT: There are not many venues to do concerts for bands like us. We cannot invest a lot of money since there are not many people who come to our shows and most of the kids who come to our shows cannot afford high ticket price so we keep the ticket price minimum. We usually play at small bars which we don’t need to rent the place and we pay only small amount for the sound system. That way we made a little bit of money left for us. Usually don’t have problems apart from noise complaints depending on venues. When you play at a small bar, you don’t a permit or anything from authority. The venues just need to have a license to do live music, that’s all. Nowadays we finish our shows early since everyone wants to be back home safely.

UA: About how many people attend these shows?
NUT: 50 to 100 depending on the line up. We usually do show with at least 4 or 5 bands and about every two months. JAM IT! is basically us founded by the singer and the guitarist in 2012 to showcase and promote underground bands like us.

UA: Oh! Your singer is who started Jam It Records? That’s great! It’s very cool to see the work that label is doing to help the community. Why did he start Jam It Records?
NUT: These bands not only need shows to play also need their music to be released. Either they don’t have enough money to record their album or most of them don’t know the process. So we try to support as much as we can with the recording, mxing/mastering and release the songs officially. They don’t need to post their songs on social media for free anymore. Now they’re making money from their physical sales and streaming even though it’s not much. And as JAM IT! we take percentage according to our agreements and use that profit into another project. So the system is like the artists supporting other artists.

UA: Sick! So what are the plans for No U Turn?
NUT: The recent release is from our ‘Unreleased Songs’ album which will release soon. We will release cassette tapes and digital streaming. So all the songs are old songs which we never released before, obviously. And we are still writing new materials for the new album.