INTERVIEW: From Bangladesh To Scottish Hardcore – Vocalist of RESIST Talks To Us About Life

INTERVIEW | Farhan
Vocalist
Scottish Hardcore Band RESIST

This amazing series continues today with a new instalment of documenting the small minority of Asians involved in UK hardcore. Today’s one is pretty exciting for us on a personal level because we don’t often get to hear from our Bangladeshi brothers and sisters. When this amazing human DM-ed us about being from Bangladesh but singing in the Scottish hardcore band RESIST, we got all sorts of excited.

Check out this dope interview and learn a little about life in Bangladesh.

Thanks, Farhan, for contacting us and taking the time to answer all these questions!

UA: Yo Farhan – nice to meet you! Let my readers know where you’re from, how long you’ve been here, and what band you’re currently in.
FARHAN: Good to meet you! My name’s Farhan, and I’m from Dhaka, Bangladesh. I’ve been living in Scotland for just over 2 years now, currently in a Glasgow-based hardcore band called Resist, where I’m the frontman/vocalist.

UA: Oh shit – you and I arrived about at the same time! What brought you here and how did you end up choosing Glasgow?
FARHAN: I was looking to do my higher studies abroad as opportunities are limited in Bangladesh. I kept options in other places in UK and EU, but Glasgow gave me a generous scholarship! It’s next to impossible to fund your studies here with a South Asian salary so the funding is really what brought me here!

UA: Hell yeah, that makes sense. And once you arrived, did you naturally gravitate to the hardcore scene? Like how did you find your way into the scene there? What was it like for you and how did you find your way into the Scottish hardcore scene?
FARHAN: I’ve always loved hardcore man. 80’s hardcore punk bands like Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, etc gave me purpose and direction at a time when I needed it the most during my early teen years. It’s only grown and evolved since then. I wasn’t even aware Glasgow had a hardcore scene until I came here – I stumbled upon a post for a hardcore show at the AUDIO LOUNGE and went on a whim a few weeks into living here. It was actually a Halloween show so you had people moshing dressed as all sorts of shit – I remember WREAKING JOY and HOUR OF REPRISAL had some really solid sets. Ended up finding a Facebook group called GHC dedicated to Glasgow Hardcore, where I put up a post asking if anyone needed a vocalist while putting up some stuff from my previous bands. Someone reached out and I joined a lineup which was then pretty metal-focused, and Resist evolved more or less from that lineup when the guitarist Joe and I decided we wanna play something more in the realm of hardcore.

UA: Cool cool – but let’s go back to your life in Bangladesh. This will be mad enlightening to many of my readers, including myself. How did you get into heavy music in Bangladesh? How old were you and what were the first bands that really “got” you?
FARHAN: Oh yeah heavy music actually has a fairly large following in Bangladesh. Popular acts like Metallica, Linkin Park and Iron Maiden were well known when I was growing up, and I think the very first time I heard anything heavy was either Metallica or some random nu metal track on WWE, probably when I was around 7 years old. I instantly gravitated towards it but we didn’t have internet back then and I spent all my parent’s money on video games instead of music CDs, so the real gateway was actually video games. GTA San Andreas, WWE SvR games and the early Tony Hawk’s Pro Skaters in particular were very instrumental, that’s when I felt like I had really found my thing. I got a nice little clusterfuck of heavy metal, grunge, punk and hardcore right from the get go!

UA: In Bangladesh was all that stuff easy to find/access?
FARHAN: Yeah you can find bootlegs for most things, real CDs are difficult to come by. Even if you found one they’d be horribly expensive and normal people wouldn’t be able to afford it. Physical media are, or at least were, largely for more popular metal bands though. When I finally got internet, that really provided the gateway into more obscure bands and subgenres.

UA: Yeah I remember that from when I used to visit Pakistan every summer. It was always copies of copies being actually sold in stores on Tariq Road, etc. So do you remember what was it about heavy music that hooked you?
FARHAN: Yeah we had music stores like that too – Fahim music and the shops in Bashundhara City mall are where I used to get mine. I think what hooked me to heavy music initially really was the aggression. My dad’s trained in Rabindrasangeet – very classical bangla music which is quite mellow and melodic. That’s what I grew up on so to hear something that was so fast and aggressive kinda blew me away at that age.

UA: Woah! You were raised in a musical household!?!? You might be the only south Asian I know with that background! So when you got into heavier stuff – what was your dad’s reaction?
FARHAN: Hahah yeah, my dad trained at Chhayanaut which is a well regarded institution in Dhaka for Rabindrasangeet. He never pursued it professionally because of how busy he was as a banker, but I would hear him practice with harmoniums and tablas on weekends. He’s probably my biggest supporter honestly, both my parents. We’re a Muslim family so it might sound odd to some, but they’ve always been very supportive of my creative ventures as long as I had my academics straight. They don’t really get heavy music or why I’m screaming so loud, but they appreciate the skill and dedication it requires. They’ve been to just about every show I’ve played back home.

UA: That is so sick on so many levels. Just the fact that they actually supported you at all is blowing my mind. Are you sure they’re south Asian??? Hahaha…So do you remember your first heavy show in Bangladesh you watched?
FARHAN: Hahah South Asian parents are full of surprises! Yeah I remember my first heavy show in Bangladesh quite well actually. I lived in London for a bit from 2008-2011 as my Dad temporarily worked at his bank’s UK branch. This is kinda the time when I got into extreme metal. Once we went back home, I made new friends at school and one of them went to all the underground death/black metal shows, which I didn’t even know existed at that time. I went with him to a Death tribute show, where a lot of the local bands played Death covers on Chuck Schuldiner’s death anniversary. It was a fantastic show, really got me interested to hear what original tracks from these bands sounded like. Funny enough, my first band’s full lineup was there too, some of whom I met for the first time at that show!

UA: Nice! A death tribute show in Bangladesh is probably going to blow a bunch of minds out here in the West when they read this! Do you remember who the bands were?
FARHAN: Yeah I remember members of POWERSURGE, NAFARMAAN and ABOMINABLE CARNIVORE being involved, among others! There’s still videos from that show on YouTube if anyone’s interested, look up “Scream Bloody Death Bangladesh”. But yeah, Bangladesh has had a lot of cool extreme metal bands over the years, and there’s new ones popping up all the time!

UA: There’s something about South Asia and their love for metal – not much of it transfers over to hardcore or punk. So you mentioned that you had a band in Bangladesh. Tell us about how that band came together – what style you ended up doing because I’m assuming up to this point in your life you weren’t into hardcore yet.
FARHAN: Oh I was definitely into hardcore but we just didn’t have a hardcore scene. I got into hardcore kinda the same time I got into metal through the Tony Hawk games and GTA – Black Flag was actually my favourite band at this time and continues being a huge influence on me. But yeah I’ve always been into all sorts of heavy music really, which is reflected in the 2 bands I’ve had in Bangladesh too. My first band was actually an atmospheric black metal band called TUNDRAUGHT, formed with friends from school and some of the guys I met at the Death show. The band had a lot of prog and death metal influences too, as most of us had a wide range of taste and preferences. We recorded a self-titled EP and ended up releasing it long after it was recorded in 2023 due to COVID and other personal circumstances getting in the way. Meanwhile, the bassist of this band and I formed KLON FX, a blackened hardcore, almost grindcore band, which, to my knowledge, is the first and only hardcore band in Bangladesh.

UA: What was it about the at specific Black Flag track that got you? For me, it want until I moved to the US and saw my first hardcore show before I truly got it.
FARHAN: It just felt very real to me. When I first heard Damaged and My War, it spoke to me on a deeply personal level. I also loved how it didn’t sound too polished or overdone, and it almost felt like you’re hearing them jam, which is a lot of 80s hardcore – it’s raw, emotional and very DIY. That’s really where my love of hardcore stems from.

UA: Tell me about how/when you started to dig deeper into hardcore.
FARHAN: So 80s LA hardcore is my favourite type of hardcore and continue to be. After discovering that I naturally gravitated towards a lot of the crossover thrash bands bands like Leeway, Suicidal Tendencies etc. too. To a lot of people’s surprise, I was never that into the 90s and early 2000s metallic hardcore bands which really defined the hardcore sound during this time, although Resist is closer sound-wise to that realm. I was getting my fill for chaotic music from mostly mathcore bands. It’s when I started watching early Hate5six videos that I really got dragged into hardcore again – sets from the likes of Turnstile, Jesus Piece, Soul Glo, Xibalba etc. had this crazy energy and I could feel a movement brewing even from halfway across the world in Bangladesh.

UA: Why do you think hardcore never caught on there?
FARHAN: In Bangladesh? I think it’s mostly because hardcore isn’t really mainstream music. To a degree, mainstream metal bands can eventually lead you to extreme metal acts as you dig deeper – which is kinda what happens in Bangladesh. It doesn’t lead you to hardcore necessarily but it very well may in the future, with a lot of hardcore bands now enjoying mainstream success.

UA: South Asia in general doesn’t gravitate towards hardcore or punk which is just so fascinating because a quick hop from Bangladesh you get to Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, etc where hardcore is so frickin enormous that there are full blown eco systems in place to support homegrown hardcore bands.
FARHAN: Yeah I really hope that changes in the future. The singles we’ve released with Klon Rx have gotten great responses from the Bangladeshi crowd and definitely got some of them more interested in hardcore. I know Nepal has NAINSOOK and India had Bay Fucked Collective and that’s all the hardcore bands in South Asia I can think of, which is wild considering the depth of talent involved. I’m sure it’ll make its way there eventually.

UA: Hahahaha you gotta get on Unite Asia more often bud – there are so many more hardcore bands from South Asia. How/why did your blackened hardcore band start up? Was it easy finding people? That’s always one of the biggest challenges in places where there isn’t much hardcore – trying to find band members.
FARHAN: It actually started off as a joke in my old band – the bassist Ronan and I were both into hardcore and wanted to do a side-project where we let out our frustrations with Klonopin and other benzos, often overlooked side-effects of pharmaceutical drugs, and he can write some nasty riffs over it. The premise was just that! I was working in the pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh and we have a huge problem with overprescription, and a lot of people suffer as a result – this is a whole ‘nother rabbit hole I can go on and on about but I wanted to spread awareness through hardcore, which I’ve always viewed as the appropriate platform for it. We released our first single “Serotonin Syndrome” completely DIY, recorded in our bedrooms. It was received very well and garnered interest for a live band – that’s when we got three other friends involved to get a full lineup going. We got lucky because all of these guys were my friends before Klon, and it was just a bunch of friends making music who also happen to like the same kinda stuff. Also funny note: the band was initially called Klonopin Klan as a tongue in cheek reference to how the big pharma operates basically like KKK and nazis. A white guy took the term otherwise when our single was released on Gore Grinder’s YouTube channel, and thought we’re a bunch of brown people supporting the KKK. Hence the name change.

UA: That’s funny shit! So I checked out the band and it definitely has a more 80s style hardcore punk energy to it which is cool. But then it also has some grindcore style vocals which is crazy! With the band, did you guys eventually play out at all? In a super metal scene like Bangladesh – how were you all received?
FARHAN: Yeah I try to incorporate bits and pieces of all my influences really. We played 5 shows in Bangladesh and they were all very well received! It’s always a bit scary when you’re trying something new with a predominantly death/black metal crowd, but Dhaka’s crowd definitely fucks with it. Funny enough, one of these shows was way up north in Netrokona where most people aren’t even familiar with conventional heavy metal, let alone what we were doing. We got a lot of love even there, people were jumping up and down like it’s a rock show instead of moshing. I had people come up to me and say they didn’t understand a fucking thing I shouted but they felt it! That’s all that matters at the end of the day. We had a lot of fun there and it’s one of my favourite memories with the band.

UA: So let’s fast forward to moving to Scotland. Tell me more about walking into that first show. Like what was the vibe like, did you feel welcomed, etc. Walking into a show in a brand new scene can typically filled with all sorts of dread.
FARHAN: That show I mentioned above with Hour of Reprisal was basically my first hardcore show since we don’t have a scene back home. I was pretty excited – prior to this, all I’ve ever seen were videos and they always looked mental, and I’ve always wanted to get into the pit and throw down. Which is what I did. I’m generally a shy guy so didn’t properly interact with anyone, but I still had a great time nonetheless. A lot of the times, you just gotta go for it without being too self-conscious!

UA: Sick sick – so let’s get into your band now. With Resist you said it started more metalcore. What made you want to go in a more hardcore direction and musically what does it sound like.
FARHAN: That first lineup had a lot more tech and prog elements, which is not really the sound Joe and I envisioned. Even within hardcore, it’s such a huge domain that tastes are bound to vary even within a band – I’m more 80s LA hardcore and post-hardcore, whereas Joe is definitely more NYHC and 2000s metallic hardcore, so even between us we find a middle ground with Resist’s sound. We have a lot of death metal influences too, you’ll hear it on the singles we will release in the very new future. Personally, I don’t like restricting myself to a genre anyway because there’s just so much I enjoy in heavy music, why fit it in a tight box? To me, hardcore has always been a feeling and standing up for what’s right. Sound-wise, you could probably classify Resist as a lot of things, but it’s the message that truly makes us hardcore.

“The irony of the racist sentiments in the UK is something I explore with my lyrics, as well as some of my own personal struggles as an immigrant.”

UA: Word. And Glasgow is also known for that heavier sound too. Let’s get into what the lyrics are about because to me, that’s way more important. As probably one of the only brown people involved in Glasgow hardcore I’m eager to know what you’re singing about.
FARHAN: Fucking right man hahah, that’s what’s more important to me too! As the name suggests, Resist is really about resisting all forms of oppression, be it based on your race, gender, religion etc. Most of the tracks deal with anti-fascist and anti-imperialist themes. Of course you know, we are no strangers to British colonialism. Some of the lingering effects of pre-1947 British Raj, our whole subcontinent still feels to this day. The irony of the racist sentiments in the UK is something I explore with my lyrics, as well as some of my own personal struggles as an immigrant. There’s tracks where I touch on my country’s own independence wars – first from Pakistan in 1971 and the recent nationwide uprising that led to the overthrowing of our fascist government in 2024, which we consider our 2nd independence – this is what the track “Tyrant” is about. We have a single released called “End the Occupation” where the message is abundantly clear – the Israeli occupation of Palestine has to come to an end. There’s no co-existence with an occupying force. We try to make it a point to speak up about the ongoing genocide in Palestine every show, and a portion of our merch sales go to Palestinian aid as well. In a predominantly white scene where a lot of people may not be aware of the struggles that immigrants, minorities and war-torn countries face, I want our music to help raise awareness for the right causes.

UA: Respect brotha. Tell us more about the current situation in Bangladesh. Who’s in charge now? Does it feel things are heading in the direction that the activists wanted it to go in? I remember Muhammad Yunus was considered a good egg when I read last.
FARHAN: Yes, Muhammad Yunus is still leading the interim government. I think after the fall of the previous regime, we had really high hopes for the country which has been difficult to live up to. In particular, I’d say law and order has taken a turn for the worse from what I’ve heard. However, the freedom of speech we have right now is not something we’ve had in the last decade or so and that’s not lost in us – I would not be here discussing any of this under the previous regime. I also appreciate that I have been out of the country for 2 years, so those who share the lived experience of everyday Bangladesh would probably be able to best answer this, but I remain hopeful for our future.

UA: Yeah I can imagine that’s a lot of with Yunus’ shoulders because as you said it’s like Bangladesh’s second independence. In terms of Bangladeshi food – give me a top 5 go to.
FARHAN: You’re in London yeah? Stop by any Bangladeshi restaurant in brick lane, unless you’re vegan, ask for beef kala bhuna with boiled rice. And lots of bhortas, Shrimp and loitta bhorta are my favourites. There’s a lot of street food I like and miss Jhalmuri. Fuchka which is like our version of golgappa, Chotpoti

UA: Sick. Any last words? Especially to our fellow POC folk out here in the west?
FARHAN: No one is free until we are all free, always remember that. Us POCs living in the west often have a greater degree of freedom compared to those living back home, don’t let that freedom go to waste. Raise your voice, use your art, help fundraisers and donate – there is so much we can do for our fellow humans who are suffering all over the world. Take every chance you get to help. That’s the most hardcore fucking thing you could ever do!