Enter the Strange and Post-Punk World of Panic Worm

Will Griffith | Sep 18, 2018 3:59 pm | Add a comment | 2198 reads

A madcap knot of manic, sardonic, and slightly deranged stream-of-conscious melodies and razor-sharp arrangements, Panic Worm is something straight out of a cult – impossible to decipher yet impossible to look away from. The Wuhan post-punk outfit have been going strong for the last few years bringing refined DIY grit to their beautifully rendered paranoia that oozes with dangerous allure and leads way to a raucous combustible center. Imagine Mark E. Smith paired with the slacker rock sensibilities of Pavement and Sonic Youth and you’d only get a sense of the serious absurdity on hand at a Panic Worm show.

The band has been hitting the road in support of their debut release, Elusive Magic, on Ruby Eyes Records, and will be storming through Beijing on Sep 21 at DDC. I chatted with their guitarist Ryan Blankley (pictured below) about influences, Wuhan, and their upcoming gig.

How has Wuhan influenced you as individuals and as a band?
Living in Wuhan definitely makes you more ruthless as a person but I don’t think the city has really had much of an influence on our music. We all come from different backgrounds and that makes us the band we are. Despite Wuhan being named as China’s punk capital, this doesn’t mean much to us.

Who are some of your biggest influences growing up?
Musically speaking The Fall, Bauhaus and Sonic Youth have affected us in some way. Personally, I’ve always admired Tim Gane of Stereolab for his guitar style.

There’s a paranoid energy to your sound that’s me wondering – what do you all worry about on a daily basis? (Does it ever get better?)
We might all appear cold people on the outside but we’re actually all friendly. I think we all have complex personalities and playing music is a way for us to express ourselves.

There’s a lot of fun in trying to decipher some of your lyrics on your debut – what’s the writing process like? What kind of mood do you try to set with each song?
The lyrics are all written by our singer Yu Cheng and they’re connected like a story. The lyrics usually come last after we’ve figured out the other parts of the song, which usually start from a bass or guitar riff and then we improvise with these ideas. We each bring our own part to the song depending on what we feel at the time.

You recently got signed to Ruby Eyes Records – how did you two hook up?
Lu Di of AV Okubo had seen us play in Wuhan a few times and recommended us to Ruby Eyes. I already had some connections with Ruby Eyes and I knew they would be a great label to help us.

How has the tour been so far? Any war stories you want to share?
We’ve only played a handful of shows so far which have all been good. Shanghai was especially great, I felt like the audience really connected with our music. No stories I’m afraid! The reality is we’re a boring band on the road or at least trying to stay professional. We’re really looking forward to playing in Beijing and catching up with some old friends.