At a secretive rooftop party in a beaten-down tenement building in Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po district in March, a man uttered, “I want to play music in a band so badly.”
He then started asking the people around him to form a band with him, saying he plays the guitar. It was unclear if the man eventually managed to find teammates that night. However, his attempt left a deep impression on one of the musicians performing at the underground music gig.
Such a spontaneous quest could only happen because the scale of the performance was small, said musician Lilly Gato.
“The performer is right next to you, not far away, not separated by a fence,” Lilly told HKFP in Cantonese. “You could be that person, as long as you really want to do it.”
That party in March was attended by at most 60 people. It featured post-punk trio Restless Waters, which Lilly formed with longtime friends and musicians Jason Cheung and Brian Chu in late 2023, as Hong Kong was recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.
At that time, underground music in Hong Kong was battered by stringent social distancing rules. Independent organisers were only able to put on music shows intermittently whenever policy allowed.
However, after Covid-related curbs were lifted in early 2023, the independent music community soon found itself in fierce competition with returning overseas artists, many of whom had a large following among Hong Kong’s music lovers.
Meanwhile, the closures of affordable venues further aggravate the lack of event space for alternative artists – a phenomenon that has long dogged the local underground music community. At times, musicians resort to staging performances at unlicensed locations.
Despite these challenges, small-scale underground gatherings have gained momentum, with previously niche events drawing larger crowds in the past two years.
On some occasions, such gatherings are so packed that people have to listen outside the doors of the venues – mostly small rooms hidden in the depths of Hong Kong’s industrial areas that can fit at most a few dozen people.
Lilly, Cheung, and Chu – familiar faces in underground music themselves – want to be part of this flourishing scene. Restless Waters, which plays punchy music driven by powerful guitar riffs and danceable drum beats, is their way to engage with the community.
“The most direct way to engage in this scene is to make music as a band, to speak in its language,” Cheung said in Cantonese. “That’s when you are really making an impact.”
Having released its eponymous debut EP this month, Restless Waters is set to throw an album release party on October 3 at North Point’s MOM Live House.
More gritty than ecstatic
The musicians have established music careers in the city. Cheung is a founding member and guitarist of post-punk outfit David Boring, while Chu is a solo percussionist rooted in the experimental free jazz tradition.
Restless Waters began in a free jam session in late 2023. At that time, the three members had already known each other as musicians for years but had never worked together.
Things came naturally. In the very first jam session, the trio recorded material that would eventually inspire their first song, “High-Purity Love.”
Cheung’s unadorned guitar riffs are played in lockstep with Chu’s drum beats, while Lilly’s vocals, which resemble plain spoken words, tie the song together. “So imperfect, so flawed,” Lilly sings in the EP’s opening track.
“I first imagined that we would be a straightforward dance rock band,” Lilly said. However, as it turns out, Restless Waters is more gritty than ecstatic. Its music is dotted with a sense of angst amid a playful, upbeat tone.
“Jason and Brian have said this before, that we are joyously making critique,” Lilly said. “I am fundamentally an angry and impulsive person… When it comes to social and world affairs, there is always the feeling that I really am not satisfied with the way everything turns out.”
The song’s lyrics “are about ourselves as much as they are about the world,” he added.
The band makes music in a free-flowing manner, but it is almost guaranteed that each of their jam sessions will produce usable ideas for songs.
“There is a level of trust in this band. I know they [Lilly and Cheung] understand the kind of music I like,” drummer Chu said in Cantonese. “We are also not making songs that are too complicated. With each of us having some ideas in mind, we can quickly produce something when we get together.”
The musicians have drawn inspiration from the diverse playlists they listen to. One band in particular has stood out in shaping the trio’s approach to music.
“In our discussions, we often mention Idles,” Cheung said, referring to the British post-punk band known for its live performances that critics compare to being “punched and hugged at the same time.”
“Their second album, Joy as an Act of Resistance, is a statement. Our joy is our way of resistance – this has had a huge influence on us both consciously and subconsciously,” Cheung said.
‘Start with a few people’
After working on its first EP, Restless Waters, last year, the band debuted its first live performance ever in January in front of a packed audience at Sai Coeng – literally means “small venue” – a music space in Kwai Chung beloved by alternative music artists.
They then moved on to the party in Sham Shui Po in March. The upcoming album release party will be only their third appearance on stage.
For Lilly, the band is about experimenting with new music, playing shows to a diverse audience, and being part of the underground music scene that continues to evolve.
“The best part is that you become part of this space, part of this scene,” he said. “I think this is my intention with this band, which is to continue my exploration of what the indie [music] space could be.”
Restless Waters is named after a 1996 song by Tortoise, a Chicago post-rock band that inspires Chu. The experimental quintet fuses electronic and jazz into their music, and its song “Restless Waters” is another example of the American outfit’s experiment in creating music, Lilly said.
With Hong Kong pursuing mega events, and its music scene increasingly filled by concerts of international bigwigs, local independent artists like Restless Waters are feeling the pressure of a saturated market.
The solution may be to adhere to the tested playbook of the indie community: expanding the audience who follow different bands but share a similar taste in music.
“We are always thinking about ways to build bridges with other people,” Cheung said. “I’ve also wanted to connect to people with similar thinking horizontally.”
On October 3, Restless Waters will be joined on stage by local indie outfit Eric’s Weekend and Guangzhou-based band A Fishy Tale – both sharing a kindred “do it together” spirit, a mantra in the underground music community.
The show is also about making the voice of Cantonese-speaking independent music heard, Lilly said, in an effort to challenge the market dominated by international acts.
“Hong Kong is a trade port; we just love foreign goods,” Lilly said. “But why can’t Hong Kong’s own art thrive… And, if we think of ourselves as activists, what can we do?
“I think the answer is really about going back to the basics – no matter how large the issue at hand, we always start with a few people.”
Note: One of the interviewees in this story has requested to be identified by his alias, Lilly Gato. This article has since been changed.
