Sick of the same old shouted rock?
Well, young post-punkers The Yours might just have the Cure for you.

Sunday afternoon at Rockit. Four impeccably dressed young men are on the main stage. Twenty-one-year-old Nicholas Wong – a mushroom of black hair, lily-pad dark glasses – wails into the microphone as if he’s The Cure’s Robert Smith. The post-punk music is fresh, quirky, and a cool change from the usual shout-your-innards-out fare many local ‘indie’ bands churn out. But the crowd don’t seem to get it, and a cock-up with the marquee means Rockit is running behind schedule. Wong and his band The Yours are shuffled off stage prematurely. The band’s other singer, Jack Leung, 23 – wispy dyed blonde hair, straight black suit – only has time to finish his song The Decent, to some enthusiastic applause, before he’s asked to make way for the next band, to accommodate the organisers’ blunder. He takes it well, despite looking ready to launch into the next number; despite already being made to wait half an hour to take the stage. He laughs nervously, smiles, and leans into the microphone: “Thanks – we’ve really enjoyed it.”

The Yours have done well to make it to Rockit, but they aren’t suited to an outdoor festival. They ought to be experienced up close in the dark and smoky climes of small bars, where sounds reflect off the walls and wrap the audience like a blanket. They’re not to be roared for, or moshed to; they’re not to be screamed at, or sung along with – they’re to be looked at and listened to. And if you listen closely enough, you’ll hear a band rough round the edges but sure to rise quickly through the ranks of the indie scene.

Wong, Leung, bass-player Azia Chou (21), and drummer Chin Ho Chan (20), are no musical whizzes. Aside from Leung, who had three months’ guitar tutelage, they’re all self-taught. In fact, Chou joined the band without even really knowing his way round a bass – but that’s not what he told them at the time. “I just tried my best to jam with them,” Chou says with a laugh, a week after a performance at Underground 32, that had a crowd of about 100 hollering for more. Chan, whom Leung conscripted by ICQ, doesn’t even own his own set of drums – he practises on pillows in his room. But the four do hold one vital key for success: a strong work ethic. Three nights a week, they can be found in a bandroom in Kwai Fong, practising from early evening until the wee hours – sometimes 4am. Now, a year and a half after forming, the band has just released an EP through Lona Records, and are working on an LP, set for release early next year.

The two releases are arranged according to style. For the EP, you can expect easy-listening, melodic – but still noisy – fare inspired by the likes of The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, and Ride. For the LP, still in the pipeline, brace yourself for heavier stuff marked by loud drums and strident bass. The divergent works on the two albums at least show The Yours’ versatility – which was also on display at that successful Underground gig. Stuck for an unexpected encore after underestimating their popularity, the boys were left wondering what to do. They’d only prepared their set list, and were fresh out of material to offer the hungry new fans. Not to be fazed, they launched into a free jam to finish the night. Asked afterwards what it was, they simply explained it was a “new song”.

Their other songs are somewhat less spontaneous. They say their music is actually quite structured, even if their philosophy to writing starts with, “We always just pick up a guitar and play.” Lyrics – written mostly by Wong and Leung – are observational, wry, and not without a healthy dose of attitude. Another Teen, for example, speaks of the band’s drive to be something out of the ordinary – not just another band off the pop conveyor belt.

“We wanted to make something different; make something unique; something special. We don’t want to be just normal teens,” explains Leung.

Of course, they don’t expect to be to everyone’s taste, but they don’t much care either. That’s why they wrote Tasteless, Leung’s favourite song. “When I wrote the song I was sad at the time because someone was leaving me. I was just saying, if the person didn’t choose me, they are tasteless,” he says. “And for the band, if people don’t like us, or they don’t listen to us, they are tasteless.” A laugh follows, but he only half means it.