South Korean punk rockers Sailor Honeymoon are smashing pop perfection
Meet the punk rock girl band from South Korea’s underground that’s redefining riot grrrl for a new age
Sailor Honeymoon channels both the edge and ethos of riot grrrl, the punk-powered feminist movement that gave us the slogan “girl power.”
Kim Taeyoung and Abi Raymaker
Words by Janvi Sai
South Korean pop culture powers the nation’s cultural diplomacy, economy, and influence—and by no coincidence. The Korean Wave, or Hallyu, is the global rise and consumption of South Korean media, and has been rolled out with strategic support by the country’s government and private capital. The hold South Korean entertainment has on the world has solidified itself as a dominating force and its status as one of the country’s most significant and prioritized exports. And as the industry surpasses international markets, it’s increasingly viewed—and managed—as one.
The South Korean music machine, particularly K-pop, famously runs on its cyclical nature. While varying in and blending diverse genres from pop to R&B, the in-demand style is recognizable and distinguished by its rollouts of filmic music videos, suave choreography, and infectiously catchy songs, as well as its playbook for constructing perfect pop idols. To create a K-pop idol, entertainment agencies reportedly follow a tried and tested recipe: extensive auditioning and training, holding to their tight beauty and weight standards, and adherence to a crafted personal image.
In the margins of pop culture factories, a new punk rock girl band called Sailor Honeymoon has emerged in Seoul. Born out of impulse at an impromptu jam session in a rehearsal space, the project’s organic formation defies the industrialized nature of the surrounding system.
The band doesn’t create because of the system, but despite it. Sailor Honeymoon’s founder Abi Raymaker tells me, "Korean music, or at least most of what gets exported abroad, is a heavily commercialized industry, and K-pop songs are written by teams of songwriters to create the maximum impact by combining the catchiest melodies, most relevant lyrics, and best production.” She recognizes the success of mainstream South Korean music. “This creates a really impressive product, and along with the image of K-pop artists and their marketing assets (music videos, photos, brand collaborations) it becomes a very impressive and well-maintained world,” she says, before adding, “But we wanted to try things the opposite way.”
Sailor Honeymoon doesn’t create because of the system, but despite it.
Christian Mata
The group was a long-held inner longing for Raymaker, a photographer who “had a desire to have a band of all women for years,” that unintentionally came to fruition after she and a friend started hosting freestyle music gatherings, invited other women they knew to join, and played with spontaneity as they swapped instruments with each other. “We weren’t trying to be good at all. Most of us were playing instruments we didn’t originally play and (were) just goofing around,” Raymaker recounts.
It was at one of these jam sessions that Raymaker found an impressive guitarist and co-vocalist in techno DJ Zaeeun Shin, and what were once improvised riffs started to evolve into full-fledged songs they wrote together. With the addition of bassist Yelim Kim, and Raymaker committing to the drums and microphone, their band came together in 2022, and—in a nod to the classic Japanese anime series Sailor Moon and its team of female superheroes—Sailor Honeymoon was born.
While Sailor Moon and the rest of the Sailor Scouts become their celestial alter egos with visually captivating musical transformation sequences; if Sailor Honeymoon had a transformation sequence, it would be marked by electric guitar discordance.
Energized by the fun they’ve found with each other, the band’s inventive beginnings are felt in their songs’ rawness and themes, bursting with both playfulness and electrifying angst. In their self-titled EP, which dropped in April 2024, songs like “Bad Apple” marry the snappiness of catchy pop with an outcry against social expectations, as they sing, “smile through your prejudices.”
The freshness of their music also comes from their eclectic artistic and sonic backgrounds and interests. “We all have a lot of overlapping artists that we like, and we all love punk and rock, but also our own tastes that diverge from one another and that influence our songs,” says Raymaker. Such sensibilities surface in Shin’s incorporation of her techno DJ career into a remix of the group’s debut single, “Cockroach.”
Raymaker shares, “We all love music a lot and listen to a ton of music.” Behind their rebellious approach to the music scene is an admiration for what it was and what it could be. The band is challenging ideals of perfection with punk, and in doing so, they’re also reviving the heart of the subculture. K-pop was one itself, before its community grew into a massive worldwide fan base. Now Sailor Honeymoon is reminding us of the nonconformist values that originally drove the punk arts movement.
Following the group’s formation, Sailor Honeymoon began their Instagram page with curated homages to the women who’ve pioneered rock and punk music, from classic rock legend Janis Joplin, to a photo of riot grrrl band Bikini Kill performing accompanied by the caption, “never conform. only revolutionize.”
The freshness of Sailor Honeymoon's music also comes from their eclectic artistic and sonic backgrounds and interests.
Christian Mata and Nilo Hartman
Sailor Honeymoon channels both the edge and ethos of riot grrrl, the punk-powered feminist movement that gave us the slogan “girl power.” Equal parts scene, genre, and revolution, riot grrrl arose in the 1990s as a response to misogyny in punk music. It mobilized women-run, independent, and grassroots punk rock, media, and community organizing. Like its rock, punk, and riot grrrl predecessors, Sailor Honeymoon formed organically as a response to the social and artistic powers and constraints of its time, the manufactured landscape of K-pop.
Sailor Honeymoon extends the riot grrrl spirit, adding their own twist to Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth’s slogan, “Girls invented punk rock not England,” claiming, “Korean girls invented punk rock not England.”
Why the tagline? Raymaker teases, “Don’t ask, just believe…” Marked by cheeky humor and play, discovery and indignation, the band’s style is driven by unbridled, honest expression that can’t be manufactured.
Raymaker reflects on the group’s process of uncontrolled creation, “We make mistakes on our recordings and leave them in, we try to let ourselves be really spontaneous with songwriting, and jamming, and our creative choices. We just wear the clothes we normally wear for shows.” By following their curiosity and conviction rather than convention, imperfection incidentally acts as a declaration.
Yelim Kim of Sailor Honeymoon.
Albert Potjes
“It's nothing crazy for indie or DIY music, but I do think with the backdrop of K-pop, which is probably the kind of Korean music people abroad are most familiar with, it is a statement about who we are and the art we want to make for this project,” explains Raymaker. According to the most recent Global Hallyu Survey conducted by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, and the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange, K-pop is the symbol most associated with South Korea.
The members of Sailor Honeymoon have encountered this perception firsthand while touring. Raymaker reflects, “We’ve been lucky to be able to perform abroad a number of times, and one thing that’s always interesting is how many people come up to us after the show referencing K-pop, how their daughter loves K-pop, or they didn’t know there was a lot of non-K-pop Korean music, et cetera.”
K-pop’s remarkable reach has made it an ever-present point of reference for South Korean artists. Emerging from its shadow are other indie musicians the women of Sailor Honeymoon are excited to see bringing their music abroad alongside them. Raymaker looks forward, “There’s so much great music in Korea in a lot of more underground scenes that doesn’t get much attention, and I hope that everyone who’s interested in Korea now also starts to discover some of those musical artists along the way.”
On Wednesday, Sailor Honeymoon released their new single “Pickle” and its music video; both are inspired by the group's experiences sweating out their troubles at Korean bath houses and saunas. In addition, the group is set to release their debut album later this year and will perform at a plethora of music festivals and venues around the globe this summer.
Published on May 21, 2026
Words by Janvi Sai
Janvi Sai is a writer in New York covering culture and style through a sociopolitical lens, grounded in the human condition.