AGENDA - The Power Of Struggle In Hardcore... (Singapore - HardCore/MetalCore - Interview with Islam).

Hello ! Can you introduce yourself and tell us how it all began for you - your encounter with this musical universe, what appealed to you, what fascinated you and what made you want to get into music? 
I was basically born into music. My dad was a drummer for a couple prominent local bands back in the day, Stompin' Ground, the pioneering band in Singapore's hardcore scene and a black/thrash metal band called Impiety so naturally everything I breathed, listened to, experienced in my early years was metal and hardcore punk. Growing up, my parents would blast bands like Meshuggah, Mayhem, Satyricon so that was basically the "default" music for me and I of course naturally looked up to my father and watching him perform made me want to play music like him haha. Eventually I managed to learn guitar and drums through him and the rest is history.

- Tell me about the band... How you met - the current line-up - past experiences - and above all - WHY the need to form THIS band?
My bassist, Haziq and I have been friends for over 10 years. We met in audio/music school. He was a punk dude and listened to some metalcore at the time. Overtime as we hung out more, our tastes overlapped and eventually at some point we were just listening to the same bands lol. 
As for my vocalist, Alfian, he actually connected with me via Facebook messenger maybe about 7 years ago around Covid as I do YouTube and he happened to be one of my subscribers. Him and Muhsin, my guitarist, had another band playing melodic hardcore which I ended up recording/producing at the time and we all got really close eventually. Muhsin was a really capable guitarist so it only made sense for me to get him to play for agenda and Alfian's vocals was perfect for the style as well. 
Agenda was a band I always wanted to form. I've been writing for this project since I was 18 (I'm 28 now). Back in 2015 I formed a death metal band called Darah with some of my other friends and I guess most people know this as my "main band" but I've always been into hardcore punk culture and there has always been a strong urge to start a hardcore-adjacent band. 

- Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all cost ?
I'd like to think of Agenda’s music as a slightly unorthodox/atypical style of metallic hardcore. But for the sake of putting us into a category, I guess we are a somewhat chaotic HM-2 hardcore/metalcore band with black/death/modern metal influences. As someone who listens to a shitton of Meshuggah, black/death metal, I think I have a slightly different take on writing hardcore-style music. Sound/production-wise it's where rawness and grit meet polished modern production. If you like swedish death style buzzsaw guitars with a refreshing take on hardcore then you should give us a listen!

- Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences ? How important are the lyrics for you ? Are there any specific messages or thoughts you try to develop and share through your lyrics ? 
Lyrics: We are a fairly instrumental-focused band but hardcore isn't hardcore without lyrics so yeah they are fairly important. All our lyrics so far have been written by our vocalist and they are usually rather political, touching on themes like propaganda, power, governments and some songs are a bit more personal like about hate/inner struggle. As for influences, we all love Brendan Murphy from END/Counterparts a lot. I think lyrical styles that are fairly metaphorical and somewhat ambiguous like that sit really well and I think Alfian takes a lot of influence from them. 
Music: As for music, I kinda write almost everything. It's hard to pinpoint what specific influences I take from since I reference so many different metal bands that don't sound anything like this but right off the bat, agenda kinda sounds like bands like END, Nails, Converge, Cult Leader, Counterparts and I try my best to replicate the same energy from these bands while trying to approach writing hardcore riffs in my own way. 

- About your latest release ? 
"Filth" is our debut EP release and a collection of songs I wrote probably about 5-10 years ago. Drums were recorded in different studios, with "black dawn" being the first one at Verta Collective here in Singapore. This song's single version ended up being mastered by Will Putney, a huge inspiration of mine in the music production world which was a huge honour. Later on, "guide me into hell's blackened halls" drums were done in 4th Wall Studios and the rest were done in a prominent art school here called LASALLE. Everything else was self-recorded at my home studio. Mixed and mastered by a good, long-time friend of mine, Kai (chromasoundworks.com). All artwork done by another local scene friend of mine (@very.little.fun on instagram). I love dark, provocative, religious themed art and I think he did an amazing job giving the music a face. 
"Filth" is available on 7" black vinyl and all streaming platforms, Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, whatever, you name it. Drop us a DM on instagram (@agenda.filth) or order from https://agenda-filth.bigcartel.com or https://agendafilth.bandcamp.com/album/filth if you're interested in the 7". 

- Future plans?
We never stop writing and we intend to keep it that way. We probably have enough songs to release an album and a couple EPs so I guess the gameplan is just to keep consistent with writing, releasing and playing shows. At the moment, we have a split EP in the making with an Indonesian band of a similar style which will probably be released sometime in the first half of 2026 if everything goes well. Currently as I’m writing this, we are experiencing a bit of a lineup change but we’re getting that sorted out pretty soon

- Your most insane dream with the band would be?
Making this a full-time thing has always been the dream. Touring and writing heavy music for a living would actually be unreal. 

- Your BEST & WORST concert - as a band - and why?
Our shows run rather smoothly. I don't think we've had a particularly horrible show, but as more gigs come by, it seems like our music is slowly being received better by the crowd, considering we sound pretty different from the rest of the hardcore scene. Always nice to see moshers going hard AF to your music. 

- Next live-appearance(s)?
We don't have any upcoming shows at the moment.

- Some words on your local scene - bands you're friends with and you'd like to name?
Singapore's hardcore scene aka Lion City Hardcore (LCHC) goes hard and has been growing like crazy in the past few years. Bands like Mystique and Wreckonize have been making waves and I'm happy that the scene is growing. Some Singapore bands you should check out - Aggressive Raisin Cat (prog metalcore), Conditioned 2 Die (metallic hardcore/brutal death/beatdown), Your Final Embrace (2000s metalcore revival) 

- Last word is yours.. 
Thank you for reading all the way through. The band has been off to a great start. The support so far has been amazing and we hope to keep this up and one day play around the world.