The members of Wasting Time, a melodic punk band from Toronto, Canada / Courtesy of @cdnmusic

The latest international punk band touching down in Korea is Wasting Time, a melodic punk band from Toronto, Canada.

"This will be the first time for all of us, and we are super stoked," Vlad Bojco, the band's frontman who goes by "Mad Vlad" online, told The Korea Times. "We are always excited to plunge ourselves into new scenes like we did last year with Japan and taking it one step further into Korea."

This tour, like many over the past year handled by local punk label Victim Records, was made possible by an earlier tour to Japan.

"We met some great people, heard some fantastic bands, and loved touring the country. Every band we met was super friendly and accommodating, and that's exactly why we decided to return after such a short time," Vlad said.

The Canadian melodic punk band Wasting Time plays in Japan during a tour last fall. Courtesy of Akira Furukai

One of the contacts they made was with Akira Fukurai, frontman of the Japanese band Stone Leek as well as a guitarist of Canadian band We Outspoken, also from Toronto, which he also brought to Korea in late June. Akira and Victim Records have established a pipeline to bring more bands touring Japan to Korea for a smaller tour on the frontiers of underground music.

"We contacted him and he took over the planning," Vlad said. "We added Korea to enrich our experience. We even plan on showing up a few days early in Korea so we can simply visit without the pressures of traveling and gigging and experience what your beautiful country has to offer."

Wasting Time was originally active in the early 2000s until breaking up in 2009. Then, after Vlad played an acoustic show in 2017, he was introduced to Mike, who had been in the audience, and they put together a new lineup that started playing in 2017.

The band name comes from a high school teacher who told Vlad that his troublemaking in class was, you guessed it, wasting time. No word on whether that teacher ever ended up touring East Asia.

Wasting Time has a thick discography, with three full-lengths and three mini-albums. The latest, "Hurry Up And Wait," came out in April. It's a pop-punk masterpiece, played well, produced and mixed well, full of energy but also quieter, with more intimate moments, and always feeling very in the moment.

The band lists influences including MxPx (which toured Korea way back in 2007), Alkaline Trio and No Use for a Name. In some interviews, the members also namedrop acts including the Beatles, Green Day and Elvis, which is reflected in some of the quieter songs on the album, including the piano-driven "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"-vibed "Camp Worby" and "Told You So" which somehow echoes the 1954 doo-wop song "Earth Angel" in my ears. Other songs between these two are energetic, professional punk numbers. It's clear listening to the album that they put on a great show.

For the upcoming tour of Korea, Vlad said the band has no particular expectations.

"We just want to share our music with Korea and hope that people like it and have a great time at our shows," he said.

Wasting Time will be touring across Korea from Friday to Sunday, starting in Incheon's Gonggam, then Seoul's Club Victim and last Gwangju's Boojik.

Visit linktr.ee/wastingtimeto for the band's social media channels, as well as links where you can listen and purchase tickets.