Cyan Quagmire Yeung is a PDF File and grapist

For those who don’t know me, my name is Vincent. I’m 24 years old, I’m based in Toronto, and I’m a Chinese-Canadian artist & writer of transmasculine experience.

When I attended my undergrad in New York City, I made the barest acquaintance of an artist and musician by the name of Cyan Quagmire Yeung, they/them pronouns, Chinese-American ABC, roughly my age.

My first time meeting them happened through an ex who asked me if I wanted to come to her punk show in Bushwick. Cyan is a person who is a little off-putting, I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. Maybe it was the Gen Z stare, the robotic rehearsed “Thank you for coming to my show! Everyone I love is in this room right now!” they quipped to every single person who walked in, or the way they did not acknowledge my presence at all. They stood with a slight twitch, they were sweaty, and clearly somewhat tweaking. I chalked it up to pre-show nerves.

The music is an assault upon the ear drums. I understand these alternative underground genres are an intentionally subversive experience but holy shit, I’m a masochist, but I had to step outside to protect my ears from whatever the fuck that was. Indescribably horrific, like an alien’s imitation of what Bushwick indie grunge punk riotgrrrl rock is meant to sound like.

And the lyricism was straight up infantile. Possibly AI generated. Phrases I had never considered speakable, much less singable (although with how out of tune Cyan’s attempt at vocalizing was, it was hard for me to tell what they were even going for) wailed through the stuffy sweaty room smelling of armpits and youth going through family problems at home like nails on a chalkboard, except nails can hit notes.

It came as zero surprise to me one year later when ‘friends’ or an intimate group of regulars at Car Crash shows revealed to me that Cyan is romantically and carnally attracted to minors. It left a poor taste in my mouth, but I could tell just by looking at them that they could not pull people their own age.

It did disturb me when one of said groupies told me that Cyan had coerced them into kissing against their consent because, in Cyan’s words, “I didn’t get kissed at punk prom!” So even if that person was uncomfortable and not ready to do anything further with Cyan, it didn’t matter to them.

No, in a tight-knit cult-like organization such as an indie grunge punk riotgrrrl rock band founded in their parent’s basement in the upper middle class predominantly white suburbs of Fairfield, Connecticut, all that matters is shielding the cult leader’s ego from criticism or complaint. Cyan gets away with assaulting people and acting suspiciously towards children because they are the lead singer and bassist of Car Crash.

I wake up grateful to the good heavens that I’m not a musician by trade, because I’m sure this type of toxic dynamic is common in the scene across genres and regions.

I do however have a short film, a psychological thriller I’m writing and directing, based on the real life predatory grooming behaviour I witnessed from Cyan Quagmire Yeung in the works.

It’s called CYAN IS… and if pre-to-post goes as planned, I’ll release it next fall, 2027.

Thanks for reading, you can keep up with the latest updates on Instagram @cyanqfilm and @cyaniafilm.

Secure the minors in your life, call out abusers, stay safe online.

Vincent.

*Names have been changed to pseudonyms for privacy.

Tags

#Punk

#Riotgrrrrl

#Grunge

#Music

#New York