Loud, proud and singing their song

With their fame and popularity on the rise, the trio has also received invitations to perform at outdoor music festivals. These included the My Wave Music Festival, which will be held on Sept 12 and 13 in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, and the Rye Music Festival, to be held on Sept 19 and 20 in Zibo, East China's Shandong province.

Tickets to their Sept 21 indoor live show in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, where they will perform with other bands, such as White Paper, another "dark horse "from the show, sold out quickly, and the organizer has released more tickets to meet demand.

"We didn't expect much when we decided to join the show, as we were pretty unknown. Initially we saw the show as just a stage upon which to introduce ourselves as a band," says Soon.

Each of the band members had full-time jobs: Soon and Folder worked as visual designers and Kool worked in marketing. Now, bolstered by their success on the show, they have all quit their day jobs.

Clearly huge fans of animation, particularly Japanese anime, one of their favorite TV shows is Gurren Lagann. The protagonist is a lonely orphan living in an underground village. His determination to succeed earns him the respect of both his friends and enemies.

"We all agree with the messages delivered through the animation. Like many young Chinese rock bands, we had no money, no formal musical training and no corporate support back then. When we decided to be a band, we wanted to be tough and determined to overcome the difficulties we were going to face," says Folder.

The band's first original song, The Girl Falls in Love With a Game, was written by Folder and inspired by Soon, who was obsessed with a video game at the time.

In March 2017, after releasing their debut album, All-Out Attack, Hyper Slash started to give live shows at venues in Guangzhou and gradually built up a modest fan base.

"Every time, before we started to perform, we told the audience 'to fight with us until the end', which has become a slogan now. It soon ignited the passion and brought power to the shows," says Soon.

The band made their Beijing live debut in early January during an audition for The Big Band. Their performance was noticed by veteran Chinese singer, Lao Lang (real name Wang Yang), who watched Hyper Slash's live show. He took pictures for the band and posted them on several social media platforms, offering the young band greater exposure to a wider audience. The veteran singer, popular with his folk ballads, rose to fame in the early 1990s.

Lao Lang is also the manager of Maitian Music, the label the band is signed to, under the Chinese music company, Taihe Rye Music.

"His music style is very different from us, but he gave us lots of advice and support," says Soon when asked about Lao Lang.

"Now what we want to do is to write more songs and perform in front of the fans," she adds.