Lady Vengeance is ready to slay Spring Sing with sound.

A year and a half since its debut, the five-piece punk band is preparing to take the Spring Sing stage with raw emotion and drama. Named after the 2005 Korean thriller film directed by Park Chan-wook, Lady Vengeance has been bringing a fresh sound to the Westwood alternative music scene that harkens to ‘90s riot grrrl with experimental flair. Lady Vengeance – which is signed to UCLA’s student-run record label, Cherry Pop Records – will be performing its first single, “Clone Wars,” at Friday’s competition. Fourth-year film and television student Colette Bassett, the band’s lead singer, said she is excited for the concert.

“I want people to be able to have fun and … be involved with us when we’re performing because I’m very much a live music girl,” Bassett said. “I love playing live and performing. It’s my favorite thing to do, so I want them to be able to hear those lyrics, look at me and feel like they can be involved in what I’m thinking about.”

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Kate Ahn, a fellow fourth-year film and television student and Lady Vengeance’s lead guitarist, said “Clone Wars” is a pure punk song that critiques the culture of conformity surrounding college communities such as Greek life. Bassett said inspiration for the track came from watching masses of uniformly dressed partygoers on fraternity row, as well as other traditions associated with fraternities and sororities.

“Where I grew up in North Texas, it was very much like, you go to Southern Methodist or Dallas Baptist University, … and ‘ring by spring’ is very much real,” Bassett said. “Everybody’s engaged or married by the time they’re out of college. And here with the Greek life, I see some similarities. And it’s very interesting to note the similarities with the fact that a lot of people are either getting engaged or they do … fake Greek life weddings.”

Bassett said the lyrics for “Clone Wars” came together quickly and include a snappy dialogue that interjects into the song, which she changes with each live performance. The theatrical saga of the track is a fiction, Bassett said, including Ligma Sigma Pi frat boy Kyle and the ongoing drama between him, Bassett and her equally fictional friends. Spring Sing will bring a conclusion to the song’s storyline, Bassett said.

Spontaneity and play are core components of Lady Vengeance’s style, as drummer and third-year musicology student Oliver Mangulabnan said the band often divides the process of crafting new songs among its members. He said Bassett and Ahn typically brainstorm and write lyrics, bassist Cas Knight composes some of the instrumentals and Mangulabnan keeps the band centered around the tempo. Ahn added that she and rhythm guitarist Christian Savage work on making memorable solos and riffs, with all of the elements of a song fitting together in a cohesive whole once the band practices.

“We developed this weird, ‘Frankenstein’-y creative process where someone will bring a riff or a hook or anything, and we’ll just jam out from it and see what happens,” Ahn said. “We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

In the midst of a series of performances and practices leading up to Spring Sing, Lady Vengeance has been working on an EP which it plans to release in the near future, Mangulabnan said. The track list will center themes of college life and encapsulate the wide range of energies exhibited by the band, he added.

“It’s a nice amalgamation of genres and ideas that we’ve had since forming the band,” Bassett said. “Each one of us has a slightly different music taste. It was a lot of running around and finding ourselves and people bringing things that were very much their own. I think every song is one of us, almost.”

Bassett said the EP will include tracks such as “DayQuil,” which was born of Ahn’s venture into metal solos; “Punching Bag,” which Knight wrote the lyrics for; “Cowboy Time,” with elements inspired by Savage’s interest in desert rock; and “Sweetface,” which is a long ballad befitting Bassett’s love for Lana Del Rey. Mangulabnan said he anticipates “Clone Wars” becoming the spotlight track and introducing Lady Vengeance’s silly yet intentional approach to punk rock to a wide audience.

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As the project management director at Cherry Pop Records and the A&R manager of Lady Vengeance, Lilianna Gracia said she has witnessed a need for community among alternative fans, and Lady Vengeance has taken a strong initiative in entering this environment. The third-year music industry student said the next step for the band is to venture out of Westwood and perform for broader Los Angeles.

“The biggest part of their music, for them, is their live performance and their stage presence,” Gracia said. “They put themselves out there. I hope that could be translated in a way that gives them a ton of really passionate fans and playing some bigger shows.”

Punk’s emphasis on being bold, visible and vocal meshes well with the band’s existence as a response to the historical lack of diversity in the Western music scene, Mangulabnan said.

“Even now, I feel like the punk music scene is very much still male-dominated,” Mangulabnan said. “I want our band to show a message of, ‘There’s bands like us that are POC and queer, and we’re here, and we’re making that kind of music.’ … Being loud and being represented, we really want to show people who we are. Spring Sing’s our chance to let people know … we’re unapologetically us.”