So awesome, he got Liyana Fizi to sing a song with him, Fantastic Adventure. That story is documented in the digital download version of his album, Yesterday Is A Distant Dream. When I first bought it, I was amazed by the bonus digital content – the vocal-only outtakes, the demos, the early versions, the PDF that explains how each song came to be with lyrics… and OJ Law’s version of Only One, which appears in Liyana Fizi’s album, Between The Lines.
That, I thought, was the way to go with digital albums. It is a superb example that sticks in my head till today. The digital album no longer comes with all these bonus things, sadly, but what he plans to do with it, I shall leave to him to publicize.
Also, Liyana Fizi said I was mysterious. I’m… just putting this out there.
Back when we both had long hair, we were often mistaken for each other.
Awesome groove rock. Some riffs remind me of Marilyn Manson.
Simmy noted how interesting they were, musically, turning a drum beat around.
The frontwoman was full of energy.
Then came a thousand notes per second, thanks to Kelvyn Yeang.
He pimps his CDs with emcee Scott.
Another technically adept band was next – Black Lightbulb!
Simmy!
Simthesizer.
Ash. Yes, there’s a patch on Simmy’s laptop called Ashrock, another called Samsong, and Stars And Waves (which is her famed Celtic Wave song.) I also spotted Overture – Ethereal Mallets.
Hameer sings along.
Raja Farouque, king of the speaker stack.
Go ahead and jump!
Last band of the night.
The grungy Nervedeless!
That seems like a grungy guitar, too.
The mosh.
Ah, to have my hair long again for maximum rocking out.
1st March 2015: Busk Stop returns again, this time at Quill City Mall! This Busk Stop was curated by Hameer Zawawi.
This would be my first time at this new mall.
I was there for Herman Ramanado!
Ryan David Gomes on djembe.
Dean Sim on guitar.
Awesome bokeh thanks to the Chinese New Year season!
It was an open area, so it was easy to work with a telephoto…
…like my Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA.
A camwhore spot, from the wrong angle.
The band.
The poster I was there to photograph as well, since a photograph I took of Herman was used. Sadly, the poster was not applied to a metal standee throughout the entire run of this poster.
Jared Lim of Jumero also came on to sing a song.
He’s the Ju of Jumero, while djembe player Ryan is the Ro.
Fast-forward to the 14th of March 2015…
Crinkle Cut!
Same place.
Grace and her makeshift keyboard seat, an amp! Gotta love her keyboard stand, too!
Ashley tilts the world. That’s how powerful her percussive slaps are.
Frances the checkered!
Students of Universiti Kuala Lumpur on assignment.
I find it funny how the legs of the table and Grace cross the same way!
Emcee and organizer Darren Teh of An Honest Mistake Records!
He introduced the next band, which had one very cool, desirable Korg RK-100S keytar.
The band?
Nightcat.
This is another cool instrument – a neck-through Dean guitar in Classic White. I’d never seen one so pure in whiteness – Dean’s brand for me is all about Dimebag Darrell. I had to look it up before remembering Dave Mustaine also shreds on Dean guitars.
I finally got to see Jie Er’s other band!
Jo-Ling and her 37 keys of coolness.
I made the mistake of looking up how much this costed – it seemed quite affordable to me, for someone who doesn’t know how to read sheet music. I know the theory but I can’t read it quickly, and I don’t know my scales when not in C major/A minor.
I then looked up the price of the Roland AX-Synth and found it to be twice the price for 12 more keys, or one more octave! The KORG, however, has smaller than normal keys, which might help. I also considered that a 24-fret 6-string guitar has the equivalent of a 49-key keyboard in range, but it’s not as if keytars don’t have an octave shifter. How practical this is in use however, I don’t know.
I’d been toying with the idea, since I love the sound of a synthesizer with a big fat 80s tone, and I also love the idea of creating chords using the keyboard layout (as opposed to a guitar). My guitar and bass hang on a double-neck guitar stand to the side of my computer, and I’d love to be able to just pull up a keytar from the side and jam on it out of boredom, without it taking up space permanently on the table. Heck, I could even play it strapped around my neck!
And now, for a video.
Ray Cheong, blues/soul/fingerstyle extraordinaire.
His acoustic guitar sat there regally.
Bo Amir Iqram joined for a song and a tasty jam!
The final act of the night…
Joey Tong! She jumps and dances all over the stage.
So I finally got to see her in an electric setup with a full band.
They called on Tasha Aleia for their second song, to play guitar and sing.
Tasha Aleia was next. I’d seen this amazing singer as one half of magical harmonizing R&B duo Tashness. She brings her rhythmic guitar chops to her solo performance, too!
Aalex Tarmizi, first featured act.
Jon Liddell, second featured act.
Guest vocals by Jenn Chia!
She’s quite the kookie monster.
Aaron Wong, fingerstyling.
R.F.B.G.. That stands for Raja Farouque…
…and Grace.
He then called on a guest singer…
Talitha Tan!
Hasrol.
Guitar switch, and add a vocalist…
…for the next open micer, Kai.
Herman Ramanado. First time ever seeing him with a guitar!
Peter Hassan Brown just released his album, Blues.
I got one, because my picture was used on the back cover with my permission, and credited to me, too! The album is, to my non-sound-engineer ears, well-produced, and has amazing clarity. I like how Peter sounds far more cynical and observant, his biting lyrics and social commentary cutting through the mix. It’s something I am aware of when I see him live singing about open mics and about activist stuff, but it’s just clearer on the CD for some reason.
His English is many levels above even the English-educated of today. He spoke of Singaporean history – something I’d admit that I don’t know much about, about Operation Coldstore, the Singaporean Internal Security Act, how Barisan Sosialis formed out of PAP, and how the British gave independence to the party who would be friendly to them and allow them to continue trading (as after World War 2, the British had heavy financial losses and relied on the resources in British Malaya).
He also spoke of how Lim Kit Siang was a reporter, something I’d not been able to Google (though I might someday look for his memoirs.)
Then there was that interesting bit about how back then, Singapore was very much considered part of Malaya, and that a remerger was always considered. To today’s generation however this would be unthinkable, in how different we’ve become!
Again, hosted by Boon Kia Meng, who did an excellent documentary about rising housing prices called M-C-M’: Utopia Milik Siapa?.
Some of the interesting snippets I got out of this, was that Tun Dr. Ismail (then the Home Minister) had Burhanuddin al-Helmy arrested (and Taman Tun Dr. Ismail fittingly has a road named Jalan Burhanuddin Helmi!) He was arrested under the Internal Security Act when Ghazali Shafiee was the Home Minister. He was also once the President of Parti Rakyat Malaysia (formed out of Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya, Angkatan Pemuda Insaf and Angkatan Wanita Sedar).
He also mentioned something about new parties attracting new members, and that we had a lot of sponsored capitalists who don’t understand the game. Very enlightening talk!
23rd February 2013: Hari Darwin 2013. Foong Jin and me take a selfie no wait, I don’t think that word had been invented yet. So we were just good ol’ camwhoring.
Pepper Lim emcees the event.
Cool T-shirt!
Post-event activity was a bunch of people jamming to The Beatles.
This UndiMsia chat was with Member Of Parliament for Lembah Pantai, Nurul Izzah Anwar, who was coincidentally the MP for the very venue this talk was in!
But first, emcee Hoe Jian You speaks of… aliens.
Nurul Izzah is a very affable personality, and the crowd found her very cool. Then again, I guess that’s what happens when the MP is young and humble!
22nd November 2014 Lot 36: Dotters’ Division with guest singer Faz Anam! Or at least that is what the poster says, never mind that Faz is actually a guitarist, and her name is actually Faz Aznam. Because of this poster, we’d been cajoling her in the days leading to this gig to sing (and we also lovingly called her Ah Nam, a running joke from when her name was misspelt the same way at No Black Tie!) Also, that’s a picture I took of Dotters’ Division, ever willing to strike a photogenic band pose!
The band, sans Audrey the saxophonist.
Rebecca has a new style and we dig it.
Jie Er/Joey gets to play a lot of bass lines.
Linet on keyboards leads the band.
To her left is Faz.
A birthday boy!
Melissa the powerful vocalist, who also does guitar duty.
They also covered Faz’s song, Hurt, with her on vocals. I’d normally hear a stripped-down version with her other band, Calico. Super glad to hear Faz sing it!
Fast-forward to 17th January 2015, also with Dotters’ Division! So I blogged about 2014 and 2015 in one post, making this span 2 years!
Rebecca’s got a ponytail now!
Yes we’re all excited to see the return of…
…Audrey the saxophonist and occasional bearer of shaky things that make noise!
The band showed her how much they missed her…
…by caringly placing her sneakers in appropriate locations.
I did, too, with this. (She didn’t know until she got home – had I owned up then, she might not have introduced me to her mom!)
A usual soundcheck scene involves a musician pointing at the sound monitor asking to crank it up.
First act: Saturday Afternoon.
This isn’t Deo but Ashley!
This is still Dianne.
The girls make awesome artwork, whether it’s temporary tattoos, cards or nuts in a jar. Okay so that’s not exactly artwork. Nutwork perhaps.
Didn’t notice this door from Italiannies’ next door before!
Meliha Faisal.
I brought my Sony Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm F1.4 ZA SSM this time for a change, mounting it on the LA-EA4 which allows for speedy autofocus on the Sony Alpha 7S.
Then came KissKillMary.
Jenn is off the hook!
She has a Stage Presence pedal, and she cranks it to 11.
Sani just stands on top of a speaker and hopes to bask in whatever leftover glory.
Sultry Jenn touches Talitha who I didn’t see later, probably because she melted into a puddle.
This is why this year’s Chinese New Year is so hot.
Dance/indie/disco rock, with an awesome keyboard sound. Her KORG makes me want to buy one just to make new-wave sounds just like hers!
So, I wondered how anybody could perform after them…
…but The Fridays could.
Indiepop of the finest!
The song titles are catchy, with stuff like In The Wilderness The Bear Does Not Reply Text Messages.
Nice looking cherry red Epiphone SG bass!
That’s some crazy stage energy! The vocalist is particularly fun to watch, with him going off his rocker in every song.
Darren Teh of An Honest Mistake Records, as emcee and organizer, closes the night.
