October 28, 2007
My First Time...
We all remember our first time doing something, don't we? The first time isn't always great...but more often tha not, it will leave you scarred or maybe the moment might have a special place in your heart forever. I already had a couple of 'virgin' moments during my music adventure. Yesterday, I had another one. For the very 1st time yesterday, I performed unlike my usual performance. This time, I do not have my sessionists backing me up. I just felt that it wasn't right to engage them during this hari raya period. So I took to the stage for my performance at Changi-Simei Hari Raya show equipped with only a minus one CD containing 2 songs 'Pesona Rindu' & 'Keagungan Mu'. I had performed previously alone during my singing competition days but not since I had taken the decision to cut an album. It felt strange during the pre-show as I wasn't indulging in casual banter with my sessionists but I guess me performing by myself will be more often than not in the coming times. One problem is having to seek the commitments of the sessionists backing me up at every show I'm performing. Of course, given a choice I would love to have my musician brothers involved in my shows, backing me up but I do need to have my minus one cds ready if all else fail. Anyway, it was a show for me! Love it! Personally I feel that I have improved myself greatly on the subject of stage showmanship. Used to be under a great amount of stress communicating with the audience but slowly and surely, I'm getting to grips with it. More to leran though and I'll keep learning. Anyway, the show at Changi- Simei CC....the very first time I had 'makciks' and 'pakciks' dancing to the tune of my song. Lovely indeed....October 22, 2007
2 Months & Counting
It's been a near 2 full months since my EP album 'Keagungan Mu' is out in the market. The album was my platform to introduce and showcase my singing & songwriting, in hopes of planting my feet firmly into the music industry. I am on course to selling all my limited print copies of this EP album. I believe it could happen by the end of 2007, Insyaallah. Someone asked me why do limited print copies of this album? Why don't I do a reprint and focus on promoting this album for at least the next year? My answers to that is simple: As a singer-songwriter, I need to keep seeking avenues to progress. To be contented with an EP album that I had done with limited resources and experience would stagnate me. I have been enriched by this whole experience and I am pretty sure that I'll be able to do better the next time round. Anyway, come December 2007, I'll be back in the studio to record my 2nd project....my 1st full album. Already started working on the materials, compiling songs, finalising the arrangements. This full album will contain 14 songs:- 10 new ones and 4 songs from my EP. With this album, planned for release 2nd half of 2008, I'm hoping to be able to distribute in Malaysia as well.October 13, 2007
October 9, 2007
INTERVIEW AT Radio Singapore International (RSI)
I was invited by Miss Zauwiyah Majid of RSI (Malay) for an interview for her segment 'Naluri Lelaki'. Came down to Mediacorp on Thursday 4th of October and greeted by the ever sweet Zauwiyah. After that, we proceeded to the radio conty and had the interview running. But there was one setback. I was having a bad cough and cold...haha....you will know what i mean when you listen to the interview. ;) But still went thru the interview the best i could. We basically talked about 2 major subjects, the 1st about Ramadhan and Hari Raya....the 2nd was about the album. It was to be a 2 part interview, of which the 1st part is already aired on Monday 8th of October. The 2nd part will be aired next Monday 15th of October. To all my bros and sistas, don't miss it! For those of you not familiar what is RSI all about, do visit http://www.rsi.sg/ for more details on the radio station, Zauwiyah Majid and the other presenters. Basically, RSI caters to international Malay listeners namely in Malaysia, Indonesia or whoever that can tune in to its broadcast in Short Wave Frquency (SW) 6120 kHz meter or 497235 kHz meter 41. I would like to thank Zauwiyah Majid, RSI and its crew for this wonderful opportunity.! :) So here it is, my 1st interview on RSI. Pls click the link to go to the RSI page and click the icon to listen to the broadcast. http://www.rsi.sg/malay/nalurilelaki/view/20071008161352/1/.html ps: (once i have the interview proper in mp3 format, i will post it here. cheers!)Labels: malay village, naluri lelaki, radio, rsi, zaibaktian, zauwiyah majid
October 1, 2007
SUPER SEPTEMBER
It's been nothing short of an amazing month of September for me personally. Short of superlatives here to describe the experiences I've been going thru, once the 1st day of September came into play. As with the album launch, the press, the interviews and my cds on sale at Muzika Rekod, it's all still foreign to me. Did dream at the start of things like this to happen but not like the way it happen. But thanks to Allah, I managed to live these wonderful experiences. Of being called an artist, I still don't regard myself as one. Maybe after 5 years, if I'm still doing wat I'm doing then maybe I'll consider myself one. Right now, I enjoy doing wat I'm doing and my works are still very much from the heart! Anyway, here's a summary of my experiences in September. 1ST SEPT - THE ALBUM LAUNCH Started the day reading up Berita Harian. Found that Zaharian Osman had written an article on the launch. Anyway, the album launch was a simple but vibrant event. In front of a strong crowd made up by families, friends and colleagues, it was in most parts a heartfelt affair! All the hard work I've done over the last year had come to this and it was well worth it!
6TH SEPT - INTERVIEW WITH DJ TG ON WARNA 94.2FM A recorded interview for a segment called 'Variaskop'. Discussed in brief about myself and the album. It was aired only once on Friday 7th Sept @ 1025 hrs.
8TH SEPT - INTERVIEW WITH DJ HAFEEZ GLAMOUR ON RIA 89.7FM It was a pleasant surprise receiving a call on a Saturday morning from Hafeez Glamour. I was working the morning shift at that point of time and it was to be a recorded phone interview for a one hour segment called 'Artis Kita'. Took a breather from work and waited for a call 15 mins later from Hafeez. Once all set to go, we talked in depth about myself, songs from the album and my aspirations in music. The segment was aired the same day @ 1700 hrs. It was to be a delight hearing songs from my album being played on radio. It felt strange but it felt good!
14TH SEPT - PERFORMANCE ON 'RENTAK KITA' @ MALAY VILLAGE It was to be the beginning of a series of performances I'll be doing at Malay Village, Geylang Serai. Held in Singgahsana Hall, it was to be held weekly during the month of Ramadhan spanning Fridays to Sundays. Despite the small turnout, I was still happy with the outcome. Performance was good and the crowd seem to enjoy themselves.
15TH SEPT - BERITA HARIAN ARTICLE BY RAFAAT HAMZAH It was Rafaat Hamzah's review of my album launch. Despite the edited contents, it was still a great description of the ongoings at the launch. Rafaat went on to describe the atmosphere, the songs from the album and an honest take of myself as an aspiring singer-songwriter.
17TH SEPT -LIVE INTERVIEW ON WARNA 94.2FM I was delighted to receive a phone call from TG 3 days earlier, requesting me to come down for a live interview on a segement he produced on Warna called 'Paradigma'. On Mondays, they usually will interview someone from the arts & entertainment scene. I recalled listening to Rafaat's interview on Monday about his book and there I was preparing myself for another interview. AB Shaik & Mariam was on duty and AB Shaik quickly made me comfortable on the set. On hindsight , i would have preferred to be able to talk more about my album but time was a constraint. Thoroughly enjoyed this experience!!
21ST SEPT - PROMO @ MUZIKA REKOD It was held at its Joo Chiat Complex branch. It was a simple performance whereby I sang 3 songs from the album, backed up by my brothers. Response wasn't that good to be honest but it was still done well with the help of Shakem........another adventure for myself!
28TH SEPT - ANOTHER SHOWCASE @ KG MELAYU This time around, I did a longer set, played more song and had more musicians backing me up. Added to the lineup was keyboards and electric guitar. However, the music was too crowded signalling the end of my 'experiment' to enable some of my buddies to perform with me. The show still went great but there was too many hiccups for me to enjoy my performance. Hope this will be a lesson for me to learn and put me in good stead for future shows!
30TH SEPT - FINAL PERFORMANCE OF THE MONTH This final showcase was injected with a kind of festive mood and why not? Other than my own performance, there was to be a dance item by Republic Polytechnic and a dikir barat performance by Cucu Datuk Merah. Anyway, it was meant to be a fundraiser for the suffering citizens of Jogjakarta, victims of an earthquake a year ago. Due to time constraint, I had to cut short my set. As usual, my final song for my performance was 'Keagungan Mu'. But this time, with the dance group and dikir barat in action, it was like 'WOW'! Everyone was singing and dancing along to the song. Damn.....it was wonderful!
Labels: anggrik promotions, berita harian, malay village, muzika rekod, ria, warna, zaibaktian
