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!

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