I was a bit shocked when I got to know I won the Best Guitarist Award for the Battle of The Band - Passport To Fame 2011 competition. Frankly, I didn’t expect to win at all because there are a few more good players out there in the competition. I was expecting another David from the band “Got A Match” to win. Perhaps the judges have some different expectations.

I want to thank God for the talent and the opportunity that He has given me and also bringing in all the people to help me nurture my skills. I want to thank my guitar mentor – Jose Thomas for all the lesson and guidance and also shaping the way I look about music, guitar and God.

I also want to thank my parents for not stopping me to learn guitar when I was still a secondary school boy and didn’t scold me when I took the PTPTN loan money to buy my first electric guitar during my 1st year in university. My dad bought me a Yamaha acoustic when I was in Form 2 and I still keep it till now.

… My first electric guitar. I still play it now …

Also want to thank En Ismail Ahmed who first opened my eyes on Jazz music when I was still pursuing my degree in UKM. He gave me the opportunity to learn and perform at RTM.

A big thanks to my band members also for keeping up the environment for us to keep on discovering and learning. Although we are not a professionally trained musicians, but sooner or later we’ll grow.. in due time… LOL

I want to thank the judges for choosing me as the prize winner for Best Guitarist Award.

Eler… macam menang Oscar je…

One of the biggest Battle of the Band event – Passport To Fame just closed its’ curtain on Saturday at The Opera, Sunway Pyramid. It is one heck of a long competition, from early June till end of August.

My band JUNK took part in this competition. We managed to enter Top 10, but sadly was kicked out of the final 5 selection. Part of the reason??? --- Not commercial enough. We are grateful that the panel of 3 judges wanted us to be in but sadly, we are just not commercial enough for one of the sponsors. So we were left out of the final 5. Apart from that, I think we are still green on these kind of stuff. This is my first Battle of the Band contest, and for the most of the band members too I think. We are also still not technically good, but we are working hard to improve ourselves.

Eizaz was the one who mooted this idea of taking part in the contest because of the Shure products. If we manage to win, we will have some useful stuff for our studio. We are not really interested in the cash prizes or the recording contract or the prizes from the food sponsors bla bla bla bla. But of course to expose ourselves to more people out there la…

Throughout the whole journey in the competition, there are ups and downs in the band as well. Some of us wanted to quit, some of us are just too tired of the hectic practice schedule till 1am everyday after a full day at work and too learn up the complicated parts in a short span of time. Sometimes, I do question why have to make the parts so complicated and settle with the easier ones. But in the end, it all boils down to whether do we want to take up the challenge or not. I’m happy that the band chose took up the challenge to settle with the “technical” route of the music arrangements.

Overall, we gained lots of experience from the competition. There were times that we are very nervous before any shows (sometimes, insomnia). After a series of gigs and from the rounds of the competition, somehow we managed to suppress the pre-gig anxiety and we are more composed when we were on the stage performing, up to the point of “Whack first, Think later”, LOL. Other than that, we managed to composed a few songs as well.

For me, JUNK is a very delicate and special band. Every band member is irreplaceable. Take any member out and you’ll leave a big hole in the music that we play. The band members compliments each other and we really “exploit” everyone. I’m really impressed by how we worked together to sound good, especially in our originals.

I do cherish the moments we had together, from practicing everyday, road trip down to JB for competition, the fright of empty gas tank at the long stretch of dark expressway on our way back to KL, the makan time and etc. It’s definitely a memorable moment for me. Although we didn’t made it to the finals, but we do gain something that are intangible and has no price tags on it.

NEXT UP >> Best Guitarist Award … will post about it once I got hold of the pics.

It’s been a while since I last update this blog.

Things are pretty much getting routine till there is nothing about them to blog about.

Band wise, there are ups and downs. JUNK manage to get more gigs in these few months. We played our first Jazz gig in the Malaysian Youth Day and another one in Jazz Ampang. Most of them are free gigs. I don’t really encourage free gigs because as a musician, we want to be respected (or rather compensated) for the amount of resources we’ve put in, monetary in particular. I think I’ll blog about my opinions on free gigs in a separate post in the future.

Also, JUNK took part in a band competition and we managed to go into round 4 of 6. This is my first time taking part in a competition like this. It is a good experience. We somehow manage to get good comments from the judges.

The competition somehow drained us up and we don’t have much time enough to breathe and reflect on what we did. Due to our own personal commitments, work, so on and so forth, we don’t have really have enough opportunity to practice together also. So we have to really “belasah”.

To think from the other perspective, the competition did make some of the deep hidden issues within the band surfaced. So as we band, we’ll have to address these issues as a matured adult, rather than making a reckless decision and regret it later.

Enough said, look on the bright side, we manage to gain more exposure and experience. Compared to our gigs a year or two back, we’d feel anxious, nervous till the point of insomnia before gig. Now, we’re somehow feeling more relaxed and less nervous compared to earlier gigs.

Wish us all the best ……

I was very excited that JUNK will be backing a local diva, Candy Cheah for a Tiger Beer show at KL Live on Jan 12th.

I’d say for a non full time musician like us (All came from IT background, except for SX who is still studying Telco Engineering), we managed to pull off a decent show playing different interesting genres, including Samba, Bossa, Cha Cha, Techno, Fusion, Soca and etc… And Candy Cheah was just simply amazing and very accommodative and very supporting of us.

 

 

 

Too bad Brett can’t join us last minute due to work commitments. Luckily CY is willing to stand in for us and spent time with us practicing.

We had 3 practices before the show and it was tiring but a fun time nevertheless. It feels good to be able to spend time with fellow musician friends to play music. It was truly a great experience. 

The audio crews for the show (From REDANTZ) is also worth mentioning as they are one of the best crews that we have worked with. They are very very friendly and willing for accommodate our requests. The sound check was simply short and sweet. It is one of the shortest sound check that I’ve ever had.

 

 

In a nutshell, it is cool experience to be able to play music these bunch of people.

Thanks Chris, Hung Siew and Onn for helping us out on the photos and videos.

 

For the whole photo album, do visit JUNK Facebook here ……

 

 

P/S : I almost collapse after the show … Doing backlines and playing for shows is very very tiring…

Just got these from Eizaz last week. These videos were taken during Junk’s A Green Symphony gig back in June… Enjoy and don’t laugh….

 

Explorer

 

Omens Of Love + Sunnyside Cruise

 

Takarajima

Will post my review on the gig later.

Video hijacked from http://anthony-night.blogspot.com/2009/06/sun-u-animangaki.html

Hybrid will be performing at Sunway University’s ANIMANGAKI ‘09 this coming Sunday.

We’ll be the opening band for the live band performance.

Catch us there !!!!

For more info, go here >>>> http://suac.x-tenshi.com

 

Hybrid will be playing :-

• Yumede Aruyouni (Tales of Destiny OP)
• Hitori Janai (Dragonball GT ED)
• Butterfly (Digimon OP)
• Kimi ga Iru (Initial D ED)
• 1/3 no Junjou no Kanjou (Rurouni Kenshin ED)
• Ohayou (Hunter x Hunter OP)

SEE YOU THERE !!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, we are JUNK.

 

Siang Xi on Piano & Synths

Eizaz Azhar on Saxophone & Clarinet

Choong How on Bass

Brett Lee on Drums

David Chin on Guitars

Yun Xin on Synths

Just came back from the gig in Jaya One. We did well overall despite we didn’t have the chance to do a full proper soundcheck. Everything just plug and play and sheer luck.

Out of our expectation, we were paid for the gig. And the crowd liked us too. We were requested to do one more extra song for the night.

Brett met with his old colleague, Chit from Rade came as well.

Thank you Eizaz for getting us this gig and those who loved our performance. See ya next week at One Utama.

P/S : I don’t have any pics to post but will post ‘em up once I got a hand on ‘em.

Junk will be performing in the A Green Symphony roadshow tonight 8.30pm at Jaya One, PJ.

Do come and support the show.

Hybrid failed in the Spirit of Music audition.
I can only blame our unpreparedness to be the main cause.

We've only jammed 3 times :

1st Time :- (A week before audition)
Vocal was sick
Still looking for keyboardist
Drummer first time jamming with us

2nd Time :- (Day before audition)
Guitar not available
Keyboardist first time playing with us

3rd Time :- (Audition Day)
First time full band
Practised for 20 mins.

However, I'm pretty impressed that we manage to pull off quite decently L'arc'en'ciel's "Nexus 4" and GLAY's "Winter Again" with that amount of practice.

I can't help to laugh on the comment sheet that we received.

**********************************************************************
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:33:01 +0800
From: spiritsofmusic@gmail.com
To: xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Comment Sheet of The Audition


We are sorry to inform you that ??? was not selected to perform for Spirits of Music 2009. Below is the comment sheet of the audition.

Don't give up! We hope to see you in our future event :)

HYBRID

No.	Name	Position	Remark
1.	David Chin	Guitar	Steady, good touch! Nice tone
2.	Kian Meng	Guitar	Not so skillful
3.	Sim Choong How	Bass	Tone very good, consistent
4.	Gary Chua	Vocal	''feel' very good, not so powerful
5.	Siong Xi	Keyboard	Volume control a bit messy
6.	Jun	Drum	Consistent! Steady!

Style of Music

JRock

JPop

Markings:

**********************************************************************

Anyhow, I'll take this as a challenge. Thank you to those who encouraged us by coming to see us practise. We'll do better next time.

P/S : RM50 to play just 2 songs at a CRAPPY studio is DAMN HELL EXPENSIVE based on the fact that this is NOT a competition and "winners" is not guaranteed on receiving any prize out of this event.



!!! UPDATE !!!
Pics from Audition

After 4 weeks of DIY renovation, finally we manage to complete our own jamming room.

Thanks to those who helped us out :
Akira, Brett, Choong How, Gary, Kenneth

And special thanks to EJun for helping us out with the transportation although he's not a share holder of the project. Thank you so much. I owe you a meal. And Terry for the advise on PA.

And also those who left halfway but has inspired us go on with the project ... Phuah & Raymond.

Personally, I learned lots of stuff from this small project. Will share it next time.


Come come come ... take a look at the pics...

Tonight, Hybrid will mark their first jamming in our own studio after spending 4 weeks of DIY renovation.

Looking forward ... Will take lots of pictures tonight.... Hahahaha

一些继之前有关全创影片。

《我有我自由》


《你走了》


《Love Goes Around》

Finally, Junk managed to play their first proper gig in Music Attitude "Meet The Band" gig at Goldhill Hummingbird Club @ Kepong on August 17th 2008. So far I've heard some quite good reviews about our performance. We're very happy as well as this is first gig for Junk.

What makes me happiest is that the folks on the snooker table and TV stopped their activity and came to see our performance. So I consider this is a good achievement. Also another achievement is that we made a few people slept (kakaka). Dunno whether is the music too boring or too nice and comfortable hahaha..... However, I still make mistakes here and there but the band sounded tight and balanced overall.

Enough said, the pics and videos....................

Videos :

Hybrid just finished a gig on Sunday. Still pending for the pics though. I haven't finish editing the video yet. Will post up once it's done.

I wouldn't say we did perfectly as most of us made mistakes here and there, but considered good for first time. All of us are very nervous and tired because of the waiting. Still, we still have spaces for improvements. We'll definitely do better next time.

Coming up is Junk's turn this Sunday playing instrumental stuff. Hopefully I won't screw up my parts hahaha.

Two of my bands (Junk & Hybrid) will be performing in MUSIC ATTITUDE gig.
Come support us as this will be the first gig for us with the new line up.

"Gig Poster"

Here's the performance date for my bands (as reference only) :-
Hybrid - Aug 10th, 2008
Junk - Aug 17th, 2008

How to go ??? Click HERE

The jamming session yesterday with JUNK was GREAT!!! We managed to nail most of the songs that we're going to play for this coming August GIG. AND>>>> We have a new saxophonist on board. Eizaz Azhar joined us as a saxophonist. He likes T-Square stuff also. THat's a good thing!!

WE jammed through our setlist and it feels great to finally complete the lineup and the music sounds much fuller than before. However, we still need to work hard to nail the minor details.

A special thanks to Akira for helping us to videotape our jamming ....

On Saturday, HYBRID jammed for the first time with the new lineups. We managed to play GLAY's 誘惑, 彼女のModern, You May Dream and Luna Sea's I For You and one of our original - Secret Garden.

It was fun jamming. I bet Akira is the happiest among all of us.. Hehehe.. Prior to jamming, I was sms'ing reminder and countdown messages around. Hahaha... I was unable to sleep well the day before jamming because was anticipating the jam after almost half a year of planning. Finally, we played and I'd say it's very good for a first time jam. Perhaps Akira can testify that. Hehehe...

And on Sunday, JUNK resumed jamming after Choong How came back from Jakarta. We manage to cover most of our jamming list. We also had 2 guests, Kenneth and Gary. Kenneth is another drummer who happens to be in the Jrock Kingdom forum AND a colleague of Brett, Gary is a friend of mine and vocalist for Hybrid. I asked him to help us to videotape our jamming session.

One point that I noticed since Junk started jamming, that is the band members was smiling while jamming. To me, it's a good sign that the band will stick longer because everyone is happy. Kenneth and Gary noticed it too. It's hard to find this kinda feeling in a band but someone I manage to find this feeling in Junk and Hybrid. I also would like to appreciate Xiang Xi's effort to purposely come to KL from hometown just to practice with us and then travel back hometown. I also appreciate Brett for always helping us to book the studio and fetching Xiang Xi to jamming. Also want to thank Choong How for fetching me to jamming also. (Partly because he's my housemate hehe). Thank you Junk for giving me the satisfaction of jamming with you guys although we're not a pro band but we improved a lot.

We jammed :-

Chobits - They Come And Go
T-Square - Omens Of Love
Time Lapse Consortium - Come Back Boomerang
Time Lapse Consortium - Patrollin'
T-Square - Sunnyside Cruise
Casiopea - Asayake
Fourplay - 101 Eastbound

Looking forward to our next jamming.

So here's a part of our jamming session. A cover of T-Square's Sunnyside Cruise. Not so complete yet but improving. Hope you'll like it.



Oh yar.. btw.... Junk and Hybrid will be taking part in a gig in August. Stay tuned for more information.

星期六那一天，我的其中一个乐团参与了一个再PJ, Jaya One的打歌会。这个打歌会是我们的协助鼓手，Terry所联合主办的。

我对这次的打歌会友好坏参半的感触。先讲坏的吧。。。。

当天的音响非常的不好。混音师似乎不知道在做些什么，Hann和我都有同感。在我solo时就推另一位吉他手的音量，drum bass kick的音量忽有忽无等等状况。电吉他手们都听不到自己的声音。这对我来说非常的辛苦，因为我要听到自己在弹什么。再加上某些人在试音时很不近人情的叫混音师从我那一边的monitor关掉我的声音。（不要紧啦。。。反正不是第一次了）

接下来讲些好的东西吧。。。

非常感动看见Jrock Kingdom一个大家庭到场支持和把整个地方弄high起来。这次可以说是第一次看见这样的情景因为从JK1至3都不曾出现过这样的画面。非常佩服Drako'Zen能把场面搞到沸腾，相比之下Mage就要好好向他们学习了。

除此以外，也认识了一些新的朋友。希望下次还有更多的机会参与演出。


Last Saturday, one of my band took part in a gig at PJ, Jaya One. The gig was co-organised by our supporting drummer, Terry.

I have mixed feelings on this gig. Let's talk about the downside of the gig first...

The sound system that day was really crappy. The soundman doesn't seems to know what he's doing, Hann and I share the same opinion. When I'm soloing, he pushed up the other guitarist's volume, the drum kick voice on and off went mixing, adjust the gain fader here and there blar blar blar so on and so forth. Guitarists can't listen to their own sound. This is very hard for me because I want to listen to what I'm playing. Plus that there's this someone who inconsiderately ask the soundman to turn down my volume on the monitor from my side. wtf. (Anyhow, this is not the first time)

Let's talk about some good stuff then.

I'm very happy to see a big family from JROCK Kingdom came to support the bands and made the place heated up. To me this is the first time seeing such phenomena happening which has never occured before in previous JK gigs. Drako'Zen has my utmost respect for being able to cook up the atmostphere. Comparatively speaking, Mage has lots to learn in this aspect.

Other than that, I get to know some new friends. Hope there will be more chances to perform.


来看看一些有朋友们拍的照片。。。
Here's the pics from some friends.






Don't mess with me.. I'm angry

More pics at http://forum.jrock-kingdom.com/viewtopic.php?t=257