Last Show with Dewangga Sakti

I never imagined this day will arrive. Last Saturday was my last performance with Dewangga Sakti. My feeling?...I was very sad to leave behind Dewangga Sakti life for Dubai. Even when my bandmates asked for my last speech during Iftar, I just said "I will come back !". I just don't want to say goodbye, in fact so far I have never said goodbye to any of my friends because I like to think I will see them around again. It is not because I do not want to accept the fact or what, but I have long held this view that in this century no matter where you go, you are just a phone call away, a blog away or a YM or facebook away...hehehe if you get what I mean. That is the wonder of the world wide web which is to me the greatest wonder ever in this world. So you never really go far away from your friends except you just cannot hang around in person.

Pic: After a show in MHI in July 2008. Wahyun was absent.

But Dewangga Sakti life is all about engaging music passion together in person. We always do it the old style way. We hang out, we talk, we jam and we create music. So by being far away, I will no longer be able to do all that. Some people suggest I can compose music or jam online but that is not the way we do it in Dewangga Sakti. Most of the times we need to talk, argue and crack joke before we can get the mood to create music. It is a slow and inefficient process but very human process.

I wish I could have everything but that is not the reality. I chose to move out from my comfort zone so this is what it entails. I hope I will get something meaningful and worthwhile out of this experience.

Yesterday I also joined Iftar by IIUM Adventure & Recreational Club ("ARC"). I was invited as the ARC club alumni and as a member of Latepackers club. I passionately call these two clubs as "kelab budak-budak gunung", because that is the main activity of the clubs, mountain climbing. Mountain climbing is one of my past time hobbies besides music. I have climbed Mount Yong Belar, Mount Chamah, Mount Ulu Sepat, Mount Korbu and Mount Gayong. These mountains are in the group of 7 mountains above 7000 feet in West Malaysia. The other 2 mountains are Mount Yong Yap and Mount Tahan which I have not hiked yet. I have also climbed other small mountains like Mount Datuk, Mount Bunga Buah, Bukit Taboh and Mount Nuang. So in ARC those who managed to climb all the 7 mountains will be certified by the club as Achiever. I got 2 mountains more which I plan to climb in the future. Of course the ultimate mountain is Mount Kinabalu. In ARC we like to climb the 7 mountains first because they are the toughest compared to Mount Kinabalu (my American friend hiked Kinabalu during weekend and came to work on Monday ! sounds easy?). But with my departure that plan has to be postponed infinitely.

I have been upholding the club's motto all this while..yeah !

I managed to see some old friends during the ARC Iftar. It was good to see them happy with wives and cute kids. Some of them have started facebooking and blogging, so I will definitely see them a lot after this in my Facebook and blog.

Pic:
Lanun, Enche', Joko, Atuk, Kak Bad, Kak Mie, Nyamoque and a few seniors whose names escape me..

Kalau ada sumur di ladang
Boleh hamba menumpang mandi
Kalau ada umur yang panjang
Boleh kita berjumpa lagi

Malay pantun

Music and Friendship

I just got back from Dewangga Sakti's gig in Singapore held on June 7th-8th. It was Dewangga Sakti's first cameo in the city state. The band also did their soft launching of the EP Mabok Kepayang in Singapore. As a musician in Dewangga Sakti I am happy and proud to see the first fruit of our labour is now riped and ready to be enjoyed by listeners out there. But what is most important to me, this trip to Singapore has left something meaningful to me as a musician in the band.

I have been active with music band for more than 10 years now, first with Cryptic Malediction and then Dewangga Sakti. The love and passion for a particular music has drawn me and other bandmates together to form our bands. But I can say music alone does not sustain a band. It is the bond and friendship created whilst making the music that hold us together as a band. My equation to this formula is music + friendship = great survival band.

Without friendship I don't think my bands can achieve what they have got now. Sure you may ask why friendship is so important? The answer depends on how far you want to drive your band. I can simply put advertisement for a guitarist, drummer and vocalist and quickly form a band for a project either to perform or produce an album. I can do it with a complete stranger. But I dont think I can do it for more than 3 years if I don't perceive other bandmates as friends as oppose to mere bandmates.

I say like this because there are a lot of ups and downs in moving together as a music band. I am not talking about a band who just gather for a jam during the weekend and collect music materials together. This is about managing a group of peoples towards serious goals and maintaining consistency and improvement at it. The process of achieving those goals require a lot of sacrifices, commitment and hard work. Along the way, you could see peoples' attitudes, obstacles, excuses, laziness, ego, anger and frustration. What better way to understand and overcome all these problems? To me the answer is friendship.

Some may say it should be professionalism. But professionalism alone is not enough and in fact you could only behave in a professional manner if you think it is your profession. To me being a bandmate is not a profession, it is a passion.

My bandmates and I in Dewangga Sakti faced many obstacles in producing our first EP Mabok Kepayang. It may sounds simple to produce 5 songs and print it on CD but behind the scene it deals a lot more with cooperation, voluntariness, understanding, love and respect to each other. The works for the EP have made us closer to each other and reinforced our brotherhood in music. Moving forward I pray that we would be able to understand and cooperate with each other more and avoid past mistakes and loopholes.

Coming back to my Singapore trip, apart from the traveling fatigue and lack of sleep I had so much fun and laughter with my bandmates. I laughed so hard that I trapped air in my lungs and ripped my abdominal muscles (my theory only !). It is very rewarding to have a really good time after hard days work. The Singapore trip was special to me because it was the first time Dewangga Sakti got to travel outside Malaysia in full board. In our previous trips only some of us were able to travel and perform overseas due to the client's requirements.

In Singapore Dewangga Sakti have embraced En Wah Yun Kua as a new member. He plays percussion and is very good at it. He is my bandmate now and definitely a friend. I hope he can bring a lot of improvement to the band and vice-versa. I look forward to create more beautiful musics with him and bring benefit to other peoples out there.

"In the rhythm of Life, we sometime find ourselves out of tune, But as long as there are friends to provide the melody, The music plays on."

L-R Standing = Mohsen, Syamsulfaiz, Wahyun, Zulkifli
L-R Sitting = Irwan, Norman, Azman, Raof

Scandalous !

Couldn't hold it anymore !

Dear Honey, How are you? I am currently at ...


Still scandalous !

What was I thinking?

I should have posted this entry on last Monday but I got hold up with office work.

Last weekend my band was invited to play in KL International Book Fair in Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur (PWTC). We had a slot for 2 songs. So we played our latest numbers "Tertinggal Kapal Angkasa" and Belayar Ke Pulau Jauh". For your information we have just finished recording these 2 songs in a studio a week before this gig. We had a great show and so much of fun with the lively audience. But with a story to tell.

Our show was scheduled at 6.00 pm but I arrived early for the book fair around 3.00 pm. I was quite proud of this fact (being early). But what happened at the end was something I didn't expect at all. Remember the fact that I have just finished recording the 2 songs a week before this gig? So on that fateful day I was pretty confident that I could perform the songs very very very well [emphasis added].

I was so confident that I didn't practice the songs at home. Not only that I didn't practice but I couldn't be bothered to warm up my fingers on the fret board when I arrived at the stage. Instead I was busy visiting the booths, browsing the books on display, catching up with old friends, joking around with bandmates, playing with my boy Adrin, take pictures of the performers on stage, in other words, in the 1 hour period prior to our gig I did all sort of activities except to be with my bass guitar and amp. What was I thinking yea?

I was busy making a face to Adrin when the MC announced "dan sekarang kita dengarkan, Dewangga Sakti, dipersilakan". Suddenly I felt adrenalin gushing through to my heart. I turned around and saw all my bandmates were already on the stage. Where is my guitar? Ohh shit I got to plug in the amplifier first ! Have I tuned my guitar?..ohh thank god I have tuned it. But where is my guitar and amp? What was I thinking?

I quickly ran to the musician room and grab my bass guitar and amplifier. I almost tripped myself when I clumsily stepped on my guitar's strap. I had to run to the stage with 3 kilos guitar in my left hand and 10 kilos amp in my right hand ! By the time I was looking for the power source for my amp and plugging in my jack, my friend Zoy was already strumming the intro part. When I showed the sign 'ready' to all my bandmates I didn't have any idea how my bass will sound like and what song to play first.

In fact I found out which song to be played first slightly after 1 minute during the intro. To my surprise my fingers were cold and shaking. I could not even slide my fingers from note G to F in the 3rd string. To make matter worst I totally lost the samba groove supposed to be played for the bass line in "Tertinggal Kapal Angkasa". And the result was....a going to the cliff out of tempo disharmony and discordant bass lines for the 1st song. My heart was beating at 120 km/h, my hands and feet went cold and numb and my armpit was sweating !

I just could offer a smile (actually a smirk) to the staring whattafuck eyes of my bandmates after we finished the first song. Then I raised my eyebrow to signal "its ok guys, shit suddenly happened but I am back now for the 2nd song".

The 2nd song was started with my bass line. I went smoothly for the 1st, 2nd until the 4th bar. I almost wanted to bang my guitar on the floor when my clumsy fingers went to the G chord pattern when I was supposed to play in D when the violin came in. I managed to skip a chord and came back to the right pattern (if you are a musician, you could imagine how a song would sound when suddenly the bass line skip a pattern).

I quickly unplugged my amp and carried up my affects after bowing to the cheering crowd. What was I thinking? I couldn't help myself from cursing and swearing against my name on the way down from the stage.

"If you're not practising, somebody else is, somewhere, and he'll be ready to take your job"

Brooks Robinson
American professional basketball player