Fishes & Chimps

I miss this space.

nobody@vox.com(Pa'an) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:00:14 -0800

Another phase of my life is ending. I will be back here soon. Promise.

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9 lives, 9 lives.

nobody@vox.com(Pa'an) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:24:03 -0800

So where was I?

Oh ya. After a series of unavoidable events, the date with my step cousin didn't happen at all. So that's that.

But I had a good few weeks at the tail end of 2008. TD somehow couldn't dish our fullest during the Campur Chart show but it was still ok I think. A bit miffed at Azhar for knocking me off balance at the pinnacle seconds of LIVE causing me to land awkwardly on my pedals and disconnected one of the cables which made my guitar went mute for the entire section. I guess I only find solace with the fact that our new song (named as Ampersand now) received positive nods from our peers. We're now 3-4 songs away from the recording studio.

But my night was ruined by a loss. Some idiot stole my black sling bag Ibu bought from London. Ass.

Then there was Faiz's sister's wedding. It was nice gathering of sorts. The food was awesome, and so was the free flow cendol for desserts. Peter Tan took this nice photo of us. Raw, unedited.

Aizan & Azlan - 21st December 2008

Then came Christmas. My best so far. Akak organized lunch, late lunch I must say (we ate close to 5!) but it was heavenly. All of us didn't let out a pip once our forks sliced through the tender bird, releasing its intoxicating aroma. I look forward to this new tradition in the coming years. Had fun helping out too.

It was around this time too that the PSP was my best companion in between things to do. Was hooked on FIFA09 -despite popular disbelief, it is enjoyable than the PES series. At least on PSP that is- doing well halfway in Ligue 1. My Lyon was nothing short of inspirational. Govou certainly has superb vision with his super through balls that always find itself in front of Benzema's firing range. Ederson may be lacking in pace and stamina but his crosses are deadly. And there's always the wildcard that is Makoun. His sudden blazing shots proved to be the Kryptonite to many goalkeepers throughout the season. But I can't fathom the astounding fact that Lyon has the worst defense in Ligue 1 (38 GAs) but is still at the top of the table (98 GFs) after 25 games.The only constant threat to my team was St Etienne's B. Gomis. He alone scored 4 goals against Lyon in our first meet. Astonishing.

When Yuna came back from her Euro vacation, we already had a series of shows lined up till New Year's Eve. Couple's album launch @ MCPA was by far the most physically demanding show I've ever played with any band for that matter. The heat was beyond unbearable. Ojoe even threw up back stage after Couple's 1st set. We then had a short post-show drinks, before calling it a day. We only had one day to prepare for Kuching.

Kuching Diaries

We were invited to play 2 shows there (30th and 31st December) with all expenses borne by Boulevard Mall Kuching and Permai Rainforest Resort. The last time I was in Kuching was close to a decade ago and obviously so much has changed since then. The airport's like a mini-KLIA really. The fact that the resort was next to the resort I stayed years ago (an hour away from town) brought back flashes of fun memories. Anyways, by the time we got out of the van it was pouring decently. Met Rahim the owner and then we were ushered to our lodgings. The resort was actually a former outbound camp, so the route was very jungle trek-y. That, was the single most arduous part of the whole trip. The rain got tropical which made the bags heavier, and the steep hill we had to climb wasn't helping at all. By the time we got to our cabin (the girls stayed on the very scenic tree house) I was completely out of breath. We unpacked and napped a bit.

Meal @ Permai's Rainforest Cafe

Gabriel wasn't kidding when he told me that we'll get the best sound in town. It was in fact the best sound we ever had! Faiz did a fab job for this one. I was already tapping my feet and banging my head like crazy during soundchecks because it sounded so good on stage. Both Efry and me got JCMs (didn't know there was one for bass!) and like 2 floor monitors each and the mix in our monitors are just as how we like it.

When we were offered to play in Kuching, our first concern was whether we have a decent fanbase there to even play a show. But the moment Yuna came on stage, that concern completely faded away. We ripped through all 11 songs without any major hick and the crowd was more than happy.

Yuna @ Boulevard Mall Kuching

What made us happy was that we went for mee kolo straight after our set at Boulevard Mall. Bliss.

We had to wake up early the next day for the radio interview at CatsFM. We were amazed that the radio station have their own big ass building, & an even bigger ass studio. Made FlyFM's look like a tiny cupcake. Then had press conference/lunch back at Permai.

Article from NST/Borneo Post

Before soundchecks for the 2nd show us boys plunged in the resort's awesome Jungle Pool. Felt alive again. Haha. The show that night made me feel like a club/pub/bar musician as we had to play 3 half hour sets. It was a good practice for our preparations for Mosaic in March.

Yuna @ Permai Rainforest Resort

Our set ended within an hour to go before welcoming 2009. Rahim (the resort's owner/manager) jokingly said earlier in the day he'll get fireworks but joking he was not. He must've spent a fortune, it was amazing.

Post-fireworks with Theo (Adil's new pet brother/Yuna's new fan)

We bid farewell to Kuching the next day. But not without some souvenir shopping first. Took a couple of photos with the super awesome Abang Hanafi, our driver for the whole trip.

With Abang Hanafi @ KIA

(Laughing) With Abang Hanafi @ KIA

Since reuniting with Myo during her Euro trip, Yuna's addicted into making video blogs. Here's an awesome she did to summarize the whole experience.

Kuching 08/09

End.

I should be getting ready now. Soundchecks for Sunday's show @ Youth09.

See you there?

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Sweet sweet corn

nobody@vox.com(Pa'an) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:23:42 -0800

I find it rather odd that this supposedly hectic final semester (one more for me) is being showered with a bucketload of off days. Well, maybe they want us to use all that free time to work on our assignments and researches.

They wish.

Last week I was on a semi self-imposed week-long break from classes. Monday was Aidiladha, Thursday was the birthday of Sultans (yes, Sultans) and Mr. Hellis took Wednesday off so I decided to skip Tuesday and Friday as well since my absence rate for both classes were quite commendable.

Surprisingly, I haven't skip any of Mr. Hellis' classes. Hmm.

Skipping Tuesday was quite legit for me though. Farah went under the knife to remove some lump in her left breast, so I was on standby the whole day since Ibu spent every minute with her. So after lunch with Akim we went to SDMC (oh ya, SJMC went into a rebranding phase not so long ago). Akak came to visit too so the 3 of us had fun chatting in the cafeteria.

Until,

That scent.

It's the most intoxicating scent you could ever get in a hospital strewn with the many whifs of modern day drugs and a sanitatious flock of casts and bandages. It's the scent of sweet, sweet freshly steamed corns.

So I sent Akim to get 2 cups and my goodness, from the first spoon to the last drop of bittersweet after-corn juice, I was somewhere I'd like to go again and again and again. Fuh.

Then on Thursday night was TD's practice session. Spent most of the 2 hours polishing the new song and we agreed that it's ready for this week's gig. Friday was another overnight session at SAE, our makeshift pre-production phase for Yuna's next release. It got quite tricky this time as me, Efry and Adil attempted to record our parts from the recordings of the first session- which were not guided by a metronome. So we did what we could albeit with 4 songs out of 6. Personally, 'Fireworks' was a standout. It still sounds fit for a Medulla B-side but can also be slipped in as a pre-Ok Computer demo. Bijan's presence during the session reminded me again why I would not hire Faiz & Faiz to do the next record. They're highly adept with ProTools and the mindboggling Digidesign yes, but what we need is what only Mokh can offer; the mindset of a record producer.

It is a fact that without Mokh's valid and vital inputs, the EP we did would sound very sketchy. He made us realize that some of the songs were quite empty despite it's full flesh live versions. Also when his melodic sense coupled with Yuna's strong vocal compositions, it resulted in unexpected wonders. But me and Efry did consider the possibility of getting the duo to be our studio engineers under Mokh's supervision. But neither of them have the necessary logistics to make this happen. So this issue is still out in the open.

Coming out of that session and TD's practice the other day made me realize one daunting yet very welcomed thought. The recording process for either band's next release will push me technically. Even after more than 5 years of playing, I am still a very limited guitarist in terms of technical prowess. No, I'm not talking about shredding the fretboard, but it's more of a consistency issue. Plucking 3 strings in one progressive pattern at 120 BPM for a good 50 seconds demands a level of consistency I've yet to attain. And I don't think 'punching' would help during recording too. Well, the only good news is that I have at least 'till March to work on that.

Hmm. It seems all I talk about these days are no more than music huh. Oh right, what happened to lunch+movie?

It didn't.

The night before that day I called her up, and was told that she'll be going to her sister's. So I told her that I really want to take her out, and promised a reschedule. She was still quite worried 'cause it will mean I have to pick her up at Auntie Ani's. I still don't know to what extent of fussy she can be with her nieces and nephews. Anyways, after the overnight session (which ended around 6:30 a.m) I went home and slept around 8 a.m. 2 hours later she texted me and I couldn't sleep anymore. She did the rescheduling :D

For the first few days we were heavily texting, I didn't know where all this would lead to. But I think last night paced things nicely. It brought us back to solid ground. And also brought me back into thinking of another someone. Perhaps, THE someone at the moment.

Maybe I'm reading a bit too much into this but this whole pattern of her asking the wrong things from me seems to have its pull. She asked how much would a 4R print cost, where to get wings for her Halloween party, is Naili's a good place to eat and whether she should be getting either an iPhone, an iPod Touch or a Sony Ericcson X1. All of which I don't have an answer for, really. Never has someone been so, trusting of me even when time and time again I can't give what they want. But I would like to believe I can be the one that gives her what she needs. Alright, alright. I am reading too much into this.

See how la hor.

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Definitive

nobody@vox.com(Pa'an) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:28:41 -0800

Taken from Akak's

definitive music for every year of my life since 1997

1997 - I'll Be Missing You (back when he's known as Puff Daddy)
A pivotal moment of my life, when I stayed up late at night for that Billboard 100 show on TV2. The album became the first cassette I ever bought. Played the whole album to death, with this song on super heavy repeat.

1998 - Sex & Candy (Marcy Playground)
This year was quite a blur for me musically, but I was still pretty much hooked on Billboard 100. Slowly drifting me away from the local radio content. I always waited for this song to play, hoping I could see naked people. Hey, excuse my 13 year old hormones. But it's still a kick ass song. With France beating Brazil to lift the Cup, it was a kick ass year too.

1999 - Silverchair, Butterfingers
There's not much different between these 2 bands. They were deeply rooted in grunge, but went skywards with respective releases that year. Neon Ballroom was so edgily futuristic you keep making sure that you're on planet Earth. Transcendence? Well, it was on another planet entirely.

2000 - Nirvana
Grunge was the first music I paid attention too back in '95, thanks to Abang Aidil's Unplugged in New York cassette. But it took me 5 years after that to fully immerse myself in all of the band's 5 releases. If there's anything I got out of this phase besides knowing that 4 chords can make a global hit, it tought me patience. I starved for 2 weeks for a cassette. It was food for the soul.

2001 - Slipknot, Marilyn Manson
Hafeez was broke, so he decided to offload his CDs. These 2 were my first CD buys and boy was it love at first sight. The aggression of both bands worked well with that 'in limbo' year between PMR and SPM. It was my first few tastes of heavy music.

2002 - Pearl Jam, WOWFM
Humaimah got me into Eddie Vedder's brooding baritone. I already picked up playing the guitar by this year and Pearl Jam widened my musical conscience with their basic approach, showing me that even with simple chords you can make deep thoughtful music. I don't need to elaborate on Wow. The name speaks for itself.

2003 - The Smashing Pumpkins, Explosions In The Sky
Every chord I strum and every note I pluck after this year was all thanks to the Chicago quartet. They gave me the gift of soft/loud dynamics. Something that another quartet from Texas also does so very well. Like what was written on their demo tape; fucking destroys.

2004 - Deftones
I skipped the whole White Pony era for some reason. But their self-titled (which was their 3rd or 4th album I think?) changed things for me. Hexagram is undoubtedly one of the best album openers ever. By this time Chino and the boys were such masters of their own sonic carvings that it's easy for anyone to regard them as Gods of Intelligent Metal.

2005 - Shitload of local stuff
I've been collecting local releases since '01, with the help of Music Exchange, CD Exchange and the legendary Music Magic. But this year that I was in UiTM, I met Boy and Potter. We were trading stuff by the truckload. They were largely responsible for the mass of my mp3 collection.

2006 - Fletcher
This wasn't my first band. My first will always be Hefleft. But this is the first band that I was involved with after years and years of exposure to a myriad of genres and styles. The fact that we went post-rock on this one even made it better for me. We lasted 2 songs. But those 2 songs got me where I am today.

2007 - Umbrella (Rihanna)
This was Telephony Delivery's year. Played tons of shows after the release of our EP. Most of it were at KL Jam Asia. Each time I drove my way there, this song kept playing on the radio. The song's awesome, and it was definitive for me. It reminded me of our mini Singapore tour, and also the first time I saw her in December.

2008 - The Dillinger Escape Plan
I've grown tired of the normal stuff I listened to my whole life. I was musically drained and uninspired. And then this band dropped a monster of an album that was Ire Works the year before. It got me listening to music again. It saved my life.

what are YOUR definitive music for the years of your life?

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Alphawaves

nobody@vox.com(Pa'an) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:07:55 -0800

The hardest thing for me to do these days is coming back here and wanting to write more than 140 characters. I've become to accustomed to the confines of Twitter that anything more seems, redundant.

Anyways,

These past few days have been quite volatile. On one hand I saw an inevitable split coming into full circle and on another, I threw out almost all valid considerations and asked my step cousin out for lunch and movie.

But it was funny how it happened. After raya prayers, we went to Auntie Ani's in Shah Alam. It didn't occur to me that she was there. There wasn't any window for us to talk, she's very shy about us talking to each other. So when I went into the dining room, we started texting. Then one text led to another, now it's all down to me calling Auntie Ani to ask her permission and to come up with a reason if she wants one. Or many.

But then on my way out of the house, I looked up and saw her looking at me and we knowingly smiled at each other, like kids on their first day at pre-school.

It didn't stop her from worrying even more about us 'going public' even when I told her again and again that it's just us having a good time out innocently, nothing more.

Or is there?

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Sleep/Cut

nobody@vox.com(Pa'an) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 02:56:23 -0800

I should be sleeping now.

Had another overnight session with Faiz R and Faiz L at SAE, but this time it was with Yuna and Efry. Session started at 10pm and only ended at 9am this morning. But surprisingly we weren't mentally tired, just our body aching for some good rest. Probably becasue it was a highly productive session. We treated it as a pre-pro phase before recording the next release properly and we did so with 6 songs. Only hiccup the whole time we were there was that stupid toilet sink that fell on my foot when I was turning the tap off. The sink is fine but a portion of right foot is enduring some muscle pain. I'll live.

Everyone else went back home to sleep like no tomorrow. I only had 2 hours of that before Media Research class at 2. Drove like a zombie to college, made it in one piece. It was Jun's turn to present so I managed to not snore in class. But then I came back home to a bucketload of emails from yunaroomrecord's inbox.

This year has a full month before it leaves us, but already the start of my 2009 is looking darn tasty and busy.

The second weekend of January will see me playing back-to-back shows in PWTC with Yuna for YOUTH'09. Fast forward a month later, we'll be in Singapore for the EP Launch. Coincidentally it'll be on Valentine's so that should add some attractive value, yes? Haha. And if we agree to it, we'll be in Singapore again come 15th March for a Mosaic show and I plan to extend my visit because Battles' playing on the 18th. All that is just Yuna alone, I don't know what will be stored for Telephony Delivery next year, but we're highly likely recordimng another release probably mid-year.

I've only 2 shows left to play this year. Campur Chart Goes LIive with Telephony Delivery @ Laundry Bar on the 18th and then Couple's album launch with Yuna on the 28th @ MCPA Hall.

I need to cut my hair soon too.

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Hi hi

nobody@vox.com(Pa'an) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:52:06 -0800

Hi,

If you're noticing a sudden burst of entries in this space, do not be alarmed. Pownce announced their closure so I manually transferred every necessary thing from there to hear.

It's nice to be back. We'll be seeing you pretty soon.

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Me & Her Episode 5

nobody@vox.com(Pa'an) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:43:57 -0800

"Me: u cuti sampai bila?
Her: january
Her: :(
Me: oh awal januari masuk ke, mid january masuk?
Her: tak sure ar
Her: asal
Me: i might sound like a broken record but i still wanna buy you pizza
Her: ngaaa
Her: comel!!
Her: nanti k nanti"

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Me & Her Episode 4

nobody@vox.com(Pa'an) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:42:53 -0700

Her: kenape lar
Me: apanya?
Her: takda apa lar
Me: you ngantuk kan
Her: tak jugak actually
Me: hmm
Her: kenape? :)
Me: i keep wanting to ask you out pi makan
Me: asik lupa kita berjauhan
Me: eceh
Her: cece
Her: hahaha
Her: kawan i duk dekat ponn
Her: i tak kuar makan with them
Me: tu yg dekat
Me: dia makin jauh makin mahu
Me: eheh
Her: KAHKAHAKAHKA

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Stepping back

nobody@vox.com(Pa'an) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:41:50 -0700

I think my earlier predicament about calling it quits will no longer be another thought. It seems likely to happen.

I am torn between loyalty and the survival of my sanity. This is getting too daunting for me. If I've never been sure about what I want, I think now I am sure I need a way out. Not an extended hiatus, not another plot to plan. Just the simplest way out.

There's a lot of things that are left incomplete in my life. But in this instance, I can say that I've given my best. I've done things under immense pressure before, and I did well. But this, it even made my brain freeze. And no one and nothing was breathing down our necks.

I'm not sure if the chemistry is still there, but there's been one too many communication breakdowns to not doubt it.

I told myself I'll bow out after the next release, in whatever form it may be. But what will I do next after cutting it all loose? Who cares? I know I don't. I just want to cut loose everything.

And I mean, everything.

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