You Kiss You Pay

I only had some small plate of Rice and Devil Chicken Curry for breakfast Thursday morning. It was a long day after that. The classes at the Garden’s ran from 11.30 pm to 4 pm. I could not have lunch during the break as it’s only 40 minutes long and I have to write some music during that time. I thought that I could grab a bite after school hours.

Wifey called and asked me to buy some cake stuff for her at Chow Kit. Boy, am I hungry? But I had little time because I have to fetch her at 5.30 at Universiti Malaya. The Sarabat stall food next to Bake With Yen looked so tempting. But, well … No! I would not take the risk by sharing my cup and plate with gender benders.  Anybody who knows Lorong Haji Taib will certainly understands what their dubious round the clock activities going on there. ‘Kawan, China (from China not Malaysian Chinese) 20 tauuun. Okay punya. Mau?’.

Fetched the Queen and she said, we have to get something at USJ’s cake shop behind our house. There goes my lunch again. Hmm … and say, the idea of having Nasi Pattaya was really great at that time. But then we have to go again. These things are from those shops. Yes, lady.

It’s already 7.00 pm and was thinking … what if I have some food at Nita’s Tom Yam near my house? Ha? Nah … have to meet Mamat at 8.00. Better go to the studio and set  things up for him and then lunch/tea/dinner after that. Shower and off to Kampung Tengku. Setup done. Now … for that food, glorious food.

Wanted to stop at Restoren Arabia across the road, but scrapped the thought as the food, at times, can be really unpalatable there. Better go SS2. Lots of choices. Reached SS2, and my brain still reeling whether to have MCD, Pelita Rojak or Kayu Nasi Kandar. Was looking left and right and suddenly the car in front braked hard. There was quite a bump. She only dented her fender. But my car’s a disaster! Oh my God … I don’t need this. Sigh.

Called my mechanic Ah Wah. He sent a friend over and we drove to State’s Police Station. After all the procedures, I finally had my lunch at 3.00 am.

Moral of the Story?

We work for food. We dress nice for food. We lie for food. We swindle for food. Food will always a be a priority alright for me from today on. No matter what!

My Little Gremlins

They are intelligent, witty, wholesome, matured, active and cute. They can be very aloof, cunning, irritating and a pain in the you-know-where also. 8-year old Aadesh once told me, ‘Air Asia bought 10% percent of Malaysia Airlines’. Well, well, well … he was certainly not some slick exec from the bourse. Me probingly asked, ‘How you know, Aadesh?’. He told me straight, ‘Don’t you watch the News?’. I was stumped.

They are the children of the fortunate, well to do, millionaires, CEO’s! Statements like ‘My Dad owns Baskin’ Robbins’, ‘My Grand Dad Owns the airlines’, and ‘My mother Trade Money’ are quite common around here. They look hybrid, mix and re-mixed! They are the students from Gardens International School. DYMM Yang diPertuan Agung has a daughter in there, too.

Working with young kids. Lots of young kids, is rather a new ball game for me. All the while, it’s been college students who know what they need and whatever I could provide them to eked it out in the real music world. My Saturday guitar classes consisted of teenage guitar hero (and heroine) wannabees, office workers who want to unwind, housewives (who thought that learning guitar was one of the status symbol) and competent guitar students who want to delve into the mysterious world of Jazz!

Here I go again. Maybe my short co-curricular  stints last year was good enough for them that they welcomed me to teach at the school back again. The Music Head, Kate even pleaded to me, ‘Won’t you come back, Jimmy?’. Well, I just could not say no. Some comforting thought: Even that superb footballer/pundit Abbas Saad is teaching 4-4-2 there.

It was depressing dealing with these silver spoons kiddos at first. But things are getting easier by the day. After all, they are children of the world. Innocent, colour blind, pure and lovable. They certainly are the crème-de-la-crème. Obviously, the leaders of the future.

RTM Gemilang

I practically grew up listening to RTM’s orchestra. People might say that it was ‘enlightenment’ or something. But in my early teen when all the kids in the neighbourhood were screaming ‘She loves you, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!’, I secretly worked my way through the beauty of ‘Kucupan Azimat’ and ‘Putera Puteri’. I will stop short when P. Ramlee’s ‘Dalam Air Ku Terbayang Wajah’ aired over the radio. And I fell deeply in love with ‘Jauh-Jauh’.

I do jammed with the guys over ‘Ferry ‘cross the Mersey’, ‘House of the Rising Sun’ and ‘Satisfaction’ but my Malay heart could not let those amazing tunes played by so many people with so varied aural textures go away.

So, I almost jumped with joy when last Saturday morning, Dato’ Mokhzaini (the Director of Music/Conductor RTM) invited me to their 50^th Anniversary Gemilang concert as the Orchestra’s Guest. Wowie! Would’ve hugged him if he’s In front of me. Hehe. Dato’ Mokhzaini (DM), to me, is one staunch personality with a golden heart. He is terribly funny too, if you know him that well. He said, you better come … you cannot possibly come when we celebrate our 100^th eh? Hahaha. Many a times my friends from RTM lamented to me about his ‘hair dryer treatment’ ala-Sir Alex. The perpetual tagline in that outfit will always be ‘Shape Up or Ship Out!’. Told them that it’s because he loves you all that much. He has great goals and missions to accomplish for Malaysian music. Would not you think that he is under tremendous pressure with predecessors like Ahmad Merican, Alfonso Soliano, Gus Steyn, Johari Salleh and Oii Eow Jin? All these guys work were out of this world. He also has peers in Ruslan Imam, Hanafi Imam, Jimmy Ali, the late Ishak Ali Muda, etc.  too to keep up.

Beside these, he diversifies the orchestra with ‘outreach’ programmes. Everybody will have the chance to enjoy their music. If you can’t come to us, we shall come to you, he said. Those ‘Refleksi’ program for school ensemble is rather fascinating too. The kids get to perform at shopping complex. Brilliant move that. As for himself, you can catch him performing at Bistros on   some lucky evenings with his trio for pittance. Si, he has so much humility in him.

Then, there I was … celebrating together with the Orchestra that I love so much. Hey, am part of their history, man. Enloying every minute of it. And they played ‘Jauh-Jauh’ with solo from my buddy, that awfully talented Razak Rahman.

Film Scoring 101

Mamat Khalid writes his own music in his films. He is a musician alright and plays very good piano. Although he divulges his passion for Dylan, Zappa, Pink Floyd and Tom Waitts – we share our leaning towards The Blues. We are also very receptive to all genres, too. Cool.

He urged me to be involved in writing soundtrack for movies (his movies particularly) since day one. Told him, 'I know nuts!'. He retorted, 'I'll show you how'. That was eons ago. Me, still working with MAS then, just could not afford the time. I just thought that it would not be fair to both parties, MAS and him, that’s all. But I did contribute film music in piecemeal though. Those acoustic sojourn in ‘Rock’ and that melancholic guitar in ‘Man Laksa’, e.g.

Funny thing is, I studied Music Composition (Classical) at MIA 1979-1982 but never did music full time. All the while I worked as an Advertising Exec, Drug and Substance Abuse Counselor and a PR guy for MAS – yup, three different jobs (but the transitions were uncannily smooth) and played clubs at night.

My film scoring debut started with ‘Kala Malam Bulan Mengambang’. Since, I was no longer attached to MAS.- there I was, full of gusto – gave my best. The music was ‘50s sleazy cabaret jazz. We roped in the best musicians around and everything was recorded ‘live’. Got patted in the back from my peers and the film was voted Film of the Year 2007.The soundtrack and the theme song got nominated, too. Not bad for a newbie.

‘Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah’ was a different ball game altogether. Neo-Classical. String quartet stuffs with a couple of Overtures thrown in. A staple dose of Rock is a must, as usual, in that kind of movie. We also ‘re-introduced’ saw music. Which was a novel idea from Mamat and I liked it very much. My left hand got numbed for a month from learning, practising and recording saw music. Annoyed abit when some friends thought that those sounds were synthesizers. Geez.

‘Kak Limah’ hit the box office with some 8 million Ringgit collected. So, without second thought, Tayangan Unggul offered me to write the music for the sequel – ‘Husin, Mon & Jin Pakai Toncit’. We are at the last stretch and the music is Hungarian Gypsy-ish.

In tandem, the music for the Crow Zero type ‘Apokalips X’ – which is Arabesque in form and nature is about complete and need only some fine tuning and tweakings here and there.

See? It will never be a dull moment making music with Mamat. We churn Hollywood music on skimpy Malaysian budget. We keep challenging each other and my best will never be good enough. We will push and strive toward excellence every time. A ‘No’ will never be a valid answer. As Mamat once put to me –‘if you are really THAT good, that ordinary farm goat can be transformed into a handsome Mountain Goat, you know’. Simply put, am lucky enough having him to learn the ropes from.

The drawback, or otherwise, is that we took a much longer time than anybody in the business to finish our products. My answer (aka one seemingly lame excuse) – we are producing Lions here guys, not Vixens. Or to be brash like Senor Director himself: 'We are geniuses, not professionals. Pros do when they are told to do, we do when we feel like doing’.  Err ...

So, hoping that Ahmad Kamal-Mamat Khalid music will be appreciated and enjoyed by all till kingdom come as do Lennon-McCartney’s, Rogers & Hammerstein’s, and certainly, Shanker-Jaikishan’s. Tschus!

You Know I'm No Good

Just when I thought there’s hope in Music and it’s safe to listen to the Radio …

RIP Amy!

Flick Fest

Invited to the Pre-Launch (?) of the 24^th Malaysia Film Festival via SMS yesterday.  Event will be held Monday. Please RSVP by today (23^rd July). Which I duly confirmed attending.

It must be ‘Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah’, I thought, which I collaborated with Mamat in doing the music. Do we get nominated again? What about the others? Who are in the running for what? 

Visits to www.finas.gov.my/ and www.sinemamalaysia.com.my/ resulted in this:

There seems to be a problem with the MySQL server, sorry for the inconvenience.

We should be back shortly.

Bummer ...

Death Walks Behind You

Atomic Rooster was an English progressive rock band, composed of former members of the The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

They adopted the name Atomic Rooster in the summer of 1969 (which was the year of the Rooster in the Chinese calendar). Their genre in music is difficult to define, since they went through radical changes in very short times during the life of the band. However, their best-known era represented a more hard rock/progressive rock sound.

This song, from their second album, Death Walks Behind You, was released in September 1970.