Performance evaluation against State-of-the-art approaches

I’m not here to tell you how to be an artist. I’m here to just share with you the journey Aizat and I took to be where we are at now. So here goes.

When Aizat was eliminated from Akademi Fantasia (AF), the biggest challenge we faced was, how do we move forward from here?

Aizat, he was a natural stage performer. He showed confidence like he is one of the top singers around during his AF days. However, he was not your stereotypical presentable singer type.

He was overweight and the public was so negative of him. I still remember the times when my mother would cry over the remarks made about him by the public.

Aizat however, was forever forgiving – something about him that I truly admire.

Then after 18 years of being obese, he slimmed down. All he did was hit the gym and jog. Really.

Now that he’s slimmer, Aizat didn’t hold any grudge against his detractors.

For him, it was something that never happened. They were indirectly forgiven by him.

He once told me: “I just want to perform and that’s all that matters. Let people judge me based on my work, not the way I look, or where I come from.”

That to me was amazing and courageous for someone to think that way.

The whole experience changed me a lot. It made me look at artist from a very different angle since. I realised that the most important aspect of being an artist is your INTENTION.

It doesn’t matter what type of music you play or which scene you are on, your image and branding, intention is still something that you have to look at yourself very closely.

Like Joe Flizzow once said: “Kita boleh tipu orang, tapi kita tak boleh tipu diri sendiri.”

Your intention must be pure and honest. If you put a lot of focus in what you intent to do, InsyaAllah, God will help you achieve that.

If Aizat’s intention was to just perform, mine was to help people with ambitions.

It’s only natural for me to start with something that was close to me – Aizat.

Since very few saw the potential, or believed in the fact that Aizat had the potential to go far, we thought, let’s just do it ourselves.

The first thing we did was to register a company using Aizat’s “catchphrase”

during AF, “Kasi Gegar”.

The basis of KGE is simple – we admire pure passionate talents and help them achieve their ambitions. It’s a blessing to have your own independent label. We are small but full of passion.

We then approached Mujahid, a producer from Rumpun Records, to help us record Aizat’s debut album. Mujahid contributed two songs for the album, (‘Hanya Kau Yang Mampu’ & ‘Sahabat’) while the rest was co-written by

Aizat and me.

To be honest, it was the first time we got the chance to compose our own stuff. I had some materials that I composed while I was in Brisbane finishing my degree, but this, was totally something else.

It was even more challenging when we decided that ‘Percubaan Pertama’

is going to be a full Malay album, well, to me at least as I usually write in English.

Really, it’s easier to match English phrase with melodies as most of its words are at most one or two syllable. For example, ‘I love you’ versus ‘Aku cintakan kamu’ in the same melody have two different feelings to it despite its same meanings. One is light and the other one is heavier. I really admire those who excel writing songs in Malay. For me they are pure geniuses.

As for the music on the album, I like to look at things the simplest way as possible.

Writing music to me is like cooking. A good chef will always be reputable for his good food and with the right amount of ingredients, your own creativity; you can produce a great meal.

For us, we wanted to use our own creativity and cater for anyone who wants it. We just want to develop our own unique music that hopefully connects.

I don’t waste my time worrying whether the music sounds too commercial or not current enough. I cook, you taste, if you like it, you’ll put in good reviews. If not, I will try a different recipe.

Speaking of reviews, I don’t really like having review from friends. Most of them will say things that you want to hear, seriously. Neutral perspective is always better. By that I mean the public’s view. Always respect your listeners. You can’t blame them for not liking your music. Never undermine them, only a loser does that. Set your ego aside and accept to learn the truth. Like food, you can’t force people to like it when it sucks; or say that they do not understand this kind of food. You just need to learn from it because music is how your heart communicates to another heart. That is the beauty of music. Your creativity is God’s gift to you.

Back to Percubaan Pertama, a few years back, Roslan Aziz told Aizat the

secret on how his Ikhlas concert in 1991 was a massive success – he went out there and performed as many areas as possible prior to it.

Aizat took Roslan Aziz’s words seriously. He believed that with all the success he had for ‘Percubaan Pertama’ and the number of awards he won;

he had to return the favour to his fans by hitting the road and perform.

It was a rather difficult thing to do though, especially when we live in a different era where people are so used to free concerts, but hey, someone needs to step up, right?

So we did a mini tour in three different areas – ‘Live in Damansara’, ‘Borneo Tour: Live in Kuching’ and third was ‘Borneo tour: Live in Kota Kinabalu’.

Preparing for it was a hell but it all went well. We successfully went out there.

We had two intentions for the tour; to send a clear message to the industry – to encourage more paying concert for artist; and to the performers – reach out to your fans! Make a real concert experience for them!

Financially, we made a lost for the Borneo tour. We did not have sufficient sponsor to cover the cost so we forked out our own money to ensure that it happens. We are after all in a risky business anyway, so risk is just an option that sometimes you just have to take.

But Alhamdulillah, a few months later DiGi took notice of our Borneo Tour and backed him up for few more dates in the peninsular.

I am so happy that Aizat got the chance to perform at so many different areas. It was even sweeter because all were ticketed concerts.

Why is paying concert important to us?

Because free concerts will not help you.

Why?

Because majority who turned up for it are not really your fans! They are a mixture of people who just so happen to walk by the stage from some booth, sit down and not singing to your song. It’s not healthy for the industry cause at the end of the day you are just like a puppet show to them. Where’s the value in that? I’m not saying that I haven’t performed in one, but the

feeling, in all honesty, SUCKS! And I repeat it’s not healthy.

Speaking of creative values, in the West, people in the creative business are valued highly because they colour their whole country with their creativity.

Sadly, that’s not really the case here. I just don’t understand why we can’t lift our country’s name by doing the same. I always felt like the only way we can beat the Western is through our creativity. Forget the physical facets.

Why do you think some of the international artistes can be heard here in our country? Not because they are better than us creatively, it’s simply because they got someone with good business sense to bring them here.

The problem here in Malaysia is that we never take creative values seriously.

By serious, I mean we never handle things professionally. For example, I find it quite frustrating when some of us can happily work without having any black and white signed.

The music industry needs to start small somewhere.

Anyway, I am not going to talk so much about the music industry apart of it being just a game. A game played by ‘kawan-kawan’ for the ‘kawan-kawan’.

The saying is not about what you know, is about who you know pretty much sums it up.

Well at 24, I still have a lot of time to not care so much about the politics behind it. I rather not let my creative juice be affected by things that they want you to do. I am just an outsider.

Looking back, I would say that I am quite fortunate than to have the financial support from my family when all these started. Not many people have that. I do get a lot of people saying that our success was because of my background.

Well let me tell you this, money is not at all correlated with the music you make. I did not make an offer to the almighty to bless me with this gift.

I heard stories that some people spend hundreds of thousands for an album that guarantee a hit but still end up nowhere.

For me once again, it all comes down to your intention in the first place.

Aizat is so far a blessing to me and I’m glad that he is my brother.

Well I hope this journal will help others out there who inspire to be a singer, artist, or musicians. It is just my side of the story and this is what I can honestly tell you.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you are not ready to fulfil your dream because you are still young. Don’t let them limit what you can do. Always believe and make it happen, or else you will end up being a typical person who live in the past, brag about past glory and at the same time complain about past failures.

I am still young in this industry. My serious involvement in the music industry has only been 3 years. Still is a baby. I have a lot to learn. But I always believe in my potential. So must you.

This is as much as I can offer my experience and journey. Always look at the positive side of things and try to have patience in yourself. Be the future. On top of it all, have pure intentions!

Azmyl Yunor is a singer/songwriter who performs/performed as Azmyl Yunor &

the Sigarettes, The Maharajah Commission, Ben’s Bitches, Furniture, Ciplak and Thunder Coffee Club. He also happens to be a lecturer.

#projekbuku