kelvynyeang's Blog

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THE KL TRIP.. ( asian beat national finals ).

This is going to be one very very long entry…or so I think….anyway it has been a long and great weekend and the blessings of god was indeed very real and me and the band really felt encouraged after knowing that the favour of god was indeed on us. Would like to go further but just read on anyway.

DAY ONE DAY ONE DAY ONE

BUS TRIP

Theres not much to praise about the bus trip to kl since it was a lil uncomfortable. We too the transnational bus and the tickets costed some rm27+ or so per person. I think it was a lil expensive but we didn't have a choice.

We needed a bus that stops at the Jalan Duta terminal and only transnational and a few other companies stopped there. Why not other companies then?..

Well lets just say I wanted a really safe bus. I know how fast the busses from konsortium fly & I also know that they have a record for having a lot of accidents.

Macha…safety first la…. So transnational it was. Oh my poor neck though….lousy bus seats, cant even recline all the way… oh well.

MARY BERRY

Mary is my childhood friend and also the sister of one of my best buddies. She has indeed been a blessing to all of us. She basically planned out our whole weekend and we crashed over at her place. A close friend of her's – Jeremy was also very kind to all of us by offering to ferry us all around. Were very blessed indeed.

We saved so much in lodging. She was also really hospitable. After settling down and freshening up we went jalan-jalan in damansara utama.  As usual la, we as musicians automatically zeroed in on the music and guitar stores.

There was this shop in particular that specialized in ESP and LTD guitars. These caught my eye immediately and mary had to literally drag me away like  a puppy before I could regain my composure. The sight of expensive guitars just make me a lil weak on the knees.

After minor shopping or rather "snooping" around ( we had no intention of buying anything period ). We took a short trip down to Sheila majid's studio – AKAR KARYA & we prepared for the next day.

STUDIO POWER

Oh believe me, I haven't in my whole life seen so much high end equipment and variety let alone be able to use it. It was abosolutely amazing the studio!. There were 3 rooms, all priced according to its size and equipment. The cheapest room was at rm 30 an hour, the medium room was at rm 40 and the professional suite was priced at rm 60 an hour. In penang, studios cost between rm 20-25 an hour.

Expensive?, actually not at all. To some musicians who woudnt care less about really good tone and all, well I guess akar karya really aint the place for em. But if you are willing to part with a lil cash, you get what you pay for.

We took the medium room. Amplifiers available were a Line6 spider, Marshall valvestate 2000 ( at least 50 watts ), a Gallien Krueger bass amp ( this amp is every bassists wet dream…after an ampeg of course….ok ok…maybe an swr too ) and a stage custom Yamaha drum kit.

The acoustics weren't that intoned to high voltage music though. But im very sure if youre doin light stuff like smooth jazz or blues, the studio acoustics will really benefit well since it offers minor reflections that actually help thicken the sound.

Mary was particularly very thrilled at our rendition of Christmas carols in the key of rock. We took it really easy and we just fooled around like monkeys.

After finishing our session we decided to check out why the professional suite  cost rm 60….

WAAAAAAHHHLAAUUUUUEHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

The professional suite almost made the band faint!... allow me to elaborate. The equipment is so well stocked its just so crazy.

Here goes…

Yamaha MAPLE CUSTOM kit with a large variety of cymbals, extra toms etc.

VOX ac 30 guiatr amp….all fully tubed class A circuitry

Marshall triple super lead JCM 2000 head complete with 4 X12 cabinet.

SWR strawberry acoustic amplifier

Ampeg half stack bass amp head and cabinet

MONITORS FOR EVERYONE

Enough mics to Michael angelo ( ok I admit ..that was lame T__T )

Korg TRITON workstations

Seats for backup vocals

Couches for spectators and an amazing ambience to boot.

If all the above equipment is still not enough for the average musician…. Go die la….thats easily over a hundred thousand worth of equipment on our finger tips.

 ADDICTED…….we decided to come back tomoro to try it out.

MAMAK @ WILLIAM'S</o:p>

After jamming at the "expensive" studio we hopped over to william's. according to the locals in kl, william's is one of the best food places in kl. I was really surprised. The food was great. And it wasn't cheap at all. I mean in kl standards, that's quite cheap la.

BREAKERS & the rm 18 MINERAL WATER

after Williams we went to breakers, it's a nice pub with lots of fosshball and pool tables. So happens that a foosball tournament was being held. Because of that the games on the foos tables only costed rm1 . that's real cheap too.. but since the bassist didn't wear the proper attire he was denied entry into the club and had to spend his night outside sipping on mineral water. To his horror discovered that it costs rm 9 per bottle….the rest is history as they say.

PRAYERS

We had some prayers before we went to bed. Somehow I just felt that god is prompting me to pray for the band and pray I did.

DAY 2 DAY 2 DAY 2

MORNING

The second day started quite early as most of us were quite anxious about the whole event. After some prayer and wakey- wakey we quickly left to the venue.

--SOUNDCHECK—

Well as usual, during soundcheck you get to see all the other bands from the other states doing their stuff. What can I say?, theyre all really really good. I mean, come on …it's the national finals so its expected that everyone is a killer musician. True to oue expectations all the bands were very killer…- great music, superb guitar skills and arrangements that are complicated.

Although the whole atmosphere was tense we managed to become friends with the guys from johore. They were absolutely nice and happy people and shared freely with us about what they tought about music. We were quick to discover that these guys were about 19 years old, played professionally in local clubs and pubs and were absolutely talented in what they did. Amazing! The older ones from johor held their noses higher in the air and nothing close to the slightest smile could be seen from their faces. These guys came just to win…..-__-

LUNCH

Finally, coach of the year finally arrives in time for lunch. There was a cheap mamak nearby so we headed there. Nothing much la. The food is normal and the weather is hot…what a combination!. Actually the food is just ok only, meaning…its below penang standards. But were hungry anyway and its not like we have a big huge budget.

AND SO IT BEGINS

We were scheduled 3^rd to play. We just sat calmly as the 1^st 2 bands did their power performance. Luckily for us that the other fusion bands were playing after us. Unperturbed we just went and did what we had to do. We knew god was with us so we drew strength from him.

…..judges were, king shah from metal asia, hillary and from search and countless other big names from kl. They all kept a super straight face.

The rest should I say is history la….

AFTER THE COMPETITION

After the competition its makan time!. We met up with our dearest long lost vocalist of past – phoebe! PHOEBS WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU LOADS. Yes u wont believe how much we miss her ok!. It was great to see her again.

We also met up with the guys from unabashed.

They were real nice people and all. They really showed me that a ministry of influence can stem from horizontal music. Hey don't play play man.. just because of that I no longer see my music it is then. Now it's a whole different thing.

Klcc had good food too. We didn't have the time to do much since were all rushing for this and that.

AKAR KARYA PART 2

U know what…. Since we cannot tahan anymore we booked 2 hours,…rm120 off the band fund on the best studio in town to jam. It was amazing. Great amps etc etc …well I guess I already mentioned it and tehres no need for me to repeat the list. We had  agreat time. Its so so so comfortable and we were really making music, the monitors really helped and the sound is just so wonderful.

After that we went to breakers again for some foosball and that was it.

DAY 3 DAY 3 DAY 3

Ok so finally its all over d. we went jalan jalan in sungai wang, bukit bintang , kl plaza…etc etc. bought some stuff for my wife and headed to the pudu raya to catch a bus back to penang.

The bus driver is a heavy metal head so to keep himself from sleeping he blasted heavy metal all the way back to penang. I enjoyed it although I wont say the same for the rest since I know the others wanted to sleep!

THANKS  THANKS

Of course we must give credit  to those who deserve it!

We thank GOD for showing us so many things and blessing us unconditionally. It is definitely a privilege to be able to walk with you.

TAI SUAN & UGLYMEN for coach of the year award. Terima kasih. We couldn't have gone so far without your polishing and drilling and pushing and…….

MARY n JEREMY for being so hospitable. Were glad you gave us a place to stay and fetched us around kl. We thank you lots.

We also thank all the people that hoped for us, prayed for us, and for those who shared our dream. Thank you guys…..

And to the haters, people who wished we lost, people who are jealous of us ( hahahaha ), learn to love a lil.

have you ever tried playing 3 gigs in one single day?

well we did it!

it was the asian beat hits then after that we made our way down to cheong fat tze's mansion to play another set. and after that we wnet to audee's club to play some jazz.

it was  a long day but it was well worth it. i had a great experience and i felt really appreciated. im really glad  that during the gig in cheong fat tze's which was Cecil Rajendra's book launching ( amazing book by the way!) , we were a lil afraid at first that peopel might not accept the stuff we were playing but to my surprise the people actually took to enjoying themselves. yeah , balme it on the booze but i honestly felt that they received us rather well ( most of them are seniors btw!).

it was a real wonderful experience. after that show,we were in the mood for music still so we went to jam some jazz at audee's then  headed over to netcity for more games! it was crazy but well worth it.