We first found out about this awesome band was when we saw their MTV on YouTube - Hati Mataharey. Besides the quality of the production, their song is really catchy and somehow sad at the same time. Then we heard a few more of their stuff and really got interested. So, there's no better way to know a band other than to interview them. Below are some insights on how the band was formed, the trials & tribulations, views on the local music scene and some plans that they have.
The
Band
Post A Gig : Introduce yourselves. So who plays what
instrument?
Apis Abdul -vocalist rhythm guitars
Syima Tarmizi -vocalist
Fei Fei -lead guitar
Nadiya Hayate -Bass
Munir -drums (Munir gone back to Perlis so currently we're
using replacement drummer, Karim)
Post A Gig : When did you form your band? How long have you
all known each other? How did you meet?
We don't have the exact dates but Jabatan was formed back in mid 2009. Initially it was made of close friends, housemates Apis, Fadh, Adi plus Aman Bakar who was Apis schoolmate and the bassist, Azool who was a good friend of Syima. Apis and Syima was band mates in the club band Superfriends. Apis had written a few songs early that year based on poems written by Raja, (another housemate who soon became our band manager) and we thought that they were awesome. The first songs were the main driving force behind the creation of Jabatan Audio. However, the first lineup of Jabatan Audio had been through several evolution. Fei Fei filled up the lead guitar position after Fadh left early 2010. With Apis and Syima, the trio are the main pillars of Jabatan Audio. Since then we had to change drummer and bassist several times. Munir came after two drummers left. He was Fei's classmate at UITM Shah Alam and Nadiya from the Cherrybombs replace Zairul, our 2nd generation bassist who refused to perform ever again although Zairul still plays bass for our recordings and handles the engineering part. It's too complicated to tell how we all met but the truth is, Jabatan Audio is not just the musicians, it's also our videographer, our photographer, our manager... The ones who left never really left. They still contribute to the Jabatan. We're more a collective than a band... A whole department.
Post A Gig : What kind of music would you describe Jabatan
Audio? Who are your influences?
Wide influences. Whole range of them from the Smashing Pumpkins to Coldplay, Kings of Leon, Jeff Buckley, Spiral Kinetic Circus, Kembara and Search. We have songs that Syima sings the main vocal and songs that features Apis as the main vocalist so our songs can be very different from one song to another. Tak Diterima Lagi is more nocturnal, dreamy indie rock stuff while Hati Mataharey is bright alternative. Our new single, Angin Liar is a bit grungy. So how to categorize? Maybe alternative and indie rock is closest description
Post A Gig : Were all of you influenced by the same music
over the years or you started off listening to other bands first?
Essentially we all listen to a wide range of music and like
different kinda stuff. Apis like 90s alternative music, Fei worships John
Mayer, Syima is crazy about dream pop... Munir plays the drums for our recordings
and he came from the reggae scene. Nadiya was in a punk rock band before she
join us. We all bring our influences to the music of Jabatan Audio
Post A Gig : In terms of practicing as a band, how often
do you guys jam or practice?
We
try to practice together at least once a week.
Post A Gig : Who write your songs? What are the main
themes or topics for most of your songs?
We develop our songs together. However most of the tunes
were originally composed by Apis. Almost all of our songs are based from poems
and a lot of them got heavy messages -Sufism, suffering, longing... Mostly non
pop lyrics
Post A Gig : Could you briefly describe the music-making
process? Do you start with a guitar riff or other ways? Are the songs done at
home or the studio?
The first songs, we got the lyrics first before the
melodies. Our manager had written a pamphlet of poems and distributed it free
to his friends. Apis got hold of the poems and started humming tunes and
looking for chords and then came out with a few songs. Some of our songs like
Hati Mataharey and Tak Diterima Lagi, we found the riffs first but mostly we
create our songs out of poetry. All of the songs were composed at home and
recorded at Quantize Studio, Pandan Indah and King Studio, PJ.
Post A Gig : How has Jabatan Audio’s music evolved since
you guys first began playing music together?
We've been playing gigs since 2009 and mostly it's the same
set list over and over again. That's kinda beneficial as it gives time for our
songs to evolve. We only started recording end of 2011 and the recording is the
process that really shaped the songs. We didn't really know what our music was
really like until we recorded them and we've only recorded 4 songs so far.
We're still experimenting with our music and sound.
Post A Gig : What has been your biggest challenge as a
band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how? Did you get
any objections from your family or friends? At any one point, any member
thought of quitting?
The biggest challenge for us as a band has been staying
together as a band. That takes a lot of spirit. Here, indie band is more a
passion than a promising career. You don't get paid playing most events and a
lot of events that we performed in had poor attendance. 1 people here 2 people
there... You never feel like you can do this for the rest of your life. The
thought of doing something else always lingers in your head. You also have
other commitments in life. Ex members left because of those commitments. Munir
gone back to Perlis to work there...
After four years we're still relatively lukewarm in the
scene and that takes a toll on our self confidence. But we have our songs. Lots
of songs that we love and the thought of publishing those songs is our main drive.
And the friends and fans that believes in us. We're lucky that we have talented
friends willing to help us for free and families that support what we do. We
almost disbanded in early 2011 but then Zairul from Quantize studio offered us
recording facilities for free. Just having someone who really believes in us
made all the difference
Post A Gig : We see that most of your songs if not all, are
in Bahasa Malaysia. Any reasons behind that? Any plans to release more music in
English?
All of our songs are in Malay. That's because most of them
are based from poetry. Malay poetry that we adjusted to suit the melodies.
Those are written by our manager, Raja, who is ultra sensitive about the Malay
language. We share his believe that Bahasa Malaysia is a very beautiful
language with lots of speakers all over the world, more than Japanese, Korean,
Tagalog, etc, which means big market.
More important we want to contribute to the Malaysian sound
and we think singing in Malay would be the way to do it. Because each language
has its own melodies and Malay language produces Malay melodies that are are
familiar and closer to the soul of this land.
That being said we're not close minded about other
languages. Maybe we'll write an English, Chinese, or Iban song one day.
Post A Gig : Any of the band members are full time
musician?
Only one of the band member, Nadiya, has full time job. The
rest are freelance musicians when they're not with Jabatan Audio. Our guitarist
also teaches guitar classes at Bentley, bukit bintang. However, we try to make
Jabatan Audio our main focus.
The
Music Scene
Post A Gig : What do you think of the music scene in
Malaysia?
Don't
want to think about it. Depressing.
Post A Gig : What do you think of our local radio
stations? Any of your songs are on the local radio charts now?
Of course we think that our local radio stations should be
more open to budding artists. If you surf Soundcloud you'll find shit loads of
great stuff by local independent acts that never made it to the radio. The music
in Malaysia is evolving rapidly, people! People just don't know about it. That
sucks because it's the Radio stations that control their ears.
Hati Mataharey got airplay on Cats FM and SuriaRock some
time ago. Tak Diterima Lagi was played by HOTFM a few times... But they haven't
been in any chart.
Post A Gig : What do you think of the local music scene?
Active/inactive? What do you think can be improved?
I think the scene needs more support. From fans, bodies...
Whoever. Artists should be able to make a living out of their art for art to
thrive. The situation here is that a lot of artists are struggling to make ends
meet, struggling to record their songs, struggling to perform. Without support
from the fans and organizers and government, those artist would someday quit
and maybe some of them are really talented artists. That's what the scene
needs. Lots of talents! Talents that survives
Post A Gig : Who are your top 5 favourite local bands at
the moment?
At
the moment we love them all
Post A Gig : We saw some of your YouTube videos where the
band collaborated with other artistes. How was the experience?
Well if you're talking about the collaboration with Mila
Jirin, Adira, and the one with Alif Satar, the experience was great. We got to
meet mainstream pop artists and see how they do their stuff, learn from them.
We learn how to play soft ballads that needs different kind of playing style
and the artist also had to adapt to us because of our rock tone. It was a give
and take experience that's very valuable for us to improve as musicians.
The
Plan
Post A Gig : What's your ultimate direction for your band?
Are you seeking fame and fortune? Or both? How do you plan to achieve that?
It seems that fame and fortune is unrealistic direction for
us. It's more about the music for us because of the nature of our music, which
is not really lolipop music that can be chewed easily by the masses. Lots of
our songs has dark, heavy themes that can be very unpopular.
For the time being we just focus on finishing recording five
songs for our EP. After that we'll decide on the direction of this band. We'd
like to experiment more with music. Maybe try a different sound next time
around
Post A Gig : Do you have a band manager? How do you manage
your band’s activities? Any plans to bring your music further in the market?
(local & international)
Yeah we have a manager who is also our lyricist, crew,
biographer, publicist, marketing and sales and whatever else he does. Sometime
we're busy with freelance jobs so we need our manager to coordinate the band so
that we find free time to practice together and to record our materials. We
don't play that much gig now because we're concentrating on recording so it's
not very hard for him.
Post A Gig : Did you try to get your materials promoted
overseas? Is it well received?
We haven't tried promoting our songs overseas yet but we
think that maybe we should get to know someone in the Indonesian indie scene if
we want to expand our reach. The Indonesian scene seems more open to our art,
although it maybe hostile to outsiders. We don't know. We'd love to see how it
is there. It is also our dream to play in Sabah and Sarawak.
As for further overseas, for the time being we're thinking
of making our songs available in iTunes as the first step.
Post A Gig : Do you have any materials out yet? Album?
If no, are there's plans to get it done? If yes, where can your fans get it?
We just released our third single, Angin liar, on the 29
October. We move from single to single
and now we're recording the fourth single, Diam. The plan was to finish five
singles this year and compile them into an EP. You can contact us at our
Facebook page to buy the singles. Every single has different artwork and Angin
Liar cover art was done by King Ajim of Juxta Art.
Early this year we released the music video for our first single, Hati Mataharey, and we're planning to release the music video for Tak Diterima Lagi on new year 2014. You can view our video and subscribe to our YouTube channel
Random
& Last Words
Post A Gig : Any of you married? Got kids? Plan to make
them rockstars too?
Syima was married. She got a beautiful girl named Ava Sophea
who had been to our gigs since she was still in her mamas womb! She can already
sing her mama song, Tak Diterima Lagi.
Post A Gig : What is your day job? Can a local band make a
living out of playing music?
Like we mentioned, most of us are freelance musician. Only
Nadiya has daytime job. You can certainly make a humble living if you get
constant paid jobs. We try to branch out. Play dinner parties, weddings,
sessions for artists... But it's really volatile life.
Maybe it's possible for club bands to do it but very very
hard for indie bands like us to survive on music alone. We have to pay the
bills. Gotta hav a backup plan if all this goes down the drain...
Post A Gig : Any advice for your fans who wants to form a
band in Malaysia?
You gotta believe in your music if you wanna do this
Post A Gig : Anyone you would like to thank for supporting
you in your musical journey?
Massive thanks to Zairul Hisham and Quantize Studio and
productions for their grace, also to Sarra of King Studio for his support,
Lambpose and the whole troupe of Jabatan Audio loyals. One of the reason we
want to 'make it' is because of those who believes in us. We thank and hope our
families will continue to believe in us through our musical journey
Post A Gig : How can your fans support the band in
achieving your dreams? (buy merchandise? Go for your shows?)
Fans are welcomed to buy our singles. only RM5 each. We'd
appreciate if you guys who like our music can share and tell your mates about
us. Surf our soundcloud page and repost our songs guys! Download from
reverbnation and make it your ringtone. Come to our shows so that we'll
continue to get shows. Support all local artists you think worth supporting
because we really need your support. Otherwise only the rich but questionably
talented that will be left standing.
Post A Gig : Any upcoming shows in the next few months?
We have an acoustic show for Maskara, an art and poetry
event at Rumah Pena on the 23th November. Next confirmed full set gig will be
at this new place call the Insider's Place at Kompleks Maluri. That's on 6th
December.
Post A Gig : How can the fans contact you? FB? Email?
Website?
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