Pekik (Shout)

90's kids.....

This was our life back then.

At home, you'd listen to music,...

...read zines, learn songs.

The Internet?

It wasn't easy like it is now.

When your friend invites you for a jam,...

...that's the best activity you can think of at the time.

"It's okay. I just got paid."

Especially when it's his treat.

That's like manna from heaven.

Praise be to God.

Every time you'd go for a jam session,...

...you'd feel alive, as if it was a real show.

You couldn't wait to shout it all out.

Shout

The following is an oral history of Malaysia's underground scene...

...told by the pioneers,...

...their successors, and the heirs of the future.

Underground. Urban. Indie. They're among the terms...

...that maps local independent music movement since early '90s.

A rebellious, passionate movement with iconic noise, ambition...

...resilience, defiance and righteousness...

...that forms a "SCENE".

Welcome to Little India

I think I first got interested in music...

...was back when I was six or seven years old.

I was already exposed to all the stuff from the West.

Way back in the '70s.

I was lucky because my family was really into music.

In our village, it was my dad who owned the vinyl records.

The kind that can rotate five, six records at a time.

Once it's completed, it will replace with another.

In his collection there was Black Sabbath,...

...Jimi Hendrix, even the seven inch record.

What else? He had all kinds. Iron Butterfly,...

...Uriah Heep. Just name it. He had them all.

Deep Purple, Rainbow, Bob Marley.

Even stuff like Hail Amir.

Of course I was more into heavy music.

In our village, ours was the loudest house.

Some of the villagers were cynical as well.

"It's all Western music, what's wrong with them?"

I'm proud to mention Alor Semadom Village.

Although it's a village, the distance...

...was only a quarter of a mile from town.

Still within the city, just like here in Brickfields.

But I could see it began to grow...

...some time around 1985 to 1986.

You had bands from Perlis, from Kedah,...

...from Penang. Everyone had their ideology,...

...different from the mainstream.

So, I came from Alor Setar...

...to Kuala Lumpur around 1989...

...spurred on by a soul overloaded with music,...

...and a yearning to become the musicians I listened to.

All those musicians that I loved.

Their music drove me to get on the bus,...

...and came to Kuala Lumpur. I mean, who knows?

Like people say, you can dream, and you can dream big, right?

If they could do it, surely I could too.

So, I didn't care. I came here because it was only in KL...

...that these small gigs...

...or these small shows were happening in mall,...

...halls and pubs at the time.

The one who first gave me courage to come here...

...to play professionally as a musician...

...was Rosdan, from Punisher.

He was also the ex-vocalist of Bloodshed.

He was the one who said, "Let's go".

"Let's go do our thing." He was the one...

...who paved the way for me to come here.

We'd lived in the same house since way back...

...which was somewhere around here in Brickfields.

Although in those days there were 14 of us in one place.

When I arrived in KL, there was a huge concert going on.

There was this huge lounge in Pertama Complex...

...called the Metallica Lounge.

So, that night...

...a lot of bands played until the wee morning.

From dusk till dawn.

There was this one band named Opposition Party,...

...from Singapore.

They showed up...

...with black bomber jackets and Dr. Martens shoes.

The crowd requested various songs from them...

...from Exploited, to GBH...

...to the Clash and the Sex Pistols.

Then the frontman, their leader whose name was Francis,..

...he said, "Sorry. We don't play covers."

That line has really stuck with me till today.

Every time I'd play music, I'd try not to do cover songs.

That line, "Sorry, we don't play covers" was awesome.

I still get goosebumps today.

I've been there, to the Metallica Lounge...

...and a few places. Semua House.....

What was the name? It was a rollerskating rink.

I went there.

There was this band, Rator. Man, they were truly punk.

They'd play, thrash their guitars and then leave.

And collect them later.

But it was a great time.

Everyone with their accessories.

Death Metal, Black Metal. All kinds of metal at that time.

For a while there, I was influenced by the metal scene.

But not to the extent that I'd start a metal band.

If I'm not mistaken, one of the early ones to release...

...these kinds of extreme music...

...was Rator.

They'd already put stuff out as early as 1988.

It was anything goes.

But the idea was that you must have original materials..

It doesn't matter if it's good or bad as long as it's original.

I respect them for that. Some might think, "What is this?"

It isn't about the song.

It's about the message. That was what mattered.

But frankly speaking, at the time, we weren't into...

...playing original songs.

We didn't really understand. We were only interested.

We didn't have a clue yet what the ideologies were.

Even the word underground really never existed to us.

All we knew was that our music appetite...

...was far removed from what was in the mainstream.

So, we had an idea of playing only music that satisfy us.

Heavy music, and all that.

From there onwards we started to realise...

...if you want to play in a band, come up with your own song,...

...your own product. Only then you can be a band.

So, there was no point in playing endless covers.

Underground is...

...since day one it wasn't.....

Some people think underground means you do it yourself.

You have to do your own music, your own distribution,...

...you have to be in zines, and all that.

Like you had to "do it yourself", that was the main attribute...

...of underground.

But to me, the underground was...

...just a different avenue to be...

...to be vocal, to share your music your own way.

It's like music for misfits.

It isn't mainstream, but...

...another space for certain people.

Those days from 1991 all the way to maybe 1994,...

...it was a friendly atmosphere. The kids didn't know.

Malaysia, in the world of music...

...we only knew classic rock,...

...like Lefthanded.

I think around that time...

..."Belenggu Irama" was still new.

May was big.

So, there was no alternative.

Even the bands who were independent,...

...with more aggressive music,...

...if you didn't know them, or know anyone who knew them...

...you won't know who they are.

This information was usually for...

...a small crowd. But in essence...

...in those days it was all about music. Music was first.

People were happy and can't wait to meet.

You couldn't wait to say, "Have you listened to this band?"

"Who are they?" "They're Husker Du."

"What is that?" And then you'd listen and share...

...your headphones and you'd go, "So, this is them?"

And for me I think that's when...

...indie, or alternative, or underground bands, started.

Because when we started, or most bands...

...started by copying.

Copying others.

And I believe for all new scenes...

...this is the first step. Copying.

Because we didn't have any point of reference.

We didn't have any seniors that were underground.

We only had seniors in rock music...

...who followed on from '70s or '80s rock.

But it was nice, it was very happy.

People were very friendly.

In the '90s scene,...

...these bands just wanted to break away.

Everyone wanted to.....

Not to be underground, but everybody wanted...

....to find more freedom,...

...and to be different from the mainstream.

So, that's why there were a lot of punk bands,...

...metal bands.

The common thing about them is they share the same scene.

So, everybody were excited to contribute in the scene.

To be exact, Malaysia in the early 90s...

...were still...

...monopolised by music...

...that...

...prioritised composers.

These bands could write songs, but weren't given chances...

...to put themselves forward.

I mean, they did write songs, but they were on Side B.

Side A would consist of composers' songs.

So, OAG was one of the bands who came into it thinking,...

..."We're great, we're the most good-looking."

We felt we could make it if we stayed true to ourselves.

You must make your own songs, play your own songs.

You must know your instrument in and out.