Fingers (and ears that matter)

I was going through my digital photo album until I came across a photo that I totally forgot about. It's a picture of Mohd. Syafiq Abdullah (formerly known as Greg Henderson), me, Fauzi Marzuki and Peter Chong, in studio 4 at Synchrosound Studios, PJ.



All of us are Producer-Engineers (yours truly being the most junior) and successful in our own right. Syafiq was responsible for the big sound in Ella's 1998 album, El. Fauzi Marzuki was most notable when he wrote Legenda for Sheila Majid's tribute to P. Ramlee. Peter Chong is the foremost authority in Malaysian audio engineering having the extensive experience in recording legends during his heyday at King's. I have, at several points in my career, worked with all of these highly-skilled and talented individuals and find the experience very enlightening and humbling. Looking at this photo reminded me how it was when the music industry was still in the early stage of its cancer: we were still smiling.

Baby got back... ache

These past two days have been awful. I was cleaning up my studio until something snapped! No, it wasn't so much a revelation of sorts but it was MY BACK! Ouch... A few painkillers and half a pack of Koyok later, here I am back in action! Just as things were getting busy for me...

Two days, however, is too long a time for a workaholic to be idle, so I figured I'd catch up with my Tiger Woods PGA 2004 which was on hold since the last quarter... I did good, though. Managed to clinch three PGA tournaments in the course of 48 hours! (Am proud of myself)

To all the well-wishes, don't worry, I am almost fully recovered. : )

Trabye's take: This incident gives a different meaning to the saying "Watch your back!"...

No Force controls MY destiny....

I just can't help myself with this one! It's hillarious! I laughed myself to tears when I read my result! Find out what kind of Jedi you are...!


:: how jedi are you? ::

Publishing: the tiny pot of gold

Hello, people. Recently, I just helped a buddy set up his publishing company and advised another friend to start one. For the benefit of those not in the know, music publishing applies to those of you who write your own tunes for whatever purpose in whatever way. Be it for your own amusement or just to contribute to i-bands, sooner or later, you'll be thinking about 'selling' your songs to professional artistes. Below is a favourite question:

"Trabye, I have a (or some) tune(s). Can you forward it to anyone who might be interested?"

This happens to me ALL the time. My advice is, get yourself signed with a publishing house e.g. Universal Music Publishing, Warner Chappel, EMI Music Publishing or even smaller companies like Karya Enigma (promosi ini berbayar... ha ha), Luncai Emas and the like.

"Why?"

Here are the reasons:

1. Music publishing companies have direct contact to all, if not most, A&R people and producers in the music scene. This gives your music a better chance to be considered for album release.

2. Once your music is selected to be included in an album, it will be recorded and released into the market. Once the album starts selling, you (the composer/lyricist) are entitled to mechanical royalties. This is your 'share' of the sales collected (normally a pro-rated percentage). The publisher will do the collecting for you on your behalf, minus a certain percentage (this will be in your publisher's contract). If you have only one song, it's no problem to collect your royalties yourself. But should one day, you have more songs in the market than M. Nasir, you can't expect to chase all these people for cheques. Publishers are here to lighten your burden, if not lift it totally.

3. Music publishers will advice you from time to time, the sales performance of your songs and inform you of any additional income.

4. Publishers will protect your rights and help you if there's any legal disputes. There have been rare cases where composers have similar tunes/lyrics and accuse each other of plagiarism.

5. If your song was released in an album, and someone makes a ringtone out of it, do you know that you are entitled for royalty? Music publishers handle that for you.

6. Publishers will also help you register with MACP, a collection body that collects performance royalties. Performance royalties are different from mechanical royalties. The latter is income earned through album sales. In the case of the former, MACP collects royalties whenever your song is played on radio, TV (satellite/cable/regular), movies, commercials, concerts, shopping malls, discotheques, pubs, clubs or wherever there's music being played to the public. Your publisher will then collect these monies and pass them to you.

7. And lots of other reasons (we'll get into it once you're serious about selling your songs)

"Banyaknye royalty...."

Yes, banyak. The individual percentages are low but if accumulated, it can reach to a five-figure amount. That's how much the 'big' composers get annually, I kid you not.

"Kalau macam tu, where do I sign up?"

Nanti dulu... HOWEVER, this will only work if people stop buying pirated music products. As a consumer, these contraband are value for money but if you're a composer, like me and many of my friends and family, our income becomes the sacrificial pawn, sliced up to give pirate supporters their "value for money". A Malay proverb goes "Berat mata memandang, berat lagi bahu memikul". It's easy to not care about composers' royalties when you're not one.

So next time you pick up a cd yang "kualiti baek punyee", think of how much you'll be taking away from us, the composers and lyricists in an ever-shrinking Malaysian Music Industry.

Trabye's take: Composers pun kenalah buat lagu yang lagi bagus but that's another story....

"Learn what you practice,...

... practice what you learn." - Barry Green, author of The Mastery of Music



I, for one, am a strong believer of rehearsals. Whether for a live show or studio recording, I can't go without rehearsals. In a studio environment, I think it's very important that you decide what to do before hand and when d-day comes, both you and the artiste can actually focus on the performance. I found a fascinating statement by Barry Green in his book I am currently reading entitled The Mastery of Music;

"...one has to stop thinking about music and actually make music."

And that's what Waheeda and I did tonight: think it all out so we can actually make good music this coming Friday night.

Trabye's take: Studio's booked, session's set, we're good to go!

Watashino namae...

I was checking out some blogs links over at krik's stomach of chaos and stumbled upon this really cool site mentioned on simply skewed. It's a japanese name generator and it's a whole lot of fun! I really recommend you to check it out!

My Japanese name is Arata Hayashida.
Take The Kawaii Japanese Name Generator by Shuichigami today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

InTeam-idating task

I have just concluded an involvement in InTeam's upcoming album to be released very soon. This is my third involvement with the group where I contributed three music arrangements in their recent effort. Given their past achievements, I personally find it quite challenging to top my previous work for them. The album was produced by Hijjaz.

Malaysian music's not dead.... it just smells bad

Hello, everyone. How's it going? Apart from my activity updates, it has been "suggested" that I make this site behave more like a regular blog. Being reluctant to move away from the fence I'm sitting on (now you know...), I feel that the best subject to begin with is something that's close to home... The Malaysian Music Scene.

No, I'm not talking about the free TV station rallys, multiple dosage of talent shows for William Hung wanna-bes. I'm talking about the music itself. Being a music producer, I would like to read your take on what you like or dislike most about what you find in the ever-shrinking Malay(sian) CD racks at your friendly music store.

As for me, what I like most is some producers/record labels/artistes are more open to more global and current concepts in terms of sound and presentation. However, I find that we are still lacking in the field of actually creating music that gives us a lasting impression. Personally, I think we have been receiving massive dosage of commercial music (thanks to Mr. Ananda Krishnan) that we have become aesthetically dead inside... (Imran, did I spell it right this time? : ) )

We have become so accustomed to the "hit" lists. Is there anyone out there who find Malaysian music that still "mean something"?

Trabye's take: Today's music isn't for the people anymore but...

Producing Waheeda

Watch for Waheeda's new LP 

After much deliberation and preparation, it is confirmed that I will be producing one song in Waheeda's upcoming LP, yet to be titled. Her debut EP entitled Wassini, sold over 50,000 copies in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

The song to be recorded is tentatively called Binafsha, composed by yours truly while the lyrics is penned by Waheeda herself. It features a blend of pop, dance and a touch of Arabic-Andalusian influences.

Little studio, big client

Look who dropped by for an editing session recently...


Jay Jay in the house! 

Movin' on up... movin' on in

After over two years of moving around in cyberspace and trying out different formats, I have succumbed to the latest fad for anyone with an opinion: BLOGGING!

Ever since webmastering has become more of a hassle these days, I took it upon myself to train him as a jedi... ooops! *Wrong monologue*. I have to admit, this is rather fun at its best and thought-provoking at its worse. Anyway, let's see how long I'll last this time... ha!