Lama hilang...? (Part 2)

APRIL-JUNE

Come March 31st, I was called once again to perform with Metalasia. The band, being one of many AIM alumni, (along with May and Def Gab C) was invited to perform on a live TV broadcast of Prelude to AIM 13. It was aired on NTV7 from KL's Hard Rock Cafe to an audience of a million or so. It was an easy gig: 2 songs and a few free meals, and we were out of there. At least not for me... me and the missus spent a night at Concorde... a little treat in sampling the rock 'n roll lifestyle, at least for a couple of days.

The place was packed and friends came down to show their support. M'Pire came down, Man Kidal was there, and so were a few other fellow alumni. Majority in the crowd came to see Metalasia. Despite the crappy sound and short setlist, we could see they enjoyed themselves. The band blazed through Silantra, Mozart's Sonata in C (of course we distorted it and played it break-neck speed) and closed with Puspasari Penawar Putri featuring Ning Baizura on soprano. Some said my bass had the fattest low-end amongst the three bands that performed that night... I wasn't sure if they were referring to my sound or my butt... A regular rock 'n roll party. It was a good night.

Come May. M'Pire begins production of their debut album. The entire process was supposed to be executed at Matahati in King Studios, PJ but dissatisfaction on my part regarding the staff's commitment towards the project has prompted us to finish the album at Karya Enigma. We had a good two weeks at King's where we tracked all the drums and rhythm guitars. I brought my Spider II half-stack, Ali brought in his Marshall: plugged a Gibson X-plorer into a splitter, feeding both heads... and put up the Richter scale. I was ecstatic that we got the heavy chug-chugga distortion that we wanted... I mean, it was FAT!

Throughout the sessions, we had a lot of guests (which reads like who's who of Malaysian Rock revolutionaries). Among the first to drop by were Joe Wings, Lan Lipan Bara, Aan Kevin (a.k.a. Ozen Aan - arwah J.S. Kevin's sidekick), Tajol F.T.G., Kia Vagrant (came down all the way from Kuching), Bagio Damasutra, Miji Cromok, Zack from Budak Kaca Mata (selamat pengantin baru, bro!), Loloq and even Papa Rock himself, this year's AF principal, Ramli Sarip came down. We did get the occasional groupie type 'pompuan', and since yours truly was hard at work, I totally obliterated them by blasting the music up, I mean, really loud! Haha... padam muka, buat menyemak aje datang studio.

As of this writing, I am tracking Ali's vocals over at Karya Enigma. Still a lot of work need to be done... This project is really taking it's time to come to fruition. I even managed to complete three small projects for Helen Yap, TNB and TV3 in between... talk about hectic! I can't wait till all this is over. Off to an island vacation with the little lady... ah! Bliss.