What?

So, what I’ve been up to lately? Well, there was this massive protest at Iran and military shooting in United States of America. I made a killing out of those events with my brilliant photojournalism skill.

Just kidding.

What I’m doing lately, is going through a phase, which generally involves me forgetting about everything else in my life, like a blog, and just cherish in the ongoing moments. Translation: I attended gigs by local bands, and they rocked the deepest part of my core.

Frankly, I never thought high of local bands. For decades local artists and bands were merely following the trend of the west, always trying to make a fail tribute here and there. Then there was this particularly annoying period of time - everyone was doing hip hop and nothing else. Suddenly, everyone wears baggy clothing and rapping on the street.

So I never really followed local music industry even though I have a K.R.U. mug from Kentucky Fried Chicken.

That was, of course, a very limited exposure in the world of music I had as a photographer. Until that one random day Joanna Gough Marie introduced me to the International College of Music, or ICOM for short. I never knew it existed. I covered several concerts and live performances as a photojournalist, but there was nothing like what I saw in ICOM’s Friday Performance. I was so impressed, a couple times I forgot where the shutter button was.

A few days later, I was introduced to Flicked Mind in Taylor’s Asaban Fest 2009. Citing a stranger stood beside me before they started playing, “Flicked Mind is a supposedly famous local band”. A few minutes later, I realized he might not be wrong after all - with the energy and skill displayed I’m not surprised they were famous locally.

I decided I have to attend all their gigs, take tons of photos, and make tons of profits when they finally make it really big.

But the glimmer of hope came from somewhere else.

Thanks to Shaz Mukhtar, I attended the X-Fresh FM X-Klusif One Drop Perfume beach party, which showcased several already famous local bands I have never heard before. Well, besides Pop Shuvit because I watched Impak Maksima. But it wasn’t Pop Shuvit - it was Bunkface that caught my attention most.

I was told that the band was famous because the lead singer is good looking, and he’s Eurasian. After seeing them performing on stage, I have to disagree. I don’t know how to explain it in words, so I’ll let their music do the explaining.

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We all know the reason why TMNet was frequently referred as TMNutz, and their flagship service package Streamyx was duped Shitmyx, but you have to admit the song and the video above was brilliant. When it was released, many thought it was a piece by All American Rejects. But no, it was an original by Bunkface. The video below is the complete version of the song.

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I think the reason the song was a hit, was because it doesn’t sound Malaysian at all. As mentioned before, many thought it was a new song from All American Rejects, and when they were told it was actually Bunkface’s work, deep denial took place. I mean, come on, how many of you actually heard of them before reading this post?

I am not suggesting that to be successful you have to be un-Malaysian. As a proud Malaysian, I love doing things the Malaysian way… maybe not. But I am proud of the fact that I’m Malaysian. I live in Malaysia, I eat Malaysia food, I watch Malaysia movies, and now thanks to Bunkface, I listen to Malaysia songs.

Again, I have no idea how to describe with words on why I think local music industry can finally make it big just because of bands like Bunkface are gaining recognition. I can only offer a metaphor - taobao dot com defied all traditional trading methods in China by mimicking Ebay in the correct way, and instead of failing miserably like what most critics said it would, it’s the most profiting online business ever in history of China.

Seems like my metaphor writing wasn’t as good as I thought it was.