It’s no exaggeration to say that Azmyl Yunor is one of the most critically acclaimed indie artists in Malaysia.
With almost 20 years of performing under his belt, Azmyl is an icon in the local indie music scene. Although he is well-known for his folk-rock style, he has also dabbled in noise-rock (with The Maharajah Commission), no-wave (with Ciplak), and punk (with Ben’s Bitches).
Azmyl is back with a new band, Orkes Padu, featuring a line-up of seasoned musicians, most of whom he has worked with before. What’s unique about Orkes Padu is that there are no permanent band members, including Azmyl Yunor!
Led by drummer and long-time band-mate Raje, the revolving roster include bassists Sadat, Mustaq (Keladak, Space Gampus Experiment, The Sofa Sessions), and Adrian Yap (Furniture, AY & the Sigarettes, Ferns), guitarists Syaril Zizi (Lab the Rat), N.R. Lohan (Cats in Love, Square Circles), and Jason Ong (Ben’s Bitches), saxophonist Adil Johan (Adil Johan Quartet, Nadir) and percussionist Ammar Khairi (The Maharajah Commission).
Azmyl Yunor & Orkes Padu (AYOP) recently released their debut album, Was Was. It features a noticeably new sound for the veteran performer, who has often been likened to Bob Dylan.
The album is not so much a departure from but more of an evolution of Azmyl’s style. Compared to his previous works, Was Was features more layered arrangements, more instrumentation and more production, while still holding strongly to Azmyl’s folk sensibilities.
Listening to the album feels a little like downing a Johnny Walker on the rocks. First it gives you the chills, then it warms you up inside, then it goes to your head and gives you a nice buzz, then you mellow and just relax with it.
The songs are still classic Azmyl Yunor commentaries about life, but the new complexity in the arrangements give them a whole new vibe. Compare Orkes Padu’s version of “Tanah Air Ku” with Azmyl’s original version and you’ll see (or rather, hear) what I mean.
As I interviewed Azmyl, Raje, Adil and Ammar of AYOP, the camaraderie between them was evident. Amidst the easy laughter and constant banter, I managed to squeeze in a few questions and get a few answers.
ON THE CONCEPT OF WAS WAS
ME: What was the concept in your mind for this album?
RAJE: Exactly this!
(laughter)
RAJE: Serious! Back when we were lecturing in Sunway together, I would be telling Azmyl all the ideas I had for his songs over lunch, the vocals in this section, the instruments in that section. So this album is exactly what I described.
AZMYL: The great thing for me doing this is giving Raje a free hand in the arrangement. It’s so refreshing because in the past, I used to get away with murder! But that was “Azmyl”. But now, I’m doing things that I’ve never done before – double track vocals, playing to a click track. But it was good, because I was learning something new!
ME: So is this your first time doing multi-track recording?
RAJE: I would say this is the first time a producer is giving him s***!
AZMYL: Yeah, before it was usually, “You be Azmyl!”
RAJE: So it was only him with his own ideas. There was no one there to advise him how to make it better and try new things.
ME: So, can we say that the whole vision for the album comes from you, Raje?
RAJE: Well, the vision is from me but the seed is from Azmyl. I am organizing his chaos!
AZMYL: Yeah, yeah!
RAJE: And everybody brings their own skills and training to the album. Azmyl is street smart, I’m more regimented because I trained as an audio engineer. Adil is very meticulous and precise in his arrangements, having a PhD in music. Try conducting a conductor like him! Sometimes, the band members would go against my idea and it turned out their ideas were better.
ME: So do you do live band recording?
AZMYL: Eh, you got to tell him about the “tak dengar” concept. This is very unique!
RAJE: You don’t get to listen to the song until you come in for recording! We don’t give the band members anything at all until they come into the studio. Then I’ll play the song for them and that would be the first time they hear the song. Then I tell them, play what you feel like playing now and I’ll record it. They don’t even get a song sheet. Most of what you hear on the album are the first takes.
ME: The first take?!
ADIL: I can verify the first take experience! I go in, “This is the song. OK play now.” There’s no score or song sheets. “Just play, feel the song.” Maybe, MAYBE Raje’ll say, “Bro, try one more time.” Then we’re done. 10 minutes! It took me more time to set up my saxophone!
AZMYL: This is refreshing!
RAJE: I call it the First Touch Magic, la.
ME: So you really got to get it perfect the first time, you can’t screw up.
RAJE: No, you can! Your screw up could be the magic that I want! In “Prang Besar” there’s a guitar solo by Jason. He made a mistake, there was one note that was out on his first take. But he had such feels when he played, I said f*** the mistake, keep the take and use that. But until no one has noticed to this day! He wanted to try again, so I said go ahead. But after a few takes, pressure mounts and he couldn’t get back to the feeling of the first take. So we used the first take in the end.
AZMYL: It’s quite liberating recording this way! Anything that’s liberating is the unknown, and this style of recording is really refreshing. We always say Malaysia Boleh. So when we record like this, we go, eh boleh ke? Bolehlah! Benda lain Boleh, why not this?
ON WORKING TOGETHER AS ORKES PADU
ME: How does the revolving door concept work for a band?
AZMYL: Everyone in the band has been around (the indie music scene). You know, we’ve all got our own thing going on. But I got to say, this is the best band I’ve been in ever!
(Spontaneous high fives all around.)
RAJE: Basically, everyone is Orkes Padu is someone who has played with us before, involved in album production with us, or played live with us before. So all these guys know the songs pretty much and it’s not difficult to just swap musicians around. We recently played at a festival in Ipoh and it’s a testament to our revolving door concept.
AZMYL: Adil couldn’t join us…
RAJE: …so his parts were actually carried on by Jason. He played all the saxophone parts on guitar!
ADIL: See! I didn’t know this! It’s like an EPL team, sometimes when the players can’t play, you’ve got to send in the replacements.
AZMYL: …which are really good!
RAJE: That’s the whole reason we created this concept. Sometimes for a gig, one of the band members can’t make it. Then the whole band cannot play. So we thought, F*** it! We’ll have EVERYBODY as our band members, if one fler can’t make it, we have two more flers waiting!
ME: Is this concept a first in Malaysia?
RAJE: For sessionists, this is common. But as a band, I haven’t heard of something like this yet.
ME: Then how is it different from getting a bunch of sessionists together to play?
RAJE: Well first of all, we don’t pay!
(loud laughter again)
RAJE: Secondly, we don’t look for them. They actually want to play with us.
ADIL: “Some” are invited also, ah!
RAJE: Ok lah, Ok lah, Doctor (Adil has a PhD in music)! Actually Adil had no choice! We were both lecturing in Sunway University at the time, and it was like…
ADIL: It was NOT an invitation. It was just, “You’re playing next week!”
(more loud laughter)
AZMYL: That’s the rapport we have, it’s priceless la!
ADIL: I’ve played in a lot of bands, and a lot of sessionist ensembles, but I can tell you, Orkes Padu is the most fun band! At least for this year lah! Got to say this in case my other bands, you know…
RAJE: I think that’s the best way to keep a band together. Everyone WANTS to play together and that keeps the bond for a long time. There’s no commitment to stay together, and nobody in the group has ever asked about money!
ADIL: Yeah that’s true! There was one gig where we actually got paid and I thought, Hey, there’s money ah?
ON THE MALAYSIAN INDIE MUSIC SCENE NOW
ME: So what do you think of the local indie music scene these days?
RAJE: What scene? There’s no more scene. Back in the day, there were a lot of bands playing gigs, almost every weekend, there would be something going on. Now there’s nothing!
ADIL: For me, I want to have a good time when I gig. After the session, I want to kick back, meet people and chat with them. That connection is missing these days. People come, the band plays and then everyone goes home after that.
AZMYL: There’s no real sense of community in the indie music circles anymore now. There’s no support system.
ADIL: Back in the 90s or even 80s, in the alternative music scene, you had all these bands in Malaysia. Everyone was a community, so they would go in and play with each other. Maybe that’s what we need more of today.
RAJE: It’s true, you know. Because that’s how the music grew. Everybody came and brought something new. You learned from each other and the quality of music just went up.
ME: I remember back in the late 90s, there was a surge in the indie music scene here but it sort of petered out after that.
RAJE: For bands in Malaysia, one of the biggest reasons why bands drop out is that the members can’t commit anymore. They get married, they have kids…
ME: What about you guys? Most of Orkes Padu members are married and have young kids or kids on the way.
ADIL: We don’t gig a lot, we’re selective with our gigs. We rehearse maybe 2-3 weeks before a gig. And it’s very stress free and very fun!
RAJE: We have guys with great skills. And they are pretty professional. They practice at home and when we come together, we just gel as a band. You’re not trying to practise your own parts during band practice. Things go smoothly and we go home.
AZMYL: Finding the time is important. Some people find time to golf, we find time to gig.
ADIL: We have also got to say a big thank you to our families. I mean, how many wives are willing to have their husbands on the road for days on end, gig after gig? Without their support, we would not be able to do what we’re doing.
ON MAKING MUSIC
ME: So when’s the next Orkes Padu album coming?
RAJE: It’s hard to say…
ADIL: It could be 1 year, 2 years, 3 years. Could be 2 months…
RAJE: Yeah, because we record only when we feel nice!
AZMYL: We got nobody breathing down our necks because none of us are under contract.
RAJE: The studio is mine, so there’s no studio costs involved. Because of that, we can afford to take our time. There’s no pressure of a recording contract. Music is an art and we got be happy with it.
ON THEIR AMBITIONS FOR THE ALBUM
ME: So Raje, you’re financing this whole project…
RAJE: It’s between me and Azmyl.
ME: What’s the plan for the album?
RAJE: None of us came into the project expecting to make millions lah. We came together to do this project out of our own initiative and with the desire to share our art with our friends. So basically, it has nothing to do with money-making. If you like us, invite us to come and play at your place.
ADIL: We’ve been playing non-stop since we launched (in September).
AZMYL: We’re not lofty in our expectations lah…
RAJE: You got to understand, we don’t have fans, we have friends. And our friends have been with us through thick and thin, they always come and support.
ADIL: We had one place where our friends paid a cover charge to sit on the floor and drink mineral water, just to watch us play!
RAJE: That’s the kind of friends we have! They come to hang out and listen to us play.
ME: What about the cost of production?
RAJE: As far as I’m concerned, it is what it is. That is my commitment, and it’s done.
AZMYL: I always believe that you should play music for the joy, like the first time you you picked it up. Because if you can maintain that joy, nobody can touch you. That’s your Optimus Prime power! You know what you’re doing it for. You got to be happy with it.
AYOP brings to Was Was not just their years of talent and friendship, but also the passion for their art. The sheer joy of creating music together oozes out of the speakers and the energy is infectious. The album features eight new songs that explore social and cultural life in Malaysia.
To connect with the band, follow them on Facebook.
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