BuddyHolly & The Crickets,The Zombies,The Animals,TheSmallFaces,The Creation,Bob Dylan,The Who,The Yardbirds,The Beatles,The Kinks,Arthur Lee & Love,DavidBowie,Fairport Convention,The RollingStone,Ramones,The Clash, Pink Floyd, Buzzcocks,The Blondie,Television
Madness, Elvis Costello & The Attractions,The Sex Pistols, Kraftwerk, Joy Division,
The Jam, Jesus & MaryChains,The Cure, New Order, Electronics, Echo & The Bunnymen, Primal Scream, The Soup Dragons,
Ride, SuperFurryAnimals, Belle & Sebastian,Travis, Chemical Brothers, DJ Shadow
Massive Attack, Prodigy, The Corals, The Stands, Delays,The Dead 60s, Mando Diao, RazorLight, Dirty Pretty Things, The Zutons, The Enemy, Klaxons, Tan Sri P Ramlee, R Azmi, Ismail Harun, Les Kafilas, The Quests, Adnan Othman & The Rythm Boys, Eddie Ahmad & The Antartics, Sanisah Huri, The Singlap 5, The Zurah 2, Carefree, Revolver, Sweet September, Kembara, Jamal Abdillah, Sweet Charity, Search, Rahim Maarof & The Whitesteel, Sofea, GodBless, Slank, Naif,
Muhamad Ali, Malcolm X, George Best, StarWars Trilogy, Diego Maradona, Steven Spielberg, Rosli Dhoby, Mokhtar Dahari & anda semua orang-orang Minimalis!
SIGN OF THE TIMES 2009
Indie rock outfit The Times is a steady rolling machine. Three albums tucked under its belt in a five-year span is an achievement in itself ... yet a fourth beckons.
IT’S no piece of cake to form a band when you leave a highly renowned and successful one, but that was precisely the daunting task that faced Nazar, The Times’ frontman, when he sought fortunes beyond the boundaries of OAG (Old Automatic Garbage).
Tentative steps have now become giant leaps – the band can now boast a fan base healthy enough to entice audiences from all over the country to turn up at its concert venues, wherever it may be in the country.
“We had a show in Dungun (Terengganu) recently and there were fans who had ridden their Vespas and Lambretta’s all the way to the gig ... like some 160km,” enthused frontman Nazar. Now with the band’s fourth album in the pipeline, the band is looking to grab the bull by the horns and ride this upward swing of popularity ... hopefully, in style, too.
The band’s last album, Modern Minimalis Glamour, technically its second but officially recognised as its third (its first album Sodapop Rok & Rol was re-packaged as Nada Melankolik Malaya), has already generated four singles and is now over a year old.
So, to maintain the band’s presence, it’s only natural a new album is recorded. And according to Nazar, the yet un-titled new album sports a shift in direction.
“It’s going to be more basic rock n’ roll ... certainly with some Southern rock influence. Sort of like (Lynyrd) Skynyrd-meets-New York Dolls ... with a bit of Led Zep thrown in. It’s not going to be jangly pop ... it’ll be much more raw,” he confesses during a recent teh tarik session.
“Definitely the music is influenced by Pink Floyd’s psychedelic elements and some T-Rex, too,” admits drummer Irfan, as the sibling duo of guitarist Moon and bassist Mono nod in agreement. The quartet is united in its cause of taking its music to the next level and in between rapturous banter, the members profess their love for what they do.
While it’s no secret that Nazar is the main creative force behind the band, the frontman is quick to give props to his mates. “I bring the melodies but this will be bounced off the others and gets their touch as the song develops,” he describes the creative process.
It’s the band’s hodgepodge of influences that allows for The Times’ wide palette of sounds. “We write about everyday life ... stuff that’s reflective, inspiring ... thought-provoking, but not too deep,” Nazar offers. Ultimately, what’s said in a song has to connect with the listener.
If Modern Minimalis Glamour was about displaying the band’s sense of nationalism (the band generally sings in the national language), then the new album is a clear attempt at reaching out to a larger audience. “We will be having some English songs on the new album ... kind of returning to our roots, really,” says Irfan.
With offers coming from Thailand, the Philippines and other Asian countries to play its music on the radio, The Times finds the need to move with ... er, the times.
“We don’t want to be left out of any trends,” Irfan asserts.
In fact, there is a growing trend of foreign labels signing acts from countries that generally aren’t English-speaking.
“The novelty of Asian accents is an appealing one, apparently. This confirms that there’s hope for all of us, yet,” Nazar says cracking up. The Internet age has dared people to be different and diverse in their musical tastes, and The Times simply hopes to ride this crest.
The band is at a crossroads of sorts at the moment, though. Traditional thinking suggests that an album should at least have 10 songs, but with AIM’s (Anugerah Industri Muzik) recent declaration, five songs is enough to make a product an album.
“With this, it doesn’t seem to make sense going the traditional route of making a 10-song album any more. Economically, it also seems unwise to do it, so we are dicing with the idea of releasing perhaps five or six songs,” Nazar concedes, though he’s also aware that more songs allow the listener to better appreciate the breath of an artist’s music.
Speaking of AIM, the band remains pleased with Modern Minimalis Glamour’s nomination for Best Rock Album recently though no trophy was bagged.
“We are not disappointed at all. We were pleased with the nomination itself, and to be mentioned in the same breath as the other bands is an honour in itself,” Irfan proudly shares.
But AIM’s acknowledgement of the band’s talent comes with a grouse. It was a good night out, according to the band, meeting their peers and contemporaries, but it seemed strange that many of the artistes involved for the night weren’t treated as respectably as movie stars and dignitaries. Case in point, Meet Uncle Hussain was forced to share stage time with Hujan. Why not separate slots?
Though the band is still driven by ambition and refuses to rest on its laurels, with the benefit of hindsight, The Times is able to appreciate what it has achieved since its inception five years ago.
“We lead comfortable lives, and it’s great that I am able to sustain a family doing what I love,” Nazar offers.
And with gig opportunities coming at the band fast and furiously (for government events, birthday parties etc), The Times are getting a taste of the good life.
And having learned a thing or two in marketing its own music, the band has become masters of its own destiny ... to a degree, at least.
“We are using the technology available to us ... like using MySpace to reach out to the world. We even got (Hole’s) Courtney Love to comment on our song,” Nazar says. And if you’re guessing, yes, the feedback was positive.
The band has gone a step further as well ... plans are afoot to set up an indie label. “We’d like to release the new album under our (yet unnamed) label and then look out for bands to sign who have the same sort of passion ... lend them a hand, basically,” Irfan states.
Giving back is as important as taking, insists Nazar. “We are recognised as one of the players of the indie music scene, so we’d like to use our position to return the good fortune that has come our way over the years.”
Acknowledging today’s trend of computer games, PlayStation(s) and X-Box(es), but insisting time should be spent more constructively and creatively, Nazar concludes almost philosophically: “Sell your computers and buy guitars!”
assalamualaikum bla nk dtg klntan lg?? ermm korg xamek show2 kt tv ke skg??
aku rindu kt lgu pesona algebra..
ermm 1 more thg, pe nseb lgu2 best korg mse ngan o@g cm dayang marikh athmara, venusia, stereokumonomu, etc....n lgu2 polythene cm we're the science, emrgncy n her, etc??
hye frenz
firstly nak bgtaw kami ialah REJECT DIAMOND,
kami sudah menukar nama band kami kepada TheWARNA
atas sbb2 tertentu
Dengarkan lagu kami "kerana Kau" terbaru dari kami TheWARNA
Upload la lagu korang kat Gundu. Bleh buat Ring back Tone(RBT)
Buat mase skrang, team gundu akan process lagu korang untuk RBT Celcom dulu. name die Call Me Tones(CMT)
Lepas korang dah buat CMT, promote la kat peminat dan pendengar setia untuk download. 5 Band yang paling banyak download akan dipilih untuk gegarkan konsert gundu 5 disember nih + RM1,000 cash =)
ade soalan ape2, klik sini or antar je message kat myspace kitorang
Online Now!
