Diamond - Kraft feat Luscious and Uncle Sam

Im currently in d midst of producing one track for Kraft first single called ' Diamond'. By far Kraft is the best Rapper i've ever worked with and damn his bloody good with freestyle and beatbox. You probably wonder who is Uncle Sam. Dont be. He is the one wearing songkok :)

Valentines at Bangkok Jazz

On Valentine’s day, when other people are spending times with their loved ones, I prefer watching Luscious performed at Bangkok Jazz. And boy I have to tell you, I’m impressed with them. They had 2 sets all by themselves. They showed some good vocals, tight harmonies and the crowd was crazy because of them. And these are all purely hardwork. I witness them grow as a performer this 2 years and they really believed in practicing. No wonder people can claim them the best Rn’B female trio in Malaysia now…

Its an honour working with them. They are truly a good friend, whom I love being with and at the same time they compromise a lot when it comes to work. They are brilliant and they did justice to my song ‘Khabarkan’. The song is now heavy rotation in most of the radio station, in fact in Indonesia as well. I was even informed that it was played in the airplane during one of the flight. That means the song is now travelling really fast all around the globe. I guess they are really looking forward to more potential business. I waited almost 3 years to search who’s gonna sing the song. And from my heart, I realised that I cant see nobody else singing that song but them…

For ya’ll haters out there, I sincerely hope you listen to their tracks, checkout their video’s at youtube and enjoy the music. The problem with us being Malaysian is when we see 3 young ladies, we assume that they are just another beautiful faces. Don’t be. Blind yourself but listen to their vocal. Get in the mood and hear how they carry those songs. While producing them, I was given the chance and grew to become a better musician. Thus I hope when you listen, grow as a listener and always think positive.

And then, tell all your friends. Khabarkan pada semua J

http://sutramaya.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/khabarkan/

My personal thought on Sunburst

Sunburst tahun lepas kitorang tak perform. We were busy doing our tours and promotions for our singles that the schedules were all clashed up. Diorang mintak kitorang perform but the deal was to split half with Najwa, pretty much because Najwa is in our ‘ Ada Masa’ track. But it doesn’t feel right to take her slots and I had to make the decision of letting go and focus on this year.

So I approached almost everybody that I know off. I met the CEO of Pineapple personally. Came to his office and passed Luscious and Infinatez song. And that was last year. Now this year I met them once again. Contacted almost everybody. When we performed at Sepang we even chat again. Siap jumpa Jennifer Thomson of Recording Industry of Malaysia. I mailed our cd’s to Singapore and Indonesia just to perform in Mosaic and JavaJazz. Called them straight from my mobile. Emailed them. And guess what?

We were not selected for all Sunburst, Mosaic and Javajazz…..sigh

Aku tak paham. First of all aku tak paham kenapa lineup Sunburst macam tu? The moment they announced the performers, almost everbody that I know who bought the ticket wanted to sell it back again. I surveyed everywhere and go online, and I noticed people were frustrated with the line ups. And aku tak salahkan diorang. From my point of view, Sunburst sama je macam gig2 di Lembah Klang. Tiada bezanya dengan Jomheboh yg hanya mempromosikan artis2 terkenal sahaja. Bagi aku, Sunburst ader class dia tersendiri. Its a music festival so diorang kena masukkan segala macam muzik Urban di Malaysia yg boleh diketengahkan di antarabangsa. Sunburst main peranan utk memajukan lagi industri kita. Just because the radios are playing Indie music, doesn’t mean 90% of the lineup should be bands. Mana jazz, Rnb, Hiphop dan sebagainya. Kalau ader pun apalah sgt compared to all the bands yg ratanya orang2 baru…

I wanna make it clear not that Im against the band tapi bagi aku ader lagi genre2 music lain yg patut diberi keutamaan dan pada masa yg sama can attract and relate to more crowd. When I spoke to one of the committee, they said memang tahun nie diorang terima banyak sgt pernyertaan, which is I think fair enough lah. Tapi bila aku baca performers dia, it looks like they are running out of performers to pick.

Naturally 7 performed. Im a big fan of them because Infinatez pun RnB dan acapella jugak. And guess what ader another group did opening for them. Aku rasa sgt ralat sbb tak buat opening utk diorang. Infinatez dah perform in front of 50 000 crowd. We deserve to perform with them. Name me another tight acapella group in KL. We can do one hour of acapella show and people know us and yet orang lain yg aku tak pernah kenal, tak pernah tau their existence yg perform. Its not that Im against them (diorang pun kawan aku jugak), but Im against this stupid and politics when it comes to showbiz

Well aku still datang malam tu lah. Just wanted to experience the event. But honestly Sunburst sucks. Erykah Badu tak dapat datang. Coldplay tak turun. And the lineup sucks…

Aku berkarya dan aku perlukan sokongan drpd semua pihak. Macam mana artis dan penggiat seni Malaysia nak survive kalau organizer dan radio banyak sgt memilih dan tak pandai membezakan good music and garbage?