Studio Sessions

Monday and Tuesday comprised of a couple of studio sessions with local DJ’s. First was my homie DJ Goldfish, who years ago was rated Malaysia’s top DJ taking home a number of titles and making a name for himself in the club circuit when he and DJ T-Bone ran the famous Ghetto Heaven weekly at Zouk. The day I arrived in KL I had rolled through his new studio, listened to some of his tracks and talked about working on a collabo. Today we made it happen. After listening to a selection of his production and songs he has already done we settled on a minimal beat and I began writing. Not long after I had my two verses done and we banged it out then and there, putting the rough touches on the chorus that awaits a cameo from Goldfish himself. Not following my usual themes for songs, ‘Planet Love’ ended up being inspired by my man Jugular from Toronto. I’ve really been feeling like expanding my horizons as a lyricist, touching on concepts that I wouldn’t normally. I think it sounds pretty fresh, at least once my vocals on the chorus get pushed to the back and G’Fish lays down his. I’m trying to be a lot more productive as well, pushing myself to the limit and getting as much done as I can in the short time I have here before flying off to Jakarta. We finished up the session and went to meet up with Tim and Yi Kin at Sungai Wang for dinner. In the end it turned into another late night at Asia Café sipping drinks and hanging out. Actually, in KL, everyone just hangs out at the mamak, or food court, with friends having drinks. It’s a part of the culture here I really enjoy and unlike most other places I’ve visited it seems that here the social value placed on it stimulates conversation and ideas and really build friendships in ways bars and coffee shops just cant.

I got up with Yi Kin and caught a ride to his office in Kelana Jaya, close to the LRT. I was meeting DJ Uno in the morning and heading to Universiti Station from KJ was a lot easier than taking the bus to Sentral and going backwards from there. It was also a Silat night, so I brought along all my gear and was ready to go. I had written this song about a month a go, before I left Salt Spring, called ‘Dance Floor Fetish’. It’s a dedication to the women you see blazing up the clubs looking fine and enjoying themselves to the fullest. I had selected a beat and wanted to get Saer Ze on the hook, we had it all worked out until I spoke to Uno and he told me the beat had been given to another artist just a day before I asked him! So, today I was going to go through some more of his beats and select a new one for the track. I decided on an up-tempo number and since we still had some time I dropped a rough vocal take. AJ, Uno’s housemate and fellow Pop Shuvit member (Bassist) felt the urge to sing a chorus part, even though the plan was to have Saer Ze on the track. All in all the rough version sounds ok so far, another potential single to go along with the Goldfish track according to Nazri. It turned out to be a more interesting day than I thought, following Uno and Sam Su from Ali Fiqir to town for a press conference they were having I planned to meet with Mo at Sungai Wang and have some lunch. When we reached the Regent Hotel I saw Damian there. It’s been ages since we last linked and it was nice to catch up with him in the short time we had before he left. Seems like everyone is now living up in the Palm Springs condos near The Curve these days. That makes Nazri, Kelvin, Damian and Joe Flizzow near by… I linked with Mo and we headed into Ampang for a drink and some food. Memories came flooding back, we were in the some area that Sairupa’s family used to live in, where I stayed many times while I was in KL. Catching up with Mo was great. It seems that whenever we see each other we have deep conversations, usually lasting for hours on end over some Teh Tarik or a Limau Ice. Today was no different. A lot has happened over the past year and for both of us there was much to share. It had also been years since I’d seen Jacyntha who was working next door at the animal shelter since her return to KL from 2 years in Guangzhou. Mo dropped me off at Silat later on and I was all ready to go. In the past I had this aversion to heading to Silat, like it was something of great difficulty. But this time it’s been different. I know I’m going work up a sweat, I’m going to be sitting a lot, meditating and even doing some sparring and I now really look forward to it. Even though I never know how I’m going to get all the way back out to USJ… Tonight was no exception either. The one thing though, was that tonight Nazri told me the story of how Tok Guru passed away. I’d been waiting to find out, but I didn’t want to ask when the time wasn’t right. A month of fighting in the hospital against a case of full-blown diabetes had him lose his leg as well as his life. Nazri told me they went to visit him a few times before he requested to be left alone with his family. During those visits he spoke as if he knew he wasn’t going to be around much longer. He asked us all to keep doing what we’ve been doing, pushing forward and helping people. He would always and is always, around us in spirit, a spirit that will never die. Nazri also said he spoke of me, saying that I will never stray far from South East Asia and that I will accomplish a lot and be successful. I will truly and dearly miss the man that was Tok Guru. So we all await the announcement of the next Tok Guru. After the 100th day following death his family will open and read his Will, which will kill all the speculation going around. All this should happen before my return to KL at the end of April. I followed Nazri back to his place and decided that Wednesday would be the day I submit my application for my Indonesian Visa.