Articles from the star newspaper 12.03.2009
...Rock n Roll..!!Thursday March 12, 2009
Ubie's revolution begins
By N. RAMA LOHAN
Playing music that’s often regarded as untrendy takes guts, but more importantly, passion. Local blues rock outfit Ubie knows this only too well.
Blues rock. Now there’s a genre you don’t see making waves in the local music scene today, be it on a full-scale commercial level or independently. For the uninitiated, blues rock laid the foundation for every format of rock that has appeared since (and this goes back to the 1960s), yet today a large section of the younger listening audience views the genre as old or untrendy ... actually, both!
Sure, there are bands plying this route, but little fortune has come their way. Luckily though, a small following has been generated, but this is nowhere close to the adulation received by Brit pop, post rock, rap rock or whatever other off-shoot that’s come away in the last decade or so.
Bold: Ubie set to lead the blues rock pack.
Defying musical strata and waving the blues banner fervently is local band Ubie. Having earned its stripes with a sterling debut back in 2003, Satu Jiwa Satu Hati (which had renowned producer Greg Henderson, no less, behind the board), the quartet is looking to extend its run in the Malaysian music scene once again with a five-song EP titled Revolusi.
Vocalist Hisyam, guitarist Jefri, bassist Ram and drummer Qatam are embarking on a revolution all their own, with down-home blues rock vibes as their guiding light. The quartet earnestly wants to spread its gospel of peace and love via its material, which fuses the blues of The Black Crowes and the belligerence of Guns N’ Roses.
"The concept of the band pretty much came together by itself ... I don’t recall it being a conscious effort. It just seemed that every time we jammed, a blues feel just naturally came out of us ... and even Greg Henderson told us that we should stay true to what we do best," Hisyam concedes during a recent interview.
The band got its first break contributing to a Wings tribute album, Spirit of Underground: Tribute to Wings. A trip east to Pulau Tioman in 2000 was the major break the band had been hoping for. "Sweden has its own version of The Survivor series, and we were invited to play for the contestants there ... that was a great experience!"
"Finding the perfect fit for the band took a while; for the longest time, the nucleus of the band remained Hisyam, Jefri and I," Ram chips in, also revealing that he and Jefri come from the 1980s hard rock boom. Drummer Qatam (who comes from funkmeisters Happy Nightmare) was the final piece in the jigsaw puzzle.
There is a common thread that binds the lot of them – Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd ... rock cognoscenti, basically. "I’m a hard core Led Zep fan ... I just can’t describe how instrumental the band is to me as a musician," Qatam enthuses.
The name Ubie naturally came from the Bahasa Malaysia word ubi. "While many words from the Bahasa Malaysia come from various other languages, the word ubi is one of a handful that was derived for the language proper ... and we thought that was cool," Hisyam shares.
Ubie adheres to a strict band work ethic, where the entire quartet is involved in the creative process, even if both Hisyam and Jefri contribute the basic ideas. "We really try to keep things simple because the arrangement of the songs is the most important thing ... we want the songs to breathe, since they have a life of their own," Qatam adds. And to paraphrase rock god Angus Young of AC/DC, "it’s not the notes you play, but the holes you leave."
Is Ubie for the common man, then? The band’s lyrics might suggest so, with subjects on materialism, greed and peace all rolled into a wholesome serving. While main men Hisyam and Jefri are left with literary responsibilities, co-songwriter and friend Norm (a lawyer friend, by trade) has continued to remain on the fringes, since the band’s debut album Satu Jiwa Satu Hati.
Toiling in a genre that has yielded little recognition in the Malaysian music scene makes life that much more difficult for a band plying this route, but according to the boys, a silver lining exists.
"Things are looking up a little bit ... recently, anyway. Listeners are more mature now and they are listening to more music," Ram reasoned. "I even saw a young band at a gig in Ipoh recently; a bunch of really young boys playing Led Zep and blues songs, complete with blues harp and all. This really augurs wells for the scene," Hisyam chips in.
"Before, bands were required to adhere to a particular musical programme, but that has eased up somewhat. Even the radio stations, TV and press are more supportive of our endeavours, but there’s still a long way to go yet. At least there’s encouragement, though," adds Qatam.
Line-ups for major concert events in the country clearly suggest some degree of ignorance to the existence of a nascent blues rock scene here. It’s all like a never-ending belt of reruns.
Instead of sitting back and hoping for the situation to salvage itself, Ubie chooses to take matters into its own hands. "We should do something about this. The onus on salvaging the situation does not lie entirely in the hands of the powers that be alone. We can’t wait for things to happen," insists Qatam.
The recording of this five-song EP has been pretty much a self-financed and DIY effort. Instruments that were put through their paces included that of vintage pedigree, including classic Fender and Marshall amplifiers. "We found ourselves soldering cables, creating isolation booths and what not," Qatam says.
Ram cites Paku and Rolling Sixers as contemporaries in the blues rock scene, suggesting that bands like these are few and far between because there needs to be a great understanding of sound, feel, arrangement, dynamic and groove. "I think the more mature bands have a better understanding of this," Qatam throws in his two cents worth.
Ubie hasn’t ironed out details on the promotion side of things for the EP yet, but for the time being, it is available via the band’s MySpace page – simply e-mail the band for queries.
Blues rock may only be a burgeoning genre in the face of modern rock, but this is guts and glory at its best. Getting a good dose does not require a time machine. Just pop Revolusi into a CD player and kick back with the vibes of yesteryear.
Visit www.myspace.com/ubieband for more details on the band or to purchase Revolusi.
posted by UBIE @ 2:00 PM
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