Kyoto Protocol : Understanding What the Fans Want to Have

No, we did not mean the international greenhouse gas reduction treaty, we meant the band. Kyoto Protocol, an indie rock KL-based band formed in 2008, was set to perform in last week’s Good Vibes Festival, and luckily we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of their rise in the indie music industry. The band consisting of five men, Fuad (vocals,guitars), Gael (keyboards), Hairi (guitars), Shaq (bass) and Shan (drums), was as fiery and peculiarly chirpy right after their set has finished, below is what they had to say!

T: So what do you think of Malaysia’s current indie music scene? And how do you think it’s different from Indonesia’s?

Fuad: Oh, number one, we have a lot less people. So you know, you have an event like this in Indonesia you can get like thousands of people like no problem, which is really cool. But I think what’s charming about Malaysia is that it kinda has this underdog thing going. It’s kind of like everybody thinks that local music won’t survive or local music won’t last, and actually it’s events like this, and even like our government coming in, like the tourism ministry coming in, and giving us an opportunity to show what we got. And it’s really nice, we got people all over from South Africa, so it’s not just about Malaysia it’s about what we can offer to the world, you know. [pause] We’re going to the next level, you know. I honestly hope that in the future, it’ll be easier for Malaysian bands to go to Indonesia, and Indonesian bands to come here ‘cause I don’t really see what the fuss is about, even the Philippines, even the Singapore, we’re all the same people. I’m surprised that there are not more regional events.

Shaq: We should do that. You should do that. [laughs]

T: So there’s a current trend of having an album online. Do you think it reduces the integrity of music, it’s lesstangible, there areless records or CDs, do you think it lessens the meaning?

Fuad: No, because we have to understand that for the new generation, there’s gonna be a new medium. There’s gonna be a new form of tangible, and that new form of tangible is online media. If you’re gonna try to shy away from it or you’re trying to push it off agenda, you’re gonna lose out. What you need to is to offer everybody an opportunity, offer everyone something that appeals to them. If the people like vinyls, make vinyls. If your fans want to have physical CDs, make CDs. The most important part is that wall that usually artists have with their fans should go down, like tear down the wall and let’s communicate. Let’s know what they want, I want to know what they want to hear from us, I want to know how they feel about our music, and I want to know how to change their lives because I was there as well, I’m a fan of music that’s how I started to play the guitar.

T: This might be a cheesy question, butwhat inspires you to write?

Fuad: I look at Shaq and I’m inspired. [laughs]

Shaq: He looks at me and I give him an idea, I inspire him every day. We have complete each other. Why are you (read: T) laughing? I’m not done yet, you don’t want to hear what I say? [laughs]

Shanjeev: When he’s done, add it with “not”.

[laughs]

Fuad: I think what’s important to all of us, is that we’re all trying to put our stamp in, no matter how small, on this musical circle of life. Like you’ve got Smashing Pumpkins, they were influenced by Black Sabbath, so, if we’re influenced by Smashing Pumpkins, hopefully someone will listen to us and goes like ‘Oh hey, I want to do something, I want to do what they did, but I want to forge my own path, I want to learn from them, I want to learn from their journey, from their mistakes, from their victories and I want to forge my own path. That’s what we’re trying to do; we’re just keeping this chain going.

T: So, do you have a particular song that you’re mostly proud of? And is there a story behind it?

Fuad: I’m very proud of is honestly Pussycat. I don’t think I’ll write a song better than that, and to be honest I can’t claim full credit for it, I wrote with all bandmates and stuff. So, that’s where the initial idea came from, and from there together with the band, I like how all of us, we put our own spin into it, we put our own influence, that forms what that song has become today.

Gael: For me is Gimme Nothing, cause when we first brought it to the studio, I really didn’t like it. And I was like, ‘No, what are we doing, what are we doing?’, and the more we played it the more I liked it. It is now the song that everybody sings along to, and it’s pretty cool.

Shaq: I’m proud of Gimme Nothing, cause Gael didn’t like it, and I forced him to like it. [laughs] No, no, my favorite is definitely our new song that is coming out, Be Thankful, I had a big part to do that with Fuad and I just love the energy that we have when we play that song. If you ever watch Foo Fighter’s video, that video documentary of theirs, what’s that video documentary, [answered], Back and Forth, they actually made a specific video about the song All My Life, that song no matter how bad or how good that show is, when that song comes on, everything energizes. That is dispensable for me, that is definitely dispensable for me.

Shan: What was the question again? [laughs] For me, I should tell you a little bit of history, I’m the latest member of the band. So, I worked in a pub actually, some years ago, in the pub lah, I was like, what the hell this shit is good! So, Never Know, to me it’s a very personal deal lah.

Hairi: My personal favorite is Inferno. Yeah, firstly because the song is played in Drop B, Drop B is something different, and I like the intro, the intro is a bit, how to say lah, deepening. Epic, yeah epic. And for the song is a bit, macamnusantara, it’s like cultural, I like it.

T: One last question, what’s next for Kyoto Protocol?

[shouts 'Come to Indonesia!']

Fuad: We would love, we would love lovelove to go to Indonesia. We’d love it, we are looking for opportunities. Unfortunately right now we are a bit busy, so we can’t really do the groundwork ourself, but we’re really open to anybody who’s gonna come along and say ‘Hey you wanna come play in Indonesia’. You fly us over, you put us up in a shack, we’re all good to go. That’s all we need. [laughs]

Gael: But in the meantime, we’re going to Bangkok.

Fuad: Yeah, we’re going to Bangkok, we’ll be opening for Two Doors Cinema Club, so we’re really really excited about that.

There you have it, the scoop for Malaysia’s most bad-ass rock ‘n’ roll band. You can listen to their newest single ‘Jelita’ featuring LiyanaFizi, or catch their gigs in the upcoming Two Doors Cinema Club live in Bangkok or the Urbanscapes Festival 2013. Lawagiler!