-A Celebration by the Youth for the Youth -
Putrajaya, 24 April 2014 – The Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia is set to host the annual Festival Belia Putrajaya 2014 from 23 – 25 May 2014. The three-day Festival will be held at Persiaran Perdana, Presint 4, Putrajaya from 10am to 10pm.

This year, Festival Belia Putrajaya 2014 aims to showcase the collective talent of the youths, and spark inspiration and limitless creativity through various workshops, activities, and events. This year’s theme “Dari Belia, Untuk Belia” will allow Malaysian youths to define their own creative space and get together in a celebration of all that is young.

After attracting more than 2 million people in 2013, the Festival this year aims to draw a more diverse crowd of all ages, with more than 60 relevant activities being planned and separated into four zones. The Festival will serve as a springboard to inspire youths around the country to dream bigger and to put their ideas into motion. Fans of the local indie scene will be able to catch some of the brightest local music talents performing in an open stage over the three days within Zone Utara, Zone Barat and Zone Selatan.

Commenting on the Festival, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Khairy Jamaluddin says, “We are trying to aim for more diversity in our events this year. You will find that it is more scaled down to have that genuine feel to it and at the same time, we really want to provide events that youths from all walks of life and with all kinds of interest could participate in.”
Zone Timur will showcase activities and events spearheaded by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, such as popular carnival Jom Heboh, Youth Entrepreneur Lifestyle Valley (a showcase of local entrepreneurs), and Youth Job Fair, an opportunity to find your dream career.

This year, the Modal Insan program will feature several educational and spiritual activities to attract Muslim youths such as Tilawah Al-Quran, Nasyid competition, Kompang Formasi, Pidato and the highlight activity, Selawat.

Zone Utara, the entertainment and cultural zone will include The Other Stage with music acts, and Laman Kampung featuring Grow A Garden by Eat, Shoots & Roots – an activity to teach youths to cultivate their own mini garden in a bottle, and #ProjekPiringHitam, a listening booth of digitized music from the P.Ramlee era. Alternatively, visit The Living City by #BetterCities, an interactive exhibition to educate youths about urban growth using toy bricks.
Engage in Peperangan Bantal by RandomAlphabets, or catch Local Vintage Games 2.0 where life-sized games from your childhood past like getah, batu seremban, hop-scotch and bottle caps come to life. Another must-see is Bas Sekolah, a retrospective journey of self discovery. Nostalgia, dreams and hope come to the forefront as the audience are immersed in an unforgettable interactive trip down memory lane.
Alternatively, lend your support to the participants in Karnival Sukan Tradisional, a nationwide competition for the best in our traditional games such as sepak raga bulatan, kabbadi, tarik tali and gasing. For a dose of local culture, witness Perkampungan Warna-Warni Belia, a nationwide competition of the best performers of gendang rakyat, berbalas pantun, dikir barat and koir patriotik.
Other interesting highlights include experiential performances inside Flatland, a performance installation that offers a riveting AV experience. Festival-goers can stay on to catch the evening screenings under the starry sky at the Outdoor Cinema which will feature “Mencari Nu-santara,” a music documentary about the influences of nusantara music in today’s contemporary music, as well as other local films.
Within the same zone, the Extreme Park area will feature the Extreme Stage with activities including Real Street Showdown Skate Park, a skating competition in a custom-built skate park with unique props such as a dump truck, a picnic table and a concrete barrier.
Back to Basics music workshop will consist of a series of games, performances, and talks featuring local hip-hop artistes. The Rantai Art bazaar will feature creative entrepreneurial vendors, film screenings, music & art performances, and mural/graffiti jam, and Pekan Frinjan, a car boot sale & bazaar.
Local music acts set to take the stage at Zone Utara include Thrill Me Now, Lawa Nie Geng, Couple and Froya, Pesawat, Aman-Ra, Nadhira, Maddthelin, IndieGo, Hani & Zue, Reza Salleh, Najwa Latif , as well as #MencariNusantara, a 150 minutes performance by five acts including Monoloque, Manifesto, Salam Muzik, The Venopian Solitude and Asmidar. Alternative rock band Kyoto Protocol, W.A.R.I.S., Azlan and the Typewriter, Coex & Doomic, NAO, OJ Law, Pitahati, SevenCollar T-Shirt, The Impatient Sisters, Bass Sekolah, Platform 11 and Anna Chong will also be making an appearance.
At Zone Barat, the artistic and literary zone, attendees can anticipate Tempatan Fest, a showcase of local designer and streetwear brands; and Talk Space, intimate talk sessions supported by TEDxKL, paired with sketchnoting courtesy of sketch artist Bernie Quah. Meanwhile, budding thespians can participate in Experience + Live by Kakiseni, where youths will be exposed to performing arts via workshops, auditions and intimate performances.
Calling all bookworms: make a beeline for Big Bad Wolf, which needs no introduction! Additionally, check out the ‘Literature Zone’ and stop by Buku Fixi to catch the book launch and live readings of “Lost in Putrajaya”, and sale of Buku Fixi materials. E-Games Tournament, a national search for the best players in DotA and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) where qualifying teams will battle it out at the festival to take home the grand prize; or take part in MAKER Playground, consisting of a series of workshops with activities like silk-screening your own tees, making portable stools, Arduino hacking and 3D printing.
Zone Selatan, themed the ‘Active’ zone with an integrated space will contain Fight Club which features activities such as Seni Mempertahankan Diri, Malaysian Invasion Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) – a tournament with prominent fighters from all over Malaysia battling it out in the prominent and eye catching MMA cage, and Punching Bag, a series of tournaments, demonstrations and workshops featuring professional martial artist from all over the country.
The Malaysia Street Workout Championship, organized by MACASSO (Malaysia Calisthenics Association) is the first ever calisthenics street workout championship will also be held where the winner will get to represent Malaysia on an international level.
Sports enthusiasts can also participate in physical activities such as Motocross, a tournament where riders will have to race across the tracks and complete the challenges; Redah 4×4, a 4×4 race; Drag Moto, drag motorcycle activities – or for kicks, join a fun run at the Zombie Run and get ready to dash for your life!
Entrance to the Festival is free of charge and open to all ages. Festival-goers are encouraged to take public transportation to the festival using the KLIA Transit station (making a stop at Putrajaya Sentral) where shuttle buses will be available to take you to the festival site. For drivers, there will be a Park & Ride facility. Find out more on where to park at our website www.festivalbeliaputrajaya.com
For more information, follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/festivalbeliaputrajaya, Twitter @FBP2014 or Instagram http://instagram.com/festivalbelia2014#.

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For our fellow readers in Malaysia, the hypest two-dayer festival, Urbanscapes in Malaysia is back!!! With Franz Ferdinand, Two Door Cinema Club, Tegan and Sara, Efterklang as their headliners, Urbanscape will kick your ass. This festival will be held at Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) on 23-24 November 2013.

Beside of three big headliners, the festival will give you top notch international and local names, fashion retailers, art installation pieces and comedian shows. This annual festival will feature three indonesian bands, they are L’Alphalpha, The Experience Brother, Sore plus Oh Chentaku, Kyoto Protocol, Obedient Wives Club and They Will Kill Us All for the regional performers.

The other good things about this year’s Urbanscapes is it’s not about the big weekend but they’re also adding two satellite shows. The first one is before the big weekend (on 31 oct) featuring Explosions in The Sky and Mew and the second show after the big weekend (on 2 dec) featuring Metric. Urbanscape founder and organiser Adrian Yap explains that the reason they made satellite shows is because they don’t want to lose out on acts who aren’t able to make it for the weekend festival. So for you cool Malaysians, are you sure you want to miss such a great festival experience like this one? Go grab your Urbanscapes tickets!!

Weekend passes:  RM187 (early bird); RM227 (presale); RM247
Satellite show: RM177 (per gig)
All-Access passes (festival plus satellite shows): RM397
Tickets are now on sale at www.ticketpro.com.my

Follow urbanscape on twitter and facebook for more info!

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!

The concept is quite simple, a musical mecca to invite all kinds of people with the need to simmer down from life’s pressure with a company of music that will take you to a time where nothing mattered. We arrived just as the gates were open, the InternationalSepang Circuit was altered into a cement-floored amusement park, but instead of rides, they had stages, and instead of grass, they had crates. At a first glance, the venue seemed a tad bit pale, certainly was not up to par from what the poster illustrations that have been publicized. But as the night falls, stage lighting and Nina Marini’s art installations painted the festivities in colors, and that’s when you know the party had started.

There were four main spots, the Red, the Blue, the Green Stage and the Silent Discotek. The first three hours of the festival was packed with local artists among them includes LiyanaFizi, Kyoto Protocol and Tenderfist which we have caught in act and was pleased with what they have contributed to the growth of the local and international music scene.

Ash, the Irish alt rock band, was the first main act that we were all dreading for. Started out with their song ‘Meltdown’, the triad’s upsurge was cut abruptly due to technical difficulties backstage. Then again, what’s a musical festival without a little patience, eh? As soon as the problems were resolved, the band continued with their songs including ‘A Life Less Ordinary’, ‘Goldfinger’, ‘Girl From Mars’, their new song ‘Binary’, ‘Evil Eye’ and the crowd’s favorite ‘Oh Yeah’. Enjoying Ash’s energizing performance to fuel up the night, the band’s performance was nothing but easy and enjoyable music that makes your toes dance in the pink gleam of the sunset. After a generous one-hour set with 13 songs, Ash’s set was closed with ‘Burn Baby Burn’.

Continuing with the next main act, was both Japandroids and Modest Mouse, though it was painful to choose which one to go see, Modest Mouse seemed to be the wiser choice due to the strategic time and place before the main headliner. Modest Mouse’s performance was a full house, reflecting how they colonized the stage with unbelievable musical talents, from the drums, the violins to the sitar. The band performed a one-hour set with songs including ‘Float On’, ‘The View’, ‘Dashboard’, ‘ Ocean Breathes Salty’, ‘Fire It Up’ and their newest song, ‘Sh*t in Your Cut’. With their live formation of two drummers, extended guitarist, violinist and keyboardist, the sound system of the Red Stage was unable to adjust to the variety of the musical instrument the band had to offer. The staggering beats of both drums appeared to drown other sounds, though the interesting fusion between folk and rock they have engineered was radical, and the stampede-like energy of the performance was dominating.

The peak of the night was upon us, and the crowd grew even larger at the Red Stage for the main headline of the night. The crowd had its own flair, ranging from younger to older fans, all excited to finally see Smashing Pumpkins’ live debut in Malaysia. With the band’s years of ceaseless astonishment in the rock music scene, their Grammy-winning achievements and nine successful studio albums of grunge-goth-rock music, the band did justice to the audience as they played the first song of the night, the insanely anthemic single, ‘Tonight, Tonight’. It was clearly seen that the presence rock legends stunned the crowd, all the fans, acquainted or obsessed, had their inner 90s teenage spirit awaken as the band continued with the song ‘Cherub Rock’. The three songs ‘Starz’, ‘Space Oddity’ and ‘Disarm’ was a huge hit, a lot of the crowd was singing along tirelessly, some of them starteda crowdsurf. The song ‘Quasar’ was closed with ridiculous rhythms by none other the guitar hero, Jeff Schroeder, that promptly got the crowd hyped, continued with a non-released song ‘Gossamer’. We must never be apart, was beautifully sung by Billy Corgan, followed by the massive herd of fans in the song ‘Ava Adore’.  ‘Bullet with Butterfly Wings’ was next, followed by their singles from more recent albums ‘One Diamond, One Heart’ and ‘Pale Horse’. Instant chemistry was felt when the first notes of ‘Today’ was played, the audience was head over heels and dancing to the song was inevitable.  ‘Zero’, ‘Stand Inside Your Love’ and ‘United States’ was the three closing songs before the encore-less one and half an hour epic set. The overall performance was mind-blowing, beyond fascinating, and we certainly had goosebumps when BillyCorgan closed the set with ‘We were, we are, we will be Smashing Pumpkins’. Though there may be a few sighs when ‘1979’ or ‘Thirty-Three’ was not on the list, the audience was still tongue-tied from witnessing the four rock prodigies on stage.

There was so many teen-spirit and liveliness happening throughout the venue on that very day. From the main stages, to the side DJs and Silent Discotek, the fashion and food offered, the festival was the perfect night out for the weekend. We’re expecting a lot more thrills and surprises for the next time the good vibes roam around town!

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