Known for his pastel Norwegian self, Erland Øye has made his mark on several notorious bands in the Indie Folk genre, most notably Kings Of Convenience and also The Whitest Boys Alive. After a long hiatus since his first oh-so-adventurous solo album, Unrest, he brings to the table his second full feature album, Legao.

Øye’s music is always apparent in his Indie pop style with his other bands bringing a breezy melancholic brightness; since Legao is recorded with Icelandic reggae band Hjálmar, expect the same vibe during the show with essences from Raggae and Electro to casino sway along to.

While a mere backstory to Øye does him little to no justice,  get ready to witness another aspect of this brilliant Norwegian musician as he performs solo live at The Bee, Publika on Monday, 23^rd of March along with his backing band The Rainbows!

Tickets are RM98 (pre-sale) and RM128 (at the door).

]]> https://www.svanapaper.com/erlend-oye-the-rainbows-live-in-kl/feed/ 0 https://www.svanapaper.com/tycho-the-transcendental-two-step/ https://www.svanapaper.com/tycho-the-transcendental-two-step/#comments Tue, 20 Jan 2015 01:43:40 +0000 Zafran Aqil http://www.svanapaper.com/?p=6364

Recovering from rainfall from past months, there couldn’t be more of a beautiful day to alert that amazing gig was happening that night (14/01) at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center (KLPAC). Surrounding the venue you could feel the suns warmth, hear ripples form by the lake and just simply enjoy the peacefulness of it all, away from the city hustle and bustle.

As the sun came down, one by one the parking spacesfilled up with people. Social pools grouped inside with beers at hand, also those who’re outdoors with cigarettes in their fingers. They were all eager to drown themselves with music from musician cum graphic designer – Tycho.

After an amusing opening by local talent Darren Ashley, anxious faces all round await Scott Hensen to take the stage, along with his newly added band-mates: Zac Brown and Rory O’connor. Dawning their set with the first track to their latest album, Awake, it instantaneously captures your ears. Heightened by the dynamic acoustics in the hall highlighting every instrument with utmost clarity. Accompanied by stunning visuals from projectors matching the mood of every song, losing yourself to the intricacy of it all was all that could be done. Even so, at this point of time it was apparent that something was off; everyone is seated conservatively in numbered seats, tapping their feet and nodding seated and in place. Even Scott notes the oddity, mentioning that it’s his first time performing for a seated audience.

There was still something unworldly though, despite the crowd arrangements. air in the room just felt somewhat lighter with more room to Colorado defensive driving Institute has driving lessons and classes available in Longmont, Louisville/Lafayette, Broomfield and Boulder. move. Being carried away by Tycho’s melancholic yet uplifting music coupled by visuals from mountains and sunsets to climbing ice glaciers and striding across the desert. Tilting head back, there was just no way but to get carried away from the first note of each track. Not forgetting Zac’s insane gunning on the casino online drums along with Scott’s gesticulations as the bass line gets more complex.

Sitting down was more than prodigious mid-set – gallant efforts from fans to get up and move prior to this remained ignored but not without prevail. Soon after it was like a domino effect. Once one started to get up and progress from the layman two-step, the rest began to join the bandwagon and before you could tell, there was already a makeshift dance floor in front of Tycho filled to the brim. Officials were flustered; all that pent up energy radiating from the crowd just couldn’t be contained.

When the band remerged for their encore, beats from the band were lifted to an insatiable degree. This highlights Tycho’s progression: how adding two likeminded band mates could heighten their sound tremendously, evolving from the “I made this in my garage” songs to masterpieces that spoke to many even without a single lyric. There was just absolutely no way that anyone in that venue could sit down for it. Complaints or not, It just felt right and in the end, it finally felt like the gig it was meant to be. (Photos : Adeline H)

Six years and counting, Wild Beasts have paved a smooth path in the indie rock charts and with “Present Tense” really hit the nail. With the hints of pop, unearthed lyrics and a whole lot of synths we were excited to hear what they had to offer in their first time down to The Bee, Publika.

You could hear the maturity growth in their music through the albums leading up to their latest “Present Tense”, and we got the opportunity to have a sit down with Chris Talbot and Tom Fleming to hear more about how they’ve grown since their early years.

With the new addition of synths and hints of pop – what prompted the change from the album ‘Smother’ to ‘Present Tense’?

Tom: I guess it’s simply curiosity, natural curiosity. We listen to other people make more sounds and think, we want to do that. We didn’t necessarily know how to do them at that point of time, so what you hear on the record is essentially learning how to use them. It’s by no means an expert record, but just exploring new sounds and methods of composing. I guess it was what we felt like we wanted to do.

Chris: Time as well. Because we realised it’s about time to do things. I wouldn’t say that it’s a monotonous cycle to release, tour, record. But we were in that doldrum. So we wanted a little break from that touring lifestyle. It was the first time we had money in the bank to sit down for a year and go on and do our own creative thing.

Tom: I mean, playing shows are wonderful but ultimately what lasts are the things you make.

When you guys started off you had a rough concept of what you guys wanted Wild Beasts to

Tom: I would say what we want to be has changed, we’ve learnt more and things have changed.

Chris: You don’t want to second-guess yourself, having a grand plan and then stick to it. That won’t be terribly exciting. It’s going down the path of the unknown.

Wanderlust is a lyrically strong song in the album, seemingly dissing those who sell out. Would you guys say its better to stay true rather than to “sell out”?

Tom: Maybe not right now but at the time, it was a bit more aggression that was deliberate, to be a bit more swaggerey. We’ve been away for a little while and online casino we wanted to make something to announce that we were back. But I think it still feels current and what we’re doing now, but we’re starting to grow a bit more distance in those songs and thinking maybe we can do something else now.

Wanderlust itself connotes a longing for travel. After having successful tours around Europe and America, now even in Asia do you still long to be back in Kendall writing music? How does the inspiration differ?

Tom: I like travelling and I’ve learnt a lot about the world by travelling places but it also makes you think of your home in a different way, it’s like when you’re young your home is the world. But now i realize what a small little island Britain is and what a small town. There’s a small island culture, you see yourself refracted through other people’s eyes but it teaches you stuff.

Chris: I have friends back home who never leave the town, and they would get to go on holiday once in awhile. But they won’t get to go to exciting new places like KL. This is not really a holiday destination people will come to around the drop of the hat. To travel around Europe is like how you would travel around Asia, but crossing those boundaries is very different and it makes you think about home a little bit more but it’s a privilege to do it because we know not everyone can do it.

Having a broad variation in music, organizing material for a show could be a headache and you guys have performed in numerous festivals be it big or small. How would it differ, preparing for these two contrasts of shows?

Tom: Our albums and the things we write about are quite varied so there’s something to bring people on a route through. You have to be aware when you play in a big show it’s a different. It has to keep people’s attention. Whereas in a room like this, you’ve already got it. You bring people on a bit more of a different ride. You make sort of tiny sounds and people hear it.

What would self mean to you?

Tom: It’s a mistake to think of yourself as an island, you need to think of yourself. Picture this: there’s this line leading you from the first amphibian that crawled up the land, the first fish that crawled out of sea. There’s a link, from you, to that. So to think about self as a one being is ridiculous. It’ll be missing the big picture, missing the woods for the trees.

Chris: I think it’s an age thing, if we look back before the release of our first record, when we were in our early 20’s we were probably really selfish. You only start to get a notion of other people, respecting them and what they should be. It only comes with the process of growing up.

(Photos : Adeline H)

Since Wild Beasts wedged their way through the indie music industry in 2006, we’ve only had the opportunity to hear them from afar – gradually seeing their progression that led up to their first South East Asian tour debuting Present Tense to a whole new segment of the world. Hayden Thorpe’s (Vocals/Bass) falsetto, Tom Fleming’s (Guitar/Vocals) deep mesmerizing voice, Chris Talbot (Drums) technicality accompanied by Ben Little’s (Guitar/Synthesizers) beats is what really brought this band to the top of the charts.

Drowned in red “like the streets of Bangkok”, the quartet went up unhesitant, instantaneously capturing the scattered crowd to sway along with ‘Mecca’, transitioning to the smooth intricate beats of ‘Bed Of Nails’ from their previous album ‘Smother’. This transition early in the set gives an inkling of range that Wild Beasts could provide, notably through their addition of synthesizers in their new material. Switching around from old and new, content from ‘Present Tense’ dominated most of the set, getting an outing for most.

Though the band was rather stoic in movement, their dark, dirty lyrics speak for themselves. ‘Palace’ was one that really took the crowd – Thorpe’s alluring falsetto delivering the content of his uncompromising lyrics, providing a more mature ambiance cohering with the floor rattling sub bass. Following up with ‘Nature casino online Boy’, which was paid tribute to Batman, quoting that “the biggest man doesn’t always win, nor does the strongest man – it’s the smartest man who wins”.

The final segment of the show was when Wild Beasts letloose, at this point of time their connection with the crowd reached a new height. Thorpe professed that most of the material played was written back when he was 16 in his room while his parents are abroad. Now being the Columbus of his own life, ‘Wanderlust’ opened the encore set accompanied with staggering applause from the audience and the humbling thanks from the band. ‘Lions Share’ – the most let loose song of the night closed it off with a roaring response from the audience.

It was evident at how much this reaction meant to the band. Particularly since it’s their first time venturing out to this side of the world. Gigs like this don’t come by very often, and its refreshing to see how in tune Wild Beasts are with their music, as though each song is a story of their endeavors. That level of progression is what precedes their reputation on the charts, rather than a band fiddling around with instruments trying to make something “work”. Their intricate detailing of sound stands out for most, making them a real prominent act to look out for in the indie rock industry.

Hailing from a land of female electro-pop aficionados, Lydmor is the next rising act. After having her first album, “a pile of empty tapes” release in 2012 and another one in the works, we were privileged to see her live at The Bee, Publika on the 16^th of October as the onset of her first Asian tour.

Lydmor (Real name Jennifer Rossander) kicked off her show with “Electric Mistress” – dauntlessly stepping up the electro-pop flow of the night. Initially the crowd was pretty mundane, having an invisible barrier between them and the songstress. Maybe it was the lack of anticipation from a fresh face in the scene but as soon as Jenny hit the stage, fiddled around with her laptop and sang the first note; raw emotion was simply oozing out through each song. It’s a light pleasure at how Jenny gives a brief description before most of her songs in the set – like a header of a story about to be told. From sad songs about “presents being returned” and “angry songs about angry people” its as though we were stepping into the phase of life when the song was written, and the beauty of it all is that she just adds her own musical chops while cohering them with electro dance tunes, accompanied by her serene vocals, it creates a cozy ambiance where she could connect and have a deeper musical experience together with the crowd.

The deep connection was more prominent halfway through Lydmor’s set as she chilled down and dedicated songs to her boyfriend, Andreas from Helmet Compass.  Covering “Drugs in my pocket” as an acoustic piece. Singing from the heart isn’t an easy thing to do, but when achieved the lyrics go beyond their words, and having Andreas in the room with her made it all more prominent. Picking casino it back up later with “Lampost light”, no longer was the crowd shy as it began, the void between stage and audience was gapped and fancy footwork was seen around till the end of her set. It’s hard not to get captured by Jenny’s eccentric movements on stage as she performs – how she gracefully but yet awkwardly sways her way between synthesizers and keyboard, flailing her arms around synchronizing to the melody of the songs, and how she generally occupies what little of the stage there was.

Wrapping up the night with fan favorite “Youth”, Jenny bolts down from the stage striding across the floor singing parts of it on top of a table across the room, ending her set poles apart from how it began. Her traits as a musician is really what constitutes a great performer, making Lydmor an upcoming act not to be missed and with another album to be released, we’re truly excited to see how far she matures with her music.

It wasn’t long into Good Vibes Festival 2014 before the green patches of grass transformed into muddy marshes. Huddling into any stage or booth that had a roof on top of it, the venue was clear of people.

That wasn’t how it was at the beginning though. The festival had a promising start, with local highlighted talents like Narmi, Faiq& The Manja Mob, and Froya taking the stage. Unfortunately that joy was short lived when storm clouds hovered over Sepang Go-Kart Circuit and gave a solid downpour.

The rain dragged on for quite awhile, cancelling off some of the bands that were to perform. On top of that the main stages were out in the open air, along with the food stalls and other promotional booths. It was understandable that it would’ve been hazardous to keep the electrical equipment running in the rain. Some were ironically saying, “The organizers probably didn’t pay their bomoh enough” though evidently it wasn’t the organizers fault.

In hindsight of all the stages closing, those who gathered under the Heineken Star Club managed to make the best of the worst festival situations. It was an impressive two-tiered club style stage where most gathered under to stay sheltered. Kyoto Protocol closed their greaser style DJ set, followed by Indiego& Co cheering up the crowd by throwing over freebies and upbeat indie dance tunes. Needless to say, it wasn’t long before festivalgoers accepted their fate and embraced the rain, going acapella amidst the several power outages that happened throughout.

Fortunately enough, the heavy rain subsided to drizzles just in time for the first major international act, Banks, a nice kickoff after a string of cancellations that occurred. The mysterious yet graceful Jillian Banks gave an amazing live set, soothing everyone with her raspy soulful voice, banishing that melancholic feeling after the rain.

There was an hour wait prior to Empire Of The Sun’s appearance on stage. Setting up such a bombastic stage evidently wasn’t pleasant after a heavy downpour, but after hitting up the stage, we understood why. There were crazy stage theatrics, accompanied with futuristic humanoid bird things, lasers and psychedelic lighting. ‘Alive’ and ‘DNA’ really stood online casino out from the rest, being their first few commercial breakthrough hits, but true fans would appreciate old goodies like ‘Walking on a dream’ and ‘We are the people’.  Nonetheless the crowd just kept going full on.

!!! (CHK CHKCHK) came up next, where lead singer Nic Offer got down and dirty along with the rest of the crowd during the set, with mud and all. Not long after, crowds gathered up for the best seats, awaiting Ellie Goulding’s set. Opening her set with ‘Figure 8’, everyone could see how far she has risen as an international pop star. Switching it up between old tracks and new, there wasn’t a shortage of energy that came out from her, particularly during a cover of ‘Tessellate’ by Alt-J. After professing that a special set was being played in Malaysia, her set went on an uproar from ‘Lights’ all the way to the last note of ‘Burn’.

Despite the unfortunate weather conditions, local act cancellations and minor technical glitches here and there during performances, Good Vibes festival 2014 ended up to be a real memorable experience, like Ellie Goulding mentioned during her set “I know it’s wet and stormy but I hope you bring good vibes”, Good Vibes definitely lived up to its good name.

Photos : Good Vibes Festival

“Dunecore Stoner Pop” band, Dune Rats brought to the table their eccentric personality along with an abundance of laughter. We laughed and joked around with these guys at The Bee before the nights show with Last Dinosaurs. Here’s what they had to say to our on-the-spot questions.

What does it feel like being in Malaysia for the 2nd time?

Danny: F**kin lovin’ it dude, this is our second time here. We’ve knocked over most continents now so when you go back the second time you just meet the really rad people you see from the first time, added on with way more new cool people! Comparing it to Singapore the kids here are much looser. During our gig last year in Penang, the kids we’re in their leather jackets, Fight dancing and throwing down drinks and stuff. They like to get a bit sweatier – I like that.

Do you guys have a record label? Tell us a bit more on that

Danny: Yea we do. Just did recently, its’ sort of our own record label through Warner. Most people get scared of major record labels, fearing that they’d bone them real hard – which happens most of the time. Well 99.99% of the time. The deal with this label we created through Warner is that we have more creative control.

Brett: Hopefully we manage to pull out our favorite records from bands we’ve met all around the world, and be able to release it out in Australia.

On Facebook it says that your record label is called Dyish as F*ck. Is that what it’s actually called?

Danny: * histarical laughter * It could be. But no, its called Rat Bag Records. We’re fortunate that we’ve played alongside some real cool online casino canada bands.

Brett:That’s probably a bonus to having our own record label, considering that other record labels are f*ckin douchebags.

Danny: You already know that just say whatever they need to say to get you signed to them. We hope that typical mainsteam bands know that we can bone them over. It gives us something to do in between shows and stuff.

Would you say you’re doing this solely for the passion?

Danny: Well yea, we didn’t really want to loose the band side of things. We’re not businessmen. The label side of it is more directed to Maddy, Gabby and all those other guys are more of the wheels behind the entire thing. Our job is mostly to identify the talents we want on the label.

How did you guys form together into a band?

Danny: Well we met at the pub like any other healthy relationship. Me and BC met at a pub and about a year or so later I saw Brett with a broken arm walking across the street and in those moments I knew that I just had to have them in my band.

Australia has a great talent pool for upcoming indie bands, and most of the bands come from the same areas. How is the music scene progressing now?

Danny: Were lucky in a sense that there’s tons of venues. But nowadays DJ’s take over and bands get shut off since they’re not as “profitable” as them. But its cool how the bands still stick together and play their sh*t out because they love it. Central cities in Australia like Melbourne is really spread out. Even with the screwed up laws that kick you out of the pub real early there’s still places you can go to if you know where to go, But a lot of the time if you just head down Chapel Street there’s a ton of venues to choose from. It’s probably why there’s a f*ck load of bands that come. In Brisbane when we started out, Venues weren’t really playing unknown bands. So we pooled a couple of bands together and played at venues till we got sufficient exposure. Like with Last Dinosaurs and us we just jammed together and made something out of ourselves. That’s why every time we travel we’ll definitely know the band if they’re from Australia, Brisbane especially.

Brisbane Indie-Rock set-up Last Dinosaurs took their landing to Malaysia for the first time at The Bee last Tuesday along with their hometown buddies, Dune Rats. The two brought over a little flavor of home to stage, providing a show that was more casual rehearsal-like rather than a polished stage show. It was filled with humor, screaming teenagers and jumping fans alike, making the gig nothing less of entertaining.

Opening the night was Dune rats with their loud eccentric energy. Jolting the floor with their stage antics. Unfiltered at most, opening their set with a song titled “Fuck It”, they definitely didn’t hold back on their crazy all throughout their 6 song set. Straying your eyes away from Danny Beusa’s hilarious drunken facial expressions was something rather hard to do. Complemented with Brett’s full of life movements and BC’s baby like online casino face, the cheeky trio was definitely an entertaining act. From Danny replying himself when professing “Terima Kasih” (Thank you) with “Sama-Sama” (You’re welcome) and exclaiming “WE LOVE VAGINA!” on their last song to the tech crew throwing paper balls on stage, it really felt like an outgoing garage gig.

With an instant change of air after the interval, “Satellites” played over the speakers introducing Last Dinosaurs on stage. The four-piece teenage heartthrob band kicked off their set with “Weekend”, setting a joyful mood for everyone to shake their hips to. After gracing the crowd with a new unreleased track “Zero”, the half Japanese lead, Sean Caskey asked a favor from the crowd for more tequila shots. With his charming voice, it only took minutes before shots came casino online their way. One each, a toast was given as thanks to their fans.

The show became all the more interactive afterwards, with a guitar solo inserted version of “Time & Place” and upbeat “Honolulu”, Last Dinosaurs definitely took back the stage with their self assured confidence jumping their way around the stage, dropping smiles and inviting the crowd to reciprocate their energy. Took only a note before everyone started getting them selves into a groovy dance off. They even took a minute to give tribute to Australia’s rock legends, AC/DC. Having a small pool of songs up their sleeve, it was made clear that they have no encore to give, no wonder they saved their two banger songs “Andy” and “Zoom” for the finale, leaving the crowd wanting more but ending the night with nothing short of sheer amusement. Letting us into their relaxed rehearsal style performance, there couldn’t be more that they could’ve done to make the show a better one. (Photos : Adeline Hong)

OJ Law describes himself as a “student of melody”. The one thing that strikes the listener when hearing OJ Law’s songs is that his melodic gifts always shine through, as he switches effortlessly between indie rock, soul, and electronica. He has had success on the Malaysian music scene with indie radio hits such asStopgap, Start/Stop, My Life As A Film, and his duet with Liyana Fizi, Fantastic Adventure. His music has even inspired an ice cream flavour to be named after him. Following the critical acclaim and success of his album “Yesterday is a Distant Dream” (TimeOut KL’s Album of the Year 2012, and a Deezer ‘Best of 2012’ pick), OJ Law returns in 2014 with his long-awaited new album, “Let’s Be Adult”, due for a summer release. Since he”ll be performing at Putrajaya Youth Festival which whill be held on 23rd – 25th May 2014, we got a chance to interview OJ Law to discuss about his influences in music, his inspirations, and also his opinions about the youth.

It”s been two years since your last album release. Any upcoming projects?

Just finished recording my new album. It’s called Let’s Be Adult, and I’m planning to release it in August.

What was the idea behind the music video of “Tongue-Tied”?

It’s an exploration of our relationship with technology. But it’s quite a fragile relationship. It would only take a few people turning off some switches to, for example, to turn off the internet. Imagine the chaos!

When researching for the video, the director, Ling Low and I discovered that in Japan, people are developing androids that can watch over patients in hospital. And even with good intentions, there’s still something very unsettling about these androids. They’re not quite human enough yet. But I guess if you project a personality onto an android, then you can overlook the flaws and they’ll seem more lifelike to you. So I hope that dynamic comes across in the video.

You’ve collaborated with Liyana Fizi for “Fantastic Adventure”. One of the more notable ones even. Did you expect it to be such a hit? And any other local acts you’re thinking of collaborating with?

It was a genuine attempt to write a pop song in the vein of The Cardigans, but you never know if people are going to actually like the songs or not. The night before I released Tongue-Tied, I was having panic attacks, because I suddenly thought the song sucked. You become to close to the songs and can’t see them objectively.

What I want to do after releasing my next album is produce an album and nbso online casino have other people sing the songs. You know, I want to be the Pharrell or the Timbaland, the guy in the background. But minus the terrible posing and freestyilng. There’s lots of great singers in KL, some of them aren’t even in the scene. There’s this guy called Faiq, he’s not even a professional singer, but he has such amazing voice! Somewhere in the vicinity of Bon Iver, Sampha, Thom Yorke… it’s This pushing the envelope on analysis is an exciting aspect of the big best-data-recovery.com analysis move- ment. pretty ridiculous. So my plan is to have him sing on my songs before anyone realizes how good he is. I don’t think he even realizes how good he is.

Where do you obtain inspiration to write your music?

The changes in weather patterns. The seasons.

Your album “Yesterday is a distant dream” was given Malaysia’s Best Album by Time Out KL. Did you expect such exposure for your music? Tell us a little more about its writing process

If you could perform anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Hook me into people’s dreams, we’re only limited by our imaginations.

Your genre on your facebook is described as “Banana Indie Soultronica”. Could you describe that to us?

Banana is a (slightly racial, but I don’t take offence to it), to describe Chinese kids who were raised in English-speaking countries. You know how you have “soul” music. Then you also have ‘blue-eye soul’, which is basically a politically correct way of saying ‘soul music sung by white people’.

So what am I? Banana soul? But if I like indie rock and electronica as well, and you mix it all together…I mean, I’d rather have no genre, just call it pop music. But people always ask for one in interviews!

If you could pick which era in time to be a musician, which one would it be?

Today is the best. You get the entire history of music to go with what’s happening now. But I’d love to know what people are listening to a few thousand years from now. Do you think people will view The Beatles and Michael Jackson like we view Mozart? Like, Mozart is cool and all, but I’m not listening to it when I’m sitting in rush hour traffic.

The youth music culture is picking up in Malaysia and you’re performing for “Festival Belia Putrajaya”, how would you youngsters in Malaysia in regards to the local music scene?

It’s all about the youth, they’re the music pioneers of the future. I can’t wait to see what music the 14 year olds start making, especially the weird kids who go onto Soundcloud and try to find underground music like mine or the other people in the scene.

Don”t forget to catch Oj Law and the other great local artists at 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.

Being signed by Warner Bros. Records, Foals is not a band to be taken lightly. After 7 years and 3 albums, the Oxford based quintet finally makes their way to the land of the diverse – Kuala Lumpur. We managed to catch Jimmy Smith and Yannis Philippakis back stage before they went to the stage for their show in Kuala Lumpur last month to pop them some questions on the bands progressions and latest success with their third album ‘Holy Fire’.

So you guys are done with your third album, how do you feel after?

Yannis: It felt pretty good, it surprises me all the time really that it’s still going. When we started the band it was for fun really – We wanted to play for parties. I think we were always ambitious musically but I never expected to release three records or even be signed. In many ways the ride is easier, there’s almost like a telepathic thing between the five of us now. We understand what we want to write, how to write it but at the same time it gets more difficult because its harder to find something new to say in a way where you feel like you surprised yourself. Like when you first enter a band, you get excited from the moment you play the first note. At the beginning everything sounds good to you and over time it becomes more and more difficult to make something that you enjoy something worthy of putting out. The stakes also get higher.

So how do you think your sound has evolved?

Yannis: It’s just sort of broadened out. At the beginning it was a very specific thing, one aesthetic that was repeated throughout the record and that was because we just started the band. It was quite rigid, so ever since then everything has been about exploding that, and doing something different. It’s a rather difficult question to answer to be honest. You’d probably know how to judge it better than us, listening on the other end – to us it’s just notes and music.

* Jimmy walks into the interview room *

Have you started writing for the new album yet?

Jimmy: Yeah, a little bit. Not much though, since we’ve been touring a lot we don’t have much time to focus on writing. It’s just little bits and bumps.

After the success of Antidotes in 08’, several new bands came up with similar styles of play to Foals. Do you have any comments?

Yannis: They’re not any bands that impressed us for the most part to be honest.

So would you guys consider yourselves trendsetters?

Jimmy: uhhhhh……no. We like to listen to stuff that’s different. We don’t really listen to that much of indie music or any guitar based music. We listen to a lot of dance music, classical music – anything that’s different. It’s flattering that some elements of our sound got to the culture in some ways. It’s a pretty good feeling but it’s not something that we would listen to or be interested in.

What about the critics? Foals have received favorable reviews – NME gave your album Holy Fire a 9/10. Does it matter what the critics say?

Jimmy: We don’t really care that much about critics. The first few reviews always come out really weird and we don’t really care much about what they say, after all it just one persons opinion.

Yannis: I think generally we’ve been pretty lucky, we’ve never really gotten mauling critics. There are some bands who are great but never really get good reviews and there are others who are bad but get really good reviews. We’re just lucky that we’ve been getting generally good reviews, so it’s easy for us to say yeah its pretty cool, whatever. If we we’re getting pounded by the press maybe we would feel differently about that. I think that the roll of critics isn’t that interesting for us because if you pay too much attention to it, it can affect the way you think and when you’re in the room and you’re resting with making a record after months and months on it. It’s very easy for some people where they’re behind a desk being in a suburb in London writing something when they don’t understand what you’ve been through. Someone once said that critics are like people that sit up on the hillside and watch the battle go down, to then come down after and shoot the survivors. So yea, they’re not my favorite people.

Do you think this fame that you guys have in this industry effect how you create your music?

Jimmy: Nah, we don’t feel famous so it’s fine.

Some people have said that your work is quite emotional – you wear your heart on your sleeve. So as a musician, how does this affect your personal life or your relationships?

Jimmy: It can make it awkward, particularly with the lyrics because if you write something negative – I often find my lyrics to be quite melancholic no matter how I really feel. What I end up writing is always a bit down in some ways. Yeah, that could be quite awkward with people who are involved with your personal life.

Are the lyrics related to stories about them?

Yannis: Yea sometimes. I think that its kind of your job if you’re making music, there should be a form of sincerity to it. The irony of being detached from what you make is kind of evil but it’s something that is really common at the moment with loads of stuff. I like reading, listing and watching things that are honest. Where there is a lot of emotion, more direct. There’s no bullshit, it’s just about something that’s deeper than what irony is about.

Holy Fire has been released for about a year now – do you guys get more critical when you play it live?

Jimmy: We’ve been playing it for so long now. I feel like we’re playing it better and better but when it comes to the record we just don’t listen to it. We leave it, its done, its gone. We’re just thinking about the next one now really.

Yannis: It’s not an enjoyable process listening back to the records. Once you made it you kind of have to fall out of love with it. If we listen to it all we can hear are the things that is wrong with it. So it’s just better to not listen to it. Were proud of the records we’ve made, its just that it would be weird after making the record and we went back going “yea this is awesome! This is great!”. It’s just rather strange.

Foals has collaborated with David Ma for your music videos, how does his directions enhance the experience of your music?

Yannis: It’s like having somebody who can translate the images in your head and making it a reality – somebody you can trust. He’s already part of our family basically so if we say something today we know that it will be conveyed in the right way rather than working with different directors. They can mistranslate the vision that you have. A lot of the time he’s been there when we’re writing the songs right at the beginning, with Spanish Sahara he was there when we first started writing it so he shares the emotion of it all. It’s just a good thing to have people and artwork under your control. It’s much easier when you get people you know. When you’re working under a record label they want you to use specific directors and stuff but I don’t necessarily think that’s the right thing for us, since we want to take control of our art.

Is there anyone else that you would like to collaborate with?

Yannis: Yea, loads of people. We have started to make videos with other people now. Friendship is an important part to it. We have to be close to the people we work with. With producers there are so many people we’d like to work with but sadly we’ll never get the chance to work with everybody that we’d like to.

It’s interesting you mentioned that you don’t feel famous, but life must have changed since Foals started. What could you do now that you couldn’t before?

Jimmy: Well, there’s roaming the world, paying the rent, and living in a house. There are times when we do feel famous in a way when there’s a lot of people watching your band play so I guess that means we’re kind of famous but it all boils down to us being back in that tiny studio in Oxford with our friends.

Yannis: It feels like the band has gotten bigger, but my life hasn’t gotten any bigger. We still live in the same way we always have. When we go home I still go and get some grub from the store, smoke a cigarette, and see my mum. Life at home is the anchoring factor and when we’re on tour it’s a different thing with the band. It’s for the better, much more enjoyable and fulfilling now. It’s crazy for us to even be here and get to play for people. That’s something I never really thought of. It’s a good thing.

Ps: We’d like to say thanks to Juice Malaysia, Gumball, Hitz.fm, BFM, Elle Malaysia, New Man, 8TV Quickie, Poskod.my, Time Out KL who were also doing the interview with us!

Coming from the “jungles” of Australia to Kuala Lumpur, Future Music festival, the foremost electronic extravaganza to hit this city. Paired together with the 650th episode of A State Of Trance (ASOT), the second time hitting Malaysia it was to be the pinnacle of EDM and Progressive House festival of the year.

Unfortunately enough the event was mid-week and the weather conditions weren’t kind. Haze was thick and the air was barely breathable – especially on the first day. That didn’t didn’t dampen the crowd of thousands lining up to enter the venue. Traffic flow was fast moving, thanks to the pre-allocated electronic tag system, not making lining up a more arduous process.

Headlining the first day event was the world renowned Deadmau5, gracing the crowd with tunes from his latest EP. Being an act only for those who has a 3-day pass it was definitely a show not to be missed. The light show during ‘Strobe’ took visuals to an amazing high, evidently pleasing the masses. The setting was perfect, all around you everything fits like a glove to FMFA’s slogan “Rumble in the jungle”.

Aarmin Van Buuren took the lead on the second day, landing again with the ASOT 650, a bigger ASOT than it was last year with an A-list trance DJ lineup to match. As the event started and more ravers pass through the security entrance of The Bukit Jalil Stadium and flooded the event floor, techy beats from MaRLo greeted the nights’ event. Taking a minute to appreciate the ambiance around – with the ferris wheel and hot air balloons rotating around, fun games and promotional stalls to get free things from – the venue didn’t lack anything you needed to fill in your time before the banger headline acts come on.

Water, food and other facilities were more than sufficient for the thousands of ravers’. Due to heavily marked up prices and premier product placements food and water, refreshments were heavy on the wallet. Nonetheless, a complete array of scrumptious food lined up by local vendors made it worth the buck.

As the sun set and night dwellers pop up like mushrooms, the range of people that could be seen is nothing short of entertaining. From Donations can be made to the rate my school of your choice; your child's teacher(s); to a Grade-level team; to a Department; a Special Program or for distribution to those in greatest need. guys in banana suits to people getting “higher” than the hot air balloon – everything was in check to complete the festival experience. Aarmin Van Buuren took the night away with his impeccable show with his cheeky stage presence, unmatched technical skills and a solid set of trance music. Going well at the pinnacle of the night, after other notable DJ sets from Markus Schultz and Omnia revving up the crowd, the “king of trance” took the crowd away, matching his charisma with the undying energy of trance lovers from all around. His mixes were tight, no faltering or buffer between tracks – the whole set was smooth as butter. Highlighting the night would be the minute of silence led by the renowned DJ to think of passengers on flight MH370. Hearts lifted up and signs were passed around commemorating the still missing passengers for their wellness – truly a touching moment.

As epic as the night was, casualties did occur. Due to irresponsible and inexperienced ravers, day 3 of FMFA was put to a stop. Several deaths took place – taking the matters to higher authorities. Disputes were running wild while attendees became rowdy waiting for the final confirmation of the events cancellation, anxiously waiting over by the entrance barricaded by armored police. After much deliberation and confirmation of the events cancellation sunk in, it became nationwide news instantaneously. Despite the cut short event, we still can’t forget the work of thousands of people who made Future Music Festival Asia happen, disregarding the mistakes of those responsible for the cancellation. (Photos : Ashish Parmar/Matthew Oldfield/Paulius Staniunas)