Outing and Jamming

Thursday, 2 July 2009

Its been what? 9-10 months approximately since Luffy was gone and now he's back in Brunei we can all can start over and continue our journey. All of us were there last night after we were having a recording session with Dj Fauzan and Dj Aliff from Pelangi FM. The session was for "Artist of the Month Promo" for this July. yes! we are chosen for this MONTH! ^.^ this month is a very lucky month for De Epitome. As Luffy is back, and then come the "AOTM thingy" as well as our 4th year anniversary as a band to be celebrate by the end of this month. Its already 4 years guys. Alhamdulilah we will keep moving on and keep improving. Thank you for supporting us.

Regards,
De Epitome

EXCLUSIVE LIVE INTERVIEW WITH US FROM PELANGI FM

Stay tune on the 22nd July 2009
Wednesday, 4.30pm till 6pm

Thank you Pelangi for making us Artist of The Month ^.^

09:21

New Song

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Guys, sorry for the late delay. I made couple of songs actually but still I don't find any that quite good. But I finally made up my mind and chose this one. Still, i'm not really sure if this one can be a great one. well who knows.. we just try k? Honestly I'm getting bad at making songs now :p lol.. so I look forward for usual practice when i get back. Hopefully we can finish this song and record it before I go back to UK again. and hopefully you guys can make it and once again be with me to make this song come true. Kita Hebat!

hapuskanlah.wma - Luffy

P/s: this song is strictly for those who willing to support us (De Epitome)and the band. It is merely a demo sample not sang by the band's real vocal. so weaknesses is to be expected from this sample. do not throw unnecessary critics. Thank you ^.^

-Luffy-

11:36

It's been ages!!

Cool Slideshows

Its been ages for De Epitome to show up. Since I've been away for so long I guess the other members lack of motivation :) I am looking forward to come back soon guys so then we can continue our next move. And to Blindnecrose, Congratulation for your utmost event over there.. too bad I'm not around :( but im happy for ya ;) ait, i will update some new songs that I have in mind for the band soon. Still working on it..

-Luffy-

10:11

La La La [like i care] - Continuation of a journey

Saturday, 27 December 2008

La La La [like i care] was our fourth single to be released on air. I cant quite remember the things that happened during the course of this single..but for fact, it's somewhat the most recognisable piece of work that De Epitome have done. I dont know why or how but people seem to like this song. As i had said from my earlier post..when we decided to record songs for on air releases we promised ourselves that we will, we shall, we MUST do different styles with each of the singles. Like I Care was the epitome of that..coincidentally though..this is the second time that our song starts with the word "once upon a time"..hahah :) (the first one being 'Conversation').

From what i can remember, we were trying to fix Conversation. We needed a more fast paced rythm to go along with the song. But instead of renewing and improving the song we made a whole new song. Based on the rythms and chords of Conversation, we tried to improvise a different tone for this new song. Luffy asked if i could write the lyrics..i asked what do you want for the theme? and he said.."apa pikiran mu jon?"..hahaha :P when someone ask for my personal opinion, my usual answer would be that of my personal experience. And from my personal experience, all my life i've gone thru many..many..many sh*tty experience. The heartbreaks, the lies, the backstabbing, the outcast..its all a long journey for me. So, back on the topic of making the lyrics. As usual as to all the songs i have written, its a personal statement to what i have been thru. So i went ahead and wrote it while the others tried to refine the song.

I cant remember how long it took us to finish the song (i guess around two weeks). But when it was done it was magnificent. This song also marks the first time that i would sing together with Khai. We practised the song a lot of times to hear if there's something missing. Then luffy thought that it would be fun if we could at some vocals at the beginning. And he proposed that we do something different, something that no one can thought of. So we came up with the 'lalala' part. we loved it so much that we decided to put it in different segments of the songs with Khai and me doing different tones of it.

The main theme about this song is really about self respect and believing in yourself. Only by doing this first can other people learn to respect and believe in you. The other theme for this song is about a guy that falls for somewhat the more popular type than he is. Seeing that this is happening, the people around them starts to talk about how bad the dude looks with this awesome girl, some just couldnt believe, some just couldnt stand it..all in all a usual scene in Brunei. I guess that is all that i can write for La La La Like i Care. I know by fact that this song have a lot of fan, so to all the fans i would like to say thank you for supporting us and your support is very very very very very very (to infinity and beyooooonnnnnnnddddd!!!!!!!) valuable to us personally.

Signing out for De Epitome,

b l i n d n e c r o s :)

08:23

The Epitome of Tragedy [De Epitome]

Wednesday, 17 December 2008

Lay your head down,
close your eyes,
and feel this world collide.

Breathe in slowly,
believe in me,
Cause in you'll i confide.

Far away it seems,
our dreams we have realised,
the pain, the suffering, the tears.

Staring at the sky,
who are we to deny,
this is our moment,this is our life.

No matter where life takes us,
never forget who we are,
The Epitome of Tragedy..our dream..our shooting star.

Done By: b l i n d n e c r o s

06:00

Pa daaa yooo?? Mall gig 7 dec 2008

Friday, 12 December 2008

De epitome was invited to perform on the 7th december 08.. It was in conjunction with the launching of Rentak 914 vol.3 CD. And here are some of the happenings..

Moments before the show..ramai jon!

Sesi Menenangkan fikiran~~

Most of the performers were already there in the morning to do soundchecks , signing posters etc. So when i came (around noon-ish) most of De epitome were either tired, nervous and delirious (delirious only applies to adul :P). But things went just fine as soon as the show started. here are some of the pictures of the performers during the show.

MC for the show Feez Madea (love her 'Hujan' song) & DJ didi

DJ didi introducing Avantgarde

Putri Norizah on stage

Faiz in action

Bombay from the 1st ever P2F

A Band Once :)

A girl that needs no introductions (i'll introduce her anyway)
Ladies & Gentleman.... M A R I A !!! :)

The Seeds & Maria

Hans with Putri Norizah

"Aura~~jangan menangis, ku kan sentiasa berada di sini"
Adi Rani with her daughter Aura :)

Fairuzneezan (i've seen her perform 2 times..great vocals!!) :)

Hikari 8 (always a pleasure to see them perform)

De Epitome's Performance (From an audience point of view)..

As the show's date comes closer, some of us cant make it for the performance. Me & Deal were busy with work. So the only original member left to do the performance were Khai, G5 and Adul. They rehearsed for a total of 2 times only for the performance and they rehearsed it with our guest drummer (Shukri) and keyboardist (Shahrin).

On the day of the show, i came to watch purely as an audience..i could say that not being apart of the performance sucks bad. I just sit and take pictures during the show :(

From where i sit..which is at the front. The show had a few glitches (mostly on behalf of the sound technicians). And when it comes to De Epitome's time to perform i could barely hear the keyboard and Adul's guitar. It was like the amps were'nt working. But as they say..the show must go on..and it did! 'Saat Terhapus' is our latest malay single and Khai had lots and lots of time to practise it before the show. So on the 7th he was quite confident singing it. All of De Epitome looked cool..calm and collected during the show. the reactions from the audience were also encouraging, some were even whistling and clapping (i believed this came from the above floors). From where i sit, people were enjoying it..some nod their heads along with the song, some sing along, some were eating Kentucky Fried Chicken..heheh :P (lapar time atu..taisliur tarus meliat org mkn ah.)

Overall i was glad to see the positive reactions from everyone that was there to see this event. To my Epitome brothers, you guys did well even though 2 of us cant perform at the time. I'm proud of you guys, Im sure Luffy is proud too :). Here are some of our pictures at the show..

De Epitome (Khai mendalami lagu Saat Terhapus..iatah duduk..kira emosi bah tu)

G5 meliat ke atas (gerenti ramai orang di atas ne)

Our guest keyboardist & Drummer (You guys did great!!)

Before the show (Muka memang sorang2 'slumber' time ani..heheh :P)

Khai & G5 taking a picture with De Epitome's Fans :D

Khai & G5 taking a photo with an unidentified (One with NY cap) but apparently a die hard fan of De Epitome

Some of the crowds @ the event..so many you know :P

Sesi Menconteng : G5's signature [Pa Da Yooo!!] :P

Blindnecros's Signature : Epitome Rocks!! :)

Shukri's Signature

Khai posing with his signature : Kita Hebat [We truly are]

Khai. Shukri & Adul [ntah behapa c adul ane?]

Khai during the autograph session [lalai kan begambar nda lagi orang lain ampit pen..hahah] :P

Feez Madea & Adul..again with the unidentified Epitome's die hard fan (one with the cap) interframing :D

Photos Taken By: blindnecros & G5

Post Done By: b l i n d n e c r o s

06:41

11 - 10 - 2008 [Dari Dewan Raya]

Thursday, 20 November 2008

On the 11th of october 2008 (Saturday night) we were given the honour to do a show @ RTB's famed Dewan Raya. It was a show in conjunction with Hari Raya 2008 and the show was performed by other local artist and bands that were highlighted as Pelangi FM's Artist of the Month and also Pelangi's Spotlite from the previous month. Here are some of the other performers from that event.

MC for the night Dj Ryan & Dj Aliff (MC = Mesti cali :))

Azeem from Project Tunes [He's one cool dude :)]

Pria Ikhlas Band [They perform superbly that night]

Klip [These dudes are the coolest band i've ever seen]

Sri Nazrina & Rosman Masri

Fairuzneezan [Great vocals!!]

MNC [They live up to their magnifique name]

It was a great night for us. We had fun and all of the other performers were friendly and supportive. The atmosphere was great from beginning till the end. These above performers were great in entertaining the audience. I could say on behalf of De Epitome that it was a great pleasure to be in the same show with these performers.

FROM MY POINT OF VIEW [DE EPITOME'S PERFORMANCE].

This is our first time performing in such a big place. This is also the first time we performed without Luffy..It is a personal dream for him to play at Dewan Raya, for that i would like to say that even though you (Luffy) can't be with us, we did our best and we dedicate our performance that night to you :)

We came early that day..because we were worried about soundcheck. so we did soundcheck and tried to calm our nerves by sitting down and talking with each other. We talked about a lot of stuff, past performances, our goals that night, how tonight will end..and alot of other stuff. But the one thing that kept coming thru our mind was not trying to fall apart, not to screw up like we did last time. So before we went to stage, we did some pep talk for each other. Some of it went like this.. "ok guys..iatah masa nya ni..iatah time nya tani buktikan not to others..but to us!! Remember that luffy wants us to be great..so we do this for us & him!!!" (That is the most empowering pep talk i've heard :P) and then we prayed that everything goes well.

Since we were the first to perform, the pressure was really enormous. I dont know about the others, but i was really nervous. But as soon as we went up to the stage, i saw a few things that made me calm 1) our picture on the screen (reminds me of my promise to Luffy to perform well) 2)my lil brother & sister (that are excited to see me do my thang~) and 3)my fiancee (she's the only reason i am what i am). With that in mind everything went well and surprisingly the others were great too.

We performed 3 songs..the first two were 'LaLaLa like i care & Saat terhapus' and the third was our newest single 'CandleLight'..we nailed all of the song greatly. What a relief...*sigh* and the audience were more than supporting. The best crowd i've seen so far. Here are some of our pictures from that night.

Deal [He means business when he's wearing those glasses :D]

Mr.Adul [Adorable in CaraMelayu :p]

Khai & G5 [Doing great bro..that goes for both of you!!]

Shukri [Our Drummer for the night]

De Epitome 11-10-2008
[We did it !!!!]

That was some of the happenings we endured during our show @ RTB's Dewan Raya (11-10-08). It was a lot of fun. Hope we have the oppurtunity to do it again next time.

Photos taken by : Adul's Apprentice (Thanks for the pictures)

Blindnecros,

De Epitome

04:47

Saturday, 15 November 2008

Assalamualaikum ladies and gentleman...

first of all im sorry to AMeen for the delay of the post cause ive caught up wv something.hehe.ok let me introduce myself my name is khai and the lead vocalist in the band call DE Epitome.and for this post i would like to share the experiences that have been shared since ive joined the band.it has been a lot with wv the band and its my pleasure to tell you people.ok here goes...

Let the story begins....

ok the story begun when i was hanging out with my tourism peeps at the serasa beach.we were making our own camp fire.hehe.biasa la chill2 minum2 tpi yg halal ah?hehe.then at the time Luffy the drummer arrived bacause he wanted to hang out with us as well.my brother was playing the guitar and i sang a song as i remembered was a song called "more than words" from extreme.wah specific jua tu ah?heehe.memory kuat kli ah.so he heard that i was singing the english song.then he told adul to make an audition for me.well obviously i did agree.hehe.well adul should know that i used to sing the "conversation" song in your car right?hehe.yatah jua kli kn mau mencuba menyanyi ani.mcm siuk jua ah.hehe.nda plg pernah tepkir la kn jdi cani.in a good way that is.hehe.ok moving on then i went for the audition wv adul he introduced me to luffy.sekali rupanya super senior ku bh yg nda ku kenal.hehe.the audition was simple plg aja back at his house i mean at luffy's house.he was with his guitar kapok ka namanya ah?hehe.he introduced me a new song he said which was called "moments of truth".well yes i was nervous at that time but i tried my best.Luffy was patient with teaching me this and this.hehe.it was fun.yes luffy if your reading this, i do still remember ok?hehe.ok thats the bit on the intro n all.hehe.

after that then i got to introduce to the rest of the members of the band.the meeting point was at a shop.mcm aku ani eh arh kadai?cna kn jamming tu ah?hehe.skali rupanya arh kadai bassist kmi.hehe.cali jua la.kinda wierd though for me at first but then cool jua ah cani ah.i met deal and G5.cause adul n luffy awal udh ku jumpa kn.ameen i dont think aku jumpa ko tu ah tyme atu?hehe.alum lgi kli or awal udah ah?hehe.anyway then d sna la bermula nya berkataan jamming atu ada pada ku.d sna la aku bermula berkecimpung d dlm bidang nyanyian ani.hehe.they introduced different kinds of songs that i tried to sing.well yes i admit it people that i have the problem saying the buuuuuuuut....haha! i remembered deal did laughed at me so hard.hehe.well guys first time bh nervous lagi ku tu.hehe.thats that.hehe.

then came the time kn recording the song called "moments of truth" after we have practised lama2 la udh.hehe.so kmi recording arh one of the local shop in brunei ani.should i mentioned the name?jgnth kli ah?krg iklan chia plg eee~hahaha.well yes the day came n again yes i was i can say hell nervous.hehe.mine my words but i did feel like that kli ah.hehe.the arena was set and cold.hehe.mcm wresling.the recording was done bit by bit meaning one person to one person.first up was luffy to play the drum and so on and so fourth.hehe.well i was the last one and it did make more pressure for me.hehe.bukan lagi mcm la tu ah well yg paling penting la tu.all the guys were in the room jua to witness the moments of truth for me jua.guys thanks for the support at that time.hehe.luffy asked me to sing part by part cause he understood that i needed my breaths to sing the song.hehe.

well in the end, we did a pretty good job.the song was nice i duno you people.hehe.then finally udh siap it was aired on the pelangi fm.i remembered i heard the song arh umah c adul tu.honestly guys mcm aku "eh sora ku ka tu?aku ka yg nyanyi tu?" c khai berkata.haha.apakn.hehe.so i thought to myself, wah bangga jua ku lah yg aku nyanyi atu ada dlm radio.hehe.it was so awesome.hehe.eh panjang udh ka aku crita ani?udh th kli ah?hhe.ameeen mun ku kn sambung byk kli eh.but nanti gi lah.sorry sir ah late ku antar ni assignment ah from the due date.haha!

well people thats about it all.nanti gi ku buat ah version crita ku.hehe.well since aku join this band the chemistry makin menjadi2 la jua.becali pun masuk apa smua and these guys rocks.hehe.kmu pham la tu yg lain ah.bh atu aja kli.n to luffy we miss u man. ko lah org yg selalu duduk d sebalah ku klu tni chill d branda c adul.n also i can say ur the glue to us all.hehe.

lastly KITA HEBAT! DONE BY KHAI73 (lead vocallist)

THE GOOD TIMES GUYS! HEHE

04:20

our (Moment of Truth)

Friday, 14 November 2008

Moment of Truth is our second single to be released on air. With the previous single still (conversation) lingering on air we decided to put in another one. Our second single. Like conversation have its own stories to be told and a lot of happenings behind the making of this song. So without wasting time, let’s dig in…

Moment of truth [literally]…

This song is composed by Luffy and the lyrics are done by me. Most of the lyrics I wrote into this song are personal. Most of it are my experiences from the darkest moment in my life. It’s really painful to remember it, let alone to write it down in a song. But I learned from a great friend that writing down what you feel can help you let go of emotional baggage and painful memories.

The story in this song centers on a guy that is having troubles in various aspects in his life (love, family, relationships and friends). This guy realizes that nothing in his life is worth living. Day to day he just lives as nothing is interesting anymore, nothing to look forward to. He hopes that he can just fade away from every problem and everyone before he loses his mind.

The making of…

After releasing ‘conversation’ we straightaway worked on this song with the aim of releasing it on air. If I mentioned in my previous post that there are only 5 of us at the time, for ‘Moment of truth’ we decided to take in another vocalist. It’s because De Epitome needed a versatile and more ‘radio friendly’ vocal. I don’t remember if we had auditioned anyone else for that position, but Adul told us that he had someone in mind that could very well be perfect for the post. So we decided to give it a chance and try this fellow out. I can tell you that the first time we tried him on, it was hilarious!! (Told you Khai, you should of written this post yourself). Remember ‘still holding on’ guys? The part with “but” in the lyrics..hahaha (good times). But seriously, his voice was ‘radio friendly’ and likeable. So from that moment on we are a six piece band, no more no less.

Since it was Khai’s first time singing for a band he needed to train his voice a bit more. And we did trained as much as we could for the recording. Each and everyday Khai gets more and more confident. And when it comes to recording the track, I think he wasn’t as comfortable. Maybe it’s the pressure of stepping into the recording booth, with its silence and big microphone that got to him (don’t worry pal, it happens to the best of us). But after we were done recording, I could say that it had better results than we had expected. The sound was clearer than conversation (That’s because we finally knew how to do it track by track).

On 24^th March 2006 ‘Moment of Truth’ was released @ Pelangi FM. Like our previous single, this one proves to be a hit with listeners. It went on to gain regular airplay for months to come. In my personal opinion, most people that like this song can relate to the message in the song, I guess most of us have our dark moments every now and then.

So that’s all I can post for our second single. This single coincides with the forming of a new De Epitome, with the adding of Khai. To khai, I just want to say that you did a great job in every song that we released. You are a great addition to our band and I personally think that without you, its hard to imagine how we would end up. So, keep up the good work and keep holding on. (Don’t say BUT though, hahaha..I’m kidding what?)

23:17

Conversation : A piece of us

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Conversation is our 1st song to be released as a single on air. There’s a lot of story behind this song and also a lot of memories. This song is the one that made De Epitome what it is today and the one that defines us as a band. So here it is the complete, detailed and utterly the most important turning point of De Epitome’s history. Get ready..Set..Go!!! (btw, u might want to hear the song while reading this post, it adds the dramatic effect..sort of :P)

About the song
The song is about a guy that is having the worst relationship ever. And he tells his friend about it, and then his friend tells it to the world. So in a way this song is told by a narrator within a narrator. There are 2 characters in this song. The first is about the guy that experiences the falling out with his significant other. The other one is the guy’s friend that he shares with the agony of his doomed relationship.

The Making of Conversation
As I mentioned earlier, this particular song is THE turning point of our band. And here is how it happened. Before making this song, we decided that as a band we should try our luck with the local radio stations. Because at the time (2005) I was hearing some of the songs by local bands and thought that we had a chance to be in it and believed we could do better. I shared this with Luffy and he agrees, the others also have the same point of view. So, with that in mind we started on a new song, ‘Conversation’.

Believe it or not…but we did this song in just (count it with me now..1..2..3..4) 4 days!! I guess it was the hype @ the moment that made us so into it. All of us were busy finding out what to put where and what sounded better. Luffy was finding the right beats, Adul & Deal were dealing with guitar issues, G5 (whom at the time was already a bit steady with bass) was as cool as possible with the bass chords (so as not to incur the wrath of his demonic sifus, Adul & Deal). I myself was busy fitting in lyrics and also trying to make sure I didn’t screw up the song.

The Recording (Part I)
After the song was done we decided to find a studio that could record our song. In this moment, we weren’t experienced about recording and its processes, so we decided to just try our luck at the place that we had been jamming for a while now (sorry I cant tell the name of the place). The experiences during recording were part hilarious part catastrophic. As I remembered it, we were recording during the night. We had discussed earlier with the recording technician about our plans and he agreed to help to with our recording. But as we went through with our recording, some other band came into the studio. We later found out that it was the recording technician’s band, and they had come for a jamming session (I believe they were practicing for some event). So, in a way our schedules were conflicted and this technician fellow decided to go with his band and rushed with our recording process. I was really..really..over the top annoyed with this, cause earlier we had high hopes about the recording process and now it seems that it was fading away. But we stayed cool and finished it, alas the end product was not what we had expected. The track that we had recorded was ‘ugly’ and the quality was really poor. But we decided to stay positive and go on with releasing it on air with the help of me & Luffy’s friend and former ‘mentor’ who happens to work at Kristal FM.

The Recording (Part II)
Weeks after we released ‘Conversation’ on air (Kristal FM), we received numerous comments from our family & friends. Most of it was good comments and positive. But I still can’t deal with the quality of it, Luffy and the others were also dissatisfied. But at the time we didn’t know how to fix the problem that we faced. Then one day, as I was strolling around in Gadong, I saw a poster. It was a poster of a local band named ‘Not Famous’. I heard of their songs before and really loved it. Then after seeing the poster, I had an idea on how to solve our problem. So I went into the shop and purchase the ‘Not Famous’ CD (it was for $15, which coincidentally the only amount of money I had left for the entire month). The next day I listened to it and was astonished by the quality of their tracks. So I decided to check out the albums leaflet to find out any contact information, and there it was, their email. I decided to try my luck and contact them about where they had done their recording. I think I received their reply right that afternoon. Their answer was somewhat disappointing because their tracks were done in Malaysia. Eventually we replied each others email and talked about some music related stuff. Then one of them (Adam of Not Famous) offered some help with the recording. He told me that he was currently working in a recording studio. So we decided to set up a meeting with Adam. A few days after that we went to Adam’s workplace and talked about our problems. I gave him our track, and he listened to it and said it wasn’t that bad (I believed he was just saying that as not to offend our feelings). He then said the recording quality can be improved, but the song itself has potential. So not wasting time we scheduled for a recording session and tried our best on improving the songs with a bit change to the arrangement and tempo. The outcome was not as crystal clear as we had imagined but it improved significantly than the previous. All of us got together and hear the track for ourselves. We were very pleased to hear the change in quality, though the quality wasn’t as best it could be, we were still satisfied.

The turning point
After the track was done, Adam told me of another contact for releasing our song. He told me that the person was really helpful in promoting local bands. So I wrote down the number and talked to Luffy about it. We gave it a careful thought and decided to go on with it. So I contacted the person Adam mentioned, this person’s name is called Aliff..and he is widely known as DJ Aliff of Pelangi FM. Subsequently we sent the song to Pelangi Fm and released it there officially (we even have to sign a release form). So ladies & gentleman, that was the beginning of our relationship with Pelangi FM. For months to come ‘Conversation’ was played regularly on air and we even started to gain fans and requests for our song (what a wonderful feeling it was..still remember it to this day!!).
So…that’s the story behind this song. It is the most important song that we had composed. I believe that without ‘Conversation’ there won’t be De Epitome it is today. To this day I still like this song and hear it occasionally just for the sake of reminiscing as not to forget where I was 3 years ago, with whom I was 3 years ago, and what we had achieved 3 years after CONVERSATION.

Blindnecros – De Epitome

22:18