Phew. We are just back in Johor Bahru from our RockUnite audition yesterday. It was hectic fun. We met and had a good chat with Daphne Iking and Naz, and we performed in front of Joe Wings, Ali Bakar, and Jerry Felix. And we talked to a nice gentleman who turned out to be RockUnite's COO (Chief Operating Officer)! Not to mention three cool interviews in a row!
We shot off from JB at about 10 pm on the 29th after jamming for an hour @ Rockin' Studio, Pasir Gudang. All looked set for the audition. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 3 am, but we were having difficulties locating Istana Budaya until about 5 am- blame it on us, we are extremely poor when it comes to locating places.
We rested in Ampang, prayed the morning prayer, and headed back to Istana Budaya. Had much needed breakfast at Taman Tasik Titiwangsa, and headed straight into the audition. Haris and Zaihas got their instruments tuned up courtesy of an open power source which allowed Zaihas' Digitech to be used as a tuner.
We got registered, and we were told that we would be the third band for the audition today. Had a funny interview with Daphne Iking (with the camera pointed at us all the while), and next it was time to walk in to the audition room.
We saw Joe Wings, Ali Bakar, and Jerry Felix seated in front of us and we saw the equipment. There were Randall guitar and bass amps, and a Yamaha drumkit. We set up the equipment we brought with us. Ali Bakar was confirming something with Joe Wings- "Eyes Of Good? Young people nowadays... odd song title....what the?!" Zaihas tested a squeal out of the Randall- yummy! And that shocked the hell out of Ali Bakar. Hahaha.
We started playing. Lines started appearing on the judges' foreheads as they tried to comprehend what we were playing. We were playing Eyes Of Good, our original song, of course- we did not intend to play covers in the first place.
Showmanship was at its peak. Ajak sung his lungs out, Fad beat the drums as best as he could, Zaihas was practically swimming around the place with his bashed out guitar, and Haris whacked his bass until he broke a bass string! We completed the song tightly though, and Haris managed to locate alternate frets to play the bass lines on the remaining strings.
Next it was judges time to speak. Joe Wings feedbacked that the guitar was out of tune. Funny, Zaihas got it tuned accurately by the Digitech tuner just minutes before that. Maybe it was the nature of the song (D-tuned, bendy riffs with strings that need to be wobbled as much as possible) that lend itself to that remark. To take it from an unbiased point of view though, any normal E-A-D-G-B-E tuned pair of ears will say that Wynken Delirium is out of tune. Constantly. We appreciate his kind comments though, this is useful and should allow us room for improvement.
Joe Wings and Ali Bakar feedbacked that Ajak sung rock the ole style. This is exactly what we told Daphne earlier- Wynken Delirium recycles old groove, feel, and regurgitates them into something much more menacing for the future. Well, it was shrieky high vocals that left some people wanting for more from rock bands. We got that, and we do not believe that is a bad point at all.
Ali Bakar mentioned that Ajak was out of pitch at times. We can work on that, considering the measly time we get to jam weekly.
Overall, they judges did not comment anything about the song structure, the way we played (whether we are tight or not), and the context and concept of the song. They did not stop us halfway either. Interesting to note. Was it because they cannot get the type of music we are playing? What we were sure of, though, was that, we were extremely tight that morning. All Joe Wings, Ali Bakar, and Jerry Felix admitted that Fad is a fine drummer though. Now that is a comment WE would like to hear!
We walked out of the audition somewhat confused. An interview ensued, where we were asked of how we felt about the judges' comments. After that we walked down back to the audition area and we were told to stay back for the last round of interview. And it came. We had a good time answering questions posed by Daphne, and we passed some copies of the EP to Daphne and Naz.
Next, a gentleman queried us about our next plan. We told him that we will be recording an album by end of this year. He asked about the funding, and we told him the costs will be all on our own. How about labels? Well, labels are businesses, and for anything that they spend on, they expect returns. Wynken Delirium cannot guarantee any returns, and so, we prefer to move on our own :) The gentleman turned out to be RockUnite's COO, Mr Aznul Mustapa. Cheers, dude!
