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MY HILLBILLY ORIGINS :-) (Mon, 2 Jul.)
AKAR UMBI (featuring the late great Temuan ceremonial singer Minah Angong) is Malaysia’s first Orang Asli fusion band and we still do the occasional show with Awa Anak Lahai as lead vocalist - and a whole bunch of colorful friends jamming along. From the predigital past, there’s the legendary K.D. POSSUM & THE FLYING FOX - an authentic Malaysian bluegrass band with whom I first began gigging (and sometimes giggling) in public. All my contact info is listed below and you’re very welcome to drop by the Magick River blog and leave a paw print or two.
Wonderful stuff Antares!! As a Temuan people from Banting, i'm so proud of your job! Where can i get Akar Umbi full album? I'll be at Kg.Chang, Bidor for Orang Asli day. Harap Antares ket sununlah, buleh lah akuk nak beli album Akar Umbi!
Keep on Rockin!
Cheers!
Shak a.k.a Kujal
P.Kempas, Banting
KINI 4 BUAH LAGU SAMPLE DARI ALBUM TERBARU O-TWO "NOSTALGIC TRAGIC " TELAH DI PRA-DENGARKAN ,SELAMAT MENDENGAR DAN MOGA ANDA SEMUA ENJOY...NANTIKAN KEMUNCULAN INI YA.... ( SAMPLE INI MASIH BLUM SIAP SEPENUHNYA DAN MASIH LAGI BELUM DIADUN SECUKUP RASA SERTA BLUM MEMASUKI SUNTINGAN TERAKHIR- HARAP MAKLUM ) TERUS MENYOKONG BAND - BAND INDIEPENDENT DARI MALAYSIA YEAH.....
Really?? I'm honored :) On that voice thingy, hmm, let's see...lotsa honey (of all kinds) in yer tea (of all permutations) followed by generous swigs of whisky works fer me :D
How would you describe the kind of music you make?
That's a tough one. I tend to be extremely eclectic in that my musical influences run the gamut from folksy to the symphonic avant-garde and, these days, I'm listening to a lot of African "voodoo" music. People have (very kindly :-) compared my musical explorations to Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield, Frank Zappa, Kevin Ayers, and even Keith Jarrett - but my early songs were influenced by Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and David Bowie.
Why didn't you become a full-time professional musician?
I often thought of focusing on music, since it's my #1 passion, but I realized that in Malaysia there was little scope for the sort of sounds I was expermenting with. The audiences here prefer more "mainstream" sounds and you end up doing only cover versions. I love music too much to "go pro" with it. Though I sense there's a whole new generation now that might be a lot more receptive, I'm too contented to want to sweat it out in noisy pubs or go on the road for weeks. So I'll just carry on making music at home and putting it online :-)
What are your plans for your music at this stage?
I want to reissue all the old stuff (rescued from deteriorating cassettes) on CD before working on my next album, which will feature a modest collection of songs I wrote from 1984 till the present. This time I'm seriously thinking of working with a co-arranger and producer, plus a few good sessionists, to create a tighter, more funky and... um, okay, "slicker" sound. The K.D. Possum material will bring a lot of happy memories back to folks old enough to have caught one of our concerts in the late 1970s. And my solo albums, I feel, have genuine archival value in that they document the eccentric, self-financed experiments of an unknown Malaysian musician who once billed himself as "the world's most ambitious amateur" :-)
Do you have any formal musical background?
Nope (apart from six months under Michael Veerapen's tutelage 20 years ago, which set me back almost a decade in terms of confidence :-). My mother offered me piano lessons when I was a kid but I politely declined. However, when nobody was home except me I'd attack her baby grand with a vengeance! The first musical instrument I owned at age 9 or 10 was a ukulele (my brother taught me how play 'Melodie D'amour' and a popular flamenco piece on it). The next investment was a chromatic harp and a few blues harps, After a while I gave up on the chromatic but the blues harps have come in handy, because that's how I first got invited to play in a bluegrass band. I acquired my first guitar, a Takamine, in 1981 and it still sounds great.
I only got the hang of synthesizers when I was making my first album and was able to fool around with the ones I found in the studio. Don't know why, but I'm really a slow learner when it comes to music - unless it just happens, you know, as in channeling, the way trance mediums receive their information :-)
How can you be contacted?
That's easy! Email is cheap and efficient:
magickriver@gmail.com
If you're in a real big hurry, try my fixed line:
(603) 60.643.643 and if that doesn't work there's always the mobile:
(+6012) 670.6736
Cheers! :-)
Bio
Antares(formerly known as Kit Leee) began his musical career playing harmonica and mandolin with the legendary bluegrass band K.D. Possum & The Flying Fox(1977-1981) during which time he began writing his own songs and bought his first and only guitar (an acoustic-electric Takamine). In 1984 he released a solo album called Solitary Vice (& Other Virtues) with a collection of Dylanesque songs on one side and "avant-garde" instrumental numbers on the other. This was followed two years later with 2nd Coming, an entirely instrumental work (with one incantatory insert in an iconoclastic track called "Terminal Hierophantiasis").
In 1990 Antares began collaborating with Marilya Yoshimasu, a Brazilian-born shaman-singer, and an arty limited edition CD entitled The Moon Close To My Face Is A Fish was released in 1994.
He also appeared sporadically on stage with other Malaysian singer-songwriters like Rafique Rashid, Amir Yussof, Hassan & Markiza (Passion), and R.S. Murthi.
Dividing his time and energies between his other artistic pursuits in theatre, photography, cartooning, and authoring a series of books (Adoi!, Moth Balls, Two Catfish In The Same Hole, Tanah Tujuh), Antares dropped out of the local music scene after moving in 1992 to live amongst the Orang Asli in Pertak Village, Ulu Selangor.
However, he continued writing the occasional song whilst living in the jungle. In 1994 he teamed up with Rafique Rashid to introduce the celebrated Temuan ceremonial singer, Mak Minah, to a national audience with the debut performance of Akar Umbi at the Shah Alam Stadium. Akar Umbi played two years in a row at the Sarawak Rainforest World Music Festival before the untimely death of Mak Minah - and the release of her posthumous CD (Akar Umbi ~ Songs of the Dragon) in August 2002.
Since then Antares has been content to jam with musicians visiting his idyllic home (affectionately called Magick River) while honing new skills in percussion and winds. A few months ago, Daniel Tang - an old friend who’s also a veteran audio engineer - offered to digitize Antares’s analog music archives. He now has several hours of music waiting to be digitally enhanced and reissued on CD. The only problem (as usual) is getting enough funds to finish the task...
