some of you may have noticed that for the past few months, we have been performing as a 3-piece band. we were originally 4 members. the band started long enough to leave sweet memories and it has become a cult of ridicule and yet people still like to see our dumbass performance. kekeke. if you guys may have noticed, uglymen is now 3 members, reduced from 4 members. yes, you have guessed it right, our long time drummer, kai jiunn has decided to give full focus to his career. we had this meeting earlier this year and had a long talk at a mamak restaurant at bukit jambul. the band was so much fun to be in but circumstances had impacted the band in some way: time and budget. simply put, time and budget were invested a lot in this band. so, who is playing drums now? read on below… one of our friends, alan asked us through friendster about our 4-piece to 3-piece story. we are sharing this little news to everyone now.
his email:
Date: Friday, 27 October, 2006 4:12 PM
Subject: where’s kai jiuun?
Message: in ur official site, why kai jiuun nvr showed. i c only Ah Hooi, Tai Suan & Michael only?
—end of email—
our reply to alan:
hi alan,
you are probably the first one to notice and ask us about kai jiunn. since the beginning of this year, our band had a close discussion about the band’s direction and future which were then both bleak and blur. the band was signed to an indie music label (which is our close/good friend, kenny tay) called kenny music. we signed for 2 years and our contract ended in july 2006. CD sales were bad. we sold about 400 CDs throughout the world, bwahahaha…
the band has been going on since december 1993. yeah, we were young at that time… we are still young now :). michael, kai jiunn and myself were playing in the same band since then and ah hooi was roped in from another band in 1998. wow, to think about it, ah hooi has been with us for around 8 years.
no monetary return except for fun factor
playing in a band takes up time and commitment and there’s no monetary return except for fun factor, NOTHING else. the adrenalin rush (for about 30 minutes) when we performed on stage beats everything else. the band location and music style (chinese rock band in northern malaysia) are inviting death sentence to ourselves. we just play for fun and the sheer excitement of releasing ourselves on stage artistically.after a while, the band path became stagnant as we were seeing the same stage and playing the same thing and we need to move on. moving on gives us another headache: we need more time to practise/write songs AND spend $$$ in gigs (traveling and expenses). most gigs that we played were free of charge, charitable or paid minimum fees. we were still happy and dint give a damn. however, the time AND commitment invested MAY not compensate us any monetary rewards or improve our career (we need to eat rice, you see, hehehe). in the close meeting, we decided “WHAT” we (personally) wanted to do. michael, hooi and myself decided to stick around to play music as our career is quite established = stagnant with no possible growth, bwahahaha… kai jiunn being the youngest in the band has just started with his career and he has opted to focus on his career and commitments. our time was taken up until we dont even have time to do part time job. “ah hooi, tonite got a guy want you to service, you want or not?“, ah hooi said “limpeh boh eng la… limpeh practise bass” (i’m not free la, i’m practising bass) bwahahahaa….
the band is about friendship
with a heavy heart, kai jiunn left the band to focus on his career and we were left with 3 people. we didn’t actually try to find a replacement cause the band is about friendship and it’s quite difficult to find a good replacement to match kai jiunn’s playing style, our crude/gay characters and profitless-time-wasting commitment. michael and i decided among two of us whether we want to change our style or how… michael and i knew how to play the drums a tiny bit. since michael sings the most, i have decided to take on the drums and practise my ass off. i took 3-months of drums lesson (i wish to take more but my job & family takes all my time). we purposely dint want to ask ah hooi to play drums even though he knows how to differentiate between a cymbal and a drumstick cause we want him to be our poster boy since he is the most handsome. all girls and gays guys love him.we actually DID not officially mention to everyone why suddenly we are reduced to 3 people but i guess (thanks to you), we will publish this on our website.
—end of reply—
end note: the band has outgrown us (at least to me) and it has become BIGGER than our individual self. we are just commoners without the band. the band has brought us many fans who eventually became our friends (or sworn brothers) and we are DAMN F*king grateful for that. in the past 4 years we have known so many friends we can’t even remember their names. we thank uglymen for bringing us so many friends.
p/s: the 2nd photo above shows the dog getting interested in michael after pissing off ah hooi. see where the dog is smelling? aha! i think michael put on some fragrance to attract the dog cause i can smell it too… and i can taste it with my tongue, i’m jealous.
15 responses so far ↓
fleaman // Nov 8, 2006 at 11:29 am
Hey… life goes on! we know uglymen motto now..! its always nice to hear that uglymen play music for the sake of music. Yes, i do agree monetary issue will always corp up! but hey.. u voice out.. u’ll get sponsor! no issue! u got my backing on this!
By the way, thanks for having me last nite messing wth u guys in the jamming studio. Mikey, thanks for letting me jam your guitar n play hooi’s bass for a while..! and suan for his patience to go along wth my song request! appreciate that!
Yup, blisters on my butterfingers after that.. but it was nice… hahahahha.. its been ages since i play guitar/bass! hahahahahaha.. so rusty indeed! hahahahaha…
Again, thanks for the jamming session.
p/s Mikey go see doc.. n bring 10k.. u need that! hahahahahaha.. ;p
taisuan // Nov 8, 2006 at 11:50 am
fleaman, you are always welcome man!!! its been great to see you guys around!!!
michael // Nov 8, 2006 at 1:14 pm
…fragrance to attract the dog cause i can smell it too… and i can taste it with my tongue, i’m jealous. ..
and ah suan likes to lick lick…
michael // Nov 8, 2006 at 1:30 pm
no problem fleaman, you played bass better than asia best bassist, sang like antonio kidies, strung the guitar like slas….
michael // Nov 8, 2006 at 3:02 pm
suan luan luan write one the story above, actually is he pray the guitar no good, cant keep up with the other guitarist, so he kuai kuai go pray drum lo…
taisuan // Nov 8, 2006 at 3:23 pm
reply from alan:
i c, Tai Suan. from the 1st i c u buddies 2gather but now only 3 only. I c kai Jiuun drum style preety good . But 4 me, u & ah Hooi is coolest 1. Ah hooi’s face alittlebit funny but he play bass preety good.
Anyway, u guys rocks!!! Thanks very much.
michael // Nov 9, 2006 at 12:07 am
reply from alun:
ic, michael, from the 1st i c u buddies 2gather but now only 3 only. I c kai Jiuun drum style preety good but suan pray bad . But 4 me, mike & ah Hooi is coolest 1. Ah hooi’s face alittlebit funny but he play ass preety good.
Anyway, u guys rocks!!! Thanks very much.
beh // Nov 9, 2006 at 9:04 am
4 piece or 3 piece to ulgymen it doesn’t matter…why? becoz uglymen still rock like uglymen!!!
After visited the jamming with friends(fleaman, ah long and fleaman’s friend) uglymen still is uglymen!!!
Hey, I feel TianKong can kick more; I like this song’s arrangment and little spicy things with the drum strokes that made by tua tao and mike’s guitar…. The arrangement is killer man, I tell you what, this will be my favorite song for the up coming second album man!! but it’s like very “NEW” to suan and hooi…. that’s why I said this song can kick more if you two(suan and hooi) understand the flow and express more feel into this killer song…
The arrangment is killer once more!!! really kick ass!!! Mike your solo have to put more feel and soul to make this song got more purple color the sad feel…
Band or being alive in this world is all about FRIENDSHIP, without friend, I would go to hell in the early days already…
A good musician or band all the song written out base on their interests, and many of them didn’t care wherether got “return” or not…In music for me it’s not doing business. If ones too much care for the “return” then sold his/her soul to the market(want to get return from the market) then he/she is not a good musician. Normally this type of ppl will put themself into a dead end and ending his/her “creativities” in the writting….
Hope Uglymen is not falling into this trap; which I think uglymen is not going to be so stupid to make themself lost all the enjoyment, fun, excitment and friendship by putting themself into this position, only zooming for $$$ became a $$$ band; No $ no Play type attitude…kekekekeke…. only sold 400 pieces world wide already can be said good already.
While, little comand about 3 piece uglymen after visit the jamming last 2 nites;
Suan - your strokes had improve a lot, more stayable compare to last times. Can sing PCC while playing the drum which impressive to me; but half way only which is disapointment to me..keep it up, you can do it i believe!!! also in the Domido’s the drum part so blur..have to make it solid can feel each of the hits from the tom. Your hard work did pay off man, but there is not enough still got a lot of room for “improvement”….KEEP it up man!!!
Hooi - Your bass starts to shape the guy hooi tone up. But I think only.. you are not aware of it, yourself do not know it becoz’ you juz play and didn’t put too much “feel” into it. Like how to improvise your bass into the song and spice up the song. I also see some improvement in your playing… Use the fender please do not use the yamaha…. Great job, keep it UP also..
Mike - My guitar sifu, when you play the Tian Kong solo(I know it has many parts) I can feel you starts “try to find to correct TONE” to suit into this solo… you had found the tone but haven’t hit the “correct” tune of the tone yet.. you are almost there..that’s how I feel that nite while you are playing. But your arrangment in music, sometime still got ppl’s shadow, you have to becareful of this. Like Tian Kong’s intro or starts, got beyond’s shadow, only a tiny bits but I can sense it… This is the weakness of you in composing the music be aware of your weakness. Guitar TONE wise, you got improvement becoz’ I can feel you are actually done some search for yourself’s tone or paticular song’s tone….which is great…Keep it UP, I hope next two month visit or 1119 at AutoCity there will be suprise again!!
I am very siok when watching 3 of you still rocking like crazy uglymen!!! this is the way to success, no fear with any problems. Face it solve it and move on!!!
rockoN!
beh
ten // Nov 9, 2006 at 9:15 am
sifu behbeh reply was so details…….
whatever shit happen, as long uglymen still playing music with de same right attitude, we’ll always stand by u guys! let’s keep our finger cross and pray to de “rock god”….. ‘may uglymen music keep on rocking hard into de heart and souls of every rockers in de world’
taisuan // Nov 9, 2006 at 9:42 am
thank you everyone for the kind words. we are working our ass off. the hardship that we endured is paid off little by little. we are no longer technically proficient as before but we are picking things up. we just play soulful music and share thoughts with all you guys.
michael // Nov 9, 2006 at 12:28 pm
very very good!
thank you Beh and Ten!! Uglymen will be no where to be seen if without such support!!
beh beh talk so long got one thing is correct one:
The tian kong song ah suan and hooi not clear about the flow and chords!! Kanne, go back listen again la, ho sim! i no want write new song liao like this….
» Blog Archive » OFFICIAL UGLYMEN STATEMENT: 4 members reduced to 3 // Nov 9, 2006 at 3:53 pm
[…] Full Story >> […]
king // Nov 9, 2006 at 3:54 pm
Even only 3 UGLYMENs … You guys STILL ROCK US!
Glacius // Nov 11, 2006 at 11:02 am
I forgot where I got the news, but yeah, I knew about this. Either from Tai Suan or Michael.
Although the band is nearly broken down, but I’m glad that I’ve met good musician/friends like you all!! Down to earth, humble, and all gay!!!!!!! Muahahahahaha..
Woi.. when is Tai Suan coming to pick up the albums har? Hahahahahahaha..
my journey from being a guitarist to drummer | UGLYM3N - Hard Rock Band // Sep 10, 2007 at 7:04 am
[…] 2006, we were reduced to 3 hand held string instruments (hooi, mike and myself), no more drums. no drummer for uglymen. what are we going to do? quit the band? no, find a new drummer? well, a drummer who can play at a […]
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