TULANMEN - 4 UGAYMEN, WE R VERY TULAN

“i must work hard to be un-suck”

“everyone has their every own right to be their own rock and roll star”

“don’t give a crap to anyone who talks you down”

this is going to be a long post… so, take your toilet break, put some nice songs, have a cup of tea/coffee with some biscuits near you. this post is about our band but most precisely about my journey being a drummer for uglymen. if i were to compose this post in microsoft WORD application, it will take 8 pages. enjoy the short story.

in case you guys don’t know, i was a guitarist with uglymen, backing michael while he wailed his guitar or screamed our songs on top of his lungs. mike and my guitar collaboration was truly a great combination since the legendary pair of cheah soon kit and soo beng kiang graced our badminton kingdom on TV. my guitar tone was mellow, mike’s guitar tone was bright and edgy. we sounded big combined with ah hooi supporting us at the back (bass). we played with conviction and strong human tightness that we enjoyed very much. we were technically strong in our performance delivery; and musicianship was flawless in terms of amateur musicianship. we spent many years crafting our musical skills, learning music arrangements, analyzing bands performance, improving our song writing skills and carefully rehearsing our songs to the smallest detail. phew~~~ that was hard but fun.

“we need to stay long in the competition — which means we have to win the heats, the finals and hopefully going to the national finals in KL”

to asian beat participants, our band participated in 4 asian beat in 5 years (1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003/2004). 2003/2004, we competed in malaysia 2003 as well as in taiwan 2004. because of not many gigs being organized in northern malaysia, we would participate in band competitions. asian beat was one of them. and in order for us to play in as many gigs/competitions as possible, we need to stay long in the competition — which means we have to win the heats, the finals and hopefully going to the national finals in KL. well, we entered a lot of other bands competition but i just want to share with you about yamaha asian beat band competition because this is quite a wellknown band competition held yearly by yamaha.

in 1999, the competition was called yamaha band alert competition and we participated in kedah/perlis region with 45 bands competiting, we got 2nd and went to KL for the national finals to get our ass kicked back. our song for the competition was ROBOT.

in 2001, we competed in penang region and got 3rd. being 3rd did not get us into the finals in KL. our song for the competition was SUPER HORSE, its a Sam Hui’s cover song.

in 2002, we competed in kedah/perlis region and got 1st. we went to KL national finals and got our asses kicked back home. our song for the competition was HAPPY — our attempt to play progressive song which sounded complicated, difficult to remember parts and extremely complex to play. we swear we will not WRITE such song anymore. its such a pain in the butt to play this song.

in 2003, we competed in penang region and got 1st. we went to KL national finals and won the championship. flew to taiwan and my ass and mike’s ass got kicked back. metal sow ah hooi got a small gift from billy sheehan though. oh, the song that brought us to places is SI AI BIN.

while playing in this band, our relationship grew stronger and our determination to achieve something grew stronger everyday. myself in particular, i love to analyse bands competition. i love to see what makes a band strong in competition and what makes a good performance. what is it in their songs that pull the crowd and gain points from the judges. we think, we analyze and we detailed those information into research and study. i watched at least 4 to 5 grand finals of asian beat competition (asian level). we put so much effort in it… but why? cause its FUN! i have fun analyzing those bands playing, figuring out what made the crowd go crazy and what is a “high” performance. i spent many years doing that and NEVER GIVEN UP on anything — especially on our pursuit to UGLYMEN band. i have been consistent in playing bands and enjoy music. if you ask me what makes a winning band, i’d sum up in 3 attributes: GREAT DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE WITH GREAT FEEL, UNIQUELY CREATIVE and LOTS OF FUN FACTOR. these 3 attributes will make u think for the rest of your lives. i’m still using these 3 attributes to inject motivation to myself. some people may not agree but it’s ok cause everyone has different perspective on this.

all these analysis, research and thinking were actually in our head right now. mike knows about it, hooi knows about it. and we tried to use this knowledge to see where we can go. then came OCEAN OF FIRE, they are our lovely friends — such cool and humble guys. we departed our knowledge to them cause its of no use for us to keep it and bring it to our graves. we *think* those knowledge has helpded them in realizing their little dreams. we didn’t do anything to them, we just talk crap to them. anyway, they deserve every inch of a success that came to them.

then came the crash down, in early 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 pro level may already played professionally and earns well. an average drummer may have played in other bands and even if we found him/her, our characters and musical taste may not be similar. a new drummer may not have the experience in music performance and trouble is we got gigs laid for us in 3 months time — we need a new DRUMMER!!!

ah hooi said: “both of you don’t argue, i will play the drums!”

mike, hooi and i were TOTALLY DEVASTATED. the feeling was down and nothing was positive except for agreeing that we have to play as 3-piece UGLYMEN. easier to manage, easier to communicate, our characters are quite similar: i like watching english premier league, mike loves to play street fighter and hooi likes teaching music. we decided the drummer has to come from the 3 of us. mike and i looked at each other and said “either u or me will play the drums”. meaning, one guitar has to be sacrificed. in the end its me — why not mike? at that time, i have 3 strong reasons: 1st - mike sings the most (about 80%) and he will look awkward sitting at the drums and singing all the time, 2nd - mike teaches guitar and he should NOT sacrifice his career by jeopardizing his MAIN instrument, 3rd - i rather take the pain than making mike losing focus on the guitar. it’s a hard decision but BUT BUT ah hooi did try to help, seriously. ah hooi said the most touching sentence UGLYMEN has ever heard, he said “both of you don’t argue, i will play the drums!” mike and i “BWAHAHAHAHAHAH @#$%^&*#$%^&* KAKAKAKAKKAAK @#$^&#@$%^&* BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH”

during early 2006 (when we just went 3 piece), mike and my drumming SKILLS are about the same. mike knew lots of musical style and fills but no proper technique. i have some basic gripping stick technique and extremely simple beats playing. before u think of anything else, CURRENTLY (as of today) i have been playing the drums for 1.5 years for UGLYMEN. last year, i tried taking drum lessons. there’s a few teachers in penang, A, B and C (no names). A is a latin drummer - and in no way that uglymen songs are anything latin. B is a jazz fusion drummer - and in no way that uglymen songs sound like an octopus playing complicated stuff. C is a good overall drummer but his reputation is bad, he likes to “eat snake” - bad teaching. in the end, i have decided to go back to alor setar to take lesson from my ex-drum teacher, badrul cause he has a strong ROCK drumming style and techniques. i asked for purely rock drumming techniques from him cause i cannot afford to start from pop drumming which is the correct way because i need to fill the drumming responsibility in uglymen as soon as possible. we have gigs in 3 months time. he taught me as much as he could but time was my constraint — i took only 3 months of drumming lessons cause i can’t go back to alor setar every weekend. i have my 93-year old grandpa staying with me and every time i go back to my hometown alor setar, i have to drive him back. but he has difficulty traveling far and he has weak legs. its not convenient for him to go back often you see?

nevertheless, the band moves on… with GREAT pain. here’s the pain where i’m going to share. in every band rehearsal in 2006, the band sucked! it still suck now but not THAT much. the band lost a drummer and a guitarist(myself) and was replaced by a new drummer with no drumming experience. every time during band rehearsal, my drumming cannot cope with the band. the guys were frustrated. mike din’t say much cause he knew my ability was not there. ah hooi got even frustrated — for one f*king year, he has requested us to get a new drummer. without fail, he has voiced this concern over and over again. this year, he hasn’t said anything about getting a new drummer, NOT because i can play already but because he’s tired already… kekekeke

being 3 piece is not only affecting the drumming area, it has a big impact on mike’s playing as well. mike’s guitar sound has to be extremely big (cover mellow and edgy) and hooi’s bass sound has to sacrifice heavy bottom with more mid. we did that change this year. mike’s got a new guitar and hooi’s got a new set of pickup. mike is having a hard time too because he has lost a dependent rhythm player when he needs to focus on his singing or when he needs to play guitar solo. this also gives some burden to hooi because he has to make sure that his bass lines are extremely clear and concise. and when mike is playing guitar solo, hooi’s bass and my drums have to cover from head to toe. it was hard but it was fun. with only 3 instruments around, we have to make sure that we cover full sound spectrum of HIGH, MID and BASS sound.

“you guys are no longer uglymen”

more pain continue - we lost some fans base because we sucked big time. the first 2 gigs were in KL; and when those crowd who was familiar with us saw us performed, they gasped, some dropped their jaws. adding salt to injury, to the others, our band is no longer *the* band. we can’t perform decently, we were asked to get a new drummer. we were questioned WHY WHY WHY. the drummer sucked, the band is not sounding tight. the performance was weird. most people talked down on us. we were sort of being embarrassed suddenly. our pride was dropping into the drain, u can actually hear people sigh. the worst was: you guys are no longer uglymen.

insults are part of the parcel. every little fame comes with a price. where on earth do these people never get any insult? for example michael jackson, britney spears, westlife, metallica, nirvana, green day, blink 182 had their share of media/verbal/accusation abuses hurled at them. well, maybe if you are freaking begger or homeless then people will leave you alone. it’s a strange world indeed.

here’s some famous insults we had:

1. you bunch of uncles still playing some oldies? you have past your prime already. (pls tell hai lang not to play anymore… because oldies mean insult? bwahahaha)
2. you guys are copy cat with no originality.
3. how come a band with a kid can compete? (i want to ask ah yin to abort babies already cause rockers musn’t have babies)
4. its not fair for them to compete cause they have a music teacher in there. (michael, please stop teaching and do something else… like maybe a car park attendant or clerk or drug smuggler)
5. your songs are old fashioned, you should play more modern rock. 80’s and 90’s songs are dead. (hey kelvyn, people insult your guitar playing la… bwahahha)
6. please get a new drummer, you guys are weird without one.

imagine have to take the insult, setback and losing the expectation — it was hard on us. it was like STARBUCKS suddenly making their biggest loss in a few days time. and worst, i have to give up playing the guitars after nearly 20 years. 20 years of knowledge is down the drain too, sigh.

in this whole darkness, there was a glimpse of brightness from a few true brothers and sisters: uncle beh, ah paul webmaster, silver isle, ric, fleaman, ah yin, family and friends. of course there’s bunch of mike’s and hooi’s friends which i can’t recall all their names (sorry guys). these people believe in us. when we went 3-piece, they were happy that we have decided to stick as 3-piece but when we performed, they’d hope we were 4-piece. well, the problem is ME! i can’t play the f*king drums. and its no help either when people started to talk down on my playing because i really REALLY suck in playing the drums at that time. i’m like a new apprentice learning the drums. i even take advice from kids who haven’t finished schooling.

i got to do something. i used all my wit and my head (not the bottom one, the one with brain). i still remember that i have one unique ex-coworker who has the ability to teach himself on anything. for example, he sees people play golf. he will ask a few people how golf is played and asked for some basic techniques and he WILL analyze/research from TV/actual golf playing and TEACH himself to play golf. and he can virtually teaches himself anything he wants to learn and achieve. by the way, his father is a professor and head of faculty in a university. i tried that method but i am not as good as him but i’m getting around there to teach myself playing drums. i get my hands on all the DVD concerts that i can get, drums lesson on DVD/CD/books and from the internet and asking people around. i need to learn FAST. i have concerts from beyond, lamb of god, slipknot, red hot chilli peppers, bryan adams, metal hardcore festival, queen, stevie ray vaughn, metallica and many many more. i purchased drums lessons in DVD/CD/books from KL bookstores, amazon.com and learn from internet (drummerworld.com) and subscribed to modern drummer magazine. i listen to rock and metal bands CD while driving/working. i need to learn faster. occasionally, i purchased U.K. drums magazine called RHYTHM and learnt as much as i can. i must work hard to be un-suck.

i asked better-than-myself drummers but tend not to do so nowadays cause i get my ass kicked for asking too much. one simple question that i asked “how do you tune the drums, especially the snare drum?” i got an unhelpful answer as well as dissing me that you cannot depend on people too much, u have to learn on your own and try on your own. how the f*k i’m going to learn something which i dont know? drum tuning is difficult to teach BUT to me, there are ways — it depends on the person whether he wants to impart the knowledge or just talk crap to me. well, luckily hai lang drummer ah thye taught me. he said “i can’t teach you cause i dont know how to teach. i just use a DRUM TORQUE to tune. i use it as a guide”. i went to a music store and bought a DRUM TORQUE and my snare drum is sounding nice now. so, there is a f*king way to tune a drum kit, its a matter whether these people want to teach you or not. damn!

“why are you asking stupid questions”

why i said i seldom ask professional drummers nowadays? here’s another story: my snare drum has a problem of the tension rods (screw) loosening. the screws actually came out the longer i play and the harder i hit. when i posed this question to a drummer friend, he said “why are you asking stupid questions? the tension rods WILL always loose when you play longer and hit hard.” i was frustrated but i never give up, i find my internet friend, his name is GOOGLE and he gave me answers. my tension rods no longer loose. in case people ask what is my faith, i will say “GOOGLE”.

my pursuit of drumminess is far from over. everyday, it’s a new day for me to discover new things. new drummers, new ideas, new songs, rekindle inspirations, cool techniques, etc etc. luckily enough, i got a kind band member by the name of michael who decided to lend me his newly bought drums practise pads. the pads alone allow me to woodshed/practise as frequent as i can. i try to practise everyday, at least an hour. if its not for mike’s drums pads, i would have SUCKED even more.

“the security guard called me via intercom and visited me a few times because i was disturbing the neighbours”

i practised as much as possible with my 12 hours working time, family time and sleeping time. after deducting my daily routine time, i only have like less than 2 hours a day to do my own things (including phak chui cheng). sometimes i have to work at nite but that’s a different story. i tried to practise my drumming as much as i can. at that time, i only had like 3 months of drum lessons. what can i know about playing drums? i started practising until late at nite. until midnite, like 12am and 1am. but, i live in a “who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire-flat” in penang. then a few misadventures occurred. our resident flat security guard called me via intercom and visited me a few times because i was disturbing the neighbours. argh!!! a dent to my practise regime. i mean, when i practise drumming on the practise pads, the sound (banging) absorbed through the walls and disturbed the neighbour upstairs. i was devastated. i think the guards called me 3 times in a span of few days.

i decided to go up and talk to my neighbour. they were a nice family: a young couple with 2 little girls. they said their kids are having exams and one of the daughters was having fever and couldn’t sleep and i asked what time is the latest limit i can practise the drums. they said 12am. then i thought for a while and told them that i will stop my drums practice by 11pm. they were fine and at least i dont feel that bad about disturbing my neighbours.

happily, i went back to my flat and practise again… after a few weeks. my house maid told me that: “suan, itu auntie punya rumah bawah cakap suan main drum banyak bising, dia tak boleh tidur” (the downstairs neighbour lady can’t sleep because my drumming is noisy). man! u see my problem now? i have neighbours upstairs and downstairs. i went down to see the lady. she’s a 70-year old lady. i asked her what time she sleeps, she said 9.30pm. @#$%^&* i told her that i play drums for a living and i need to practise. she said she needs to sleep by 9.30pm and i negotiated with her that i will stop practising by 10pm. from then on (since last year), i practise my drums daily up to or before 10pm. sigh… and when i got back from work, it’s usually 7pm. between 7pm, i need to dinner, spending sometime with my family and practise my drums. usually, after 10pm, i dont practise anymore.

so, how does it feel being a drummer and being a guitarist? well, honestly speaking, being a drummer is more difficult than being a guitarist. using a guitar, u can play a song in a few minutes. Nirvana 2 chords (in the verse) song called “About A Girl”. or play any string on a guitar to imitate any song u can think of. being a drummer, wahhhhhh…. die…. what can u play to “produce” a song? difficult. u gotta learn the rudiments/techniques, having a steady timing and good groove. being a drummer is a pain in the butt. u gotta have lots and lots of interest in playing the drums TO BE ABLE to love playing it. if you play drums just because it is cool, then u wont last long playing the drums. to me, i love a band rock music than the drums… the bass, guitar and drums are just tools for me to express my musical performance. i play drums because i love to play in this band. if i have to play the bass for this band, i will learn to play the bass, same goes to guitar etc. my situation is a bit different, i play the drums because i love the band. if the band no longer exists, i probably play the guitar cause i can’t really sing with a drum and drums do not have melody! BUT hey, this does not mean that i HATE drums. after some time playing the drums, i find the drumming experience to be an exciting one and a journey that will take me to places (literally).

at this point of time, my physical ability does not allow me to absorb all the technical requirements of a good drummer. i played less than 2 years and i need to compensate a lot of weaknesses with groove and feel. some techniques take years to master and i can’t afford to wait for years. a month is also too long already for me. i need to crack my head to be on the same playing par with hooi and mike. however, there’s one element in MUSIC that RULE them all. pop, rock, hard rock, metal, RnB, jazz, classical must be played with FEEL/EMOTION/DEEPEST SOUL. even with limited technical ability, a song performance can be decently good with a good feel and emotion. if someone says that playing technically IS MORE IMPORTANT than playing WITH FEEL and GROOVE, then… he/she is probably right loh… i was wrong loh… i’m only having 1.5 years of drumming experience only mah… bwahahaha… cin tulan nia… kekeke.

every now and then i discover a lot of things on drumming. drumming needs a lot of persistency, patience and determination. when i was a guitarist, i only have determination and some patience. being a drummer means having to endure the boring technique when i practise cause there’s no melody of song during drum practising. however, that totally changes when we meet up for our weekly band rehearsal. i always look forward to our jamming session every week in penang. it is a wonderful experience every time. our first performance of me playing the drums was extremely weird. it was the first time i sat during a performance. and i sat at the back. its so strange to see hooi’s and mike’s butts. practising thru a drums technique(rudiments) is far more boring than a guitar. u have to endure the pain. i have to keep motivate myself. i always remember these 2 things when playing in a band: “the band is as good as the weakest link” AND “the band is as good as the drummer”. to do anything you dream of, you need tenacity.

stages of me playing drums:

1. when i first start playing drums in live performance: i hope i dont drop my drum sticks
2. when i played for a few months in live performance: i hope i dont play mistake
3. when i played for a year in live performance: i hope my timing is steady
4. when i’m playing live right now: i hope my feel is right
5. when i play live in future: i hope my drums sound and feel are great

when i practise, i focus (1 being the most important):

1. steady timing
2. technique and accuracy
3. groove and feel

when i play live, i focus (1 being the most important):

1. groove and feel
2. technique and accuracy
3. steady timing

“that’s why i worked hard on my drumming so that uglymen doesn’t suck”

uglymen has gone thru several phases in life, with success and pitfalls. it doesn’t mean that we get smarter but we gained a lot of knowledge and experience which we can apply in real life and understand how precious life is. the band is everything to me and has made my life more colourful (than it already should) and i’m willing to sacrifice musically to the band. the band is more important than my drumming (that’s why i worked hard on my drumming so that uglymen doesn’t suck):

1. if we are NOT in this band: we dont know how taiwan looks like and how cute the taiwan girls are. errrr… malaysian girls also not bad.
2. if we are NOT in this band: we dont know how does a TV programme recording feels like.
3. if we are NOT in this band: we dont know the appreciation of being charitable and using our little talent to collect donations for the needy, independent fire brigade, kidney patients etc.
4. if we are NOT in this band: we dont know how recording an album feels like.
5. if we are NOT in this band: we wont be able to make so many friends all over the country and overseas.
6. if we are NOT in this band: we wont know how to deal with press (newspaper), designers, t-shirts manufacturer, TV station, organizers, recording engineers, producers and a bunch of business people.
7. if we are NOT in this band: we wont know how to manage each other and being in the band is just like being in a company. the longer the band members stay with each other in the band, it means that these members have great relationship with the other members/partners. its just like a business, if u get along with people/partners well, u gain a lot of trust/friends/contacts. you learn how to compromise, respect others, manage little things, planning ahead and think rationally.
8. if we are NOT in this band: we dont know how to do promotion or sell a product (CDs, t-shirts).
9. if we are NOT in this band: we wont be traveling much and discover singapore, KL, kampar, nibong tebal, teluk anson, taiping, bukit mertajam etc.
10. if we are NOT in this band: we wont be inspiring a few people to start their own bands.
11. if we are NOT in this band: we wont know there’s so much great music out there, so many awesome bands and so many inspiring individuals.
12. if we are NOT in this band: hooi, mike and i wouldn’t have known each other.

we get inspired by things, we get inspired by new people/places/activities. this world doesn’t stop u to achieve what u want. if u want something badly, work towards it. no one is stopping u. read the above 3 quotes in bold at start of this post.

the drums is my tool for musical expression. our band has exceeded us. the band is bigger than any 3 of us. i just know that i have to push the band further up, not sliding down even though i do not have an exceptional ability on the drums. everyone has their every own right to be their own rock and roll star. all they have to do is to work on it all the time without losing focus. if mike, hooi and myself were to split, we are nothing but a regular 9am to 5pm guy and we’ll ended up me watching english premier league, mike playing street fighter and hooi teaching music full time.

p/s: in the end, drumming is like studying or working or pursuing your dreams. you need to work hard, stay focus, persistent to your whole objectives, never give up and don’t give a crap to anyone who talks you down. in the end, being 3-piece uglymen is a blessing in disguise. i haven’t given up hope since we started this band in december 1993.