KUALA LUMPUR – While touching on contentious issues such as politics, religion, and consumerism, singer-songwriter Azmyl Yunor's latest album 'John Bangi Blues' is a social commentary that stands as a tribute to the "everyday man".
Digitally launched on September 16 and followed by its CD format 10 days later, the album pays homage to the symbolic figure of "John Bangi" whose existence is often struck by the "blues".
"It's not a blues (genre) album," Azmyl, who is known for incorporating folk and rock in his tunes, explained to The Vibes recently.
"Instead, it's about the average man who carries a common name, 'John' so to speak, from a typical modern town like Bangi."
Azmyl said Bangi was namedropped as it was his adopted ‘kampung’ for 30 odd years since his family moved here in 1989 from the heart of KL.
Not a "dream address", Azmyl sees Bangi as a "peculiar" place with stark contrasts – from hosting a slew of universities – to rising as a 'hijabsta' mecca and all things fashionable and modern among middle-class Malays.
While the 10-track album offers a fresh take on Malaysiana, Azmyl says the 'John Bangi' moniker first emerged sometime in the early 2000s, during a show he played at intimate KL music venue, No Black Tie, on a night when renowned producer Roslan Aziz was behind the sound desk.
"Mid-way through my soundcheck, Roslan asks me where I was from without asking my name and I told him I was from Bangi. And he looked so perplexed and said 'okay, you're John Bangi' and jotted it down," Azmyl quipped, adding Roslan likely alluded to the singer John Denver.
Azmyl, who teaches film at a private university, noted the 'blues' was also in reference to the Malay romantic comic 'Blues Untuk Aku', which was popular in the nineties.
'John Bangi Blues' marks Azmyl's ninth full-length album after debuting in 1997 with 'Watever' and 'FOLK' in 1998, both of which were seminal lo-fi works done in true do-it-yourself spirit.
The album, which was co-produced by Ariff Akhir and who Azmyl worked alongside with in his 2010 album 'Warga', featured the talents of Kristopher Chong of Salammusik on bass and Ammar Khairi (Vega, The Maharajah Commission) on drums.
Describing the album's process, Azmyl said it was recorded live in three hours in November 2019 at Penvia Studio in Petaling Jaya. Teasing several tunes from 'John Bangi Blues' earlier this year, the album is also Azmyl's first full-length release since 2015’s 'Was Was'.
Earlier this year, Azmyl released non-album related music videos for his single ‘Tolong Pas Kan Aku Segelas Air Suam’ and another to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his 2010 album ‘Warga’ directed by his former student Emily Ong. He also launched a video EP titled "PKP EP", a collection of improvised topical songs, on YouTube in May.
Unlike the past releases, Azmyl said he traded the acoustic guitar with overdriven sounds from his trusty Fender Telecaster and trimmed away excess musical arrangements from his past two albums, distilling the rage and angst lurking in his folk songs.
“I wanted to bring it back to the core of what I do best – songs and playing live," he said in a press release.
"I take the term ‘singer-songwriter’ very seriously because I don’t think I’m much of a ‘musician’ – I treat the guitar as a tool, as a means to an end. I’m not reinventing the wheel genre-wise musically – I’m more focused on content and songwriting,” he said.
In the digital realm, 'John Bangi Blues' can only be heard on Azmyl's Bandcamp page, as the independent musician wanted to refrain from other "exploitative" streaming services where tech CEOs "earn millions while musicians earn practically nothing by giving away their hard work virtually for nothing".
For physical copies, Azmyl has been delivering the album in person since music venues have been barred from organising live shows due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It’s heartbreaking to see how helpless artists are now – the problem goes way back before this pandemic, it’s a structural problem that involves our society, politics, and how we value culture.”
Listen to 'John Bangi Blues' here: https://azmyl.bandcamp.com/ – The Vibes, November 1, 2020
