FRESH singer-songwriter, Ky Den, has melded his Sarawakian roots with contemporary R&B in his new self-produced debut EP 'Damai'.
The Kuching-bred artist – real name Chairil Danish – dropped the five-track release on January 15, in a bid to provide a unique insight into his Sarawakian nativity, set against the backdrop of the lush and vibrant state, especially Damai beach.
Collaborating with the Sarawak Tourism board, Ky Den, also released an accompanying music video of the same name. The short-film was shot on location at Damai Beach Resort, Nanga Damai, Damai Central, and Sarawak Cultural Village, offering the listener a picturesque, visual slice of the namesake EP.
Ky Den notes that 'Damai' paints the story of Magnus – who he plays in the video – and Iris on the island of Borneo. He said the entire EP was recorded and produced with nothing more than a microphone, laptop, audio interface and some cables.
The track, which directly translates to "peace", is also the first song on the EP, setting the scene for the first act of the film. Iris talks to someone off camera as she describes what love means to her as Magnus serenades the waters of the beach.
"Damai is about interpreting visual aspects of nature, focusing mainly on the beach and rainforest – so sunsets, trees growing or waves crashing – into a vibey, laidback, je ne sais quoi sonic experience," Ky Den told The Vibes recently.
"I came up with the idea when I was watching the sunset with my friend and it made me realize that to truly admire something, you have to feel it from every angle.
"For example, the sunset is visually stunning to look at but what if you pair it with a song? Just, really trying to bring the most out of that one experience by simulating every sense possible. I feel like that is the true, raw form of the concept of the EP."
In the second track 'Alone', co-written by Zee Avi, Magnus is then taken to a dream-like state as the chorus rings with “No place I’d rather be, than to be all alone with you”, set amongst the soft proclamations of his devotion to her.
“Sebab ngan kitak, (because with you) baruk kamek rasa, (only then i will feel) nyaman kedak ari lekak ujan (at peace, like it had just rained ),” he sings in the chorus.
He said the track 'Alone' took the longest to write but the beats were done in one day.
"At the time, I was super busy with school stuff so I couldn’t find the time to sit down and think of the lyrics and melody. Even when I tried to, I still couldn’t think of anything because I wanted to use the Sarawakian language for that song and I just could not do it without cringing at myself," Ky Den said.
"From that, I decided to hit up none other than Zee Avi to help me write the song. As soon as she listened to the beat, she sang a tune and it literally felt like lyrics and melodies were gushing out of my head. 'Alone' took me about three months to finish."
The track then goes into a deeper state of trance as Magnus sings his self-titled track and realizes that Iris is the one that helps him achieve Damai, before he is propelled to put his cards on the table in the track 'Akin'.
Ky Den said the making of the EP started with 'Damai' about a year ago, when he discovered recording software Logic Pro X.
"So I was just toying around with it in my bedroom until I came up with the reversed harp in the beginning of the song, and started building the drums, keys and guitar around that.
“It took me one whole day to finish the beat, then I had no idea how to sing on it so I asked my friend to just talk over it and she sent me a WhatsApp voice note, which I used in the song."
He said not long after that he finished 'Akin', which was ready in the span of one day.
"I wrote it to be a single initially, but then I decided to just include it in the EP. I started with a basic pattern on the drums, then laid on some pads and a bass synth.
"The melody and the lyrics came quite naturally to me for this song; I just repeated the same melody throughout the song and called it. I really wanted to make something different, nothing like anything I’ve ever made. That song was purely experimental.
"That song had 3 different project files for the vocals, instrumental and both, respectively. The best part is, I produced, wrote and recorded the whole thing in a budget hotel when I was quarantined because I had just returned to my hometown, Kuching, from KL."
The last track 'Iris' features a rendition of a famous folk song, Puteri Santubong, sung by fellow Kuching singer and close friend, Sasha Ningkan.
"I pulled up ( the application) Splice and found an interesting percussion loop, and just layered that with keys. Then, I literally pulled out my phone to find any videos of my friends that were lying around and recorded it to my laptop microphone," he said.
"Before I could call it a finished track, I felt like something was missing so I asked Sasha Ningkan if I could use a video of her covering 'Puteri Santubong' on her Instagram to use on one of my tracks. She said yes, and I just recorded the cover into my laptop microphone."
Ky Den says he is no stranger to collaborating with friends when it comes to making art, and production crew Drophouse are behind the short film for 'Damai'.
The unique blend of varying elements is demonstrated in the distinctive instrumentation of traditional percussion instruments and modern synthesisers.
"I kind of pull different things from different artists, like the sparsity of Moses Sumney’s production or Tyler the Creator’s ability to combine beautiful chords with very angry sounding drums and bass.
"Sometimes I’d even experiment with combining different genres which sometimes doesn’t turn out as great as I’d imagined it to, but still there are always new things to learn and explore, especially for a producer. The possibilities are merely endless." – The Vibes, January 24, 2021
