Kias
Fansuri by Matt
Dixon, April/May '09 All
Photos by ???
The
Thing You Can't Get Rid Of from Split 7" with OFTSOA
1. Please introduce
Kias Fansuri and give a brief history of the band.
Hello All! We're Kias Fansuri from Malaysia , we started as a band
at the end of 2006 and we're Yuhelmy Yusop, Hizwat Mamat (vocalists),
Azwari Zainal, Qadzar Azarane (guitarists) , Akhmar Razak (bassist),
and our new drummer Syarul Azzrel. In March 2007 we released our demo
tape and later re-released in CDr format on Italian label Shove Records
in 2008; so far we have done a 4 way split 10" with Pete The Pirate
Squid , Narwhal & Teeth Of Mammals , a split 7" with Only For The
Sake Of Aching from Germany and various compilations such as Emo Apocalypse
, Love.Life , Benefit For Anna and This Is Not A Break Up Compilation.
All the songs that we ever recorded are in our new CD entitled 'Dua
Tahun Pertama' which means "The First Two Years."
2. Malaysia has
been described as a hot bed for DIY punk and there has been a revival
of sorts of mid 90s style screamo with influences such as Envy, Saetia,
Indian Summer, etc. Kias Fansuri is a name you often hear at the forefront
of this revival. First of all, do you agree with this assessment?
Where do you think you fit within the Malaysian DIY punk community?
We are not really aware of this assessment , but to us DIY hc/punk
had always been around since the 90's. We are still in our learning
and growing process. There's so many things out there yet to be discovered.
We do agree that there a lot of revival of mid 90's style screamo
nowdays. We must say that they are gettin' better and better each
day. However, regarding this assessment, we will leave that to the
public to determine.
Well, Our scene is not big but we are constantly growing each day.
We must thank the wonderful world of the world wide web that had been
our medium to expose ourself to the world. Without it, the whole process
would take a much longer time. We do not think of ourselves as the
first screamo band here in Malaysia. We consider ourselves lucky because
we had the opportunity to take our music to another level other than
the domestic level. We would like to thank all of our friends out
there for this. For us, we are no different from any other person
or band in the Malaysian DIY hc/punk scene. However, we do believe
that music is a great medium to send a message that we consider to
be important. What we're hoping and currently are doing is trying
to make people aware of the issues that are related to their everyday
lives. We believe that people need to know or be aware before they
can take any action. Without the knowledge, the act is useless. For
us, we are just an ordinary screamo band that are trying hard to change
ourselves to be better people. Hopefully, by all of us achieving this,
there will be a better society in the future.
3. You mentioned
how music helps to send messages you consider to be important. I'd
like to explore this a bit further; what are some of the things you
try to communicate through your music? Do you have specific themes,
politics, ethics, etc?
Without a message to deliver I think we are wasting our time and chances
to prove. We love to communicate in any way, no matter if it's in
music, poetry or anything else. Communication is everything. Kias
Fansuri is based on friendship more than ethics itself, but we do
have our own personal opinions and ethics such as three of us are
Straight Edge kids and we still hang out with non-Straight Edge kids
from our places. Mostly our lyrics are more to do with personal experience
but we try to bring some politics into our songs, maybe in the future.
4. Do you fear
that the message will get lost when you scream the lyrics so no one
can understand you? How do you overcome this? Does it come down to
passing out lyric sheets and/or explaining the songs beforehand?
We're not a pop band! Could you imagine in a small pack room with
two ugly people screaming. I bet no one will understand what we shouting
for. That was the fact that we need to accept and that's why we want
to put out as many records as we can so people can read the lines
and understand what we deliver while we scream. Sometimes we will
do explanations between songs but not always; it depends on the situation
and who's standing in front of us. We hate repeating ourselves.
5. What's up next
for the band? Any final words?
Right now we're busy writing music for the upcoming split LP entitled
Connections, it's a 6-Way Split LP under Moment of Collapse Records
from Germany with bands from 6 different countries that is ; Suis
La Lune (Sweden) , Captain, Your Ship is Sinking (Netherlands) Fire
Team Charlie (USA), Isaiah (Belgium) & Adorno (Portugal) and after
that we might record for a new EP and a split with Rollergirls from
Germany. Thanks a lot to Matt Dixon for the interview and to all the
readers, we hope this short interview can give you some clues about
us and the Malaysian hardcore scene. Any correspondence can be sent
through email to this address - kioskcore@gmail.com; till then Kiascore!!
