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Allah tidak memberati seseorang melainkan apa yang terdaya olehnya. Ia mendapat pahala kebaikan yang di usahakannya, dan ia juga menanggung dosa kejahatan yang diusahakannya. (Mereka berdoa dan berkata): "Wahai Tuhan kami! Janganlah Engkau mengirakan kami salah jika kami lupa atau kami tersalah. Wahai Tuhan kami! janganlah Engkau bebankan kepada kami bebanan yang berat sebagaimana yang telah Engkau bebankan kepada orang-orang yang terdahulu daripada kami. Wahai Tuhan kami! Janganlah Engkau pikulkan kepada kami apa yang kami tidak terdaya memikulnya. Dan maafkanlah kesalahan kami, dan berilah rahmat kepada kami, dan beri Penolong kami oleh itu, tolonglah kami untuk mencapai kemenangan terhadap kaum-kaum yang kafir".
15
Feb
Hello my fellow shredders!
Here’s the second part of the interview. Interesting.. bro Karl is giving away tips and secrets to master your techniques, and to improve your songs!! (.. oh and more!).
Have a go at it first and let me know what you think.
Until then.. ROCK ON!
p/s: Damn the WORDPRESS WYSIWIG editor!!! I have to edit this interview using HTML codes!
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What are your favourite gears, what were your firsts, and what are your dream gears?
First guitar (acoustic) when I was 15 years old – Kapuk guitar tong RM90.
First Electric Guitar – in Australia, AUD$99 Rokkoman – same design as Les Paul. Black – I was into Black Sabbath and I like the guitarist at that time.
My current gears are:
Electric Guitars:
- Charvel Jackson Model 3 Guitar of the Year in 1988.
- Hammer Sustainiac – it has this switch that can create sustain as long as the battery lasts – till next morning….
Acoustic Guitars:
- Elite steel strings semi acoustics fiberglass body with piezoelectric pickup (looked like Ovation)
- Elite nylon string semi acoustics fiberglass body with piezoelectric pickup
Effects:
- Sold my whole professional rack to Hillary (Ang).
- Currently using Rocktron Voodo Valve effects: distortion, reverb, delay, chorus, compressors, etc..
- Behringer FC100 Midi footcontroller.
Amps:
- 2 x Marshall MG15. I run stereo in my living hall.
- 1 x Ross 15W guitar amp – FOR SALE RM250 – hardly used, like new.
My Dream Guitar (would be) Paul Reed Smith – tested 1 in Mahogany Guitars in SS2 PJ and fell in live with it. Played there for 4 hours. Cost about RM12K! I don’t mind giving up both my electric guitar to get that guitar!
Anyone interested?
(hmmmm.. kena pikir panjang nehh.. Especially the Charvel Jackson.. It’s Karl’s guitar mannn!)
Dream Guitar Gadgets:
- Mesa Boogie TriAxis valve midi preamp.
- Mesa Boogie Abacus footswitch.
- Mesa Boogie 2 channel valve power amps – can drive 8 units of 4×12” cabinets.
- Mesa Boogie 4 x 12” speaker cabinets.
- Lexicon effects – for reverb, delays.
- TC Electronics effects – for harmonizers, chorus.
- Hush noise reduction unit.
- Drawmer compressors.
- Klark Teknik 31 band graphic equalizers.
(man.. bro Karl’s sure has big appetite!)
It took me 2 years (in Australia) to find the right combination of equipment to get the guitar sound that I wanted. The equipment that I have used include:
- Charvel Jackson Model 3 Guitar of the Year in 1988.
- Mesa Boogie Simulclass 295 valve power amp.
- Mesa Boogie Studio valve preamp (non Midi).
- ADA Midi guitar preamp.
- Rocktron Pro G.A.P. midi guitar preamp.
- Roland FC100 Midi Foot controller.
- Boss Distortion.
- Boss Digital delay.
- Boss Graphic Equalizer.
- Marshall vintage 4×12” speaker cabinet.
- Marshall vintage 2×12” speaker cabinet but same cabinet size with 4×12” but with 2 speakers only. It has more bass.
The best combination was highlighted in red above.
What was your first ever guitar lesson? Did you go to formal guitar classes to learn the guitar, or did you learn in from friends?
Believe it or not I had my first guitar lesson from a girl. She was my neighbour and had a pretty girl friend. I learnt from her coz I want to be close to her girl friend and guess what? I succeeded and her friend eventually becomes my childhood sweetheart.
When I was 12 years old, I was in the school angklung club – imagine that! I played the pianica, which is a small keyboard 30-40 keys which you blow with your mouth using a pipe connected to it to produce the sound. My father wanted to send me to a proper music class but I declined coz I knew at that time that my parents didn’t have much money.
When I was 16 and 17, I was in the school Brass Band playing trumpet and also the School Band Guitarist. Learnt a little about music in the brass band but didn’t really learn much. Mostly learning through ears. I don’t know how to read music till today.
My learning methods:
70% Self taught – painstakingly rewind/forward songs to figure out the solos, chords.
20% From friends – they showed me how to play certain solo or rhythms.
10% From books & videos – bought some books with tablature.
Who were / are your influences and stimulated your interest in playing guitar?
As per the story above – the motivation to learn is to get a girlfriend. (Muahahahahahah!)
In school, rock was THE music in that era. Sweet Charity was THE band. We played all their songs and jammed quite often in Do Re Mi jamming studio at Pertama Complex.
My friend told me that there was this guitarist that played with his teeth! I was so curious and went to see the band in a pub called RED ROOSTER in Medan Tuanku KL in 1983. We sat at the front row and saw Man Kidal on guitar and Amy on vocals. This was before Search was established with an album. Man Kidal was amazing and he played with his teeth!
Then came SEARCH and LEFTHANDED – Hillary and Man Kidal were my idols.
I was into Hard Rock likes Dio, Black Sabbath, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osbourne etc and then it gets heavier into Metallica, Helloween, Megadeth etc.
A friend introduces me to Malmsteen and the rest is history.
Favorite Guitarist:
- Yngwie Malmsteen.
- Joe Satriani.
- Dio’s guitarist (cant remember his name but I remembered his face till today).
- Randy Rhoads – Ozzy Osbourne.
- Gary Moore.
- Tommy Emmanuelle - Jazz
What’s your favourite solo lick, other than CROMOK’s songs?
It has to be the song called ‘Crying’ by Malmsteen.
(Great song indeed!)
What techniques did you use to become the guitar player you are today? How long is your practice time a day?
In boarding school – I only had 30 minutes from 10.30pm – 11pm till lights out on weekday.
In university – 4hrs/day.
Professionally:
With Cromok – 8hrs/session, 3 times a week.
With Ella – 8hrs/session, 5 times a week.
Individually – 2-4 hrs daily.
Currently:
Weekdays – 15 to 30minutes daily.
Weekends – 1-2 hours.
Technique:
- Use this gadget that has springs for your 4 fingers to press. I don’t know what it is called but it helps to strengthen your finger muscle.
- Practice exercise – 1 finger 1 fret, sidewards, upwards, downwards.
- Practise, practice, practice…..
What’s your favourite scale? Melodic Descending E Minor? You played that a lot in CROMOK’s songs.
The only scale that I know is Harmonic minor which Malmsteen uses a lot. I don’t know anything about other scales but what you hear in Cromok album is what I like. Didn’t know it was Melodic Descending E Minor.
(Yeah, I think most of the songs in the album used the Melodic Descending E Minor scale, except for the track ‘I Don’t Belong Here’. I think that was Melodic Descending A Minor, which was a cool scale selection since you actually potrayed sorrowful kinda lick in the song.
What are the elements of a great guitar solo like you have been producing, particularly in Forever in Time?
The key to great solo are:
First of, IT HAS TO COMPLEMENT THE SONG – Each song has a story and the solo is a part of the story. A lot of guitarists tend to ‘show off’ what they can do during the solo. In the end the song suffers because the solo does not compliment the song.
Second of, CONTINUITY – solo intro and outro must have smooth transition. Combination of choices of notes, mood and feel is important so that the story continues smoothly.
Third of, FEEL – each note played must have a feel. Feel is what differentiate good guitarist and a talented one. One can be very good technically but if it lacks feel, the solo wouldn’t sound great. To create a great solo, feel is 70%, technique is 30%. Guitarists like Malmsteen and Joe Satriani have mastered the technique and because they have great feel, they became megastars.
Speaking of Forever in Time, Could you please tell us a little bit about the history of “I don’t Belong Here” and “Another You”. I mean, what were the songs all about and how did you come up with the ideas for the songs?
I Don’t Belong Here:
We were in Australia from 1985 – 1992. We mixed with the locals and after a while I realized that the mat salleh lifestyle was not for me. Typically, Mat Salleh will work during the weekdays and then have a good time on weekends by going to the pubs, clubs, bbq etc. 7 years in Australia was a bloody long time and I was home sick. I long for the “Malaysian” culture. The last time I went back home was in 1986. In addition to that, Asians like us will never be truly accepted as the citizens of Australia no matter how hard we try. Therefore, I don’t belong here …… In Australia.
Another You:
There is no lyric in this song. There is a reason for it. It is up to your own interpretation whatever story that suits you.
My stories:
HEARTBROKEN – this song is dedicated to a girl that I really loved. I can’t find another girl like her. How and where can I find another girl like her?
HOME SICK – Malaysia, tanah tumpah darah ku. Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri, lebih baik negeri sendiri. I had a tough life to survive in Australia. I had to work very hard and no one cares about you there. Your student friends are all in the same position as you. They cant help you. Your mat salleh friend are superficial. They wont help you when you are in trouble compared to your relatives or even other Malaysian. Here in Malaysia, you will never be starved. If you asked for food, I am sure anyone regardless of race will buy you a meal. In Australia, you are on your own! There is no other country like your very own. I love Malaysia!
(I agree. We tend to feel more.. patriotic when we are abroad, don’t we? I think all those sentimental feelings would inspire us to write a song like that. But to come up with stuff like ‘Another You’ requires more than just sentimental feeling. Well, not everybody has but CROMOK have, extraordinary talent to write songs!)
If you could do a once-off album project with any guitarist in the world, who would it be?
(1) Malmsteen – dare not, too big of an idol for me. I’ll froze!
(2) Lita Ford – will do it 15 years ago, now she might be a grandmother right? (think so..).
(3) Randy Rhoads – if he is still alive.
(4) Prince – good for marketing, capturing new audience.(seriously bro? Well.. caputring new audience might be a great idea. It’s just.. how about the existing audience? heheheh!).
(5) Vixen – if the band is still around, they are gorgeous.
(6) Joe Satriani – yes.
(7) Santana – yes.
What is your opinion about the blog ‘Gelanggang Gitar’ and ways to improve?
Nice blog – easy to navigate. Very informative.
(… and? … and?… nope? That’s it? Okay.. heheheheh!)
..and finally, what is your advice to the readers of the blog, especially to those who wants to keep improving their skills?
Study music coz it gives you the knowledge that you need to be a professional. You can play any type of music once you know how to read music. All megastars have formal music education.
Learn the proper techniques. I am stuck with what I have now and cant go further coz my technique was not right. I can’t play faster due to wrong fingering and picking technique and the way I hold my guitar.
(Whoaa! You are FAST enough for me bro. I mean, maybe you are not that fast to compare to Malmsteen, but, if CROMOK’s solos are not fast enough, they HAVE to redefine the word ‘fast’, as far playing guitar is concerned.)
Don’t focus on speed alone, feel what you play. A few notes with feel are much nicer to listen to than hundreds of notes without feel. One of the key ingredients to feel is vibrato. Listen to other guitarists and practice the vibrato feel.
Techniques to create feel:
(1) Hard and soft picking between notes creates mood – angry, calm.
(2) Harmonics – excited, energetic.
(3) Hammering – mellow/sad.
(4) Sliding – mellow/sad.
(5) Slow licks – sad, mellow.
(6) Fast licks – angry, energetic.
(7) Acoustics – mellow.
(8) Distortion - angry, energetic, sofet and mellow depends on choices of notes.
(9) Strum near the bridge – harder sound, strum further away from bridge – mellow sound.
(10) Use bridge pickup (near the end) to have more mid and high sound. It gives you a more harder sound.
(11)Use pickup near the neck to have a mellow sound (merdu).
Try combinations of the above. You will be surprise!
(This is the MASTER of all TIPS! Thanks bro Karl!)
Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice makes perfect.
14
Feb
Recently I had a chance to talk to bro Karl of Cromok via email. I asked him if I could do an email interview and he sportingly agreed. So I sent to him a series of questions which he answered in only two days!
The interview will be in two parts. The first part is the interview about his band Cromok. Most of the info in this interview cannot be found in the internet, exclusive for Gelanggang Gitar blog readers only.
The second part, which I will post later, consists the questions about guitars and stuffs, which will be interesting to read. Trust me.. I’ve been reading it four – five times a day since I got the reply!
I would like to apologize to my readers since the interview wil be in English. Me and bro Karl have been conversing in English all this while (in emails – I don’t think we will be using full-English if I were to meet him in real life).
I won’t be using English for the lesson, don’t worry..
You may use the content of the interview anywhere else, but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE credit Gelanggang Gitar, ok? It’s not that hard, just put a link to this blog somewhere anywhere..
So.. here goes the interview, stuffs about CROMOK you won’t read in anywhere else!
How and when did you guys meet? How long had you known each other before forming CROMOK?
Sam, miji and I were in the same school (Sek Men Sains Dungun, Terengganu) in 1984 doing the English course (TOEFL) after SPM for sponsored students going for overseas. It was a stupid move by the govt to send students to Dungun to learn English coz no one speaks English there. We ended up learning Trengganu dialect instead!
Sam and I were housemates when we were in Crows Nest Boys High School in Sydney in 1985. What a waste – no chicks there! And Miji was sent to Brisbane, Queensland in 1985. In 1986/1987 (I think) Miji got a place in Wollongong University together with me and Sam. Din was our Senior by one year in Wollongong University.Miji and Sam were housemates in Wollongong together with Din. They converted their house garage into a jamming place.
Cromok was created here and before cromok was established, another Guitarist named “Mat Puck” or “Pucky” played with the group. The line up was Sam, Miji, Pucky and Din. Cromok played in clubs with this line up. All of this is during 1988-1989.
In 1990 the group was not happy with Pucky’s performance so they asked me if I want to join Cromok.actually I had my own band called ‘KERAZ’ at that time playing in clubs as well and Keraz were the 2nd best band in Wollongong at that time. We played more towards hard rock stuff with my line up consisting of 3 Australians, 1 Greek, and 1 Philippino.
I told Sam, Miji and Din that I will only join Cromok if they are very serious about the band. I do not want to be just another garage band. We should try our very best to ‘make it to the top’. My conditions of joining was:
- Cut a proper demo with album cover, cassette duplication just like a real album.
- Approach recording companies with the demo to promote the band.
- Invest in better equipment – the drum set at that time was horrible – they used a house floor lighting stand as cymbal stand!
- Be professional – regular practice
They eventually agreed and we spent around AUD$1,000 to record the demo in a garage studio. Miji bought a brand new 8-piece double base Pearl drum set. Our friend named Wak Turau created the logo and another friend of mine draw the black and white visual of the original unicorn (not released in Malaysia – I have a few more copies of this original demo with me).
(Make mental note to ask him about that particular demo when we meet!)
With the released of the demo titled Image of Purity in 1990 Cromok was then officially established with Sam, Miji, Din and Karl. We then played in various clubs until Cromok was voted the best band in Sydney by the Hot Metal Magazine in 1990.
At the same time our friend Jig who studied with us in Australia went back to Malaysia. We asked him to approach all the record companies in Malaysia and 6 months later, we signed under Valentine Sound Production and released the Image of Purity version in Malaysia. The album cover was design by Wak Turau.
How did the name CROMOK come up?
Sam, Miji and Din love P Ramlee movies especially the Bujang Lapuk series. I think one of the script is something like “ muka kau macam tepong kromak”. And some how a bunch of letters was put together and the name Cromok was created – the name sounded heavy and it suits the genre.
(Listen to the dialogue at the end of the Youtube video)
Why did you choose unicorn as your .. mascot?
There was a popular cartoon about a unicorn at that time. The story is about the Unicorn’s uniqueness, purity and eternity. So I guess Cromok has the same attributes and hopefully we can last forever. I think this is how the Image of Purity was created.
As you might have already known, there are many Malaysian bands formed by Malaysian students out there, just like in CROMOK’s case. But what were CROMOK’s amazing stories behind Image of Purity recording opportunity?
You have to be different to be noticed!
Physically – What are the chances of the Mat Salleh’s seeing 4 long haired ASIAN heavy metal guys on stage compared to other bands in all blondes. We looked different!
Musically – Mat Salleh are into blues and other typical heavy metal riffs while we were very melodic but with heavy vocals and rhythm to suit the genre. We are unique even until today!
(Yes they are!!)
Have a dream. Have a goal – aim for stardom. Have a plan. Put your heart and soul into it and it might get you somewhere and your dreams can become a reality.
And be professional (which means) invest in time and equipments.
Who was the major contributor to CROMOK’s songs?
The way we write songs are different from others. We created the riffs, rhythms and arrangement first and then we put in the lyrics. The feel of the songs determine the lyrics. All of us contributed to the arrangement. Lyrics were mainly contributed by Sam and Miji. Sam because he is going to sing it. Miji because his English was better than any of us.
After Din parted ways with CROMOK, who was your sessionist for rhythm guitars?
When Din went back to Malaysia in 1991, we had a Philipino guitarist/sessionist replacing him in Australia. Cromok kept going. We got an offer to play as opening act for Motorhead group in 1991 but unfortunately we had to turn it down coz we were not ready yet with the new guitarist.
When we came back to Malaysia, we had a concert in Life Centre. I can’t remember the secessionist name but I remember he is the brother of XPDC guitarist. We also had GG who owns the guitar service shop in Gombak.
Just out of curiosity, CROMOK was the first AMUK’s line-up, wasn’t it? And you were Metal Jawa, weren’t you?
I don’t event know who is behind AMUK and Metal Jawa. Ah…now I remember. EMI was pressing us on releasing an album in Malay but we felt that the language was not suitable for Sam to sing so we did not release any album in Malay. So EMI created this AMUK using original Cromok recorded materials/album and ask someone to write lyrics in Malay and someone to sing along on top of the recorded materials. I think the singer was Nasha.
Don’t know anything about Metal Jawa – another compilation? (heh) Don’t really follow local album releases.
We’ve heard about the CROMOK comeback concert which will be featuring the original line-up (You, Sam and Miji). So far we haven’t heard an official announcement yet. Would you mind giving and exclusive overview to Gelanggang Gitar about that concert.. please?
Umm.. Bad news. I have just got the confirmation that Cromok is not playing. What a bummer! I was really looking forward to it. Would love to do a reunion concert/album.
What a bummer indeed!! I have actually surveyed the ticket for the Sunburst KL International Music Festival organized by Pineapple Concerts , and yes, it was really heartbreaking when Cromok name was not in the list!
Allrite.. stay tuned for the second part.
Until then.. ROCK ON!!
36. dan sesiapa Yang tidak mengindahkan pengajaran (Al-Quran Yang diturunkan oleh Allah) Yang Maha Pemurah, Kami akan adakan baginya Syaitan (yang menghasut dan menyesatkannya), lalu menjadilah Syaitan itu Temannya Yang tidak renggang daripadanya.
