Guitar, Ukulele and Music Lessons
Kepada yang ingin tahu apa itu “Surat Muzik”, ini edisi contoh – naskah Surat Muzik yang ketujuh, selamat dikirim pada 15 Julai 2019.
Klik pada gambar di atas (atau DI SINI) untuk muat turun fail PDF ‘Surat Muzik’
Boleh baca & kalau suka, boleh sertai & dapatkan naskah seterusnya di sini: https://sendfox.com/lp/03z761
Hari ini kita temubual singer-songwriter Brendan de Cruz!
Saya dah lama kenal Brendan & kagum dengan usaha dia aktif sebagai performer dan juga aktif menerbitkan album sendiri.
Baru-baru ni ada perkembangan menarik dengan Brendan mengumumkan festival “A Very Indie Festival 21/22″ yang akan berlangsung selama setahun!
Dia juga baru je lancar single terbaru berjudul “Love”.
Jom kita berbual dengan Brendan kejap…
Latar belakang muzik saya dating dari pengaruh arwah ayah saya, Errol de Cruz, yang kerja sebagai wartawan/penyunting untuk beberapa surat khabar serta agensi media, dan sebagai ahli muzik sambilan apabila ada peluang. Kebanyakan inspirasi saya datang dari mengalami semua persembahan yang disaksikan semasa dia bersama dengan kugiran The Drifting Cowboys dan juga The Two Hats Gang, bersama dengan Jerry Singho dan Alan Perera.
Dalam proses, minat saya dalam muzik pun bertambah, dan tidak lama kemudian I mula bernyanyi sikit demi sedikit dalam acara keluarga, yang kemudiannya membawa kepada menyertai kugiran abang saya, Shoelace Untied, di mana saya menjadi vokalis utama dan kadang-kadang akan bermain solo kat Open Mic di mana-mana saja.
Selepas dua tahun, Shoelace Untied bubar kerana akal tersendiri dan saya bermula menceburi industri muzik sebagai artis solo. Selepas beberapa tahun main Open Mic dan juga beberapa residency di hotel dan restoran, saya menemui pertubuhan seniman Merdekarya, di mana saya kerap membuat persembahan dan juga mengasah kemahiran sebagai ahli muzik dan artis independent.
Di situlah saya membuat keputusan untuk melangkah ke dalam industry muzik sepenuh masa sebagai artis independent. Dari situ, saya mula dengan membina katalog muzik saya dan membuat rakaman EP pertama, Even So, pada tahun 2016. Sejak itu, saya dah merakam tiga rekod lagi, Black, III , dan I Am Not Billie Eilish. Selepasnya diikuti dengan dua single berjudul Get It On (dengan Adam Imanullah) dan yang paling baru, Love.
Dunia persembahan memang semacam.
Tapi semacamnya tu ada yang baik dan ada yang tak seberapa baik. Macam semua benda dalam hidup. Sebagai artis, I dah belajar banyak dari pengalaman saya dan juga banya dari pengalaman orang lain dalam industry. Dalam mana-mana bidang pun, walau you performer ke organiser, sumber niat tu mesti dipentingkan.
Macam semua industri, dari semua aspek, ada je cabarannya, the best we can do is to try, do, and give our best with anyone we are working with. Kalau I dah fungsi sebagai penganjur just as long as I am a performer, I rasa progress akan sama je.
Semuanya terpulang kepada:
What is my intention?
What am I bringing to the table?
Who and what cause am I helping and contributing to?
Why am I doing what I am doing?
Dengan semua soalan ini dijawab dengan niat dan dorongan yang ikhlas, I rasa semua okay je.
Sekarang ada banyak projek. Paling recent ada kolaborasi dengan KakiSeni dan beberapa artis tempatan untuk membuat lagu cover “Antara Satu Sama Lain”. Selain itu, ada beberapa projek lagu dengan beberapa artis dan producer tempatan yanag akan diselesaikan over the next few months. Kena hush hush skit ah. Hahahaha
Cabaran terbesar so far adalah to dapat peluang untuk menjadi artis untuk festival tempatan. Ada banyak festival di negara ini, tetapi, unfortunately I rasa, most of the festivals banyak guna the same acts over and over again, and room for newcomers and the not-so-newcomers are few and far between.
Same for nak masuk playlist untuk Spotify “Made in Malaysia” or “New Music Friday” etc. It always feels like if you tak guna the “right channels” or you have no “traction” with the right media platforms your music does not get the benefit of a wider audience.
Believe you me, I am happy with where I am. That is also because I dah kerja quite hard to get to where I am too, and I am not saying others do not work hard. We all do to our best capacity. I still rasa the majority of our gatekeepers are not doing the best that can be done for our local arts industry. So much more can be done, and it always feels like politics play a bigger role. This answer can go on and o, so I will stop here for now hahaha.
Love was produced and dirakam di studio saya kat rumah, Belakang Studios. Inspirasi lagu ini datang dari situasi saya sekarang sebagai manusia dalam dunia ini. Sejak pandemic COVID-19, banyak telah berubah dari aspek fizikal, social, mental dan rohani.
Entah bagaimana, dari kurnia kuasa yang lebih tinggi, beberapa dari kita masih ada di sini, dan dengan itupun, masih ada banyak yang continue on with life tak hirau macam mana you handle situasi atau how we treat people.
And I believe, as cliché as it sounds, Love is a lesson we still have not learned and practiced properly, and that we need to implement love into every aspect of our function as human beings in today’s world.
Engaging content and relationships with people.
That is what has worked for me. Consistency is key too, which is why I do my best to keep throwing shows, to keep performing, and to keep making videos too. I do not have the best social media presence, but there has been significant progress from when I first started. Discipline is absolutely important and it is something I am learning to mould as I progress too. Nothing comes easy, and we all have to work hard to achieve anything.
So, building my audience comes from a intention point too. You do not make music or content to build your audience, you do that for yourself. How you present your work to your audience is what helps build it. My goal, has been to get my audience as connected to their emotions as possible. I say this at my physical shows too.
I believe all of us as human being do not even cry as much as we maybe should, because we are so distracted with everything else around us, we forget that, we as individuals at our function, are what needs to be tended to first. I honestly do not have a marketing strategy, unless you want to label “getting in touch with your emotions” as a marketing strategy. I just want all of us to be in touch with our emotions, as honestly and as transparently as possible.
I most probably, went off topic here hahahah.
AHHHH! YESSS! I have been trying to throw something like this for a while now, so a big shout out and thank you to the wonderful people at CENDANA, PRISMA and MyCreative Ventures for trusting me with this!
A Very Indie Festival 21/22 is an arts festival that focuses on the independent arts scene from the English, Chinese, Tamil and Malay scenes, covering music,stand-up comedy, dance, and anything arts related really. The majority of the festival will be virtual, a total of 20 shows via Instagram’s Live feature, which then leads up to a day-long physical festival happening in May 2022! I am super excited for this as it is the first year-long festival I will be running/producing/creating ALL BY MYSELF.
It is a huge responsibility, but I am so damn stoked and cannot wait to kick things off later this month! Please follow us at @averyindiefestival on Instagram to stay up to date with everything.
TIP 1 – Always be kind. With your intention, action and everything else around and in between it.
TIP 2 – If you have nothing nice to say, shut up.
TIP 3 – No matter what you are doing in life, always be sure that it is something you are passionate about and something you love. If you’re unsure, keep trying, keep exploring, and never give up. If you have failed a million times, it only means you TRIED at least a million times. Get yourself back up and keep going for as long and as much as you can.
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Passion, and persistence without exception are the two key things that would best describe Brendan James de Cruz as a person, and most of all, as a musician.
After the success of his debut EP, Even So, released in September 2016, de Cruz barely took a moment’s breath before hitting the independent music scene with his second record, a 4-track EP titled , Black, which was launched in August 2017.
In August 2018, de Cruz launched his third record, III, his first project in collaboration with Nadir Studios and Bentley Records Europe. His fourth EP, I Am Not Billie Eilish, which was recorded and produced in his home studio, hit all major streaming platforms in July 2020. The 3-track EP is entirely produced by de Cruz, mixed by Derek Rushe, and mastered by Pete Maher whose portfolio boasts the likes of The Killers, Damien Rice, U2, works on the hit TV-series, Peaky Blinders and the Academy Award-winning motion picture, La-La Land.
In 2020, de Cruz was also featured on the Instagram feed of five-time Grammy Award winner, James Taylor, for his rendition of Taylor’s classic hit, Sweet Baby James. Later that year, de Cruz was also handpicked by Malaysian songbird, Yuna, as part of a mentorship project in collaboration with Hewlett Packard.
Having shared stages with acts such as Kyoto Protocol, Bil Musa, Thai popstar, Phum Viphurit , and supported international acts Julie Byrne(US) and RHODES(UK) on the Asian leg of their tours, Brendan de Cruz has surely seemed to have made an impression with his melodramatic take on a variety of relationships, through his heart-tugging tunes.
With a heart made for music & a voice that leaves quite an impression, Brendan de Cruz best defines who he is & what he does when he says,
“As long as I’m making music, I’m happy.”
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Dengan itu, tamatlah temubual #SuratMuzik kali ini!
Terima kasih Brendan kerana luangkan masa kongsi pengalaman & pendapat tentang industri muzik.
Semoga ini bermanfaat kepada anda juga!
Pastikan follow Brendan di media sosial & cakap awak baru baca interview #SuratMuzik dia! 🙂
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brendandecruz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brendandecruz/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy6qgoV7QUyH59RXHsxH1VQ
Interview ni menarik ke? Apa pendapat awak?
Jemput komen kalau sudi! 🙂
Salam,
Az “Merancang Kunci Modes Untuk Gitaris 4: Harmonic Major” Samad
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Check out dalam course Strategi Bina Kerjaya Muzik.
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