The project started in September/October 2015. The original idea was to do a "Rockumentary" on OAG leading up to a planned reunion gig featuring the original members of the band. But as I started doing the research, I realised that the context of the story was much bigger than what we first discussed.
I suddenly had an idea to do a book, and everyone agreed!
So for the past few months, I have been interviewing tons of people and doing the writing. Of course, I interviewed the band members, as well as the Positive Tone people, including the two main men, Ahmad Izham Omar and Paul Moss. You can read more about the people and the process when the book comes out.
But I can just say that it has been a blast for me. Doing the research was enlightening as I rediscovered what the underground music scene in the 90's was really all about. The interviews were always exciting and I had plenty of people who were just eager to share their own experiences, insights and opinions.
The writing bit took the longest, of course, and I had to do it in between all my other commitments which also piled up these past few months. There were days when I wrote a lot, and there were days when I mostly processed and structured the story in my head without having the time to put anything down on paper. But in the end, I did it! 43,000 words, more or less, in about five months.
The book is being published by Merpati Jingga, and also contains plenty of never-before-seen pictures courtesy of Radhi, Lam, Izham, Paul and others. And I can tell you that some of the pics are truly incredible!
The book is being laid out now, and we're expecting everything to be completed by the end of April. Launch is slated for 1st of May at the KL International Book Fair in Maeps, Serdang. And I expect to see you guys there!
Meanwtime, read this piece I wrote for Redbull.com on the recent reunion here
3 comments:
I am super duper excited about this. Its about time that we put the history of our local bands/music onto a proper proper documentation, dude. The closest one we got was that one book by Marco Ferrarese, Banana Punk Rawk Trails which was published late last year. This years gon be a good good year for us local punk rock bookworms, i reckon. More power to you man...
Hey thanks! And please spread the word :)
And I can tell you that many people out there do realise now about the severe lack of documentation of local arts in general. I intend to do more as well after this project.
ps: I've bought and am currently reading Marco's book. Very punk rock. Mine would be more on the local English scene, but led by underground acts :)
Good to hear that, man. Yet to read your book on OAG and Im already excited about your next projects. SEVERE lack of documentation, and I concur. Local acts in the likes of Too Phat (and the history of local hip hop scene) and maybe Cromok (plethora of stories and history there), deserves and needs to be documented. Thousands of ready buyers/fans of these two lah.
Good luck and god speed, dude.
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