piecing the fragments together

by Eugene T

Photos Courtesy of Astreal and Timothy Tan

Despite an 8-year hiatus and all the drama revolving around band politics, Astreal (http://www.astreal.net)survived the entire ordeal of losing some of its founding members as well as in dealing with their own clashing personalities. They recently delivered Fragments of the Same Dead Star, a musical pageantry about the chaos of love, personal experiences and ecology all interwoven together.

Aging Youth speaks to Ginette Chittick (vocals, bass), Muhammad Alkhatib aka Momat (guitars), Nick Chan (guitars, synths, programming) and Redzuan Hussin aka Wan (drums) about how amidst all the chaos and differences, they have emerged as stronger individuals.

First of all I’d like to congratulate all of you for your latest music offering — Fragments of the Same Dead Star, which has finally come to fruition. It’s been nearly 8 years since your previous full-length album Ouijablush was released and prior to this, you had two self- recorded demos --- Dive Gemma and Chlorine Explosion, all released within a span of three years. How do you think these 8 years have influenced the whole recording experience and production of Fragments of the Same Dead Star?

Ginette : I think time has definitely changed many of our views towards the way we make music, towards each other and towards what we want out of this band and that’s documented in the album. A lot of the residual energy from emotions of our well-known melee.

Momat : I don’t think the 2 demos would fall under Astreal. We went by the name Breed and that was ages ago. So I’d say we had Ouijablush only as an album to our credit.

Well, 8 years certainly gave us enough time for material selection. We did have a whole bunch of songs, but we picked the best for this release. Or what we could slot in to maximize the most of a CD’s capacity.

Nick : All that history is rather irrelevant for me.

How is it similar or different from your previous music projects?

Ginette : Astreal is definitely different from the previous band I was in PsychoSonique, in terms of musical style and maturity. I’d ever only written one song in PsychoSonique and while the time I was in that band was definitely an experience to remember (being mobbed by crowds in KL and having gotten heaps of snail mails) but it was not particularly a creatively inspiring one.

When I started out with Astreal, it was the first time I ever co-wrote any song and that was something really fabulous for me. I now co-write all the Astreal songs.

Momat : Similar in the sense that the songs were made for a studio album. We don’t really care for the songs to be able to be replicated ‘live’.

Of course, since our last release Ouijablush was some 8 years ago, we’ve perhaps developed a different sound, a different approach this time. Ouijablush was ‘twee’; Fragments is not.

Ginette : I think Momat’s conveniently forgotten to mention a band called Karisma that he was part of.

Wan : It’s a different feel, different music altogether. And it’s my first time drumming, which makes it all a very new experience for me.

Nick : It was a lot more work getting the album to sound the way it does. I’ve never lost so much hair doing a project. It was tough, the production, and scary, the hair thing. I don’t think one can say the songs were made for a studio album, coz to have such a thing, you’d actually have to be spending time in a studio churning ideas, which categorically wasn’t the case here as far as togetherness in the band is concerned.

That said, it was also a matter of inevitability. The learning curve is kind of steep when you go off the deep end wanting the album to sound really fucked up and special. Studio techniques such as ‘alternative ways of mic-ing’ and ‘creative use of guitar gadgets for purposes other than guitar’ make me yawn, twice in a row usually. There are probably only 2 people I know (none from the band) who can really understand how I recorded and produced the album from a black suitcase and a Pearl Rhythm Traveller.

So it was weird, sometimes having this communication barrier with the band that stemmed from having different control languages. Which is probably one of the reasons why I’m TOTALLY against using the word ‘warm’ to describe anything musical, be it a sound or an amp. It describes nothing. I once heard a salesman in City Music say, “Oh, the more expensive model has more features and sounds warmer” Now what the fuck does that mean? It’s like saying a soundcard is a card for your computer to make sound. Duh!

What are some of your music influences for this album?

Momat : For myself, I’m still drawn to the older bands, geezer that I am. New acts I think, for the most part are rather rubbish. During the recording, I was listening to a lot of The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack, Placebo, Prince and Sinatra. I’m also a big fan of Led Zep and similar cock rock bands.

Ginette : One of my favourite bands in the world is The Cure, I think Robert Smith is such a brilliant lyricist who paints such beautiful imagery in his music. So that’s definitely one of the influences, at least imagery-wise, of the album. But I wouldn’t say that we were particularly influenced by any certain band for this album.

Wan : I’ve been listening to stuff like The Queens of Stone Age and old Interpol stuff. Other than that, it’s all quite spontaneous.

Nick : Silence and more silence please. And getting it over with, and done properly, as properly as the deadline allowed. The deadline was a matter of preserving sanity and letting go more than anything else. That influenced me a lot cause time is more precious when you’re not always having fun and losing hair.

I understand that there have been a number of changes in the band line-up over the recent years. Has the band been affected by these changes in any way? How has it affected the chemistry of the band as a whole?

Ginette : The band had been rearranged so many times; it got really hard to focus on writing songs. But we finally got down to it and we were very tired by then.

Momat : Yes, different members contributed in their own ways drastically. And with each input, it affects the rest of our playing, and the overall feel. And we could be playing the same songs, but it’ll end up with a different texture in the end.

Wan : It’s a move towards a new sound…

Nick : I think it affected it to the point that we were becoming cover versions of ourselves, not really having a fixed and definite anchor, but playing lotsa gigs nonetheless.

Personally, I think for a while, there was actually no ‘band’, but rather the ‘idea’ of one. And getting many gigs really didn’t help at that point, because we’d just jam for gigs and leave thinking things were okay. But they were not. I think that once the creative hunger is gone, you should settle it immediately, or just give up.

Giving up is a good way of settling things immediately and I highly recommend it. Coz the only other option is to really try, which can be too alien a concept despite its apparent simplicity. If you’ve got nothing to say, give up, otherwise it becomes cock-rock, and that’s not what we signed up for. But if it was post-cock, then that’d be a different story altogether…

Could the line-up change also be a source of new musical inspiration?

Wan : Yes, because (when you have a) new drummer, there’s new chemistry and a different vibe.

Momat : Yes definitely. Nick and Wan have added dimensions that are refreshingly different in their own ways. New songs have also been written with this new line-up.

Nick : I dunno. Probably not. You either make the music or you don’t. And for damn long, we didn’t. So I can’t say line-up changes were a source of ‘new inspiration’. The new songs were written largely after many fights and on a “need to do it or we die” basis, to paraphrase Ronin’s album title. Think they got the spirit there…. DO (new songs) OR DIE!!! YEAH!! Some members were happy doing Astreal covers; others weren’t.

Wan, it’s been almost a year since you joined the band. Was it difficult for you to assimilate into the band? From a musical standpoint, what do you think you have gained from working together with the rest of the band members? Did you join in the recording of the album?

Wan : It’s not hard because I’m familiar with the band both musically and personally and my other bands have played and toured with Astreal before. More importantly, I dig the music. Again, it’s a new experience being a drummer in a proper, as opposed to ‘just jamming’, band.

What is Astreal’s guiding motto? How is the integrity of the band kept intact?

Ginette : We fight, a lot. But that also keeps us together and apart. I suppose we really hate each other and really love each other at the same time. It’s very confusing and frustrating at the same time. But that’s just the way we are.

Wan : I watch them fight, while having my can of $1.90 Breda in my hand.

Momat : It’s always been a ‘us-against-them’ approach. Alcohol helps… But seriously, we do write all our material collectively, in the studio. And funnily that seems to work. We hear of bands that split because of clashing egos about songwriting, etc, but really, we don’t seem to have this problem.

The band for me is more like family. We go in there, get into the zone, and play as a unit. The words ‘spirit of the song’, and ‘kill kill kill’ comes up quite a fair bit in our song crafting.

I dunno but I think we have our own sound now. We don’t copy, or consciously try to sound like bands we like. And we’ve also seen too many fads come and go. It’s just way too tiring, not to mention rather pathetic once a band needs to sound like some famous band to gain acceptance, and a few faddish fans.

Nick : I think we were probably too unaware of a lot of things to even be thinking about integrity. What’s that anyway? We just end up playing what we end up playing. It’s more about inevitability than integrity, yet I’m not fatalistic.

I wanted the album to be different from anything that’s gone on before which was difficult because it could get into technicalities that had little to do with what we could do as a collective unit. That might be construed as losing integrity which I have no problems with personally.

Let’s talk about your new album Fragments of the Same Dead Star. I must admit that you have very unusual album titles which I find very intriguing and strangely attractive. The new one especially calls for some kind of demystification. Is there a story behind Fragments of the Same Dead Star?

Momat : This one I will leave to Ginette…

Ginette : I once heard this myth about how we’re all made of star stuff, carbon etc, and when stars die, they fall to the earth and form humans, and we go through life looking for that soul mate who came from the same dead star as you. Some people find them, some people don’t. I found that incredibly beautiful and sad at the same time.

The lyrics appear to be mostly narrations of a schizophrenic human soul. Do you think this is what your album is about, that is, schizophrenia? Where do you usually get your ideas for writing?

Ginette : AHAHAH. Where the hell did you get that from? That’s a first. Anyways, I wrote the lyrics and they’re all about love. Love lost, love found, cosmic galaxial love and just sorrow or extreme happiness. The imagery I draw from is largely from nature and our cosmos.

Momat : Actually, I think it’s mostly about emotional connections. We do try to write personal and honest music; we’re not out to change the world and come up with political statements.

For myself, I visualize what I play. So I end up with my own sequence of imagery and stories that might not be shared by the rest of the band, or what the song is supposed to be about, or what Ginette is actually singing. For example, ‘With Child’ for me is a very private thought about female figures in my life.

And for the life of me, I still don’t know what Ginette is singing for that song. It has never mattered - it’s my personal interpretation of it when I play that counts the most, privately. And I could be wrong, but that might just be what the other guys could be thinking as well.

Nick : I just try to make it sound good. Then it speaks to me or it doesn’t. To be honest, I felt nothing most of the time. In the novel ‘The Alchemist’, Paulo Coelho talks about ‘the good fight’, a constant tension arising from the chasing of dreams that matters more than happiness itself. Cause happiness is biased, ultimately transitory and steeped in duality anyway.

Contentment is a very different thing. That’s very important to me, ‘the good fight’ and unfortunately, I didn’t feel it through this journey. If I did, it was during those days and nights spent alone doing up the album, when I had to push myself beyond all limits of trichology for God-knows-what… This “us against them” thing kinda requires an “us” to begin with….

You have worked with MUON for the Projektion EP that was released in 2003. Was there any particular reason why you guys chose MUON to produce Fragments of the Same Dead Star?

Ginette : Sincerely, I don’t think any other person would have done it as well and as dedicatedly. I certainly never for the life of me thought the album would possibly go in such a unique direction.

Momat : Cos he’s in the band, and we don’t have to work with some outsider. Haha. But honestly, I don’t think we are able to put out the record that we are all truly happy with without him. He has to put on different hats for the band - as band member and producer. Which I think has been done very well.

Nick : Choose me? I got down on my knees and begged. What an honour and privilege!

What was most memorable about recording Fragments of the Same Dead Star together?

Momat : It’s been quite a roller coaster of emotions. We clashed and we bonded in a whole bunch of different ways. Musically, personal relationships, soul searching. Yes, there were disagreements, but we also found out more about ourselves in the process. Given the choice, I wouldn’t change anything.

Ginette : I think we all survived the crash and came out stronger as individuals.

Nick : Unlearning things I took for granted, being disciplined to try new stuff. Maintaining focus. “Tahan-ing” (Malay for ‘tolerating’) people. Remembering that the music was something else beyond oneself with a life of its own. And the joy of learning as you go along, then unlearning, and remaining joyful. I don’t know if I succeeded in that though.

You have a very unique title for your last track Xumistia. I tried to Google for this word but couldn’t find a definition for it. My guess would be a term that you have coined for a dead star. Is that it?

Momat : No, it’s actually a name of a dead female person.

Would you consider yourselves to be more of a live band or a studio band? Does spontaneity play a very big part in how your music is delivered to the live audience?

Momat : I’d say we’re both. We, of course, want to put out a great record. Who doesn’t… and we equally love performing and generally rocking out.

Records, in my opinion, are like books. We want to write a book that has an opening chapter, a storyline and an ending. It’s a document of how we were when we created it. Playing gigs are pretty much the same, except we generally have a party before, during and after the gig; wear black and swing our guitars about.

Spontaneity is key; that’s the way the songs are born in the first place. It’s both a blessing and a curse - I used to not be able to play the same lead or riff because I keep changing them based on my mood. That used to throw the other members off, so I now consciously try. Well, at least enough to deceive them.

The songs in our set list are generally there as a guide. What goes on during parts of the songs, or in between songs, we don’t try to control. Sometimes by staring at each other, trying to read telepathically the other person’s mind helps. Or it could also be feedback in the form of a snarl, or a shit-eating grin, to signal a short or long ending.

Wan : It’s 2 different things. Live, it’s about rocking out, and in the studio it’s about something else.

Nick : The live band is the live band and the album is the album. It’s 2 different things and this should be bloody obvious to anyone who’s watched us live and listened to the album. Some prefer the live act, some prefer the album but most would probably prefer the artwork.

Local musicians are generally given more opportunities and avenues to showcase their talents over the recent years. How do you think the local music scene has changed over the years?

Ginette : I think the biggest change happened in people and their attitude towards the scene’s music and how they too can affect change in their own ways.

Momat : Yes it has- there’s more support, more bands are putting out releases, more variety of musical genres. There’s also more media and even government support.

Wan : It’s getting better, with better paying shows and bigger gigs by more organizers. Seems like there are better networks being built.

Do you think local music has a future?

Momat : As a musician, it has a future if you are not looking at it to pay the bills. You’ll be poor and miserable, which would probably make most musicians happy anyway.

Ginette : Slowly but surely.

Wan : It has, but we still have long way and we need more change in the mindset from all areas including musicians, but especially ordinary people and the younger generation.

Nick : Yes, I don’t see why not… Especially now that the Astreal album is done, I can be a poor and happy musician. At this point, I have to say a big THANK YOU to Patrick Chng and all at Music For Good for allowing me the honour of the wonderful job there that allows me to pay the bills, do the music I want, do the music I don’t want, and more importantly help the less fortunate through music. Patrick is an awfully understated saint and I’ve yet to see him really pissed off.

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?

Momat : Get off your arse.

Ginette : Life is too damned fucken short, so just do it.

Wan : Just keep on playing and perfecting your craft. Have your heroes but remember they are just guides.

Nick : If you have nothing real to say or do, then give up. Though only you can decide what’s real. Giving up is easy! Do it! But if you find yourself unable to give up and yet able to pay the bills, then consider yourself lucky and rawk on!

All of you have day jobs but are still able to commit yourselves to making good music. Do you foresee yourselves giving up music completely for other more important commitments in the future?

Momat : I would always want to play. And with Astreal only. In terms of commitments, I guess there’s always the usual things - career, relationships, families, etc. But for now, to answer the question, no, I wouldn’t quit. Until perhaps the right career, relationship and family comes along.

Ginette : Hopefully I will never have to give music up. I suppose I will always be involved in it some way as it is an integral part of my life, even right now I’m making clothes that are inspired by music.

Wan : El-leh! NEVER!

Nick: I foresee more engaging musical commitments.

Where does the future lie for Astreal?

Momat : We’ve always taken the ‘take it as it comes’ approach. Right now, we have a couple of gigs lined up - some in Singapore and some in the region.

Ginette : We might take it slow. I don’t really know.

Wan : On one hand, it lies in the rest of the members. On the other hand, I am still holding the $1.90 Breda.

Nick : It lies amongst those fragments of that dead star.

Besides playing at Baybeats 2006, what other projects can we expect you guys to be involved in over the next few months? Will there be any highlights that we can look forward to?

Wan : Probably an album launch in Bangkok… It’s not confirmed but currently looking into the details.

Ginette : Nope, not really.

Nick : Rest and holidays. Catching up on croquet with the old folk at the Rotary Club.

If given a chance for a second life, how would you choose to live it?

Momat : Cliché- wouldn’t change a thing.

Ginette : I would be a tree hugger or an animal rights activist.

Wan : Become a dugong!

Nick : Like this…