What projects are you currently involved in?
Haireey: I'm the bassist and lyricist of the band. We both founded the band. To a certain degree, we control the overall direction. While every member has their own influence, Haizeel and I know what we want the band to be and where we're headed.
Haizeel: I'm the rhythm guitarist. Both of us handle most of the band's vision and movement, especially public relations, social media, arts and imagery, among others.
How do you juggle between work and music?
Haizeel: I work in the art and animation field, so playing music is really not that far from my profession because it's within the territory of art. It's not like a huge 360 degree turn when I put my 'music' mode on. But in terms of work responsibilities and music commitment, I think it's all about getting to knowing the work schedule and trying to allocate enough time to play the music I love. For example, if we have a gig in the next 3 weeks, I'll push myself to complete the stuff at work in advance so I won't have to worry about it on the day of the gig.
Haireey: For me, being in a band while being a full-time concept artist in an animation company is both complementary to one another. I treat these parts of my life as a big part of my artistic side. Music and visual arts to me are very important as genuine art forms for telling a story. They reflect what we're facing in our current situation in life. Their purpose for me is simply to express myself artistically. I think everyone in the indie music scene should know how to juggle between their full-time jobs and their bands. Thankfully, my full-time job requires me to work between 9AM- 6PM and it's very rare for me to work overtime, or to work during the weekends. It's not that hard for me to focus on both work and music. Plus, my office doesn't stop me from bringing my bass guitar to work and practice with headphones during lunch or after work.
Congratulations on your latest record! How long did it take you to complete it? What were the challenges involved?
Haireey: Thank you! Among the challenges we faced was to find the time to actually record everything together. The drums on our EP were recorded with an acoustic kit, so we had to have enough money to book a studio to record the drum tracks. Thankfully, we recorded the strings at home. We bought our own mics and other equipment to record vocals at home as well.
Haizeel: It took roughly around two years, I think. One of the toughest challenges was that we had an issue with our former vocalist. In the middle of the recording process, we had to stop and start auditioning for a new vocalist. That's when we met our current vocalist, Ary, who did an extraordinary job on the record.
What's the inspiration behind Penunggu's music?
Haizeel: We were inspired by some of the heavy metal heroes that you would expect: Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Black Sabbath, Motorhead...you know, the "old gods" so to speak. But we're currently finding ideas for our next project and we're aiming for more diversity musically.
Haireey: Lyrically, Black Sabbath, Pitahati, Kembara, Sweet Charity and Dio inspired me a lot. Our lyrics are metaphorical so while everything was written about some epic fantasy, the meaning is actually more close to the real world, hence the title "Fables of Reality".
How's the writing process like for Penunggu?
Haizeel: We usually start with a demo that I put together, starting with a simple riff, and I try to add more flesh to it. I'd leave it for a few days, come back to it and keep on working on it while adding new riffs or sections. I store ideas on my phone. Sometimes it's something that I'll hum into my phone, sometimes I play and record it with an acoustic guitar. What's important is to capture the idea of the riff and melody. I then let the band listen to the ideas and we'll work on them together, giving individual input on how to make the songs better.
Haireey: Haizeel usually will have the first riffs. Later, Haizeel and I would make a draft version between the two of us then we'll let the band have a listen and we would develop the songs together. I'll always have something to write about in the lyrics. So, after all the discussion (and lots of arguing), once we have the vocal melody down, our vocalist will hum the song while I would try to come up with the words. There will be some back and forth between me and the vocalist as some words may sound good in my head but they might be too "wordy" to be sung.
Haizeel: I'm inspired by all kinds of music, such as Django Reindhart, M.Nasir, Devin Townsend, Ghost, Pantera, A7X, SOAD, Stone Sour, SOG, P. Ramlee, SM Salim and so many others. Although you don't really hear them in my playing, it's more like an inspiration to continue play. They give me the urge to pick up my guitar and play music.
Haireey: I share A LOT of musical inspiration with Haizeel but currently I'm crazy about Scandinavian music, bands like Avatar, Turisas, Alestorm and Sabaton.
What was the first song that you learnt on guitar?
Haizeel: Like almost everyone else, I started on an acoustic guitar with the usual beginner open chords. I remember I was having a tough time trying to get my hand on the right fret when switching between chords, so I usually stop strumming when changing chords. Then at one point, I was like "Screw it. Let's just keep on strumming between chords!" It sounded good and it gave me the confidence to keep on playing. That first song I learnt was "Patience" by Guns N Roses.
Haireey: I still remember our late father brought home a guitar that he borrowed from my cousin and he let me play it for a whole day. The first thing that I tried to play was a simple version of Mozart's "Greensleeve" as well as "The Imperial March" from Star Wars. I learnt it from a YouTube video and then I had to return the guitar back to my cousin. Weeks passed and my dad bought me my own guitar. The first song I that learnt playing with chords was Bob Seger's "Turn The Page". We only had one guitar at home so Haizeel and I had to share it. Eventually, he took over the guitar entirely, which forced me to buy my own bass guitar. The first song I learnt on that bass was "The Hall of The Mountain King".
What are your weapons of choice?
Haizeel: I have two electric guitars. My main guitar is a Jackson Kelly KE-3, which I sent for a custom paint job using a design I did just because it got boring at metal gigs with everyone's guitar all black and white. So I made mine to stand out a bit more. I installed EMG 81/85 active pick-ups. My second guitar is a Squier Stratocaster that my late father bought for me. I installed Seymour Duncan humbucker pickups which were the stock pickups on the Jackson Kelly. I installed it on my Squier just so I can get more gain, but I do have the option to coil-split it in case I needed that classic strat twang. For pedals, I use an AMT Electronics PT1 preamp for my distortion. The rest of the pedals on my pedalboard are nothing special: an MXR Chorus, a wah pedal, a delay pedal and a tuner (super important).
Haireey: I have two bass guitars and an acoustic guitar at the moment. My main bass guitar is a 2003 Fender Precision Bass that's made in Mexico, on which I recently installed Seymour Duncan SPB-4 Steve Harris signature pickups. I use flat-wound strings as I am a big Steve Harris fanboy *laughs*. My second bass guitar is an Ibanez GSRM20 which I bought when I started learning. I had nothing modified on this one, besides changing strings and batteries. But I had a custom paint job done on it. It's a cool green Barongan artwork that I commissioned a friend to do. As for pedals, my setup is quite simple. I have a Zoom B3 multi-effect unit, a Hartke Bass Attack and a Boss Bass Equalizer.
Haizeel: I would really love to have some sort of collaboration with icons that are outside of heavy music such as S.M. Salim just because I adore how fluent he is with his music. Everything he's done sounds so effortless and I hope to learn and work along with someone like him.
Haireey: Anyone from my idols? I think Mus (ex-singer for May) would be an interesting choice. I would love to collaborate with him just because of how talented he is in his singing and I think it's an effortless collaboration because he can sing just about any note that we might come out with.
What is your message to young, aspiring musicians?
Haizeel: My advice would be to play at your own pace. Play the kind of music that you love; not for the sake of trying to impress others, and you will continue to be better. Get a friend that shares the same interests as you. If you don't have one, go look for one. It's the 21st century, there's plenty of platforms where you can join awesome communities that share your interest!
Haireey: Whatever your inspiration for music is (fame, money, etc), always have the capacity to be disciplined and the willingness to work for it because no one will just roll down the carpet for you. And have fun while you are at it.
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