“We can’t be afraid of changes and we must keep on learning, for us, everything that change make us more confident with our music.”
– Farid Rahman
EF’IL prominently seems as loud, noise and full of emotional through every of their performances. Had an interview session with their truly founder and frontman, Farid Rahman had gave the correspond answer on why EF’IL was formed. With cool moments and their journey they have gone through, Farid has shared the stories about themselves through this online interview session.
Q: Heard that EF’IL was formed around 2010 and it’s been already six years. What is your upcoming plans for the band?
A: Actually, we started in 2009 using a different name and genre, at that time, we’re still young and experiment with different kind of sounds using lots of weird instrument that I and Amir bought online and sometimes we bought vintage organ, keyboards and stuff like that in our local flea market just to have fun with the toys and slowly we develop sound that fit us, automatically it affect our genre and sounds so here we are, playing some sort of emotive dark expression music. Honestly , I also don’t know what genre we are playing but personally I don’t really like when people keep on saying we’re skramz band, because I don’t think we’re skramz enough hahaha but, as long as they happy and willing to listen to our music, they can even call us Metallica hahah. For our upcoming plans, there’ll be two different splits with different bands from Europe, one is three way splits with Us Pàlm and Saatleri ayarlama enstitüsü and the other one is with Mesa Nera you should check them out, they’re really great bands though. The splits will be on cassettes but the splits with Mesa Nera itself will be on vinyl and should be release early on next year, hopefully. Other than that, we’re currently writing for our second album and gonna hit the studio next month for the recording and hopefully it’ll release somewhere on this Disember or January next year, after release the album, we plan to have short tour again but don’t really know where, maybe in Singapore or Indonesia again but it still under our consideration.
Q: The purpose you are forming this band?
A: The purpose you are forming this band? I think people formed their band because of their friendship with their bandmates, or really want to have fun and get lost with their music, but when it comes to me, EF’IL was formed because I really like playing guitar and listening to stuff that our radio don’t really play it every day. One day, Amir asked me to form a band with him so we formed the band together and slowly recruited Aff playing bass with us, and Syah on guitar, but after some circumstances Syah no longer play with us, and the three of us continue until now, so I think this band was formed first because of our same interest in music and second it’s all about friendship and from day one, EF’IL itself is life to us and I really love playing in this band hopefully until I’m old and bold hahaha.
Q: How do you guys gone through as a band? – sort of budget, equipment thingy, friendship?
A: Basically we bought our instrument and effect pedals differently with our own money but when it comes to recording and practice we share our money just like other bands do out there maybe we don’t care much about sharing our money for the band, I think that’s what you do when you finally found your passion and things that makes you happy even though there are no money back guarantee, in other words, we just do what we really love as long as our friendship is still there for us to enjoy in every gigs and practices.
Q: Tell me a little bit about your previous materials, how it was produced?
A: Our last material (Black Ancient Vinyl) was released three years ago, we recorded it in our friend (Jimmy) studio at Kuala Kangsar, Perak, and we only produced about 100 cassettes by our own financial and it was first release in our very first tour in Indonesia. After several years our music have changed a lot I guess, with more vocals , different arrangement and riff compare to (Black Ancient Vinyl) that’s life, we can’t be afraid of changes and we must keep on learning, for us, everything that change make us more confident with our music.
Q: The song structure – melody and lyrics, how is it made and what is it about?
A: I’m really into guitar that’s why the entire riff came from me after playing with weird chords and progression after that Amir will fill the entire song with his own beat. I also used different kind of tuning in every song, and that’s why we always have a problem at gigs because other bandmates have to wait for me to tune my guitar every single song we played hahaha. The lyrics is all about what I felt when I wrote the songs, and the lyrics will always came after the arrangement is complete, but we also wrote the lyrics together in a song like ‘Everyone I Know Is A Broken Heart’. I don’t really know how to explain how the song was made, it just came out of nowhere hahaha.
Q: Any good experience or most memorable thing you had gone through as a frontman in your band?
A: There’s lots of experience in this band that I found quite memorable, but the most memorable things were, when we were touring with Soft in Indonesia, we makes a lot friends while played through lots of places and venues from rural area to modern area in Indonesia, we laughed a lot in that tour, eat their local foods even though all the time I can only eat Nasi Padang and McDonalds because I’m quite choosy when it comes to food, that’s what my friends told me hahaha. What I found most valuable is that music unites all of us, whether you play pop or shoegaze, they’ll always support your band, but overall it was fun!
Q: How do you view the biggest problems in our society where it affects the political issues in our country and world wide?
A: First, I think our society didn’t get enough freedom to critics and comments about things they don’t agreed, in other words, only a few circle of community could hear their voice because media since pre-Malayan Independence was being controlled by the government itself through hegemony that until today not many of our members of society realize that media is no longer work as a watch dog but only tells the stories what government wants us to know. Worse than that, there are people who just don’t care about the country at all and only follow the flow without knowing which one is right and which one is wrong. Second, our biggest problem is we’re not together and being as one, same goes to the music scene, when it comes to gig , not many organizer would prefer their gig with the combination of different band with different genre, after all of that, people keep saying ‘scene dah mati’. For me, it really relies on us whether we want to put the scene back on the right track or just let it fall down and if we want to change what we really thing is wrong, then the only solution is to be together in any circumstances. Sorry if I don’t answer this question the way you want me to answer.
Q: The music and any other art scene currently are blooming all over the place in Malaysia and how do you find it?
A: Yup, art scene currently are packed with new comers, group, and community which makes the art scene is more colourful and fun which is good to me. The creative writing and poetry scene is blooming nowadays in Malaysia, people especially young people have been encourage to read more than they used to read and attract lots of new writers to write good stories instead of typical Malay love stories. I think music scene are not blooming as much as books scene because, not many people willing to pay for their tickets to gig as much as they willing to pay for their books or a cup of coffee in local café, I didn’t say books and café is wrong, just that, in this new malayneum era people would rather to listen the band through online instead of come to the show and buy the band stuff. I really hope someday our music scene gonna be crazy as it was in 90’s when thousands of crowd came to the gig and support the band by buying their merchandise and their music. I really hope.
Q: Last words?
A: Thanks for this cool interview, sorry if I don’t really answer the questions, keep on supporting our local act, buy their stuff and do come to the shows! There are plenty of new bands so keep in touch and be nice to the scene! Stay away from drugs! Salam.
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