“A lot of it were Malay songs from Saloma and P.Ramlee times, songs like Kita Manis and Lenggang Mak Limah. I think the old and the young should enjoy more live music.
There’s a certain energy, excitement, with a live band performing. Energy is transferred from live musicians to the audience. It has a different feel to it. I think 8 out of 10 people who have attended events with live musicians can tell the difference from recorded music.
So that’s who I am now, a musician-for-hire. I have a band, we play together, its called WVC. We have quite a number of albums already.
And while my parents never pressured me to get a ‘real job’, my relatives did. They used to say, ‘you sure or not can make money?’ I would listen to them, but would continue doing my own thing, despite having studied accounting.
I did a lot of soul searching and asked myself, is this the right thing to do? Did I make a mistake?
I love playing music, the saxophone, I love making music with other people, I love performing in front of an audience. The more I performed, the more I got sucked in, not just music as a career, but also as a lifestyle and passion. That whole vibe wiped my doubts away.
If I can make a living off of it – why not?
In the long run I just knew that this is the right thing, what I was meant to do.
When I was young I just wanted to learn how to play saxophone. I just loved the sound of it. It attracted me to it. Eventually I got the chance to learn it and go for it.
Growing up in Kajang there were not many people playing music so I played by listening to cassettes and radios. It wasn’t until college that I could connect to other musicians, through the early days of the Internet, where I started meeting other people outside of Kajang, and we would jam and make music together.
I don’t see myself as an artist per se. Me making music is just like anyone else choosing a profession. I wanted to do this, so I just did it. People who create art still have to find a way to make money, to continue making art.
As professional performers, we have to play in a lot of different situations – corporate events, weddings or even small places.
And ‘art’ doesn’t even come into the situation. We’re not thinking if this is artistic or not, but we still perform as artfully as possible. A lot of the work we do isn’t necessarily artistic, but it makes ends meet.
Some gigs don’t necessarily make money, but I get the opportunity to be out there. If people want a saxophone player, they just called me up. It was a bit of a struggle initially, but things eventually snowballed and grew bigger. We still get to do what we like to do, which is play music.
In the crowd, there’s always someone listening. In my 18 years of playing, there’s always at least one or two people listening. They might be eating or talking, but one ear is listening.
Even if it’s just for a few hours. When people go home and they feel good, and we somehow contributed to that, it’s nice.
And that makes us, the musicians, happy”.
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Julian Chan will be performing An Evening Of Jazz, at Damansara Performing Arts Centre (DPAC.) on 6th September 2018.
As part of the Kuala Lumpur International Arts Festival (KLIAF) x @DiverseCity happening in the month of September, Humans of Kuala Lumpur will be featuring talented artists, musicians, actors, designers and sponsors that help make KLIAF a reality.
Humans of Kuala Lumpur (HOKL) will have its first ever PhotoStory exhibition titled ‘Stories from Malaysia’, showcasing portraits of people in Malaysia, alongside their real, personal and intimate stories.
Located at Carcosa Seri Negara, HOKL PhotoStory exhibition is happening from 1st until 30th September 2018. Come to meet the people behind your favourite stories, learn storytelling from the HOKL team and enjoy art performances, while admiring the mesmerizing colonial architecture of our venue.
Photostory by Amalina Davis
Edited by Mushamir Mustafa
Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8
(This post was first published on August 31st 2018)
