An independent band from Malaysia, FAZZ brings forth a good blend of theatrical comedy, vaudeville, lues, cabaret, rock & roll, jazz, with a persona on stage–calling it Musical Pop. Here they are to enlighten us on their journey so far and their stories coming together as a band:
Hello, FAZZ! Tell us more about the band! How many members are in FAZZ?
Hello, Sevenpie team, we are FAZZ – there are 6 members in the band ;
Yon Lynn Tan (Vocalist)
Raja Farouk (Electric Double Bassist)
Grace Cho Heewon (Keyboardist)
Jone Yeoh (Drummer)
Jason Lim (Trombone Player)
Ad Wafri (Trumpet Player)
What’s the meaning of the band name, FAZZ?
The name FAZZ can be interpreted in different ways ; and we usually leave it up to our audience. That’s mainly because FAZZ is just a name for us, the band. FAZZ sounds like Jazz, but we aren’t a jazz band for sure — it’s a mixture of many elements in our music, thus our first letter ‘F’ can be interpreted in various ways 😉
Tell us FAZZ’s journey as a band! When did you first discover your passion for music?
This is our 5th year journey as a band, and it’s been amazing to have these members as our team — some of us are friends before FAZZ was established, the love for music among us has always been there, however the passion and love for this band was discovered when we found ways to delivered certain messages through our original music.
Share with us the creative process of a song/album & can you tell us more about your second album?
Lately we finished our second album called ‘PASSAGE’, which tells about our journey we have been through as a band, it may sound quite generic — just like other bands around the world, FAZZ has a lot of stories to share and put our messages into our music. When it comes to writing songs, everyone in the band is welcomed to join the writing process. The most amazing moment is, these members put their efforts and try their best to understand each story. Magic happens when it comes to arranging our tunes — the decision making of our signature sound, emphasis on certain parts, and the mood of tune that we want to deliver. From there on, we learn to love and enjoy the tunes.
Previously we produced our single ‘Blame’ in year 2014, 1st Album ‘FAZZ’ in year 2015, and single ‘That’s Life’ in year 2016.
Tell us a random fact about yourselves – something people don’t know about FAZZ!
FAZZ has diversity. We are a Malaysian band, but embrace different nationality and identity. Because of that, our understanding of various cultures was established at initial stage, and we like to portray those elements through music.
There isn’t anything new about this band — individually, we are crazy on our own ways and we all pretty much love and hate everything about it.
Any upcoming projects for you?
We are already on our tour since October 3rd 2017, it’s amazing to come back to Japan and this time, despite the language barrier, we have been enjoying ourselves here. Each venue we have performed, there are all kinds of performance that we amazed us. We will be touring from Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, to Kyoto — util 26th of October 2017.
We decided to continue this journey to Japan since 2015, that’s our first encounter with Japan at Haneda International Anime Festival. With our new album under our theme #FAZZPromoTour2017, our last performance in Tokyo is at the 14th Tokyo International Music Market (TIMM), which is a part of the Japan Content Showcase 2017, in conjunction with TIFFCOM 2017 Marketplace for Film & TV in Asia, and Tokyo International Anime Festival 2017 (TIAF). We are proud and excited to represent Malaysia and share the stage with local & international artistes at TIMM.
Any words of wisdom to budding musicians out there?
Music is an addiction, it’s got both sides ;- love & danger. Once you’ve chosen this path, it’s not all about glam and fame that you would want to look for. It’s your own creativity that you wanna craft your life in. Love more and learn endlessly.
Where do you see yourselves in 2 years’ time?
Literally, this band was started out of curiosity and passion, which we never thought we would come this journey together. We live our moments, the present, where we have short-term goals to achieve. At the moment, we wish to travel more with our tunes, and perform our original tunes. We love to see people smiling, and lifting up their spirits via our music.
Who do you think we should interview next?
Frankly speaking, Malaysia holds a lot of talented and skilful budding musicians, and existing ones. It isn’t that hard to catch one of them — almost everyday, there are gigs happening and it’s amazing to see how love for music is growing locally.
