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How did it feel winning the Found @ Thirst competition?
F: It felt great. It felt amazing. It felt like I’ve achieved
something for myself. And I think I wouldn’t have expected to
get all the way to the finals. It just really got me excited.
 There was a lot of talk about the competition being fixed
and unfair. What's your take on that?
F: I think it’s true. I think the system was not too fair
to some people and to me as well. But at the end of the day it
has to be the crowd that judges you. Though it might not be
fair but if you win at the highest votes...
I’m sure everyone plays a bit dirty when it comes to
voting. So they got their friends and so forth… so I got my
friends there too, but I think (I) got a bit more support
(from people) other than my friends. So probably that was the
factor that set me apart from the rest.
There is a difference between (holding the heats at) Grappa
SoHo and Voyuer, where fairness came into play, because Grappa
SoHo is not a proper club. So whoever that went there to check
out the competition that night had to consist mainly of your
friends. But as for Voyeur it was totally different. Voyeur is
a club/bar and it was a Friday night, and (there were) also
people who didn’t know anything about the competition dropping
by.
You mentioned once that there is a lot of politics in
the Malaysian club scene. What did you mean by that?
F: Well you have a lot of DJs and promoters who are finger
pointing, saying that this DJ is not good and that DJ is not
good, or the way certain events are handled just suck.
This kind of politics happens everywhere in this industry.
Favouritism, you have people who bring in their own DJs and
support their own stuff, and they don’t care about those new
upcoming DJs, those bedroom jocks that can play well. Instead,
they would rather give a gig to their own jocks that don’t
play well at all than to someone who can play better. This is
the way it goes in politics.
So you’re saying that there’s no unity within the
community?
F: There’s not much unity. So far the only unity I see is
Regenerate which Tempo is doing. What Tempo is doing is
becoming some sort of a DJ collective session, whereby it
brings out bedroom DJ’s or all the unknown DJ’s and start a
party through it. That’s the only thing I see now that is
totally united. Other than that no one is making an effort to
create unity.
Do you think things can be changed?
F: It’s quite hard to say. I don’t think it can be totally
changed but it could be improved. It’s practically a part of
nature. We see in our everyday lives - politicians
fighting amongst each other, trying to grab votes and so on.
So I think its human nature that creates politics. It’s a sad
thing but it can be improved.
You mentioned in an earlier interview that you were trained
by a DJ from Echo. How did that work? How did u initially meet
him and get him to train you?
F: Actually we (Terence C and I) got to know about it through
a friend. We were told that there was a DJ who didn’t mind
taking students to learn under him without any payment, but
all he required from was hard work and dedication towards the
music.
Before I joined Echo I was actually learning how to DJ from
someone at a studio. He is currently one half of Discomafia.
But I couldn’t cope with the fees so that was when I moved on
to Echo.
So what did he teach you?
F: He actually thought me how to read the crowd and stuff like
that. And just to let you guys know his name is Chris Doss.
Do you think you would have reached the same level of
proficiency if you did not have a sifu?
F: I think that I would have still reached the level that I am
at now…err but it might have taken a bit longer. And it might
have taken a different path. It might have taken me seven
years to get where I am. But from this sifu of mine he thought
me to interact with the crowd and read thee crowd. He thought
me how to live the lifestyle of an entertainer. So there were
a lot of steps and guidelines for me to follow.
What’s the hardest part about being a DJ for you?
F: Well… the hardest thing for me in the beginning would have
been to get gigs. But now for me the hardest thing would be to
go into music production, because I don’t have the foundation,
I don’t know about the software. So I’m just waiting for a day
to come where I’m able to kick off with producing my own
tracks and stuff like that. And also a bit on trying to secure
some overseas gigs.
Nowadays there are lots of people who are saying that
our local jocks are not up to standard, that they are not able
to be world class DJ’s. What do you think about that?
F: I think that's bullshit. I think that’s bollocks. I think
that everyone deserves a chance to be in the international
scene. It’s just that I think they need to get a little bit
more exposure. They need to do a little extra work, finding
certain rare records, going into production and really do
something with their DJing career. Anything is possible, all
you have to do is think positive.
Is playing an outdoor party different from a regular club
night?
F: Yeah …I mean outdoor events have a totally different vibe.
You’ve got to choose the venue, the theme, and if everything
is right… it beats any party that you could have in a club.
Because the atmosphere of it is just different. You get to
wander around freely and take in the clean fresh air. The vibe
that you get is so much more different… take the Europeans,
Americans, even Singaporeans, their outdoor parties are always
a success and people just keep on talking about it.
What can we expect from you at Regenerate 8?
F: Well…it’s going to be probably a pretty groovy warm up set…
something to set the pace for the guy who’s going to play
after me. I’m going to introduce a lot of obscure tracks…
tracks that are really not commercial. I’ve got tons of
records just waiting to be played at events like this. Because
when playing at clubs, you tend to have to cater to the crowd,
whereas at Regenerate, you have the freedom to experiment with
your music, about exploring new sounds.
-Matt
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