quite spontaneous

I am currently waiting for the videos of NEXT-iere in Galway, so let me share with you some of my special featured songs made a couple of years back. These are not songs from any album but composed for a specific event back home.

the first video is an event for Maulidur Rasul held in Stadium Negara, Kuala Lumpur. I still remember the time I got back from the Stadium I had an accident, someone hit me from the back and run, the funny thing is the car in front of me pulled over and asking me why did I knocked his car? I said "when did I hit you? I was the one who got hit!" It's interesting to find many kinds of people when you're in the road.
The second video is a videoclip made by JAKIM for 'AidilAdha' program. The location for the video was held at Bukit Tinggi, near Janda Baik. It was a bit like French kind of setting with Christmas decoration and all...not quite suitable for 'a pilgrimage style' though but the producer must have something in mind we don't know...

I guess some of you might have heard this song before. It's a song from the album 'Doa Harian' by Shahir. I really enjoyed the time we shoot for this video in Summerset Villa, Rompin. Shahir was still in his primary school at the time of the album launched. His manager have a really high hopes for him.

this song was supposed to be the first big step into the local music industry as BMG's recording artist, but BMG had to merge with SONY music, and Warner didn't seemed to be interested in signing us up. Long story cut short, we signed up with Universal Music a fews years after that. This song was the only newly recorded song compiled in the 'Junjungan Mulia II' album, so the time was very limited for us (from different universities) to completely perfected it at our own unpressurized environment, if you know what I mean...Luckily our producer, Syah Rizal from Brothers helped out with his vocal parts. So it was supposedly written as Mirwana featuring Syah Rizal...

Ever heard of Ust Amal before?the featured vocalist in Raihan's first album 'Puji-Pujian' by the song entitled 'AsSolatu wassalam'. He was superb! That's all I can say...wonder how is he doing now...Before I forgot, this song was re-recorded by NowSeeHeart a year after because the composer thought that it didn't got the push it had to. Well, I guest when a composer entrusted us with their song, it certainly meant something more to them than just being released in someone's album. Some of them think the song have a soul, which I think is not an appropriate word to use, the song can go as far as it does because of the livelihood that Allah has granted for the people working for the song and their families...someone else might composed a song quite similar to the top ones but never did as far.

Happy Birthday to you (my wife)

Birthday is not the only special day for you...cause you're always special for me every single day...
May your birthday and the days ahead be wonderful for you & May Allah bless you forever!

new (unreleased) album promotion

although I'm not with them at the moment to record the new song, my spirit will always be there to support and encourage their efforts to preach the true meaning of the religion widespread. This is not the official video clip, but here goes...


I would like to think that these songs were dedicated to me though, nevertheless it was meant to be for all the generous fans who didn't stop supporting us for whatever happens inside and outside the country.

moments to be missed

only God knows how I felt at these times...all the pressure and adrenaline boosted in one blow... after all you're only carrying out the group's reputation, image and the peoples' expectations :) It should sounded better if I'm not worrying too much about perfecting my vocal projection.
As you may not notice that I never attended any award ceremony other than ACNI, including those which Mirwana won in AE and a couple of ABPBH and AIM. Nothing to do with the event but it's just me being paranoid after the late 'Zairi Ahmed', our mentor from Raihan died in Genting Highlands in one of AE if I'm not mistaken. I would never want to die in a place like that...Nau'zubillahi min zalik...but these 2 performances were exceptional because Mirwana was insisted to perform in AIM after a rather controversial winning in AE04 in 2 categories...the board decided to introduce Mirwana to Malaysia...It's a wonderful experience to follow the tour for AIM and ABP every year...cruising on Naza Kia up to the Northern until the Southern part of the peninsular...never had the chance to go to Sabah or Sarawak...

And the board decided again to put Mirwana forward with JayJay in ABPBH after winning 1 category in AE05. Luckily JayJay was available because we were suppose to perform in AE05 but he had a show in Brunei which was booked much earlier.

JayJay was not available again in ACNI05 so we had to find a back up plan and found Nash who was willing to help us out. I flew all the way from UK to be there which I think worth an effort for Mirwana had won 4 categories in that award ceremony. Nominated in ABPBH and AIM the same year but not fortunate enough to be the winner. We don't actually expected anything because we're still novice in the industry and felt that there's more work to be done before any acknowledgment deserved. We did won 3 awards from AE05 and AE06 but I didn't have the video for you to view, which made all our achievements were coming only from the local radio station. Surely there's something more to do before winning the hearts of the audience, striving hard day and night was just not compensating to the hours spent towards the betterment of the quality we need to deliver. And now here I am, far away from these kind of life, not sure whether coming back is a good idea...


this video was an event for EidulFitr, live recorded by TV3 during Ramadhan. I still remember we stop to break our fast and continue the shooting. Ramli Sarip was there too...he was among the early birds arriving on location. Who else...Aflin Shauqi, Adibah Noor and us. One thing about entertainment industry, they never keep on schedule...always dragging and waiting for another person and resulting the rest of the crew working late. As a consequence, they are not much a morning person, which is bad for our health I must say...

NEXT-ireland

Galway, a place I never been and a place of beautiful scenery. Famous of the actual scene in West Life's video clip, it's a place I would visit again, insyaAllah.
We all knew what happened to our brothers and sisters in Gaza. The students in Ireland had made a big contribution towards collecting funds for them. What about you?
For more info, please click here

my memories

I just want to share with you one of my first experience shooting for a commercial video clip. These are the only 2 clips which we had under Universal Music's budget. How much do you think these videos cost? Those were the days where artist still can't get a hold of the industry as a whole just yet. There were a lot of middle man playing extremely big part in the industry controlling every single move, until the nasyeed wave stroked where no logical explanation can be made. The demand for it keeps on coming eventhough they didn't get much airtime or promotion or whatsoever. It's a phenomenon where artist can do everything by themselves right before recording, song and lyric composing, mixing, mastering, launching, promotion, video clips, publishing house and some of them even do the distribution on their own. It's a revolution that killed the industry in a way, it shut down the major expensive studios and create more affordable home suite studios around the town. It made the international label closed down it's local departments, cds and cassettes are not selling because it's time for streaming online and download era, artist can't live depending only from their album's royalty because they are not sold, live shows are hard to find if you're not popular and many more. Then came the major recession period which is happening about once in a century. What sort of product do you think will come from this kind of motivation? Either way we see it, nasyeed scene still didn't get the full attention of the main stream media. I mean seriously, how many times did you guys see these 2 clips in the tv?

it's all getting back to me now

After 2 years not having a single chance to perform, Ustaz Erfino had given me an opportunity to appear in one of his classes which was the first attempt to deliver the message in 4 different methods i.e; lecture, multimedia presentation, poem and last but not least nasyeed. I am so delighted to be honored on that occasion. It really felt like it's all coming back to me now...