part II.

(courtesy by lilrampage)

Rudi: The fact that we are passing on the baton in this culture of heavy rocking screaming music that parents would condemn is awesome. Rock lives on! Rock on soft people!

Joshua: Live and let live. Take things as they come. Life is so dynamic… having 5 different individuals in a band…

Matt: Used to be 6

Joshua: Things have always been changing and still are so we learn to get used to accepting each other. We have learned that sometimes you cant force people to expectations of your own and we just got to take things as they come. For example, I’m going to Shanghai for work. Shen is going to go study… I guess friendship comes first, before raising the tension amongst us as band members. We’ve come a long way to learn and accept each other’s commitments, idiosyncrycies and even the things that utterly pisses us off. We’ve come to accept all of these. That’s what true friendship is about. Just hanging in there, even if the fella doesn’t change, just hang in there.

Hafiz: We’re still growing. Shen is still growing.

Rudi: OPTIC BLAST!

Shen: One of the most interesting things about us is that, we have matured individually, definitely. But as a band, we haven’t changed much since we started. When we started we were down to earth people who play music. And we are still the same down to earth people playing music right now. I don’t think that is something that should be changed at all. And I’m glad it hasn’t.

Rudi: Playing in a band has sort of made me a more confident person. Previously I was really shunned from playing heavy rock music that was too loud… neighbours complain… everybody gives you flak. I don’t think playing loud music puts my head in the clouds but it just makes me more confident in the things I want to do and knowing that there are people who like it, is an additional bonus.

Joshua: It feels good being accepted.

Rudi: I used to show some of my friends the music I listen to and they would go HUH? FREAK!

Joshua: I kind of realised we’re all really weird in our own way. Rudi is ultra freak. Epitome of freakness. 100% mutant gene. As for myself I was really isolated as a person since young. I couldn’t relate with schoolmates with stuff. That was me.

Hafiz: Shen is a super flirt.

Joshua: Well he is an outcast because all the guys hate him. He is always picking up the pretty girls. Hafiz?

Rudi: Hafiz has grown fiercer with a solid edge

Joshua: Hafiz came from a hard background, life wasn’t easy for him and we all respect him for that. So that’s his mutant story. His heritage, blood line and stuff.

Rudi: He’s morphed into a handsome man… handsome Single man, confident, fierce, heart of stone… that’s gonna go into the interview right?

Shen: And Matt is now a bonafide wrestler named Heart Pain Kid

Now this is an easy one: most memorable experience.

Shen: That’s not easy at all…

Rudi: There are a lot actually. On one occasion, we played in Malaysia, KL. A band member went missing for a short while. I shan’t say who it was… well at that point of time it was more worrying than funny really.

Hafiz: Matt woke me up and went ‘hey someone’s missing!’ and then I went back to sleep.

Matt: This boy was supposed to meet Rudi about 2-3 in the morning and he didn’t have auto roam on his phone.Why were they meeting that late in the night anyway?

Rudi: Well we were chilling out with LOVE ME BUTCH, (check them out, they are under Voideck music!) So Shen decided he wanted to go for an appointment

OH so it was Shen who went missing?

Rudi: oh NO NO NO NO not shen, shanny, hanny, hafee, HAFIZ decided.

Hafiz: Hafiz!!??

Rudi: ALRIGHT JUST SCRAPE THAT. The most happening moment… well actually I don’t remember any ‘HAPPENING’ MOMENTS’ because I have a real knack of being unhappening. The funniest one was during Baybeats last year. I was real nervous but told myself OKAY I’M GOING TO BE CONFIDENT so I wanted to give an ultra rock entrance on stage so what happened was, I gave the ROCK ON sign and then proceeded to pick my guitar up from the ground. I grabbed it by the neck and wanted to wear it by swinging the guitar over my head, onto my shoulder. So naturally, being unhappening, I suffered from a big knock on my head instead. That was rather embarrassing. And totally unhappening because people in the front were laughing and I was all shut up shut up shut up. It was super unrock.

Joshua: AVA’s funniest home videos all start with RUDI. Self inflicted injuries. And also inflicted on others.

Rudi: There was another time we had a funny guitar incident. The head stock snapped into Joshua’s head and he started to bleed. We have videos of it and I felt so damn bad… there was so much blood……. I felt like just putting my guitar down and sitting in a corner…………..

Matt: Don’t talk cock!

Shen: ALRIGHT ALRIGHT, a memorable gig. We had a Substation gig and there was a guy from the crowd who was super hyper. He came on stage but he was pissing us off a little because he kept backing into us on stage. He climbed up to dive in the crowd. So while his back was facing me, I head butted him. And that’s that. I head butted someone on stage.

So the most memorable gig was when you were violent towards someone else.

Rudi: Not many people can say that they head butted a stranger on stage…

Fair enough. So anyway, generally, when on stage, you guys can be considered a high-energy band. Is there an inspiration drawn from elsewhere, for that? Do you think about something or someone somewhere before each performance...

Matt: It is not so much about inspiration…

Joshua: It is more of how we connect with our music. When we write it there is already a certain emotional and a certain energy source present, we recognise that and click with it every time we do a show. At least that’s what happens for me. That’s the heart of the song when I play… the energy comes from the reflected heart of the song.

Shen: We believe it is the same performance to be given no matter the number in crowd. We have to give our 110% during shows. We try our best to give it our all at every show. Basically the general rule is… if you don’t feel tired after a show, it wasn’t a good show.

The show earlier was great; are you tired now?

Shen: Pretty much.

Matt: Shen is always tired.

Joshua: And sleeping.

Matt: My answer is similar to Joshua’s; the way we write our songs, the only way to convey it properly is THIS. “Here, this is A Vacant Affair. That’s what we are”. We don’t have any pre plans for a show. The music that we play has hardcore, heavy rock and metal influences… it’s a mixture of everything. So when we play, it comes out high-energy. As I said, that’s what we are. Of course, we constantly remind each other to rock out and all when we are take the stage. But we don’t frequently think about things like… oh, at this moment we have to do a jump because the crowd will love it. Everything’s more or less natural.

Shen: Do we really look that way on stage?

Hafiz: I was actually being lazy earlier in the show.

Hard to tell when drummers are seated.

Rudi: Drummers are generally lazy.

Shen: That’s why they always sit.

next i'll post the final, part III and the reasons why i did this. half of you would be wondering by now. lol i got to go and get ready!