AMIR YUSSOF IS NO STRANGER to the music scene with 15 years experience and three albums to his credit.

Award-wise he was runners-up in the Carlsberg Top Of The Pubs Competition, racked up the Best English Album of the Year 1996 at the Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) awards for "Some of this is real" and captured gold for his debut music video "Don't Walk Away" at the 2003 Cyberjaya Video Competition.

This self-taught singer-songwriter took to music in Australia after dropping out from Monash University. He wrote 25 songs and returned to Malaysia to try to make a go of it. He made his debut in Tattler's in Bangsar and later made his way to Europe to busk on the streets of Germany, France, England and Holland.

Tired of the cold, Amir took off to the Maldives to become a windsurfing instructor at a resort - although he knew nothing about the sport. After a year of playing beach bum, Amir's restlessness and deep desire to perform again, drew him back to Kuala Lumpur and he signed on at Bier Keller as a soloist.

His dreadlocks, good looks and penchant for covering lesser-known songs by female musicians, were a natural draw for the ladies, and he gradually garnered a following in whichever pub he played. At the Carlsberg Top Of The Pubs contest, he met up with music producer Roslan Aziz who took him onboard to write songs for, and back-up, Zainal Abidin, who was being groomed for a solo career.

After three years of concerts and touring with the likes of Zainal, Sheila Majid and Afdlin Shauki, and several recorded songs on Ikhlas and Zainal's Hijau album, Amir broke away from Roslan Aziz to seek his own fortunes.

Amir first took over a pub called After Five and went on to record his debut "Some of this is Real" with Michael Veerapen's now-defunct Scat Records.

NEW FOUND FAME

Later, riding on his new fame, he switched to larger premises and called the pub X'tacy which became one of the best live music bars in town. He then produced a second album Altered Native under his own independent label, Ragtime, which was distributed by Universal Music. He managed to bag three nominations at the AIM awards but failed to clinch any awards.

Lack of funding and promotion forced Amir to continue plying his trade in the pub circuit and he also picked up some voice-over work from advertising agencies. Later, Disney offered him the role of Tarzan in the new Disney animated feature and he jumped for it. In 2002, he recorded his third album Aquarius working together with Australian musician/songwriter and producer, Jamie Wilson. Aquarius has proved to be Amir's strongest piece of work to date.

In the past year, Amir has forsaken the live music circuit and taken up corporate duds as the director of entertainment for the new Hilton Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. He has not been seen in pubs except for the rare guest performances and jam sessions. Longtime followers will be glad to know he returns to the music scene with Adam Farouk at the Backyard Pub on June 1, 2005.

LINK: Amir Yussof Official website

THOSE FOLLOWING THE ARTS SCENE WOULD RECOGNIZE THE NAME ADAM FAROUK, who popped up recently as a member of the New York-based acappella group The Breakers which performed at their Equinox Tour here in April 2005.

When not succumbing to the infectious draw of vocal percussion, Adam jams at various nightspots in Kuala Lumpur.

Adam says his musical epiphany came while studying economics at Cornell University, when he joined the Cornell Glee Club, the university's oldest student organisation.

He realised that music was where his heart was, so he dropped his major and switched to music full-time.

Adam was first part of an all-male acappella group of 15 called The Hangovers and then later formed the quintet, The Breakers to explore pop and rock. The other four members of Breakers are Andy Goldin (flexi tone), Chris Wildeman (bass), Gregory Platt (alto) and Steve Engelbrecht (tenor).

"We consider ourselves more a vocal band than an acappella group," says Adam, who is the percussionist. Adam has a varied musical taste but leans mostly to singer/songwriters like Carol King, Joni Mitchell and Cat Stevens. He counts The Beatles as one of his main musical influences.

Aside from his work with The Breakers, Adam has written musicals and the possibility of a film score in the near future is also there. Most recently, he was seen in "I Have Dreamed: An Evening With Sean Ghazi" (May & September, 2004), fingers dancing (and feet flaying) as he vigorously helped sculpt a single unifying musical vision from a repertoire that ranged from Jerome Kern to Elton John.

For his work on this project, Adam was recently nominated for "Best Musical Direction" at the Boh Cameronian 2004 Arts Awards.

Link: The Breakers

(Updated: May 30, 2005)

JUMP TO: Main |