hello..
hi mr aquanut..my name is esam salleh..i sing for stoned revivals just so that u know who i am and am not some fictional character hiding behind some laptop..
let me share with u something..i remembered when i was like 15,in 1989 after school..heading to a gig at some community centre to catch a band that my school mate had told me about..we took the bus..lost our way and finally got to the venue..right on the dot when the guitarist struck the first chord on his guitars..the set i saw was so inspiring that weeks later i immediately formed my band as an outlet to fuel my teenage mind..an escape..as an outlet to say something..i have found something to hold on to instead of the gangs my fellow school mates were in..i found the beauty in imperfection..these bands didn't have that much skills or technical suaveness as yourself..but what they lacked in they compensated with their drive and passion and sincerity..we did not crave for attention, recognition or the chicks..we left that to the pub bands and their covers and whining of filipino bands stealing their bread n butter.
we had no one to look up to and we had to create our own lil scene..i used to play bass for my dad's instrumental surf band when i was 13..and the one thing he taught me was to respect fellow musicians..i find it disturbing that a person as yourself is still haunted by the past..and base your arguments on things you seen like 15 years or so ago? maybe you might have not been getting the success u so deserve..i am sorry to hear that and i do not blame you for feeling as such..being a kid from the void deck, playing the kapok guitar, it was overwhelming for me to hear my songs on the radio, hitting the charts..#1 on two radio stations..handpicked by No Doubt..playing before 7000 people who dun really dig my music..winning the top local english song award by compass..various tv appearances..magazines, zines..u name it..but that was the past..really and i dun mean to brag cos it means nothin to me and that anyone with enough passion and belief could do it..
one thing i know for sure is that i did not sell myself to get to where i got to..and i certainly never forgot where i came from..i got there because i connected with my audience and remained true to myself..i now reside in kuala lumpur..i came here with 400 bucks, my guitar and a bag of clothes..starting from scratch..getting to know people..playing at open mics..selling my cds by hand..slowly gaining fans..organising gigs..inviting fellow sg bands to play at my gigs..as a way to give back..
i am not rich..still am not..i always believe the harder u try to be something u are not, u will never get to where u would like to be at..i guess u must be someone older than me..i am a mere 35 years old..still got a long way to go...if we were on the same stage..you would probably out do me with your bass skills..not like it would bother me the least..anyways, the sad thing with people like yourself who say u are talented and have an excuse to put down others..is age definitely has not made you a wiser person unlike us, the kids who u blatantly stereotyped and lumped together..unlike u, we have grown up..learnt to respect others and think before we shoot our mouths off..u are lucky that u reside in yemen..and u are lucky that the kids from forum galleria have mostly become fathers and lead normal lives and hung their doc martens steel toes..
anyways, sorry if i said too much..or hurt your ego..take good care of the camels in yemen..may u find a good one to make it your wife..buy her a hijab maybe...u can do whatever u want actually, just dun put down fellow musicians..anyways, the band that i saw when i was a 15 year old kid was stompin ground..and the guitarist was suhaimie subandie..shame on u old man for saying such things..age has certainly not made u any better or wiser...now go back n perfect you basslines for smoke on the water...
