Monday, April 04, 2005

interview with keju

1- hi keju, how are you today? ok, please tell us about who you are as this is the only chance for you to exalt yourself in any ways, hehehe. anyway, how did nyi blorong started?

Hello there to azy and all of the readers of this beautiful (eyes) zine. first of all, i would like to say sorry to the editor of this zine (azy) for the late submission of this interview. if not for me, you guys would've read this zine much sooner. u can condemned me if you want. Hahaha.. ok, so I’m nazir but better known as keju. I’m just an ordinary human being, trying so hard to fit in this hectic and hard life. Anyway, I’m still studying in one of the educational institution in KL. I’m also the vocalist of the band nyiblorong.
Nyiblorong started with a bunch of school kids who likes hardcore and some metal. We started with me, buji, alan, bongek, lopong and keneth. Bongek was replaced by wan hazril shortly after that as the bassist. After recording songs for a demo, split and playing some gigs, we’ve some line up change as well. Now nyiblorong consists of me(vocal), buji(guitar), zairi(guitar), wan(bass) and yusri(drum).

2- what is punk/hardcore to you? how did you get involved? what is the best thing you discovered in this community?

Well, I doubt that hc/punk deserve a certain definition. But as I can see it, hc/punk is an idea that detests oppression, fascism, and any kind of negative element. I think that was supposed to be the basic of humanity as well. I’m not a radical person, but if only all of us (as a human being) could thrive this basic element of humanity, I guess the word oppression wouldn’t even exist in the first place. Well, maybe greed is the basic element of humanity as well. Isn’t it?
How I get involved? Well, most of my early ‘involvement’ was about music. Now I could see that there are so many aspects, ideas and so on inside this community, some I can accept and some I can questions and tolerate.
The best thing I’ve discovered inside this community is friendship. It’s fun to go to shows or jamming session to meet friends. We could communicate with people all around the world without having the notion that we wouldn’t be accepted or we aren’t cool enough. If some people do think that I’m not cool enough, then go to hell with their perception. Hahahaha….
besides that, I see this hc/punk scene as an alternative lifestyle. I can say that hc/punk has changed my way of thinking into certain things in life and give me the chance to discover things that’s hard to find inside the ‘mainstream’ world. I’m not saying that I’m sooo ‘underground’ than the rest of the people ‘out’ there. It’s just that most of the things we could easily find out there are set by trends and demands which are mostly influenced by television and other mass media, what’s hot and what’s not. But the truth is, there’re so many things to discover for yourself than to just bow to the trends. And from hc/punk, I’m able to discover these things. It’s not just music. It can be reading material, movies or even places to hang up or buy things. That’s from my point of view.

3- anyway, in this life, we can't predict what will happen in future. so, what is your opinion about globalization issue? is it about bringing us to glorify in all aspect or just another threat to lower class citizens? Comment...

Yeah, for sure we can’t predict what’ll happen in the future. We want a better world but some assholes keep acting like some people don’t deserve to live in peace and harmony. I couldn’t comment much about the globalization as I don’t have a proper understanding of it but as far as I can see, the word globalization which means a world with no borders are just being used by a bunch of business maniac who couldn’t get enough of money for their own profit. But as I see it, Globalization couldn’t work fairly inside this capitalist world. It’s just a method to widen the capitalist’s empire throughout the world. Small business will have to compete but without much money and source, who will succeed unless we support this big corporation. Yes, maybe the small business will prosper but who will prosper more? And as we heard it, some of the money is being used for military and oppression. I’ve just read from The Coalition zine written by someone called izhan about economics. He said something about why capitalism should be ‘evil’ in the first place. From my understanding, he said that the capital itself is the cause of it. At first, in order to maintain their capital, they have to have profit. But later on, they did everything that’s possible to gain as much profit as they can. For me, business is profit, but when they did all that they can to exploit whatever they want in order to gain more profit, that’s where the oppression exist. For sure greed is one element of human being that we couldn’t confine. These people will exploit any system possible for their own profit. That’s why we’re creating so many system and ideas to ‘control’ human activities but in the end, greed still won. That’s why I believe that to change how the world looks like; we have to change the person itself. Not by saying what could and couldn’t be done. Just the basic of humanity could do it. Or maybe in order to change the person, we have to change the system? I don’t know. We’re longing for a perfect world, but will it exist someday or will the world worsen from day to day till the end? So about your question whether globalization will bring us to glory or is it just another threat to lower class citizen, the answer is how the world handles globalization itself. If opportunities are given to small businesses or the so called third world countries so that their condition of living will improve, then I believe we will glorify. But as I could see it, it’s just for the sake of big businesses. For that, I couldn’t see where it will lead us. Maybe we could find a way to ‘exploit’ the globalization itself for our benefit. That’s all I could say from my limited point of view. Note that all these are just from my point of view. Me, myself are the victim of evil capitalism and greed.

4- some people said that if you want to succeed in your life, we must excel in our education. do you agree with this statement? do you see that the education is the best tool to confront with the injustice stuff nowadays? and what do you think about education system here?

Well, I’ve read the interview you’ve made with joe kidd inside ur zine sometimes ago and he said that success has a subjective definition. I agree with him in this. If u sees success as having a good job and a lot of money, then you’ll have to work yourself towards it. May it because of religion or money or humanity, u couldn’t claim yourself successful unless u’ve reached the goal u want. As for me, I do believe that education is somewhat important in my life. Let it be formal or informal, I think it’s important for everyone to have education. It’s the tool to everything. As for formal education, I think I need it as I want a decent job that could support me and my family in the future. Everybody needs money.
Education to confront the injustice stuff? Since education is mostly associated with schools and university nowadays, so I’m referring the term ‘educated’ as the people who’ve gone to school or university, although being educated for me is much more than receiving a scroll. Yes, it can be true that education can be used to confront the injustice stuff. But injustice is everywhere. You can be a doctor to give medical treatment to those who can’t afford it or you can at least be a human to give something to needy people. You can be educated and be a selfish asshole or you can be a school dropout who is concern about the society. so I could say that education are one of the tool to confront the injusticeness, but the main thing is our willing to confront it ourself in any way possible. But if we’re talking about injustice ness from a larger scale, I think we do need some education to fix the system. The scroll means much nowadays. Sometimes I do think that it’s ridiculous. Since you’ve mentioned about education system, this is one of it. Inside the education system, the scroll means everything. Students spend 3 to 5 years studying for this piece of paper. And as I can see it, the education system didn’t prepare students to be ready for their workplace. The exams require students to memorize. Even without proper understanding. I mean, why do we need to know where the theories come from? Do we really need to know how equations are made or who the hell invented theories? Working doesn’t require that u know all that unless u’re a lecturer or teacher. What I’m saying is the education system teaches us crap we don’t use when we work. So when we work, we have to start from basic and gain some working experience before we’re easily accepted by companies. There’s SO MUCH MORE to learn in life and they’re feeding us those craps for nothing. At least that’s how I see and heard even from the mouth of some famous local scholars. And working is another thing. Sometimes we have to work really hard that we couldn’t spend much time with our families and friends. Whew, I’m starting to get emotional here. haha…

5- how do you tolerate with peoples especially your friends who talk about something that you totally not agree? how do you voice out your opinion and at the same time, try to sustain your friendship with others?

Emm..i’m not the kind of person who likes to argue about other peoples idea unless they intended to have some comment from me. But if there’s something that I totally didn’t agree, I guess I’ll just say it to them or but sometimes I just didn’t say anything if I see no concrete reason to do so. Friendship is somewhat important to me. As long I can see, I can be friend with anyone I’m comfortable with unless they have this pissed off macho mentality who likes to go around and beat people who they didn’t like. Well, most of my friend didn’t care if I have the same or different opinion as them. I’ve read from a crimethinc publication (I don’t remember what publication) that being different is more anarchist than the anarchy idea itself (at least that’s what I understand). But I’m no anarchist. Just to state that one opinion or belief (or disbelief) should not divide us as a human.

6- if you have to pick up three famous persons you can talk with, who will those persons be, and what will you ask them and why?

Adam Sandler : I’ll ask him to make a movie based on a novel called ‘I want to buy a vowel’ by John Welter. That novel is damn funny and adam sandler himself is funny!

Bush : maybe I’ll save my word and kill him instead. He didn’t want to hear what the whole world said, so why would he listen to me. Hahahah..jahatnya gua!

Winona Ryder! (wait till my girlfriend read this!)

7- what are the most five embarrassing stuff/ records you have in your collection? hehehe... this need your highest level of your honesty...

haahah..it’s obvious that I’ll be embarrassed so why should I put it here. anyway, I do think that any form of music/art has their own ‘uniqueness’ and it’s just a matter of musical taste for me. Enjoy it as long as u fell it’s enjoyable.

8- what is it that i can use to wake you up in the middle of the night while you are totally dead meat? hehehe...

I think you’ve done that to me several times before. Hahahah…so u know how to wake me up while I’m fast asleep. But basically I’ll wake up when my phone rings. So you can call me up in the middle of the night to burn some mp3s and videos or to fetch u up where ever you are.

9- last shouts from you.. thank you.

Thanks for interviewing a ‘nobody’ like me. Hahah… sorry again for the late reply for this interview. Good luck with your zine, band and life. To all the readers, thanks for reading this interview. Note that all my answer for this interview are basically from my point of view or something that I’ve read that I want to share with you people. So if my understanding about some writings from somebody else is wrong, or if you think that my view is wrong, just drop some comment to me. Ok, that’s all. And if in anyway you guys want to contact me, just email me at mnazirnb@yahoo.com. Be yourself but don’t be a jock!! Bye bye :~)

Beautiful Eyes ;