The New Straits Times: London Calling for Indie Band

ONE of Malaysia's much-loved independent acts, Seven Collar T-Shirt (SCTS), will be braving the cold to play in Britain at the end of the month.

"I'm just going to enjoy myself and have a holiday," said Saiful Ridzuan, better known as Duan, the singer, guitarist and head of the quartet which was formed in 1997.

He said the main reason for going there was to entertain the Malaysian students enjoying their Easter break.

The event is organised by KNUKE (Kugiran Negara ke UK Enterprise), comp-rising former and current Malaysian students studying in Britain. 

KNUKE had successfully brought another indie band, Hujan, to Britain last year.
This time, SCTS' label Laguna Records is collaborating with KNUKE, and the band will be performing with label mate Estrella in London (March 26), Brighton (April 1) and Manchester (April 6). 

"We'll be in Britain for two weeks, so we'll also be networking there, selling our music, doing promos like radio interviews and chec-king out other bands," said Duan. 

"For our sets, we'll be playing almost all of our songs as well as the latest material from our upcoming album. It should be out a few weeks after the British gigs. 

"It has more edge than our previous material, more uptempo songs with a slightly new direction." 

He credited the band's new bassist, Sim Keng Lee, for injecting some punk ferocity and drummer Adil Ali's energetic thumping style for the album's bite.

Guitarist Muhammad Abdullah and Duan's melodic playing and vocal style give the songs a dreamy resonance, as heard on the Wild Child (Here For You) single, which can be previewed on the band's website (www.myspace.com/scts).

"Lyrically, there's a song about living in a time of war, some on relationships with people and things I read in the papers that affect me," said Duan, who is looking forward to a nationwide tour later in the year in conjunction with the album release.

The 30-year-old musician said he started taking music seriously after the band released its debut album, Freeway, Dreaming & Broke, in 2002.



A degree-holder in music composition from Universiti Teknologi Mara, Duan has also been giving guitar lessons for the last five years.

He is also a commercial sessionist, doing studio work and live gigs and was involved in the P. Ramlee and Puteri Gunung Ledang musicals. 

"It's an ideal job for me, I have my creative output with the band and I get to work as a musician." 

His big dream is to some day play with the London Symphony Orchestra, but for now it's the British stint. 

"I hope these gigs will open our eyes, humble us and that we'll be a hundred times better because of them." 

Visit www.knuke.org for details on the British gigs.