#alex and miles dancing to my favorite strokes song never gets old

[theundergroundarchives]

Band Crush: Advents talks about coming together as a band and new music in 2020

Advents talks about how they come together as a band and introspectively reveals the story behind each and every single that has been released by them since their very inception. Words have it that these boys are going to drop their first, six-track extended play anytime soon!

Words by Ainaa Amirrah & Shafadzlin A. Shaharir

Having formed during late 2017, Advents is a four-piece Britpop band made up of Eiman Arif as the main vocalist slash guitarist, Shawin Albert as the main guitarist and vocalist, Nadree Omar as the bassist and Izaaq Izham as the drummer. With piece by piece being creatively created and digitally released since its very inception that year in 2017, this prodigious quartet has since then, burgeoned their fan base with their music not only reaching to the Malaysian listeners, in fact, also to those in the neighbor countries including Indonesia.

Prior to having three releases which have collectively amassed them a discography that’s worth over 50, 000 listeners on Spotify, truth be told that it took a few years for them to come out as a complete band. Before having formed as a complete four-piece band that bases its music at the core of Britpop, the members were surprisingly all online friends who had never met and only exchanged messages through a group chat; this comes with the fact that Eiman and Shawin had already met with each other before they would discover Nadree and Izaaq who are inextricably close cousins. Shawin amusingly reveals, “Eiman and I first knew each other when we were in secondary two. Honestly, we wanted to form a band but we had nobody to join us.” The search continued and Eiman was led to discover Nadree on Instagram to which, the band’s frontman would approach the latter to join their incomplete line-up once he was found to be flair in playing instruments. Consequently, after having Nadree hopped onto their partially complete musical ride, Izaaq was then spontaneously added into the band as its drummer of the band at once, finalizing the complete line-up of Advents.

Fast forward to 2017, the band eventually met for the first time and coalesced as a complete band after almost three years of sharing the online space of a group chat. The story has it that the band’s name was “stolen” from the very place that they met for the first time. Chuckling, Eiman says, “I remember the first time we met, it was at the Advent Studio in Petaling Jaya. We had no idea what to name our band so we ended up naming it after the studio that we met at. Honestly, we just “stole” the studio’s name and added up the letter ‘s’.” Amusingly, not only did their first meeting consist of a lot of awkwardness as it was their first time of meeting as a whole and having bonded in group, but it was also at the time that they decidedly to kick-start their collective artistry to which they would write their first single, “Television Dream” that would attract more than 10, 000 streams on Spotify since its release in 2018.

Reminiscing their first live performance as a band, it was at Merdekarya in Petaling Jaya, they recall. Nadree says, “Shawin was dancing like a maniac yet he could’t even get any single chord correct!” Confides Eiman, their early days of performing in front of the crowd were mainly consumed by the stage fright but thanks to the never-stopping gig invitations in and around Kuala Lumpur that they got, they get to develop and shape themselves well and better as performers. “When we play music, we tend to mess up on the stage a lot. So yeah, by time, we figured out it’s only best if we just do it!”

Being asked to describe every and each personality of the band member, Eiman shares that Nadree is a realist that’s certainly fun to be surrounded with; the 20-year-old boy approaches things in a logical manner despite he could be containing with so much of feelings, sometimes. Shawin describes Eiman as a lone wolf who takes pleasure from walking alone and visiting the haunted houses; he spends most of his time writing lyrics and alertly, is a very, meticulous person who’d go restless when things don’t turn out the way he visualizes it to be. Shawin is described by Nadree as a go-getter who would work extra mile, precisely when it comes to crafting music. Not forgetting their youngest member, Izaaq who has recently left the band temporarily to pursue his studies overseas (which currently leads them to be borrowing a sessional talent from their fellow band, Not Yet), is described by Nadree as an open book who finds comfort in being himself. Amidst the sudden deafening silence during the interview, Shawin decidedly murmurs, “We’re having an emotional dilemma right now, honestly. We miss him.”

Having taken inspirations from a myriad of established, and classic Western rockers including that of Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, Bob Dylan, The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas as well as the American rap artist, J. Cole and with the list going on, it becomes even more understandable on how they’re able to produce and bring out the sui generis nature and genuine vulnerability in their music. The band confides that music, indeed is a serious game for them, and that they would like to appeal musically different compared to the other existing bands and hit the furthest milestone possible one day. “Music, is our medium of expressing ourselves, definitely,” says Eiman.

Refusing to prioritize fame as their main pursue, the band reasons that they project their musical movement to be something that focuses on a bigger vision that just that; they project their raison d’être inside the music scene as to create more relatable and soul affectations music. “It’s nice to know that there are people out there who actually listen to our music and find themselves relating to it. We love knowing that these people could actually feel the sense of comfort by listening to our songs. Our purpose of existing as a band is to constantly remind our listeners that it’s totally normal and fine to have problems in life, and that they’re not alone,” confesses Eiman, concluding: “We got a goal. We’d certainly like to be part of the musical movement in Southeast Asia that helps link the regional music scene to the Western market, one day.”

Advents’ Discography

Television Dream (2018)

Having written by Eiman Arif, he describes “Television Dream” as an ode to his delicate childhood. He says, “”Television Dream” is certainly about looking up to someone and escaping the reality. When I were growing up, I was struggling because I didn’t think that I had anyone to look up to as my role model. Hence, “Television Dream” is the retelling of what I went through as a child.” Choosing to kick-start their musical movement with a low-lit mood political centric song rather than an uptempo love song that’s vastly common among the start-up bands, the band reveals that they wanted to take off their debut differently by simply escaping the mediocrity. Despite admitting to having formed a love-hate relationship with their own debut song, the band confides that “Television Dream” is actually, the most lighthearted song to be performed whenever they go live at gigs.

Slow Dance (2019)

Ironically, the band eventually slipped into their own “mediocrity” trap that they created as they released their sophomore single, “Slow Dance”; but this time around, it’s twisted as joining the music game of versatility. “Slow Dance”, is a syrupy ballad that musically narrates about a toxic relationship, and was inspired by the 80’s ballad music. Being the most-longest song that has ever been recorded by Advents, Shawin says, “When we finished recording “Slow Dance”, we were like “oh wow, it’s a six-minute track” and shrugged it off. Honestly, when we make music, we just don’t have any fixed format of creating it.” Naming “Slow Dance” as his most favorite track from Advents, Nadree confides, “It’s a hit or miss. We’ve heard some people said “Slow Dance” is the best out of all releases that we’ve had by far, but we’ve also heard some people said that it’s the worst of all three.”

Bad Sense of Time (2019)

“Bad Sense of Time” marks the third and latest single by Advents. Initially was supposed to become a minute-long track,  it was then reproduced by the band to be a longer song through a spontaneous move. According to them, the uptempo and hook-minded single is the most sung song by the live crowd due to its irresistibly catchy choruses!

In near future, Advents is said to have been preparing their first, and six-track extended play, ready to be released. It will include together their previously released singles  – “Television Dream”, “Slow Dance” and “Bad Sense of Time”. Hinting about their forthcoming studio effort, the band says, “Our first extended play will be consisting a lot of pop songs and honestly, it’s going to be more complex.”

The original article was first published in The Underground Archives (Print Edition) Volume 2.