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a'a lah...terpaku aku dengar sore dia...tegak bulu roma aku 
memang best...  |
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Balas #22 maza\ catat
mmg die dah pegi LA pon. dgr kabar die dah signed dgn Brushfire Records. neyh berita ttg kokokaina:
Young old soul
BY NASA MARIA ENTABAN
I WAS instantly at ease when Kokokaina opened the door for me and flashed a big, bright smile.
As she led me into her house and out onto the porch, I asked the pint-sized musician how her performance from last week went.
"It was an amazing experience. I thought most of my friends would make up the bulk of the audience, but there were even people standing up in the small space," said the 22-year-old singer, describing her maiden showcase which was held at The Attic in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.
Previously, the main encounter she has had with fans was over her YouTube channel - in five months, she has garnered almost 5,000 subscribers to her music, and receives hundreds of emails a day from fans.
This fan-craze is but the tip of the iceberg for Kokokaina, whose real name is Zee Alirahman, a pleasant girl from Miri, Sarawak, who recently returned from her the preliminary stages of her album recording in Los Angeles.
The record label: Brushfire Records, the same label sunny, guitar-plucking musician Jack Johnson is signed on to.
Kokokaina sat me down and began to fill me in on her short, but undeniably exciting journey to this point in her life.
As a child she took up piano lessons, but her real passion was always singing. At 16 she locked herself in her room for three hours with only a guitar and a chord book, and taught herself how to play.
"Of course, I had to practice and practice, but I still can't call myself a guitarist. The guitar is just an accompaniment to my singing."
That抯 not where it ends - last year, she performed at her first gig and it went great except that her good friends had to miss out on it.
"I told him I couldn't believe he missed my show, and he asked me if I could play something and put it online for him," recalls Kokokaina, who is set to return to LA soon to continue her recording.
"I recorded a song and created a temporary account on YouTube. I was going to delete it right after he saw it but he encouraged me to keep updating it with more videos," adds the girl who also plays the ukulele.
It's a good thing she didn't delete her account, and added 15 other videos at that because a few days before Christmas last year, those videos would change her life.
"Someone in the music industry in the States heard my song No Christmas For Me, and recommended it to the manager of The White Stripes," she shared.
"Before I knew it I was on an airplane to LA, to spend one and a half weeks recorded raw material for my debut album," explained the visibly excited Kokokaina.
The former fashion design student sings mostly sad songs that are ironically teamed with a rather 'happy' sounding guitar accompaniment.
What you'll notice about Kokokaina is that none of her videos reveal her face completely, as the camera is focused mainly on her fingers strumming her guitar.
She explained: "I'm not really hiding, I just choose not to show my face. I would like viewers to focus more on the songs."
And it's difficult not to, as the second you press 'play' on any one of her videos, her 'classic' voice reminiscent of old folk/jazz artistes draws you in, coaxing you to finish the song before clicking on her next video.
"I'm an old soul," she said, "I listen to music as far back as the 1920s, and I'm obsessed with the 1970s."
Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Joni Mitchell and Regina Spektor are some names she mentions as being her favourites, but she also adores music by Led Zeppelin and The Strokes.
Perhaps the reality of landing a record deal with an international label hasn't quite sunk in yet - if Kokokaina is at all thrilled about her good fortune, she hides it well with poise and a slightly dark demeanour.
"I never expected this to happen to me, but I always knew I didn't want to have a 9-to-5 job, waking up one day and realising my dreams too late."
Like any other musician, Kokokaina frowns a little at comparisons made of her and other musicians.
"Every musician has a different style. Everything has been done before, it's just how differently you do it."
http://rage.com.my/writeups/story.asp?file=/2008/4/14/mustread/20080416131227&sec=mustread |
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To me, she is super talented..Bukan senang for any singer to pull suara klasik macam tu..
Some more dgn lenggok2 dia tuh...
Loved her voice.. A lot of her subscribers kat Youtube tu kater, dia punya
style macam Billie Holiday la, macam Norah Jones la..
Pada telingaku, influence jer..But she definitely has her own style.
Even her song writing also, 2 thumbs up...
I love her SMILE version |
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Post time 29-4-2008 03:44 PM
