It was like any other day, the normal hectic brain numbing routine that I usually do at Sony. It was on a Wednesday...I think it was about 4pm that my friend,Salmi (whom I introduced to Kokokaina as well) told me about the show...and I just went into this frantic mode of excitement...It's Kokokaina!!And she'll be playing live!! It says she'll be playing at The Attic somewhere near Jalan Maarof, Bangsar. I just called everyone that I've been ranting about Kokokaina (or at least I thought I have been ranting to)...Salmi however first told me she was going then later in the day said she couldn't come coz there was a server problem at work...Salmi....RUGI!!!!!!
Kokokaina..LIVE.For those who are not in the know who Kokokaina is...try this
link. She's just a local gal who writes original songs and occasionally covers some songs on Youtube. She plays an accoustic guitar, and please take my word on this: she has the most hypnotizing voice I've ever heard. She has this sense of serenity that when she starts to sing,you could feel a sense that could just sooth you...or in other words, like one of her fans in Youtube says:
It feels like being in love..Yes, I do agree it does make you feel like being in love. And she's even more overwhelming if you listen to her live!
How did I get to know about her? Well, one of her videos was posted in a blog that I read occasionally...i.e. akutakpeduli.blogspot.com.The video posted was a cover of Frosty the Snowman...that was just it, the moment I pressed play on that video it just hooked me into being a fan of Kokokaina!My first reaction was "Damn!ada siot orang Malaysia nyanyi sedap camni!" I remembered MM (the writer of akutakpeduli.blogspot.com) said this (he was talking about singing reality tv shows here in Malaysia).
MM wrote:
Apa yang kita dapat dari rancangan sebegini? Mamat perasan Superman (ke Suparman?) dan penyanyi sumbang lalok. Tak lebih dari itu.Jangan cari dengan sessi ujibakat. Lihat sahaja Youtube, banyak bakat-bakat kita di sana.Contohnya si Kokokaina ni.Somebody sign her up please... Malaysia Boleh! Aku rasa sebentar lagi semua pihak-pihak yang ingin mencari bakat-bakat baru akan sedar bahawa bakat sebenar tidak boleh dicari dari Akademi Fantasia dan Gangstarz sahaja.
Well, if its any comfort, she just got signed with the same record label of The White Stripes. That means she's going to be very very big.I hope. Anyways, if her album ever gets out (regardless of which country comes out first)...I WILL BUY IT. Original ok,no pirated copies.
Anyways, back to the story. So after work Razif and Zack came with me to watch her perform at Bangsar. At first I didn't know where the Attic was, so I asked around people at the office where Jalan Maarof is (well, it seems that was the big main road at Bangsar)...and it seems the Attic was situated at Jalan Bangkung,somewhere near Jalan Maarof...in which a friend of mine borrowed a map from one of the Japanese bosses (thanks Dani) to help find where this road is. Ya ta!
(Shelter by Corrinne May is playing in my iTunes now)
Right...and we still got lost because apparently SM Bukit Antarabangsa has 2 branches, one is the primary school and the other is secondary..we went to the secondary when we should've gone to the primary school!! When we got there, we were early actually because the show actually started 9.30pm(was this a tactic?). Anyways, I'm glad they did that coz I was worried we were going to be late and miss Kokokaina. *phew*. We arrived about 9.10pm, and chilled for a while waiting for another friend of ours, Keanu (nama manja) decided to join us to watch Kokokaina. This guy, apparently was in the same university with her... and everybody knows Keanu it seems...hnnssss..looking at the picture below you'd understand why he got the name Keanu.
Kokokaina with Keanu So the first act, Ana Rafaili came up first. She is talented (in fact all the acts in this show are). Ana somehow to me was a mixture of Gwen Stefani and Mandy Moore. I've never heard of her before, but she seems to be someone who could make it too. She sang some Malay and English as well. Very good performance. Bravo. This event really changed my perception of how many talented Malaysian musicians out there. But of course, I was just waiting for Kokokaina.
Haha, here's the thing. While we were waiting I sort of like wanted to see if anyone from the crowd was Kokokaina. There was this one girl, kinda short but has the features of the girl that just hypnotizes people in Youtube. I almost wanted to ask Are you kokokaina but it would be awkward though. So I told Zack, I think that's her...I even asked the bartender but he doesn't know because all of these people performing are new.
So after Ana finishes her songlists..5 minutes later Kokokaina is next!!(And yes, the girl I thought was Kokokaina..it was her) The crowd that was there just went wild cheering! I was cheering too, as I was quite close to the set. She started off with the song Poppy, and also some songs that I never heard before (though I have the video of her live performance..haha!). Among my favourite songs that she played that night other than Poppy was A Familiar Tune and also I Am Me,Once More. Oh, not to forget she also sang I Wish I'd Never...a very sad song. But still an awesome one weh!
There was one part of the performance she was like trying to remember how many songs she sang and asking what song she should sing next. I 'intervened'...this how it went(more or less how I remembered it):
Kokokaina:"How many songs have I sang already?"
Sasha: "Three!"
Kokokaina: " Now what song should I sing next?"
Sasha: " I Am Me, Once More"
Kokokaina: "Excuse me, may I know your name?"
Sasha: "Sasha"
Kokokaina:" Are you my Youtube subscriber?
Sasha:"Yes I am"
Kokokaina: "I love you!...Mr Youtube Subscriber!
Sasha:"I love you too!"
And then she sang I Am Me, Once More. AWESOME WEH!!! Something like this happened again at her encore, I Wish I'd Never where she said "This is for you, Youtube subsriber!"..kembang hidung sii!!! And hey, I have the video for this. But of course I won't post it until Kokokaina says its ok for me to post. I just send her a message in Youtube but she hasn't replied yet. She must be very busy now.
So after she performed, me and my friends went to hang out with her at the balcony of the Attic there. *psyched!* We introduced ourselves and managed to sit down and talked with her. We asked her about how long she's been doing this, who inspires her, how she started etc. I commented how her videos reached like unbelieveable number of hits and told her how I got to know about her etc. She's just very friendly and also very down to earth kinda gal and it was very comfortable talking to her. No "I am an artist' kinda feel y'know?
So me and Keanu took a picture with her and we said our goodbyes...I wish her all the best, because I sincerely believe she is like one of the most talented gals in Malaysia and hope she doesn't stop in what she's doing. She has shared some stories about how her music reaches to people all around the world, how they feeback to her telling how her music helped them in their lives, which is why I hope she continues in what she's doing. The world is always in need of good music and her music defines what good music is.
