New Sabah talent enters national music scene
KOTA KINABALU: After years of dreaming to become a recording artist, persistent preparation with training and study of local music, Joviannese Joanese has eventually taken the bold step forward by producing his first single album.
Joe Vian, as he wishes to be known as an artiste, hails from Kg. Bintangor in Tuaran, and is of Lotud and Kadazan parentage.
He hopes to make a mark as a popular Malaysian singer with his Kota Setia album of pop songs.
“I had gone into singing quite a long time back,” he said.
“I had first enrolled in a vocal training course when I was still a teenager, followed by personal vocal practices, emulating the most challenging vocal performances of various Malaysian singers.”
Now in his early 30s, Joe Vian is glad to be able to make the breakthrough to recording.
“Trying to become a singer under many shortcomings was not easy. Being the elder of two brothers with our single mother I had to work for a living and only manage to develop my talent on a part time basis,” he said.
“I couldn’t even have sufficient time to join singing contests due to work commitments in Pasir Gudang, Johor,” he added.
Eventually he was able to gain enough confidence to send a sample of his demo song to DMStudio as an audition piece for evaluation. The studio found his voice to be of recording quality, hence starting off his recording work.
“But the production of this album took two long years, partly because I was too fussy with the quality of my vocal performance and the audio accompaniment,” he admitted.
“I am so thankful to the producing companies, DMStudio dan TUNi Microstudio for their understanding and patience with me.
Joe Vian, who prides himself with his high-pitch vocal, has a passion for rock pop rock and modern pop, sees Steven Tyler and Zamani Slam as his idols.
“These singers and my song genre preferences had strongly influenced the composition and my performance of Kota Setia,” he said, adding: “And I believe my future albums will mostly be in the same category.”
“I have to date sent the song to several FM and online radio stations such as Kupi-Kupi FM, Era FM, Pendorakit FM, Rungus FM, Siuk fm, and KK FM. I am also in the process of sending it for evaluation to Rakam Khanah RTM,” he informed.
“Kota Setia is also currently available in several paid MP3 apps, and freely in Spotify, iTunes, Amazon and YouTube. On top of that I am now busy producing the song in the video and MTV karaoke formats. Once this is fully ready, it will be distributed to various registered karaoke centres throughout Malaysia.”
He hoped that the song would fulfil the expectation of rock music fans in Sabah and hopefully in the whole of Malaysia as well.
“I would really be thankful for the support of the local listeners in Sabah, especially those in my home district, Tuaran,” he said.
“I would also like to record my most sincere thanks to all parties who have contributed to the successful completion of this two-year labour of love.
“I am also indebted especially to the lyricist, Putra Hafiez el-Kaziem and Brader Joe Rocasia, MRDD DMStudio as arranger, Herris Yutui as rearranger, Omma Akira as guitarist, and Harris Herris Yutui as background singer.” - By Raymond Tombung