Tired of playing second fiddle to Taufik and Hady, Imran decides there will be…

No more waiting in the wings

If anybody is looking for a brand ambassador, Imran Ajmain (above) will take your phone calls. “It would be nice to be asked,” he said with a grin. It may sound shameless, but the 25-year-old singer-songwriter makes no bones about the fact that he is ready to step from behind the shadows of his friends, Taufik Batisah and Hady Mirza, for his share of the limelight.

He is starting to tire of the comparisons the local Malay industry makes between him and the other two. Said Imran: “I hate being compared to Taufik. He has his own sound and I have mine.

“Somebody once asked me if I was riding on Taufik’s and Hady’s fame. That gets irritating.”

It is not surprising that these comparisons surfaced. After all, he contributed to several tracks on their new albums. Imran believes, however, that musically, his path is different.

“It will be my Malay musical sensibilities mixed with the hip-hop, pop, and R&B music I grew up listening to,” said the singer who is of Malay and Dutch-Indonesian parentage. Hence his debut album, Dengan Secara Kebetulan (By Pure Coincidence), which was launched last month.

The album was meant for release last September under Jems Promotions which was managing Imran, but the release was put on hold. When Imran’s contract with the company ended, he decided to produce the album himself. He hastened to add his relationship with Jems did not end in acrimony.

Imran is popular in the local hip-hop community as the director of Beats Society, an organisation that promotes awareness of hip-hop music here. He said he “wiped out his bank account” to produce, write
and record the album, and estimated it cost him almost $10,000 to create the 12-track album. So serious was his commitment towards his album that he even built a small recording studio in his Beats Society office at Race Course Lane.

His first single, Sudah Tu Sudah (Enough), which is one of five tracks he co-wrote wit Taufik, received heavy airplay on local Malay radio, reaching No 8
on the Ria charts and is also getting attention across the Causeway. After all the effort, he is certainly proud of his album.

“Sometimes singers and musicians will talk about how their first album does not reflect them. It is not the case for me.

“Every song here is mine, and it’s original,” he said.

Dengan Secara Kebetulan is available at HMV Singapore, Earshot cafe and Muzika Records.

The New Paper,
Wednesday, 17 Jan 2007, Page 23