Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s MAN DEAD SET just dropped a duo of powerful, angry, straight forward, fast & catchy tracks that blend just about everything you love about punk rock and hardcore. Instantly captivated by their aggressive delivery, we sat down with the band to learn more about their work, upcoming new release and local punk scene in Kuala Lumpur. Check it out, follow their Bandcamp, and if you’re a label, please contact via Instagram to arrange a release!
The upcoming physical version of the band’s debut EP “Too Early To Be Late” will be released locally on CD mid-Summer by a local label Framework Records. The band is looking for international labels to help reach the other parts of the world. Contact IDIOTEQ via www.idioteq.com at gmail.com or the band directly to ask for details.
The band started out as a side project band in 2018 by old pals Min, Dean and Shah. Only Min was really active in live music scene at the time while the other 2 guys are just busy being boring working adults. Min has multiple active well known bands in Malaysia: he is the drummer for Naratu, Kids On The Move and Thy Regiment. The bands he plays in are pretty solid bands that are worth checking out and quite big in terms of the underground scene in Malaysia. Shah was the former bassist of Naratu and Dean plays guitar for a couple of non-active bands.
Comments the band:
As for Man Dead Set, we set out to do music that we like, the things in music that we have in common. From being a side project, we decided the band has a decent amount of songs that are worth to be recorded. Before the recording process begins in early 2020, the band had the opportunity to play live in several shows with the faith given by promoters for us to open shows for some awesome touring bands from across the world. We opened the show for Palm from Japan, Accidente from Spain, Implore from Germany to name them a few. We were supposed to open the show for Comeback Kid live in KL, but were cancelled due to the current global pandemic.
“Too Early To Be Late” EP
Our debut record will consist of 10 songs. It was recorded by old time acquaintance, Mokthar from Iseekmusic Studios, with hybrid of live and track recordings. The band had Alwee, the vocalist from Thy Regiment as vocals for the recordings. The record is full of angst, combination of fast and groovy, punk rock-ish, hardcore (old or new school and everything in between) kinda music.
The lyrics are a combination of topics, from about releasing the stress within one-self due to life, work and any other adult commitments, topics about having motivation and to the cliché topics of being sick of the constant discrimination, disparity and conflicts we often hear in the news nowadays. The record is called “too early to be late”. The title just reflects the phase in our lives where we always think that we would never be able to set another band with our busy life, but here we are with a new band with a record.
Here’s a quick track by track rundown to give you an idea of what we sing about:
The 10 tracks are:
#1 Everything is Shit: About feeling lost in an adult life and relationship.
#2 Losing Faith: About having low self-confidence and trying to motivate own self to overcome it.
#3 Be Like This: About people being judgmental all the time, in real life or behind keyboards.
#4 Timeless: About one-self fighting addiction on anything.
#5 Pigheaded: About selfish people.
#6 Peace and Make Up: About rallying on avoiding conflicts, and aim for peace.
#7 Free Your Mind: A motivational piece to hear your inner heart for the better.
#8 Life’s Not Perfect: About expecting life will not always turn out as what you like to think.
#9 Know Your Goals: A motivational piece to believe in one-self to achieve their dreams.
#10 Make a Change: PMA are the words to live by.
Never-seen EP cover:
Hand drawn by Min. We are trying to DIY as much as we can including the cover art for the record. Nevertheless we still needed help from a friend (Uze) to digitize all the drawings.
Malaysian local hardcore scene
Malaysian scene is thriving with the emergence of new talented bands, and the exposure of the current generations have, has helped the scene to grow with the local well known bands leading the way and passing the torch to the younger ones. The scene, in general is tight-knit although we may have several kind of supporters of music, they may not realize it but at the very core it does come down to the love of music and people in the scene has (from our opinion) matured enough nowadays to respect each other. That itself, helps the scene to grow, not forgetting the various self-sustaining DIY venues providing platforms for bands to express their music.
COVID-19’s impact on music community
It really does in the sense of live shows. There are none for now, it has been like that for the past few months and for how long we do not know due to the control order. This global pandemic has hit hard economically and financially, especially true to our comrades who runs live show venues as their main source of income. The scene and the supporters of it are kind enough at this hard time to help as much as they can, by donating or just sharing the burden around. We hope this pandemic will come to an end early enough to save the people who are affected by it financially and certainly physically.
Lyrics:
“Make A Change”
Keep it, to find me
Keep it in a good way
Keeping the strength
For all to see
Nothing to lose, would you take any make?
Bigger brisker not just one
This is all I have to say
Before we make a better way
This is all I have to say
Get a grip on your own wayTo all my friends,
Let’s make a change, let’s do together
WE KEEP THIS STRENGTH!
PMA PMAWe getting through, we getting through together
until the end
Nothing to gain
We bare all this pain
Together we keep this chained
Let’s make a better world for you and for me
“Life’s Not Perfect”
Be dissonance…can’t agree.
All the pressure is what i need
to heed, to be power shift
feeling betterLife’s not perfect,
you never gonna get it backIt’s what you got,
that mattersThe one you lack
But it’s all breaking now i seeLife’s not perfect,
you never gonna get it backOne of these days, I’m gonna be alone
Heartbreak solace, I will never go home
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