Killing Time with Ijah Amran

Currently available:

1. Wishlist: song, lyric
2. Phase 3: song, lyric
3. Goodbye Song: song, lyric
4. Scream At Me: song, lyric
5. I Wrote This: song, lyric
6. Needful Things: song, lyric

More to be uploaded when I have the time. If you want to listen to the song, please point your mouse at the link, right side click it and then save the file. Files are either in MP3 or wav format and none is bigger than 2MB so it will not crash your machine.

All the rustic buzzing and interferences are purely unintended; all part and parcel of recording your stuff using a creaky mic and a cranky laptop.

Update: I have uploaded 18 songs using 4shared (some are duplicates of above). Some of these are the original (raw) *.wav files so the size is a bit bigger than if I had converted them into MP3. Songlist and download links below; more songs to be uploaded when I can spare the time:

1. Amused
2. Can’t Change You
3. Cold Wind
4. Goodbye Song
5. I Wrote This
6. Let’s Not Talk About Ifs
7. Phase 1
8. Phase 2
9. Phase 3
10. Revelation
11. Spare Me Your Snatches of Time
12. Stupid Reasons
13. Wishlist
14. Scream At Me
15. Needful Things
16. [The End]
17. Yang Sebenarnya
18. Puisi Akhir Musim Bunga

IA’s note:

I haven’t been writing songs for a while now. I don’t know why.  Actually I don’t even know why I write songs, I think the best answer is sometimes I get tired using other people’s words and wanted to use my own. I don’t write when I am particularly sad or anything. Most of the time I would just be walking around doing nothing consequential and thought, mmm, a song would just hit the spot. Yes, just like ordering fried chickens.

I write for or about people. Some I know, some I don’t know as well as I should. Anyone will tell you, songs are always personal. Only a handful of songs were purely imaginary, and even then I had a particular person in mind to project these imaginary experiences on. Was it hard? No, it was effortless. I didn’t do this for anything other than personal gratification so I didn’t worry if they are good or bad or cheesy, or if they don’t rhyme or use too simplistic chords. They are not my social observations on the society; or a clever way to disguise my intentions. They are just… a form of expression. So don’t read too much into it. The truth is sometimes much simpler than you think it is.

One of the best compliments I had was ”this sounds so Malay!” – it made me so happy to know that my Melayu-ness came through despite that I write almost entirely in English.

(a backstory: I don’t listen to Ella but there was this particular song that I thought was very unusual. It’s called “Gemilang”. I commented about it to Ams (huge Ella fan) when the album first came out, I said the melody sounded Japanese. It turned out the song WAS written by a Japanese producer and I was very pleased when I found out about it because I have always argued that the “essence” of a song is not defined by its language or who sings it. I don’t know if that is what my friend meant when he said my song sounds Malay but I hope it is and I am going to take it that way.)

Gemilang by Ella

Recently I was asked if Phase 3 is a love song from a boy to a girl. I told the person who asked no, it is a girl, telling a boy, that although things may remain unresolved and there are still residual feelings from whatever it was that bound them at the first place, it is not realistic to assume that you can just pick up where you left off. Time passes. I find it interesting that other people read the song differently and perceived it as a love song.

I also like that sometimes when I do covers people could not tell that it is a cover song. I’d like to think that it is because I have a certain style that can be identifiable as Ijah. When people tell me “That is so you” or if they say they heard something on the radio (excuse me, online radio) and said, I thought of you when I heard this, I think that’s nice.

Below is a cover of Blind Faith by Warrant which has appeared in this blog previously. Warrant is an 80’s rock band that had hits like Cherry Pie, Heaven and Sometimes She Cries. It is one of my favourite covers to do because it’s short and because people are always surprised when they found out who’s the original singer. And by comparison, the original version is right below it.

Blind Faith by Ijah

Blind Faith by Warrant