June 2000 - Clara Chow of AudioLoad.com catches up with Danny Loong and Trevor Jalla of the Universal Blues Band, which has just released their swinging debut album "Get On The Blues Train".

On Track 1, "Day train", of the album, "Get On the Blues Train", you guys asked the question: "How do you explain the blues?" Mind if we throw this question back to you?

Jalla: That question is taken from the opening of Loong's short film, "Universal Blues" (1998). Hopefully, our performance on the album helps to answer that question, but the answer in the film, funnily enough, is "you don't". You can talk about the blues all day, but if you don't feel it, then you've missed the point. That said, the blues came out of an environment of extreme prejudice. So I guess different people embrace the blues differently, based on their experiences in life.

Loong: The blues were originally work songs sung by African American slaves. They sang to forget their problems and hardship. Having lost their traditions and culture, they created a new passionate musical form that would draw them closer to one another, as well as enable them to retain some comfort and hope. The best way then to understand the blues or African American music for that matter is to understand its history, and listen to the range of human emotions within its structures.

What do you think are the typically Singaporean / Malaysian / Asian blues that one can sing about? Long HDB queues, high COE prices, the awful monsoon weather, the haze, racial unrest and riots in Indonesia ...

Loong: Everything from the recent recession, to the historic summit of the two Koreas, to the fact that we can't stop using the car horn while driving on the road. Let's not forget that the blues does not only express sorrows, it also expresses hope, celebration and joy. The blues can be applied to any kind of issue that affects us. I believe that Asia has the blues, not just in the musical sense, but also in the cultural, social and political sense. Asia has a lot to prove to the world, having obtained their "freedom" and independence from colonisation. There is much need for emotional release and expression within the Asian psyche.

Jalla: The blues relies more on the musical delivery, be it vocal or instrumental, rather than the lyrics themselves. I do think that issues like social unrest and government oppression are better expressed in other forms of music, like folk, rock, and hip-hop. The blues relates more to the here and now. It's what you're going through as you sing or play. It's about the release, really. There's ample room for a light-hearted tune about city peak hour traffic, or corporate blues or something like that. You mentioned the monsoon as part of a possible "Asian blues". Well, weather is something that runs deep in the lyrics of blues music, as a metaphor for underlying emotions. Like: "The sky is crying, can you see the tears roll down the street...I've been looking for my baby, and I wonder where can she be." Actually, I like the monsoon idea. Might make a song out of it. Thanks!

In one of the songs, Universal Blues Band protests: "I can't cook." But are you guys seriously disasters in the kitchen?

Jalla: Ha! That's me. I can do a decent cheese and onion omelette, and I'm the king of instant noodles, but it's mainly survival food when I cook. Rice and canned curry is a staple for me when I'm home alone. Danny makes mean Italian pasta though. My mum recently gave me the task of watching her lamb curry so it didn't burn... We had to call it rendang after that.

I've noticed that three of the new tracks revolve around cooking and the kitchen ("I Can't Cook", "Cooking With Gas", "Come On In My Kitchen"). Is this the regional preoccupation with food as a social activity?

Jalla: Well, "Cooking with Gas" is an Australian term for when something is working out right, and moving along smoothly, as opposed to cooking on a slow hotplate. We were teaching a friend from Singapore some Aussie slang and we came up with that one (to go with "g'day mate" and "ya reckon?"). We thought it would be a good title for an up-tempo, swing tune we had. "Come On In My Kitchen" is a Robert Johnson tune. It's really a story of seduction, not a real "kitchen" that he's singing about.

Loong: Bob's your uncle (another Aussie slang)! That's right, the song is about him inviting his lover into his kitchen for a heated cuddle, hoping that they would be "cooking with gas." Seriously though, food features in many films from the region (Taiwanese director Ang Lee's "Eat Drink Man Woman"). There is also the Australian "Bar-Bee" (BBQ). Even the chicken shacks in the American South. Every culture has a fascination with food. Food is used as a medium for communication, community and friendship. The African Americans call their music "soul food".

How did the idea for the Universal Blues festival come about?

Loong: It was a dream I had in my first semester at university. I looked at all the students sitting on the campus lawn and was amazed to see so many people of different cultures together at the same time. I decided then that I would organise a multi-cultural celebration of blues and roots music someday.

Jalla: The festival went great. Everyone was relaxed and enjoyed themselves. However, we've decided to give ourselves more time for preparation next year. It was always "Oh man, why isn't this done yet?" and "That was due last Friday!" Getting sponsorship and advertising was not easy too, but we managed. We're really thankful to everyone who helped out. All the musicians we approached were more than happy to be part of the festival which was great.

In your opinion, what is the difference between jazz and blues?

Loong: They evolved from the same roots. Blues, work songs, boogie and ragtime gave rise to contemporary popular music. This in turn gave rise to styles such as swing, soul and funk. For me, the blues is more intense and personal. It tells a story. On the other hand, jazz explores and challenges musical boundaries. I love both forms, as well as other African American music styles. In our album, we cover quite a wide spectrum of styles, from traditional delta style, Chicago, swing, jazzy ballads, rock and roll, to jump blues.

Jalla: Blues is raw. It's open. You're emotionally naked when you play it. That doesn't mean an all-out frenzy, because the most tender and controlled phrase can be just as powerful. Buddy Guy is a big influence on me and can move between the extremes so well. Jazz is a lot more refined and technically involved than blues. It is still very intense, but in a different way. I love listening to jazz but I can't play it too well yet. A year ago, I had the "four guys playing four different songs" mentality about jazz! But now I absolutely dig some of the stuff. Some jazzy licks creep into my playing, but I'm a blues player at heart. I think the blues is more accessible to the wider audience. It touches a common point in people. That's my opinion.

Universal Blues Band's philosophy is that the blues is a form of expression on racial oppression, frustration and freedom. But what about the white appropriation of the blues? One obvious example would be Elvis himself.

Jalla: There are countless others too, like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Paul Butterfield, as well as Eric Clapton in the UK. We prefer to think of these as evidence that the blues can reach any culture. The fact that white America eventually embraced the music is amazing when you think that that culture was the very source of oppression.

Loong: The blues is really culturally transparent. I believe that anyone regardless of their background can express himself or herself within it. The fact is that the blues had other cultural inputs: Celtic songs, Scottish folksongs and Wesleyan songs, among others, also influenced it. Elvis was just one example of the accessibility of the blues, mixing the blues with country and gospel. That's why you see as many white blues/jazz musicians as their black counterparts, which is not the case in more cultural-specific music forms such as Country music.

Surely, with each culture's adoption of the blues as a musical form, the blues would be transposed, transformed and changed irrevocably? For example, Wu Bai and China Blue.

Jalla: True. The best example is the British Blues revolution. People like Eric Clapton, John Mayall and the Rolling Stones took the blues and made it into something new.

Loong: We believe what we are doing is really exciting. We plan to branch out and merge Asian musical forms and rhythms with the blues/jazz structures. The blues started in the cotton fields, went to the cities, and spread to Europe. We believe that Asia Pacific could very well be the final piece of the blues jigsaw puzzle.

I visited ublues.com's forum and Marnie Lee left a message ... Who is she? (Incidentally, the track is rather reminiscent of Elvis' "Hound Dog".)

Loong: Funny how everybody is curious about the mysterious "Marnie Lee". Actually, she is a close friend of mine. One day, while we were talking on the phone, I asked her what her middle name was. She replied "Lee". That makes her full name "Marnie Lee Richardson" and boom… it got me thinking. "Marnie Lee, Marnie Lee". Yes, it does sound like a rock n roll tune. We had a lot of fun recording it. The interesting thing is that "Lee" is a bi-cultural name. You can never tell whether the person is Chinese or Caucasian. In this particular song, we sang about an "Irish Queen", so it kind of confirms her ethnicity. This song is also a subtle statement about royalty, particularly the English one. Thanks Marnie!!!

How ready do you think Asians, are for a Blues revival or insurgence? I mean, don't you guys sometimes feel that it might be easier to throw down the towel and do pop music instead?

Jalla: As a band, we don't want to "make the big time", we want to spread the blues, as well as our message of friendship, tolerance and understanding.

Loong: It seems that way doesn't it? We are not about to give up though. People in Asia want to hear great music and live performances, whether it's blues, jazz or Aboriginal. We believe that some youths want something deeper than boy or girl groups. They want to be inspired. Music in Asia cannot progress if we are still seen as "pirated" or "lower quality". The blues can be deceptively simple, but it's easy to play it poorly. I think that it's important that we raise the standard of blues music, in order to have audiences appreciate and support a band like ours.

Could you tell me more about your encounters with racial discrimination?

Jalla: I copped a bit in high school, here in Perth. I was called the usual "gook" or "chink", but, thankfully, nothing resulting in violence. Unfortunately, there's bound to be a portion of a community that does not accept others based on race, culture or religion. Even at some of our gigs, we've been tagged "the band with the gooks". We've had several people come up to us after gigs, saying, "Now don't take this the wrong way…but Asians and blues? Doesn't seem to fit." But they've enjoyed the show and we usually get to have a good chat about it

I love the idea of a "day train" and a "night train" on the album -- with different moods and tempos. Who came up with it?

Jalla: We were discussing the album, and Phil mentioned that whereas with old LP records you could have a different "feel" on either side, that was lost with CDs. He mentioned a train ride, and Loong came up with the Day/Night/Almost Home idea. Loong and I penned "Get on the blues train" with Phil's help too. The train is a recurring theme through the album. We used train sounds as interludes. The day train consists of the up-tempo tracks, and the night train, appropriately, slows things down. The Almost Home section picks the tempo up again, and the gospel choir rendition of the title track brings the journey home, so to speak.

Loong: The album is basically a train journey whereby we invite the listeners to join into a collective blues experience. Trains had an important part to play in the evolution of the blues. The blues harmonica, among other instruments, evolved through the imitation of the rhythm and yells of the trains in the America South. I remember the anticipation of boarding a train from Singapore to KL to visit my girlfriend, as well as the sadness when it came to returning home. The song "It's your call" was inspired by memories of those train journeys.

"Get on the blues train" seems to be an album about transition (the front cover shows the four band members sitting at a train station, but the back cover only has four empty seats left). So, what is the next step in the band's progress?

Loong: We're one of the featured bands at the premiere Western Australian blues festival. "Blues at Bridgetown" attracts more than 10,000 people every year. We are all very excited because the festival committee at Bridgetown has decided to call this year's theme "Universal Blues", inspired by the film and its message. The film will be screened periodically and the band will be appearing on stage with prominent local and international musicians, such as John Hammond. At the moment, we are also planning to organise the second Universal Blues Festival in Perth, as well as one in Singapore possibly later this year.

Jalla: Hopefully we can also play on the East Coast (Sydney/Melbourne) festival and venue circuit some time soon. We plan to make it to Singapore in the not too distant future. We've also sent our CD to various contacts in the United States, and we're looking to get something from that. Overall it's feeling pretty good, and we're taking it a step at a time.

 

 

Danny Loong, one of the founding members of the Universal Blues Band.
written and presented by Felix Tan - 20 January 2001

Hello, I’m Felix Tan and a warm welcome to Profile. In this edition, we’ll be featuring Danny Loong, one of the founding members of the Universal Blues Band. The Band, born in Perth, Australia, comprises Singaporean Danny Loong, Malaysian Trevor Jalla who is the lead vocal and 2 Australians, Philip Arena and Joe Whittle. With influences from the blues masters such as BB King, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy and Eric Clapton, the group certainly sets high standards, giving new meaning to blues as a universal genre that everyone in the world, regardless of race and culture can relate to.

Although not yet a household name in the Singapore music scene, the Universal Blues Band has created a stir in Western Australia’s most prestigious blue festival. Recently, they released their first album, “Get on the Blues Train”, in Western Australia to much acclaim. Their album has also been launched worldwide, reaching radio charts in the US and Australia and as far as Latin America and Europe. I spoke to Dannly Loong (DL), guitar/keyboard/harmonica player and founding member of the Universal Blues Band and first asked him to tell me more about how it all started?

DL: “It all started with the film I made when I was a student. It is about a personal experience that I had with racial prejudice which firstly set me out on a three year journey to find out more about prejudice. Secondly, to make me aware of my Asian identity and thirdly, because I was really into the blues, made me revisit the roots of the blues, because the blues was really a reaction against prejudice. I was in search of a way to bring people together and thought, wait a minute, music is a great way to bring people together, to get people to interact, to share ideas, to know about each other. Music could be a way to break the ice. So that is the roots of Universal Blues. I brought my film to Bridgetown, the biggest blues festival in West Australia and met Trevor. He was jamming on stage and I was totally impressed and I just had to go up to the stage. I told the organisers and said that I had to go and play with this guy and you know, they let me play, that’s how our friendship started and that is the birth of the band.”

The Universal Blues Band has released its first CD and taken part in the Bridgetown Universal Blues festival, which was named after the organisers were inspired by the group, I asked Loong to elaborate on the message of their CD “Get on the Blues Train”.

DL: “As far as the message, what we are trying to do is embodied in the title track, “Get on the Blues". There are two versions, the standard 4-piece band electric version and a Gospel version where we actually had a Gospel Choir come in to sing with us. “Get on the Blues Train” is probably the best song to descirbe our misson and there is a line in there “…something's coming around…” there is something around the corner, we see it, you know and we hope it reveals itself.

Loong then further elaborated on what the blues really means.

DL: “People will have this tendency to think that the blues is sad, you know, which is not totally true, It did come from sad circumstances, but it is also fun. So, we have some songs which is fun, very fun, we actually joke around. “I can’t Cook” is probably one of my favourite, Trevor and myself, we wrote that song about a guy and his girl. He can do anything in the world for his woman. He can bring her mom to the shopping mall or whatever, but he just can’t cook. So, it’s a compromise."

The album “Get on the Blues Train” has three parts to it. Loong explains why:

DL: The thing is about this album is this, its split up into 3 sections - day train, night train and almost home. We want the listeners to experience a journey, from the beginning to the end. If you listen from the start to the end, its like a celebration of a train journey. Day train consist of mostly uptempo songs. The night train consists of more reflective, slow or medium pace songs. And almost home are the 2 uptempo tracks in that section, the celebration of going home, the feeling of reaching your destination. We are just inviting anyone, regardless of their backgrounds to come in to this train journey, get on the blues train, like a festival, come in and experience togetherness and humanity.”

One of the slower tracks in the album is called “Night is Calling”. Touching on this, Loong says:

DL: “That song, it has a Gospel feel as well as a message. That features Trevor and that is a good song, actually, to listen to Trevor’s full vocal range as it goes from the low to the high. Yeah, that is a great song to pick to.”

Danny Loong has dreams of one day performing with Blues masters BB King, Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy. We wish him success in this as well as in the group’s next festival to be held in Singapore later this year.

And with that, we end this edition of Profile. I’m Felix Tan for RSI.