Sounds of freedom

GOOD music, regardless of the genre, can stir our curiosity to produce an emotional effect, a sort of liberation from reality even.
That is precisely what local DJs Farez Khan and Shaheed Naz of Dangerdisko, and American jazz musician Marques Young who performs under the name Q Sound, want listeners to experience with their collaboration on Free, a song that they admit is a departure from their usual sounds.
The single, which dropped on March 8, has been a work in progress since 2014, when Dangerdisko was in the midst of recording its debut album, Hedonism.
At the time, Dangerdisko had a gig at the Future Music Festival Asia, while Young – who has lived in Kuala Lumpur since 2009 – was performing as part of the Bassment Syndicate group.
Farez and Shaheed heard Young singing during the group's soundcheck, and asked him to collaborate with them.
Young recalled: "I wanted to change my sound 'cause I was coming from a very strong jazz background … and so, when they [Dangerdisko] showed me the track, it was kind of a nice synergy of what they were doing, and what I wanted to do.
"The timing of everything was really nice and so it made sense."
Young also took the song to a new level. Initially, Free was all about having a good night out, but Young added lyrics that changed the story to a familiar tale about wanting to connect with that special someone, amplified by his smooth R&B vocals.
Farez said: "When we gave [the song] to Marques, he added a story behind it. He added character and depth ... and [made] the story more refined."
Free was released on International Women's Day, in a bid to amplify the message that the collaborators wanted to communicate to their audience.
"There's a deep message inside the video, basically about urbanisation and about women and choices," Farez explained.
The music video for Free, directed by Al Ibrahim, sees an ethereal girl waking up somewhere in Kuala Lumpur, where her presence seems to hypnotise the few people she comes into contact with.
Young explained: "When you find a person that you're attracted to, you have like a certain type of energy, like an aura that you're drawn to.
"So in the video, all the people are being enchanted by this creature, it's like that moment in the club and you see that girl, that you're kind of enchanted … like [she] has a spell on you."
Interpretations of the video differ, even for the people who produced it. According to Shaheed, the video plays on the notion of lust.
He said: "You see, when the girl is with someone, they will be lusting after her, like wanting her and then suddenly she just disappears at the end.
"It's like once she disappears, it's a release for everyone. She's free and everybody is free too."
The single, which will appear on both parties' separate new projects due to drop this year, showcases a departure from the usual music produced by Dangerdisko or Q Sound.
Farez revealed that Dangerdisko's upcoming EP, called Into the Night, will tell varying stories from an urban perspective, beginning with Free.
"I think for our EP, we're planning – hopefully, everything goes on well – to drop it in October, 'cause that's when our 10th-year anniversary is. So we're planning to [hold] a party to celebrate it."
Accomplishing a decade as a nu-disco duo is an impressive feat, as when they started out, not many were familiar with their sound.
Farez said: "When we first started out, we started playing in gay clubs. The gay community accepted disco and so when we first started playing nu disco, it was [not] such an alien sound.
"We had this like, DIY ethos … we printed our own flyers, we actually walked around Hartamas back then when they had Hartamas Square, and actually gave people flyers to come watch our show."
Meanwhile, Texas-born Young's yet-to-be-titled album will offer an insight to the complications of love and relationships.
He added that it will include a song which is describing how his girlfriend "is standing above me wanting to shoot me".
He said: "It just goes to all these different ideas about, you know, when you're in a relationship and you have conflict and then you resolve the conflict in different ways … but the sound will be different.
"It will be more of an alternative R&B sound."
For Dangerdisko, experimenting with different genres is a way to reach new fans.
"We want to explore and we want to challenge ourselves in making music," said Farez.
"It doesn't have to be, we're good in nu disco [and] we've been making it for 10 years, so we have to do it for the next 10 years."