ROCK ON: Mesh (third from right) presenting a plaque to Benny (third from left) during the press conference. Also seen are (from left to right) advertising and promotions executive Samuel Chieng, Hamdan, ERA.fm announcer Osha Basri, and Iza.
KUCHING: This Saturday, ten of Sarawak’s best indie bands will have the chance to compete for a share of cash prizes worth RM10,000 and the opportunity to record a single with Warner Music Malaysia.
ERA fm Kuching, DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (DiGi) and the Ministry of Social Development and Urbananisation (KPSU) have combined forces with a host of local sponsors for RockERA DiGi, believed to be the first event of its kind in Sarawak giving local talents the opportunity to work with and be nurtured by music industry experts.
The first of three preliminary rounds will see 10 shortlisted bands take to the stage this Saturday April 9 at UiTM Kota Samarahan from 2pm onwards. Entry is free and open to all members of the public.
“We are very excited to be part of this event. What better platform to engage and connect the youth in Sarawak than through music where they can express themselves. This is also our way of thanking and rewarding our youth customers,” said DiGi’s head of Sarawak region Benny Wee during a press conference at tHe Spring yesterday.
“A survey we did last year showed that music is one of our youths’ main interests …. Through music we can engage the youth and forge closer bonds between them and the ministry as well as get them involved in the other programmes and activities we have,” said KPSU principal assistant secretary Hamdan Sharbini
General manager for AMP Radio Network Sabah and Sarawak Mesh Nair said that they expected this event to be received well by the public and hoped that this would mark the beginning of a yearly affair as far as RockERA is concerned.
“When we came down to Kuching, we made a promise to develop local talents. This is one of the platforms that we are using to develop local talents.”
“We are very, very serious in seeing a band come out of this competition, and this band will be nurtured by a label, and hopefully they will grow as big as Hujan.”
He said that they were ecstatic to be working with all the sponsors and thanked them for their support.
Operations manager for AMP Sarawak Iza Ibrahim said that so far, about 20 bands have registered with more bands in the process of submitting their demos.
She also revealed that some of the bands which have been shortlisted include those who are relatively well established in the local music scene.
She encouraged local bands to register their details online and send their demos to the ERA team at http://www.era.fm or through the ground teams from ERA.fm, Hitz.fm and MY.fm
The next two preliminary rounds will be held at Limkokwing Institute of Creative Technology (April 23) and Swinburne University of Technology (April 30). The latter will see 20 bands compete for the remaining two places in the finale.
The best four bands from the three preliminary rounds will compete on an outdoor stage at the Grand Finale which will be held on May 7 at tHe Spring Shopping Mall.
Top Malaysian rock band Hujan will also be there to give a special performance.
The official sponsors for RockERA DiGi are ERA.fm, DiGi, KPSU, the Spring Shopping Mall, Warner Music Malaysia, Firefly, The Borneo Post and Utusan Borneo.