BY EDWINNIE EINSTEIN UNJI
KUCHING: Local band, Viceroyz from Kota Samarahan embarked on a journey to the mainstream media with the release of a Bidayuh song last year.
Viceroyz, a five-man band consists of five locals, Nick Nebles (lead vocalist), Michael Undi (guitarist), Danil Patrik (keyboardist), Steve Smith (bass guitarist), and Chris Mathias (drummer).
They have cut their teeth in the local scene, having played in multiple live shows in the past and also appearing in TV Sarawak (TVS).
Viceroyz released its first album in 2023, titled, ‘2ROYZ.FM’, and has since been getting booked to perform its album.
One of the songs in the album is titled DI’UW (To You), which aroused much interest as the song was written entirely in their native Badayuh language, more specifically the Bidayuh Padawan dialect.
“We did not plan to write this song, especially in our own dialect and language,” said Nick Nebles, the band’s lead vocalist and guitarist.
“Among all the songs in this album, Di’uw is the only Bidayuh track that we created randomly at the time.
“If you listen to other songs in the album, everything is in the Malay language,” said the 26-year-old.
The inspiration for Di’uw came about when the band membersheard a song from the Philippines.
“When we discovered this Filipino song on YouTube, we were inspired by the comment section that praised the singer for using his own language”, Chris said.
The interesting part is that Di’uw in the album is not the original version but a remastered version of it.
Actually, the idea of Di’uw came along before the 2ROYZ.FM album came to mind.
The song was actually made in 2021 and released the same year, but due to the band’s misgivings with the audio quality, they remastered it to make the song a part of the album.
Nick explained that when first creating the song back in 2021, the process was very quick.
“We did the drum beat, the guitar and chord progressions as well as the lyrics straight away after we felt inspired in Danil’s room at that time.
“We only did the chorus but the first and second verse was not written yet because we were drained by the hype we had creating the music, eventually running out of ideas to write the first verse and the second one,” Nick said.
After the studio session, Nick went home and out of the blue, was teeming with ideas for the verses while he was in the shower.
“It is a funny thing because of all the places that serve as inspiration for ideas, the shower was not on my list but to some people, bright ideas can appear almost anywhere, especially in the shower,” added Nick laughingly.
After Viceroyz released Di’uw in 2021, the band members did not feel too happy with the quality of the music back then but decided to take some time off to focus on creating other songs to produce the album (2ROYZ.FM), not touching it until they decided to include Di’uw in the album.
During the audio remastering process, Danil, the producer and sound engineer of the band, got down to brass tacks.
“When we created Di’uw back in 2021, we were new to music producing, but after we got to own a better Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), new plug-ins and new equipment, we did other music in the album easily and the audio quality was perfect.
“So, when remastering this song (Di’uw), I had minor complications during remastering such as the guitar being not loud enough, some audio distortions and many others that I eventually fixed.
“But I decided not to replace Nick’s vocals because I wanted to keep it as original as it was,” said Danil.
Di’uw, in a nutshell, can resonate with people out there who had experienced what Nick experienced before.
“I am not saying that this song is a direct message to someone I knew,” he said, adding that anyone could relate to it.
“Lyrics can be written anytime based on anything; in fact there are other artistes who wrote their lyrics in a heartbroken or sad way but they live a happy life.
“It is a form of art, sometimes by expression but sometimes merely art,” Nick explained.
Another reason why Nick wrote a song in the Bidayuh language was because of a suggestion his grandmother made to him.
“She said that, ‘you are in a band, and you are a Bidayuh, why do you not make a song that is in our language?,’ and it was food for thought.
That was the motivation that Nick needed the most at that time. However, he was sceptical because until then, whenever a Bidayuh song aired, the song would almost always be accompanied by a dance rhythm or ‘joget’ rhythm.
But eventually, after he talked with his band members, they agreed to proceed with Di’uw the way they saw it.
And the band members have no intention to translate the song to other languages because they believe music must be felt to be understood.
“If you hear the Iban song, ‘Bekikis Bulu Betis’, even non-Ibans remember the lyrics without knowing what the lyrics actually mean.
“We would like to therefore keep Di’uw original, and if there is someone who wants to know the meaning behind the lyrics, feel free to search it on our YouTube channel for translation, it is there,” Nick said.
Di’uw can be streamed online through Spotify, YouTube and other online music platforms.
Currently, Di’uw has reached a total of 4,000 plus streams, both the remastered and the original one combined.
Viceroyz, meanwhile, is working on another album.
“Just so you know, we have something cooking in the oven, so stay tuned,” said Nick without giving anything away.
