Post-Hardcore / Pop-Punk
Hey man. I'm Darren and I'm the
lead vocalist and guitarist in the band.
awesome and how did you guys come together as a band?
The band started out as an acoustic
side project in 2008. I was in a metal band prior and I just wanted to venture
out on my own. I did screams and played bass in the other band. With some
acoustic songs written, I figured, maybe I should go out and play them. The
rest of the band joined at the end of 2008 but by 2009, we had a complete solid
line up. We had a female vocalist and a violinist too. As years went by, we had
a couple of lineup changes but for the past 5 years or so, we've had a pretty
fixed lineup until our guitarist, Leonard left in December 2019 to focus on his
career. The current line up consists of Ian on drums, Tomas who was initially
on bass and has moved to lead guitar (he's a guitarist by nature and plays in
his post-rock band, The Metaphor) and Sonny on bass.
And how did you first decided you wanted to be in
music?
I started off playing music
seriously when I was 14. My brother was in a band and later joined one of the
biggest grunge bands in Malaysia. He later did his solo thing too so it was all
kind of set up for me as well. He got me started by playing bass on the
acoustic guitar at home because he wanted to jam to Guns N Roses' Sweet Child O
Mine. That was how it started for me then I ended up playing in church which
was pretty much the launchpad for me. So by about 17/18, I joined the metal
band as a bassist. I just knew I wanted to jump into it. I didn't think I'd be
where I am today, but I knew there was a path set for me and I took it. It all
birthed from passion.
So you started out in a
church, and now here you are with tens of thousands of likes on Facebook and
thousands more view on YouTube, how does it feel to have come so far?
It feels like there's so much more
that I can do. While the likes and views are important to a certain extent, I
feel that is not the only merit to quantify success or any kind of influence. I
try to keep my head out of the clouds and to focus on the right things. We
don't just play music but we've moved into organizing shows, working with
brands and media. We're maneuvering in other ways in the music industry here in
Malaysia. While numbers are important, there are other ways to stabilize your
name in the industry by doing things related to music. There's always something
we can do and that is the 'more' I'm talking about that goes beyond views and
likes.
That's really awesome dude, and lyrically, is there
anything you try to express in your songs?
I write mostly based on my
observations of things I see. Relationships mostly and how I see it through my
eyes. I've touched topics like suicide and hope in times of despair and the
regular feeling of falling in love. It's always been about that feel good vibe
but lately I've been trying to write from a different perspective. A song that
came out of anger and frustration. I feel a message like that has never been
put out by the band and I want to try something like that. The song is set for
release some time soon. It's about 70% done. With the final touches, it should
be ready to go soon.
Can you tell me more about that release? When might we
expect it? And while we're on the topic, are you guys planning any new albums
or eps that's fans can look forward too
looking at sometime in April for
that release. We're planning to just put out singles this year and eventually
compile it into an EP. Looking at doing 5 tracks. We've been saying that for
the past couple of years but we got derailed by other plans but this year for
sure. And looking at the current situation with the world and the virus, I
reckon we'd be indoors more and producing more music that way
And speaking of the virus and
isolation, a lot of bands are doing live streams on Facebook of them playing
music tocCombat the 'mass boredom', are you guys planning on doing anything
like that?
Yeah, we might but then again, we
wanna sound great. That can only happen if we head into the studio, which we've
done before. Everything properly recorded and sound is perfect. But we might
just do it simple and just do something for the heck of it in our home studio.
Awesome dude, I’m really
looking forward to if you guys do that. So, Im sure you’ve heard this question
a billion times, but relating to your band name, what went into it, and is
there any story behind it?
There's no crazy story. I was
watching 'Malcolm In The Middle' and the three brothers were fighting when all
of a sudden they come to a stop and one of them shouts, 'oh it was an honest
mistake'. I felt that it sounded just about right. Of course, it's also a
popular idiom and for people who have never heard of us would say they have
because of it's familiarity. I toyed with the idea of calling us THE Honest
Mistake but decided An Honest Mistake would be much cooler.
So, I'm really curious
though, you guys are in Asia, because I thought you guys were signed to Indie
Vision Music/Records?
Yeah twe’re From Malaysia. We're
friends with IVM and they've been very helpful with putting out our releases, But
we're not signed.
We were signed to a major label out
here in Malaysia though. We were signed to Universal Music from 2016 to 2018
and we decided to continue without a label because we're ok to do things on our
own. The label helped in some ways but we did expect a lot more of them.
Can you describe some of the differences you've found
signed vs being an indie band?
Over the years of doing things independently
has given me the knowledge to work around a lot of things. With the media,
radio, getting our releases out, getting shows, bookings, better performances
etc, we learned by doing. There was no real guide but we learned from
experiences. By the time we got signed, all we needed was an extra push to
things we're not able to achieve coming from an independent band as compared to
the cloud you have as a major label. We wanted access to bigger things and to a
larger network. While the 2 years seemed fairly alright, I felt more could have
been done. So while we were signed, we were still functioning like an
independent band.
It's a huge scene. Just like in
USA. Not as plentiful when it comes to the number of acts in its niche but it's
a very diverse scene. It's segregated into a few sections. Mainly because
Malaysia is a nation that is multilingual. English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil.
The Chinese and Tamil scenes are really cool but the focus is mainly on Taiwan,
China and India while the Malay scene is the biggest with a mixture of
everything including more traditional sounds. The English, just like anywhere
in the world has everything. The heavy stuff, the dance stuff and all of its
sub-genres. You name it. The scene is doing really well and lately
groups/communities have formed to support these acts. I'm a part of a few which
is great to see more support is being given to artists and more local fans are
listening to local artists. Out here in Asia, we're very influenced by UK, USA
and Europe. It's been like that for a very very long time since the explosion
of modern music. So the English artists are often compared to other
international acts. It's different with the Malay acts because they're 100%
local. For example, I get compared to Simple Plan and Yellowcard.
That being said the scene is
healthy. There have been lots of concerts in the past 4/5 years and a lot more
newer bands have come out
That's awesome dude. And
speaking of sound, I’ve noticed in some of your songs (Like, if I told you this
was real”) a bit of a retro video game backing. Is there any special
inspiration that went into that?
Yeah, there wasn't any in
particular for that song but our friend from Indonesia who helped us with the
synth parts is a big chiptune fan so he put in his flavor. At that time, we
were both very influenced by Forever The Sickest Kids. If you listened
carefully, there is a Street Fighter power move in there too! At that time, the
wave of music was very synth driven so that was how it came about
Nothing really has been the
craziest that we've seen but more of the crazy things we've done on stage. I've
done push ups on stage, climb the truss and hung from the top many times, Sonny
swung the bass and his strap snapped, I swung my guitar and cut Sonny's arm.
It's been pretty crazy. But one show we did in particular was to take a bus to
another state up north that took us 18 hours to get there because there was a
big football match that weekend and traffic was insane. We also decided to take
the bus instead of flying. This was in 2010/2011 and we weren't making that
much money to afford flights. We arrived, played the show after the final band
had played and jumped onto the bus to head home. It was a nightmare to be
honest but it's one of those stories.
The other show was in Taiwan in
2015. We played a beach festival with one of the biggest names in Taiwan called
Soda Green with over 30k in attendance. It was fun. Plus, it was televised on
TV. What a fun show.
The last big show we did, a girl
ran up on stage to poorly pour me a beer. It was funny. I bent backwards so she
could pour it, but she had the bottle positioned in such a way that I were to
drink it myself. I was like, 'DUDE WHAT ARE YOU DOING???'. I smiled then went down
to get a drink with her after the set.
For those looking at joining their first band, what
advise would you give?
Find like-minded people and have
fun. Experiment and figure, it out from there but to experiment with a purpose.
It's like a puzzle. You need to find the right pieces to fit. Once they fit,
have a goal and clear direction and keep going at it. Equip yourself with the
knowledge of music and the business aspect so you're self-efficient. And most
importantly, be nice and stay humble.
What do you love and what do you hate most about being
In a band and playing shows
The joy of being in stage rocking
out to people who matter. Seeing people respond and singing along is what I
crave for all the time. I use that as a reason to always up my game and to put
in a good show and to write better stuff people can resonate with. That 30
minutes of 1 hour on stage is something nobody else can ever experience unless
you're a performer. It's a different kind of rush.
The thing I hate is the waiting time in between soundcheck
and the show itself especially if it's a same day thing.
That's awesome dude. And if you had to quit the band
today. What would you remember most.
I'd remember everything man. It's
hard to imagine just remembering one thing. That's a difficult one. But I think
it's gotta be the travels. We've been out in South East Asia quite a fair bit
and those trips are always good. The flying sucks but when you're filled with
anticipation and adrenaline, you just wanna have fun. It's fun doing what you
love and being a tourist at the same time.
Definitely dude. And have
you ever been out in your daily life, or on a flight, and had a fan recognize
you.
Oh yeah. Multiple times. It's quite
funny sometimes how they approach me but I'm always ready to chat and take
photos. It's nice to know that people notice you. It's like a little pat on the
back that we mean something to someone.
And do you still remember your first show? What was
that like?
The first show was in January 2008
in a venue called One Cafe. It was right in the heart of the city, Kuala
Lumpur. It was a bar late at night, but this was in the evening about 6pm.
There was a gig that my brother was playing, and I asked him if I could play a
set. He spoke to the organizer and the guy gave me a spot. I did 2 songs and I
left shortly after. It was then that I realised that I could do it. It was
super dodgy. That venue was dark and dingy. One of those. But also one of those
that you have to put yourself through before you 'graduate' to other venues.
Awesome, and are you guys planning any new music
videos?
for the new song, yes. definitely. So,
once this lock down in malaysia is over, then we will head out to finish the
track and shoot the video and get everything ready by April.
you can check them out HERE