my music haven

Good Times

2009-10-18T00:14:00.000+08:00

Good Times

Little darling tell me your secrets
How do you smile so bright
Like everything's alright?

You tell me it's okay
Cos everyday will be a brand new day!
And I believe you..

[Chorus]
So take my hand
We'll go to wonderland
And have some fun

We'll sail the seas
And paint the skies all blue
And you know I love you

And when sun sets tonight
We'll light a fire
And keep it burning bright

Nothing will change our lives
If we hold on and believe..

And when this is over
We'll look back
and smile at what we've done
and we'll laugh

If you believe in destiny
Why don't you take a chance
And sail away with me?
Life's too short you see
We'll have to be what we can be

Iced Tea

2009-10-02T01:18:00.001+08:00

Iced Tea

I sit here smiling
Looking at the sun
Iced tea by my side
Slowly dripping down

A gust of wind flew by
Rustling leaves in the air
A single tissue floats
An eternal wanderer

Music sways softly
Note by note
I close my eyes
In the silent light

Drops of colour
Falling down the way
Painting what comes
Under the starry sky

Tracing lines of day
Circling around the sun
Grassy patches spring
Flowers bloom anew

I've seen it all before
While it lasts
May it shine
Until time walks away

time

2009-09-22T02:23:00.001+08:00

i met you
i knew you
i loved you
and i'll lose you
soon enough

time makes fools of us all
makes the weak become strong
and then weak again
delusions of grandeur

we think we'll live forever
dreaming of eternity
but time sneaks round the corner
brings us back to reality

remember the times
wonderful
soothing
sweet
calming
exciting
joyful
best of times

time hurts, but time heals
i'll remember you
but i'll forget you
soon enough

Saturday will be Sunday

2009-07-26T21:48:00.000+08:00

Somewhere In Time

2009-06-26T22:30:00.005+08:00

There'll come a time
When the sun don't seem too bright
And the moon it doesn't shine at night..

There'll come a time
When the birds don't want to sing
And the flowers, they won't bloom in spring..

But I hope you will remember
All the things that takes us higher
And I hope you won't surrender
We'll go dancing on forever..

There'll come a day
When things just don't make sense
The rules have changed we can't comprehend..

There'll come a day
When everything goes wrong
And they just go on and on and on..

But I hope you will remember
All the things that takes us higher
And I hope you won't surrender
We'll go dancing on forever..

There'll come a moment
When you realize that some things
Are what they're meant to be..

There'll come a moment
When you'll see that
Love is all you need..

But I hope you will remember
All the things that takes us higher
And I hope you won't surrender
We'll go dancing on forever..

Souled Out (2009)

2008-12-31T15:55:00.007+08:00

Download the album HERE

Track Listing

Crazy Blues
Special Girl
I Do I Do
If I Was Superman
Up In the Skies Above
Perfect Stranger
Take Care My Love
Just Wanna Say I Love You
Before I Go
Someday

All tracks written, composed and performed by Firdaus.

Download the album HERE

hymn to the infinite sky

2008-12-24T18:56:00.000+08:00

Hymn to the Infinite Sky, Poem for Wind Orchestra - Satoshi Yagisawa

this is music at its finest. so much spiritual essence, so much conveyed in music and feelings, especially towards the end at the 6min mark. i get goosebumps listening to it.

if one can meditate in musical terms, this would be it, a hymn to the infinite sky..

Another Try

2008-12-12T18:36:00.000+08:00

Another Try

[Verse]

Is there a day where you can't find your way
And is there a sign on the road
Running in circles as time passes by
And sometimes you feel all alone

Counting the days when you used to be free
All it takes is just a one-night stand
Calling for help but the well has run dry
And sometimes you wish you could die, but just

[Chorus]

Give it another try
In the name of all you believe in, just
Let another day go by, and start
Pick up the pieces, just
Give it another try

[Verse]
Don't you dare take the easy way out
And run away from all your fears
Come be my hero I'll grant you a wish
The gold at the end of a rainbow

I share your pain though I know it's in vain
You've got to do it by yourself
I'll give you a smile, and a hug, and a kiss
And I'll be waiting for you here back home, so just

[Bridge]

There's a heaven out there
You've got to believe in
There's a heaven out there
Though it's unseen

This is Life

2008-12-07T23:31:00.000+08:00

This Is Life

Let's get up and run
To the sunshine
A lovely lovely place
A joyful joyful grace
Where we belong

Let's treat everyday
As a birthday
A happy happy time
A funny funny line
Of our lives

[Chorus]
Cos this is life
This is life my friend
You've got to live it out till the very end
There's nothing to lose
But you've gotta choose
A path that's just for you

Cos this is life
This is life my friend
Sometimes we go in circles but we start again
There's nothing to lose
So you better choose
A path that's best for you

Life's full of surprises
You can have a thousand guesses
But nothing might come true

Dream away till you're gone
There's no need to be scared or shy
Cos I'll be here for you

friend

2008-11-22T17:30:00.000+08:00

a friend in name is a dime and a dozen
a friend in deed..
is one in a million

i wish i had a teacher like that

2008-11-08T01:57:00.001+08:00

As long as there have been humans,
we have searched for our place in the Cosmos

Where are we?
Who are we?

We find that
We live on an insignificant planet,
Of a humdrum star,
Lost in a galaxy,
Tucked away in some forgotten corner
Of a universe in which
There are far more galaxies
Than people

We make our world significant
By the courage of our questions
And by the depth of our answers

We embark on a journey to the stars
With a question first framed
In the childhood of our species.
And in each generation
Asks anew, with undiminised wonder:
"What are the stars?"

Exploration is in our nature
We began as wanderers
And we are wanderers still

We have lingered long enough
On the shores of the Cosmic ocean
We are ready at last
To set sail for the stars

Carl Sagan

To Me You're Perfect

2008-10-30T00:02:00.000+08:00

To Me You're Perfect

Let them say what they say
Let them smile their condescending way
To me you're perfect

Let them laugh and mock
Close your ears, ignore their talk
To me you're perfect

Look within
And see the beauty
That nobody else can see

Don't be shy, don't be mad
Don't you cry, don't be sad
You're beautiful as you are

And to me you're perfect

thank you

2008-10-20T07:51:00.000+08:00

I guess the journey ended too soon

We have only scaled a few peaks thus far

And there's many more to go

And a few valleys too

But we'll move on nonetheless

The road is still long ahead, neverending

Thank you for being part of this great adventure

i wish i had written this song

2008-10-19T21:53:00.000+08:00

I Taught Myself How To Grow Old
Ryan Adams

Poor little rose, beaten by the rain
In the wind in the hail, thunder and the gale
Sometimes I feel like I'm going insane
Without the numbness or the pain so intense to feel
Especially now it added up through the years

And I, I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
'Till I was broken on the outside, and the inside's caved
I taught myself how to grow old

Most of the time I've got nothing to say
When I do it's nothing and nobody's there to listen anyway
I know I'm probably better off this way
I just listen to the voices on the TV 'till I'm tired
My eyes grow heavy and I fade away

'Cause I, I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
'Till I was broken on the outside

I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
'Till I was crooked on the outside, inside's caved
Crooked on the outside, inside's caved
Crooked on the outside, inside's caved
I taught myself how to grow old...

Am I Dreaming?

2008-09-28T19:27:00.000+08:00

Am I Dreaming?

I've come to your door
And I'm sitting here
Just waiting for you

I'm cold all inside
And I'm shivering
From the secrets that I hide

And I lay here..
I lay here..

Is there a light for me somewhere tonight?
Is there a place for me that I can hide?
Is there a better life for me out there?

Or am I dreaming..
A fool for believing..

Is there a silver lining beneath the cloud?
Is there a heaven we can dream about?
Is there an angel watching over me?

Or am I dreaming..
A fool for believing..

And I don't mind
To wait a little longer
What's the difference
Between a lifetime and a year?

So take your time
Just take your own sweet time
There's no hurry
As and when you're ready

Song Notes
This song was inspired by the movement theatre 'Poverty', about child prostitution.

A Better Place

2008-09-27T01:29:00.000+08:00

A Better Place

All the times that I made you sad
All the times that I made you mad
Came back to haunt me today
When you said you were going away

I love you
I love you
I love you
I love you

Nothing that I do will repay you
Nothing that I say will be okay
Cos you came and told me
That you can no longer stay

I love you
I love you
I love you
I love you

May you go to a better place
Somewhere where there's no pain
Where beautiful things await
And the angels know your name

There's a better place for you somewhere
A heaven full of love and care
For people who lived their lives believing
That there's some good in everything

And I will wipe away these tears on my face
Cos I know you're in a better place

my dream for the future

2008-09-26T00:58:00.000+08:00

my dream for the future is to properly record all my songs, with proper arrangements and decent sound quality, as good as the commercial music out there.

and i'd like to burn them all onto a cd and give it away to everyone. and maybe even do up a nice little professional booklet with all the lyrics inside, and maybe include some poems, as well as some of my poetry too, plus some lame photos! haha..

in my wildest dreams i would like to print a few hundred copies and give it out to random strangers at mrt stations - you know like when they give out the free morning newspapers, and just spread the joy of the music around.

when the day comes that my urge for songwriting is not so strong anymore, this cd would be a testament to a wonderful period of my life =)

so... who wants to help me out with this project? haha..

Chase Your Dreams

2008-09-21T20:48:00.000+08:00

Chase Your Dreams

[Verse]
Man, you better chase your dreams
I think you know just what that means
Ain't no one’s gonna tell that life ain't what it seems

Man, you gotta take your chance
C'mon have some romance
Don't ever be afraid to dance that dance

[Bridge]
So go be a rock star or drive a race car
Whatever you want to be
Go play the guitar or learn the sitar
Believing will set you free

So go be a dancer or a boxer
Whatever you want to be
Maybe a doctor or a lawyer
Believing will set you free

[Chorus]
So be who you wanna be
And show the world and let them see
Reach for the stars above
Just keep on doing what you love

Chase your dreams...
Chase your dreams...

The Bend

2008-09-21T01:47:00.001+08:00

The Bend

The bend round the road
Where we..
Used to meet
Used to walk
Used to laugh
Used to run
Used to say goodbye

And as the hand of time moved along
So did we..
All forgotten
All covered in soot
All memories
All haunting
All shadows of the past

I passed the bend today
And I..
Reminisced
Smiled
Sighed
Dreamed
Teared

And I turned away..
from Yesterday

Where Have You Been?

2008-09-16T00:54:00.000+08:00

From now on, I will keep a running record of great musical acts whom I have just 'discovered' and makes me feel very happy and excited, thus the phrase 'where have you been (all my life?!)'

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (Stage band with incredible charisma)
Jose Feliciano (Incredible guitar player/singer - does cover versions better than the original artists)
UC Men's Octet (Quality acapella group, and entertaining!)
Paco de Lucia (damn it, how come I've never heard of him before? he is so damn good!)
George Benson

Singapore You Are Not My Country (For Noora)

2008-09-13T00:15:00.000+08:00

note: i realise that there's very few sites hosting this incredible poem, so i thought i'd do it, so that others may get a chance to read it. any copyright violation is unintended; just sharing a work of art.

Singapore You Are Not My Country (For Noora)
Alfian Sa'at

Singapore you are not my country.
Singapore you are not a country at all.
You are surprising Singapore, statistics-starved Singapore, soulful Singapore of tourist brochures in Japanese and hourglass kebayas.
You protest, but without picketing, without rioting, without Catherine Lim,
but through your loudspeaker media,
through the hypnotic eyeballs of your newscasters,
and that weather woman who I swear is working voodoo on my teevee screen.

Singapore, what are these lawsuits in my mailbox?
There are so many sheaves,
I should have tipped the postman.
Singapore, I assert, you are not a country at all.
Do not raise your voice against me,
I am not afraid of your anthem although the lyrics are still bleeding from the bark of my sapless heart.
Not because I sang them pigtailed pinnafored breakfasted chalkshoed in school
But because I used to watch telly till they ran out of shows.
Do not invite me to the podium and tell me to address you properly.
I am allergic to microphones and men in egosuits and pubicwigs.
And I am not a political martyr,
I am a patriot who has lost his country and virginity.
Do not wave a cane at me for vandalising your propaganda with technicolour harangues,
Red Nadim semen white Mahsuri menses the colourful language of my eloquent generation.
Your words are like walls on which truth is graffiti.
This has become an island of walls.
Asylum walls, factory walls, school walls, the walls of the midnight Istana.
If I am paranoid I have learnt it from you,
O my delicate orchid stalk Singapore,
Always thirsty for water,
spooked by armed archipelagoes,
always gasping for airspace,
always running to keep ahead,
running away from yourself.
Singapore why do you wail that way, demanding my IC?
Singapore stop yelling and calling me names.
How dare you call me a chauvinist,
an opposition party,
a liar,
a traitor,
a mendicant professor,
a Marxist homosexual communist
pornography banned literature chewing gum liberty smuggler? How can you say I do not believe in The Free Press autopsies flogging mudslinging bankruptcy
which are the five pillars of Justice?
And how can you call yourself a country,
you terrible hallucination of highways and cranes and condominiums ten minutes drive from the MRT?

Tell that to the battered housewife who thinks happiness lies at the end of a Toto Queue.
Tell that to the tourist guide whose fillings are pewter whose feelings are iron
whose courtesy is gold whose speech is silver
whose handshake is a lethal yank at the jackpot machine.
Tell that to my imam who thinks we are all going to hell.
Tell that to the chao ah beng who has seven stitches a broken collarbone and three dead comrades
but who will not hesitate from thrusting his tiger ribcage into another fight because the lanterns of his lungs have caught their own fire and there is no turning back.
Tell that to the yuppie who sits in meat-markets disguised as pubs, listening to Kenny G disguised as jazz on handphone disguised as conversation and loneliness disguised as a jukebox.
Tell that to all those exiles whose names are forgotten but who leave behind a bad taste in the thoughtful mouth,
reminding us that the flapping sunned linen shelters a whiff of chloroform.
Tell that to Town Council men who feed pigeons with crumbs of arsenic.
Tell that to Natra Hertogh a.k.a Maria who proved to us that blood spilled was thicker than water shed as she was caught pining under a stone angel in the nunnery for her husband.
Tell that to Ah Meng, who bore six hairy bastards for our nation.
Tell that to Lee Kuan Yew's squint.
Tell that to Josef Ng, who shaves my infant head amidst a shower of one-cent coins, and both of us are pure again.
Tell that to my Warrant Officer who knew I was faking.
Tell that to the unemployed man who drinks cigarettes smokes tattoos watches peanuts unself-conscious of his gut belch debts and wife having an affair with the Salesman of Nervous Breakdowns.
Tell that to our Maya Angelou's who are screeching like witches United Nations-style poems populated by Cheena Babi Bayee Tonchet Melayu Malas Keling Geragok Mat Salleh.
Tell that to the fakirs of civil obedience, whose headphones are pounding the hooving basslines of Damyata Damyata Damyata.
Tell that to the statue of Li Po at Marina Park.
Tell that to the performance artists who need licences like drivers and doctors and dogs when all they really need is just three percent of your love.
Tell that to the innocent faggot looking for kicks on a Sunday evening to end up sucking the bit-hard pistol-muzzle of the CID, ensnared no less by his weakness for pretty boys naked out of uniform.
Tell that to the caretaker of the grave of Radin Mas.
Tell that to Chee Soon Juan's smirk.
Tell that to the pawns of The Upgrading Empire who penetrate their phalluses into heartlands to plant Lego cineplexes Tupperware playgrounds suicidal balconies carnal parks of cardboard and condoms and before we know it we are a colony once again.
Tell that to Malaysia whose Desaru is our spittoon whose TV2 is our amusement whose Bumiputras are our threat whose outrage is our greater outrage whose turtles are weeping blind in the roaring daylight of our cameras.
Tell that to the old poets who have seen this piece of land slip their metaphors each passing year from bumboats to debris to sanitation projects to drowning attempts to barbed neon water weeds on a river with no reflections a long way off from the sea.

O Singapore your fair shores your garlands your GNP.
You are not a country you are a construction from spare parts.
You are not a campaign you are last year's posters.
You are not culture you are poems on the MRT.
You are not a song you are part swear word part lullaby.
You are not Paradise you are an island with pythons.

Singapore I am on trial.
These are the whites of my eyes and the reds of my wrists.
These are the deranged stars of my schizophrenia.
This is the milk latex gummy moon of my sedated smile.
I have lost a country to images, it is as simple as that.
Singapore you have a name on a map but no maps to your name.
This will not do; we must stand aside and let the Lion crash through a madness of cymbals back to that dark jungle heart when eyes were still embers waiting for a crownless Prince of Palembang.

hypocrites!!

2008-09-07T19:59:00.000+08:00

my list of best Oasis songs

2008-08-30T20:04:00.000+08:00

if i had to come up with a CD of the best of Oasis songs, these are the songs i would include, in this order:

Cigarettes & Alcohol
Roll With It
Supersonic
She's Electric
Half the World Away
Hey Now!
Don't Look Back in Anger
Don't Go Away
Stand By Me
The Masterplan
Cast No Shadow
Talk Tonight
Songbird
Wonderwall
Married With Children
Stop Crying Your Heart Out
Let There Be Love
Rock 'N' Roll Star
Live Forever
All Around the World

Songs from each album:

Definitely Maybe (1994) (5 songs)
What’s the Story (Morning Glory) (1995) (6 songs)
Be Here Now (1997) (3 songs)
The Masterplan (1998) (3 songs)
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (2000) (none)
Heathen Chemistry (2002) (2 songs)
Don’t Believe the Truth (2005) (1 song)

Fake Plastic People

2008-08-08T02:05:00.000+08:00

Fake Plastic People

Fake plastic people
Planting fake plastic trees
I can see through you

Fake plastic people
Smiling fake plastic smiles
I'm laughing at you

Fake plastic people
Acting high and mighty
Proud of their emptiness

Fake plastic people
Will melt away
And resume
Their fake plastic lives

Before I Go

2008-07-28T17:38:00.001+08:00

Before I Go

Time waits for no one
Think about what you've done
The dreaded ending has come
To take us one by one

No more summer roses in Eden
Clouds have fallen from the sky
Hold on to your paintings
Of memories and days gone by

But before I go
I'll tell you
That I love you

And before I go
I'll tell you
That I miss you