| About Zaman Records | Mala was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She is fourth in a family of one brother and three sisters. She grew up with music all around her and could not escape it. At times, she found it difficult to study and do her school work without music on in the background. Her father was very sociable and often invited family and friends around for parties. At these parties, he was particularly fond of playing all the Latin American music. She was familiar with La Cucaracha and Amor Amor by the time she was 10 years old. Her father also insisted that her eldest sister and brother took piano lessons to which they achieved Grade 8 and 6 respectively. Sadly, the discipline and music tuition did not filter right down to Mala and her other sisters. She taught herself guitar at the age of 16 and resumed her bass guitar lessons in 2008 and 2009. She also took drums lessons at the age of 15 but could not carry on as it was too expensive in Malaysia. At 16, she experienced her first gig at the 747 Pub in Kuala Lumpur. She also had another stint as a singer in Kuantan, on the East Coast of Malaysia. It was inevitable that she had to go to university and that a career in the Arts was simply not possible due to her upbringing. Her parents still allowed her to work as a dancer and she toured all over Malaysia when she was 18. She eventually left for England to study Business Management and later a degree in Computer Science/Information Systems. She is now self-employed and co-owns a Dental Laboratory. Her first love is business, music is her love and passion. As she got older, she very much appreciated her parents encouraging her to pursue her studies as it sets a discipline, security and foundation in life. Her other sisters and herself loved pop music, so the English Speaking Radio Station in Malaysia was always on when they came home from school. She and her sister were quite familiar with all the latest hits from USA and UK in the 1970s. On completion of her brother’s studies, he returned home from England with some strange vinyl recordings such as The Specials and the Queen song “Mustafa” which was banned in Malaysia as it contains references to the Al Quran. Her mother played Tamil, Malayalam songs and sometimes had Classical Indian music on the stereo. Malaysia is a multi racial country and she feels very fortunate to have experienced Malay, Chinese and Indian music. The Specials is her ultimate favourite band, and June Carter is her favourite singer. She did not know how to sing, write, produce but truly enjoyed the journey of learning all these things in her spare time over a 15 year period. She has written around 80 songs over a ten year period. She has a particular obsession with dance music and has often gone to clubs all over London on her own, just to watch the deejays and the customers dance. Her ultimate dream would be to make a unique dance recording as she thinks dance music is a science and to put one together takes time and effort. Mala finds dance music highly challenging and it can only be compared to like that of writing a brand new mathematical formulae. Dance music is her favourite genre. Her influences are just too many to mention, she just likes any form of music irrespective of its genre. She established Zaman Records as a DIY record label in 2006 and she is 46 years old. |
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