Singer-songwriter Azmyl Yunor and his band, Azmyl & the Truly Asia, are set to take the stage at next month's Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee.
The band will be playing two 65-minute sets on May 5 and 6 - at the Blues Tent in Handy Park in the Beale Street Historic District.
The Memphis Tourism “Blues Stage on Beale” will see the band sharing the stage with headliners like Los Lobos, Keb Mo and North Mississippi Allstars, while performers on other festival stages include Robert Plant, Ziggy Marley, Greta Van Fleet and Earth, Wind & Fire.
"We're excited to represent another side of Malaysian culture - something more contemporary as opposed to the usual traditional representation of our culture at such events.
"To myself and the band, as music lovers, this is a ‘pilgrimage’ of sorts to the ground zero of where modern popular music as we know it began," Azmyl told Malaysiakini.
This will be the band’s first overseas performance and Azmyl hinted that they might be at playing several adjacent cities during their short US jaunt.
His current band was formed in 2019 to record John Bangi Blues and comprises drummer Ammar Khairi and bassist Kristopher Chong, with NR Lohan in the fold as a guest guitarist.
Azmyl, most recently, challenged the need for the local moral police in his latest single titled “Skodeng Blues”.
He views his music videos as a form of resistance against popular narratives of what it means to be a “musician” in Malaysia - where popular artistes often shy away from standing up to important civil and humanitarian rights causes.
The festival is part of the larger Memphis in May International Festival which includes “Salute to Malaysia” programmes in its roster this year.
"The parent company of the festival, Memphis in May International Festival, selected us from a shortlist given by the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry.
"Our set will feature my usual bilingual original song repertoire, highlighting songs from my recent album titled ‘John Bangi Blues’," he said.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Amzyl has got a couple of upcoming projects in the pipeline.
"I already have a bunch of songs for either an upcoming album or an EP.
“I am also in the midst of remastering my first album 'Folk' (self-released in 1998 on cassette) for a 25th- anniversary re-release in cassette and digital format sometime this year," he said.
Aside from Folk, other albums of note include Warga (2010), Wilayah (2012) and Was Was (2015). - Mkini
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