Put on your dancing shoes and party with RYOTJONES at one of the biggest music festival in Malaysia!
You’ll be on your knees requesting for an encore when you’ve had the pleasure of watching them live or listen to them! These 9 members in a band have been funking people’s lives up since 2016 that was founded by vocalist Kyren and lead guitarist, Deo. Yes, you saw that right. 9 members. So how does RYOTJONES deals with the not-your-average-members-in-a-band type of situation?
We recently spoke to RYOTJONES on their challenges as a band, upcoming music, performing for GVF 2019, and their thoughts on local talents.
Challenges of being in a band with many members?
I mean I can’t comment much as I take up half of the space with the drum set, and our vocalist Kyren takes up the whole space, jokes Aaron, drummer of RYOTJONES.
The worse thing that could ever happen to us is if we were to perform in a small stage. Other than that, we believe the more the merrier. It’s our chemistry together as a band is what matters, and it feels like we’re one big happy family. We’ve gotten feedback from people saying on how we should consider cutting down a few of our members but for us, everyone is there for a reason. They are there because we jive well with the music we play out and if we were to listen to the feedback, we’ll already be comprising instead of what is good for the band.
Congratulations on the second time around performing for GVF! What will be different this time in terms of performance?
I guess you could say we want the audience to anticipate that when RYOTJONES perform, we gonna be bringing one big crazy party to you. Back when we first performed for GVF 2017, there were about 14 people on stage. Although this year it won’t have that many members performing we’re definitely going to be bringing vibrant dynamics, amazing set, and also new songs from us to perform. It’s going to be a half an hour set with six songs.
What are the new songs you’ll be performing?
Our new single is called ‘Radio’. Kyren wrote the lyrics and all of us contributed to the melody, rhythm, arrangements of it. This single has got to be a song where all of us played an equal part of it.
Kyren: What inspired me to write this song is basically for the loved ones we held so dearly who didn’t believe in your passion. So with ‘Radio’, it’s talking more about how you’re going to hear me on the radio and see me everywhere because you’ve doubted my passion. I would say it’s more of a “your loss” and moving forward kinda anthem.
I got to ask, where did this name RYOTJONES come about?
Kyren: It was a name I gave us back in 2012. So it all started when I was performing solo for Urbanscapes and was going under my name, Kyren Thomas. Feeling nervous, I thought to myself, I’m either going to rock it on stage amazingly or I would just mess it up. So, I didn’t want to take the risk and I went with an alias name of RYOTJONES. Back then it was also the time where Beyonce’s persona on stage “Sasha Fierce” was highly talked about and I began to think why not put it for myself too?
Then, when new members started coming in, we had a fun three day of eight people on the Whatsapp group just throwing out ideas for a new band name. One of the suggestions was RJ&The Acid Stripes. Eventually, we all felt the name RYOTJONES presents as well as a band.
Every country needs to have its own creative identity and if the people living in that country doesn’t support the local music scene, what else can we do?
How important do you think it is for people to really listen to local music? Why?
They need to be supporting their local music and it’s because not only does local musicians/bands strive for the best music for the listeners but it’s also more of an act of national pride. Every country needs to have its own creative identity and if the people living in that country doesn’t support the local music scene, what else can we do?
You can put local musicians playing alongside international acts and we’d all still sound equal to how amazing they are or dare we say, better than them. We strongly believe in the passion it takes, the talent and music we Malaysians put out there.
Another role that would help Malaysian English music out there more is through the power of media. Especially the radio. Radio companies should come and watch gigs and start the process of creating awareness from there. Radio listeners are highly influenced by the songs they play out there. By that method, it’s actually helping Malaysian music to grow more in the industry if it’s being played on a large platform of audience.
The little things from how we choose to place the bands in a poster/billboard to charging accordingly in local music event are the type of respect people would start noticing with us.
It all starts with taking responsibility with ourselves and that includes us as musicians, media and the people. This entails to being aware of the issue and doing the best through what we can to support and improve our local English music scene.
To know more on RYOTJONES, we gave them a list of who is the most…? questions.
Who is the strict one?
Well, between me(Kyren) and Deo, I have to be the bad cop only because Deo is scared to scold everyone. Basically, Deo is the mastermind behind this 😛
Who is the shy one?
Amir (Alto saxophonist of Ryot Jones). He is on another level of shyness.
Who is the comedian in the group?
Solely from the funny impression and endless jokes, it has to be Aaron.
Who is over the top?
If it’s the energy on stage and how over the top, it has to be Kyren and Jaz. Especially when Jaz comes on stage with his bright fashion statement.
Jazmi, Tenor Saxophonist for RYOTJONES
Who is good at maths?
Joelle and Laura
Who is most likely to get a drunk tattoo?
Aaron: We actually got ourselves a drunk tattoo when Kyren randomly messaged me he wanted to get a tattoo after an event we performed. The tattoo is a logo of RYOTJONES itself. Definitely a good memory for us.
Three things you would wish for Ryot Jones in the future?
Inspire people around us, for RYOTJONES to make Malaysians proud of the music scene we have here and to constantly challenge ourselves to be better than what we are today.
RYOTJONES consist of 9 members namely; Kyren Thomas(lead vocalists), Deo Karmawan(lead guitar), Joelle Mangindaan(Keys), Aaron Gideon(drums), Jazmi Jamaluddin(Tenor saxophone), Laura Lim(bass), Banni Basyishar(Tenor saxophone), and Mohd Hafiz (trumpet), Amir Syafiq (Alto saxophone).
To see which stage they’ll be conquering next or listen to their latest single Radio, you can follow them on Instagram @ryotjones or Facebook RYOTJONES. Listen to them on Spotify here too!