While many may not consider the celebration of Hari Raya Aidilfitri in 2020 as one of our most cherished moments, largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was one of the best Aidilfitri celebrations for singer Amir Masdi.
“It was definitely a memorable moment for me. Due to travel and movement restrictions, like many others, I too was doing my own things within the confines of my family home,” said the 28-year-old singer, who was also the winner of ‘Akademi Fantasia’ in 2016.”In retrospect, the restrictions imposed were a blessing in disguise for me and my family.”As I live with my parents, we were observing the holy month together, doing everything together, including performing terawih prayers each night,” shared Amir about the ‘Lockdown Raya’.This year, he said the festive season was celebrated like most other times, as everyone was back to their routine, taking a few days off and returning to their hometowns to visit their extended families.”But this year, I decided to take some time off, as I had been busy the few months before Ramadan.”In fact, in the first two weeks of Ramadan, I had only worked for a day.”I took the time to relax, and only went out for a stretch and exercise as I’m now watching my diet, just to ensure that my fitness level is in check.”Amir said as a singer, keeping fit and watching his food intake were mandatory to take care of his voice.”I remember at one time, I performed with a full stomach, and, let me tell you, it wasn’t a good idea at all.”For the past five years, Amir said he has been cutting carbohydrates and sugar during the breaking of fast, but would take them during pre-dawn meals.
“I’d still need my carbo intake to sustain energy during the fasting period in the daytime.”I also watched my diet during Ramadan because it would be difficult to avoid all that sumptuous food during Raya. So I wanted to reserve some space early for ‘cheat days’.”While the local music scene had seen a torrent of Raya songs being released this year, Amir said he had taken a rain check in jumping on the bandwagon this year for a reason.”Since I’m working on the second part of my ‘AM:PM’ album, I thought that coming up with a Raya single in between the release of both parts of the album would disrupt the momentum.”Last October, Amir released the first part of the album, dubbed ‘AM’, with six songs.The second, titled ‘PM’, with another six numbers, will be released sometime this year.’AM:PM’ is his second album that was recorded at Volta Lab Studios in Rochdale, Manchester, the United Kingdom, in March last year.For the album, he worked alongside Edry Abdul Halim, composing together with the popular KRU member, who is also the album producer.While the album was initially called ‘Projek Manchester’, they somehow brilliantly connected the dots, initialising it simply as AM (which stands for his initial Amir Masdi) and PM.”And since Edry lives in Manchester, there was a time difference during our online meetings in the early stages — while it was evening for us here, it was still morning in the UK.”So ‘AM:PM’ reflects exactly how the album came about.”He and his team flew to the UK and spent 18 days in Manchester, writing, recording and filming some shots for the music videos to a few of the songs from the album.Produced by his own recording label, AR United Music, ‘AM:PM’ is distributed by Nova Music.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
