BloodSugar Politik release debut CD

Share By Pinky Volume 32, No. 636 July 23 - 29, 2012

BloodSugar Politik perform at the French Institute in Yangon on June 2. Pic: Zay Yar Lin MEMBERS of local power-pop group Big Bag on July 19 released a new album titled One Second Sentence under the band name BloodSugar Politik. The band features the same lineup as Big Bag vocalist and guitarist Kyar Pauk, drummer VNo, bass player Ye Zaw Myo and guitar player Ko Toe and the album contains 11 songs with English lyrics and one in Myanmar language. Kyar Pauk said the band included so many English songs because they wanted international audiences to become more familiar with music from Myanmar. We included one Myanmar song with the title Ba Lote Mar Lae [What Will You Do?] because this reflects the current situation in our country. Now that we have more opportunities to do what we want, we are always hearing people asking and saying what will I do? or what do you want to do?, he said. He added that most people hes talked to have misinterpreted the albums title. They think One Second Sentence refers to a sentence made up of words, but we mean a jail or prison sentence. The idea is the feeling that youre in prison for one second, he said. Kyar Pauk said all the band members contributed to the songwriting, and the various styles including punk, electro and indie reflect the different interests of the musicians. Some of the English-language songs date all the way back to 2003. All the lyrics on the album were written by Kyar Pauk, based on his own experiences and his imagination. Subjects range from personal pain to politics.

Some of the song have two or three meanings, some are nonsense, Kyar Pauk said. However, the awesome musical creations will have audiences too busy screaming along and jumping up and down to care too much about the meaning of the songs. The strongly expressed lyrics, combined with the fast and furious music, will surely make hearts beat faster and take listeners on an emotional rollercoaster ride. Kyar Pauk said the recent political changes in Myanmar have been of great advantage to musicians, who can now express themselves more freely through their songs. I was worried about censorship for this album. Fortunately, every song as well as the cover design passed smoothly. I was very surprised about that. The recent changes have been very good for us as musicians, he said. Despite the increased freedom of expression, he said he thought the new album would not find a wide local audience because the songs were in English and unfamiliar to fans. I think about 60 to70 percent of the people will not accept this album. When we performed as BloodSugar Politik at the French Institute [on June 2], the audience was screaming for Big Bag songs. We didnt play any, though, because we werent performing as Big Bag. And well continue to do whatever we want, Kyar Pauk said. We arent expecting anything from this album, but were very proud of the outcome since we spent plenty of time putting it together, he added.