Trabye

Trabye (pronounced trah-buy) was born in Kuala Lumpur on April 9th 1974 and started playing the violin at the age of 6. By age 8, he was already giving public performances with the Yamaha Junior Orchestra every year until his graduation. Classically trained, Trabye obtained the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music Grade 8 certificate in 1989 at the age of 15. Whilst still in high school, he pursued his music with the Malaysian Airlines Orchestra for a year and continued on his passion for performing with the Malaysian Youth Symphony Orchestra where he represented Malaysia in the Asean Youth Music Workshop in Jakarta in 1991. He was the sole male Malay violinist to represent his country. Trabye also studied classical piano when he then discovered Rock 'n Roll and the wonderful instrument that was the guitar at age 12. He got his first electric guitar the year after and has adopted it as his first instrument. Upon continuing his studies in Universiti Utara Malaysia, Trabye turned his focus onto traditional Malay music. After 6 years performing with a traditional outfit called Grup Estetika which included performances in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, Trabye headed back home in Kuala Lumpur to start his first job as an A&R executive at EMI Malaysia where he stayed for 2 years. While in EMI, he attended night school at School of Audio Engineering and after graduating the Diploma program with Merit, Trabye pursued a career in the creative line as a freelance musician. After a year of unsuccessful freelancing, Trabye was then offered a post as an in-house producer at KRU Productions, a music production house owned by one of Malaysia's most successful vocal group, KRU. It is with this outfit that Trabye expanded his abilities in music production and composition. In 2003, Trabye founded his own production house, Karya Enigma where he started to make his mark in the Malaysian music industry. His composition, "Guang Mang" performed by Hong Kong's pop star, William So, earned him a STAR Award for Best Theme Song for a Drama Series. Trabye's works has also earned him various nominations in AIM Awards (Malaysia's equivalent to the Grammy's) for his works on Waheeda's "Binafsha" and Rabbani's "Aman" albums. As a producer, composer or sessionist, Trabye has worked on about 50 albums in just 4 years. In 2006, Trabye joined the rock outfit, Mpire as a guitarist and enjoyed positive media attention. Mpire has done two headlining TV concerts and one headline stadium gig at Bukit Jalil Stadium in the two years of its inception. He also filled the axeman spot for several Malaysian bands namely, Candy, Dr. Kronik, and Metalasia (as bassist). In 2007, Trabye was chosen among many hopefuls to produce the Malay version of the official Olympics 2008 theme song, "Olimpik Di Beijing". Among the participating artistes were who's- who of the Malaysian music industry ranging from Malaysian divas like Ning Baizura, Jaclyn Victor and Dayang Nurfaezah to successful Malaysian exports the likes of Michael Wong (of Michael and Victor fame) and Penny Tai. The comment made by the original producers of the Mandarin version is that the Malay version was emotional and had powerful vocals. Trabye's works also encompasses music for Film, TV and radio. To date, he has scored over 40 feature films, 5 drama series (Adnan Sempit the series, Menantu vs Mertua 2nd season, Ana Lulu), 3 short indie films (Cakar, Stuffed & Haruan - the latter received critical acclaim) and several telemovies. With plans for a new band and an instrumental guitar album, Trabye seeks to set out beyond Malaysian borders to share his music.