Shadow Puppet Theatre, (or ‘SPT’ for short), are a 4-piece Malaysian rock band based in the city of Kuala Lumpur, named after the beautiful and ancient art of shadow puppetry. In keeping with their chosen name, they meld both storytelling and what they call “the feels”: an indefinable element adding a special ‘sparkle’ of life into each, and every, musical note they play. Their music cannot be pinned down to one genre but, as their name suggests, like ‘hidden puppeteers’, they skilfully create music that takes their fans through a magical journey through “Funk, rock and everything in between.” Their latest single is the wonderfully cyber-noirish tale of a lone avenger fighting corruption – ‘Codename Summer’– which will appear on their next album. We chat to frontman Dzul about the band and what they have planned for the future…
Hi Dzul ! Thank you for speaking to us! Tell us how you became the frontman in a rock band – was that always a dream of yours?
Hullo! Thank You, pleasure is all mine. To be honest, becoming the Front man was something I had never imagined myself doing but it kind of started from jamming sessions with friends and nobody wanting to sing so they just passed the baton to me. So I would say things gradually fell into place and here I am today. It’s been a wonderful journey really, lots of learning and development along the way, and still much more to come.
How did the band get together?
It began with me fiddling with a riff on the guitar, which would then evolve into our first single, Insomnified. So I thought, well that’s an interesting sound, and built a rough framework for the rest of the song and wrote some lyrics over it. Called in a few friends and we jammed it out, then it went from single to EP to Album.
Where did the band name ‘Shadow Puppet Theatre’ come from?
The name SPT was inspired by our cultural heritage of Shadow Puppetry, which is known as “Wayang Kulit” in the local language. It also symbolizes storytelling, which in our case is in the form of music.
Your new single is ‘Codename Summer’ : What is the song about?
The song was really a figment of imagination, about an altruistic hacker, a nice fellow, who wants to make the world a better place. Think of it like the Imaginary child of the series “You” and “Mr. Robot” starred by Henry Cavill.
You say yourself that the band play “Funk, rock, and everything in between”, is this because you love all genres of music or because you don’t want to be pigeon-holed / imprisoned into one genre?
Good guess, you are right about not wanting to be imprisoned into a certain type of sound or genre! So this is what you get when you put together an alternative vocalist, a blues guitarist, a soul/funk bassist and a prog metal drummer.
Your previous album was ‘John Doe’- sounds intriguing! How would you describe this album?
Thank You, The John Doe album was more about discovering our own sound and style I would say. In some sense it was also like Graduating from an Undergraduate degree , a testament to the effort, failures and learning throughout the process.
Is there another album on the way and, if so, what can fans expect?
Oh yes indeed, and fans can probably expect better production value, and more catchy hooks and melodies.
Are you looking forward to touring? Where would be your dream gig?
Always, would love to tour when things are more normal. Dream gigs for me would be Glastonbury and Coachella.
Thank you for chatting with us!
Most Welcome!
You can follow the band here:
