The Magnificent Seven: Would-Be Indie Darlings, Dance Punks and the Obscure

Klang Valley’s music scene is ripe with talents from all over the genre gamut – some exist on an ephemeral plane, seemingly impressing us with potential only to dissipate into oblivion later. This makes JUICE’s self-imposed position as the tapper of new talents difficult, yet it doesn’t dissuade us one bit. Regardless of how long they’d last in the scene – we would like to believe they’d be around for a very long time – we firmly believe in their talent and worth as musicians. We don’t really need this preamble though, look at Kyoto Protocol, one of the acts on last year’s list, they’re arguably the most ubiquitous indie band now.

This year, these are our personal magnificent seven in a scene of hundreds. They are the dance punks, the would-be indie darlings, and the obscure.

WOULD-BE INDIE DARLINGS

THE IMPATIENT SISTERS
FAME CAN WAIT

“We’ve gained considerable fame? Oh no! We don’t think we’ve gained considerable fame.”

That was the immediate response Soraya, the eldest of last year’s JUICE Best New Find The Impatient Sisters, gave us when asked about the sibling trio’s sudden prominence in the Moonshine-dominated singer-songwriter scene. She was being modest of course, the band is well on their way to becoming the next YouTube sensation turned actual star, like Zee Avi

Speaking of whom, Zee herself once tweeted a video of The Impatient Sisters well before their relative fame, which was surreal for them. Continuing with the modesty, Soraya, claiming embarrassment, rather self-effacingly said this of their videos; “they’re pretty low-quality and because we uploaded them for fun, we look very the ‘busuk’.”

Consisting of eldest Soraya, middle child Nazeera, and youngest Irena, all of whom took music lessons as children (anything from piano to drums), they initially did music individually. Being a band was something they had joked about, yet they were always harmonising with one another for fun.

Realising that they can do this as a trio for fun, the sisters opened for a friend’s band at Lepaq Café in 2010 – covering favourites Eisley, Pete Yorn, and Scarlet Johansson. Impressed by their performance, the café’s owner asked them if they had originals, which resulted in their writing the track The Impatient Sisters are most well-known for; ‘Comets and Stars’.

Despite describing their music as “fluffy, romantic, and quirky,” there’s a darker undertone to The Impatient Sisters’ music. Our personal favourite song, ‘Forever I Know’, has a dark undercurrent to its sappiness, it’s a lovelorn track embracing oblivion. Their songs are never written from real experiences though. The band cites Civil Wars as an influence, because they “secretly play country music,” and Bon Iver, because Irena “wants to live in a cabin in the woods.” But their most obvious influence is Eisley, who happens to be a family band with insane harmonisation skills too.

Being infinitely affable, The Impatient Sisters see their fans as just friends – “we’re still not used to that term [fans].” What if they got too big? “I guess we’d have more friends then?”

It’s hard not to be smitten by their mawkish responses. It’s not just a façade either, they love their fans so much that every single t-shirt they’ve sold (and given away for free) was handcrafted at home.

Despite their name, The Impatient Sisters are capable of waiting. They’re not in a rush to put out materials just yet. As of now, they are still jamming with a band, discovering new ways to present their music with a full band. With a good idea of the kind of sound they’re going for, Soraya hopes fans, we mean friends, are patient enough to wait for their first few recordings. With two out of three sisters still in school, it might take a while.

“We don’t know how far this train ride is going to take us. We’re enjoying the journey though. But I don’t think we’ll stop singing and writing together. We’re always in each other faces anyway, since we’re sisters and we live together.”

And that’s perfectly fine for us too – watching The Impatient Sisters singing their hearts out as just that, sisters, is what works best.

www.facebook.com/theimpatientsisters