Prema writes personal account of her journey in music

Prema’s history (Pg. 2) – At this stage, I didn't even have a proper guitar and really wanted to invest in decent one. I had a chance to play a wonderful acoustic which was hired for one of my gigs at the university and fell deeply in love with it. It was the first Takamine I played and boy did it resonate with me and my music. I went to the hire shop after the gig to see if I could buy that guitar and to my shock found that it was $500! That was a lot of money at the time and it was also a second hand guitar. However, the man at the shop was an angel; to my surprise offered me a deal. He would let me borrow the guitar every weekend for one of my regular gigs and I would return it after the gig, bringing with me the weekly instalment of $50 until I paid it all off. I cannot begin to tell you what that gesture of generosity and trust meant to me. Such altruism is rare; it is one of my most cherished memories.

In December 1992, I returned to Malaysia, after completing my Bachelor of Arts degree at Adelaide University, majoring in history. At the time, Malaysia’s leading recording label was an outfit called RAP. I had met up with them previously and they were keen to sign me on. When I returned in 1992, they invited me to perform as a guest artiste at a massive concert that they were putting together. It was Malaysia’s first concert of that magnitude and the highlight of my time with RAP was performing to the 45,000 people at the event. The concert also yielded a live album ‘Five Years - One Rhythm’ which included one of my songs, Jeans Baru (New Jeans) which is the only Malay language song I have written. Singing in front of all those people was a breathtaking experience – that moment on stage is indescribable; while singing my heart out, I realised that music had become my vocation, my destiny.

I started work on my debut album while still at RAP which was completed when they were bought over by Warner Music (Malaysia). This period held great promise but it was also a very difficult stage in my life. Looking back now I think my time spent in Malaysia as a recording artiste was valuable training ground. To say that I was put to the test is putting it mildly. I found myself in some very complex situations strewn with industry politics and was under tremendous pressure to conform. Now, I've never been the kind of person to just yield and besides, it was of paramount importance to me that I stayed true to myself. My reluctance to concede to these pressures resulted in hardship for me as an artiste and invariably on a personal level too. However, even with hindsight, I still believe I did the right thing and despite the consequences, I am so proud of the fact that I held true to what I believed in.

My debut album was received by the public incredibly well and it was also endorsed by DJ's, radio & TV stations and the print media too. This critically acclaimed album was a rarity at the time in Malaysia mainly because it was an album written and performed entirely in English by a Malaysian, who was incidentally a woman! This was uncommon and as a result gained backing from various people. One great example of this was fact that both my video clips were created and directed by two amazing gents, Farouk Aljoffery and Amri Ginang. They both donated their