TEMPERED MENTAL "MOST of the people I know who listen to overseas rock bands don't want to give Malaysian bands a chance. They have this pre-conceived idea that Malaysian bands are not good," pointed out Melina, the bassist/vocalist for local modern rock trio, Tempered Mental. Now who is this girl from this band who dare say that local bands are not given the opportunity to shine, you ask? Well, she's not the only one who has such feelings. Just ask any local English bands on how they feel about the reception from the general Malaysian audience and eight out of 10 will give you a similar answer. To a certain extent, there's truth to it. But then again, living in a generation where access to entertainment is just a fingertip away, it's also understandable if one has such pre-conceived ideas about local English music. We lack bands that can make heads turn. Back to the first question: Who is this band who call themselves Tempered Mental? Despite only being formed three years ago, Tempered Mental are no newbies to the ever expanding local English music scene. They took everyone (in the scene) by surprise when they were invited to perform at Rock the World 3 in 2002. Their four-song demo (supposedly only to be distributed to friends only) ended up selling more than 400 copies. Not bad for a band that was originally formed to fulfil their needs to perform live. When they were offered to perform at the now defunct Acoustic Jam sessions at the Commonwealth Club, Melina and guitarist, Khoo decided to start a new band with their drummer friend, Jimmy. "At the show, we played Melina's songs, which we never did before with our previous band, Mull. To our surprise, the response was really good and from there we had more gigs coming our way after that. That's how we came about," recalled Khoo. Influenced by mostly 90s bands like Stone Temple Pilots and Smashing Pumpkins alongside more current bands like A Perfect Circle, the band don't want to get themselves entangled with worries of labelling their brand of music. "I think it's just modern rock. We're not nu-metal, rap-metal or alternative. We're a modern rock band," pointed out Melina. They may call their music modern rock but listening to their demo one would notice that Tempered Mental is not quite your ordinary modern rock outfit. They have the technical proficiency and the songs' structures and arrangements hinted sparks of some progressiveness of bands like Tool. When asked how was the general response to the EP, Khoo said that most of the time, people were blown away by the fact they sounded very full for a three-piece band. Something that they gained by studying at International College of Music (ICOM) as some may think. "Both of us studied music production but I think what we studied hardly applies with the band," said Khoo. "That's why we don't like it when people call us an ICOM band. It's kinda misleading. We've been playing and doing this even before we went to college. We never really felt like we're using whatever knowledge we gained from our studies," smirked Melina. Apart from the off-kilter modern rock tunes, the fact that the band has a female vocalist who also plays a five-string bass must have helped in getting themselves recognised in a male-dominated scene. "I never really think about such things. The only thing that we got out of that is the fact that we get to play at girl gigs. Other than that, we're just a regular band. I guess some people think it's a novelty having a girl front a band. But we're not pushing that concept at all," Melina said. "It took a lot of convincing to get me to sing because I'm not really comfortable being the frontliner. But I'm used to it by now, I guess. That's why we played at a lot of gigs. Nothing beats performing. You could practise a million times but the more you perform, the better you get at it." For further information, e-mail them at temperedmental@hotmail.com or visit their official website at www.temperedmental.com