DATUK SHAKE

Monday March 15, 2004
Still shaking up the world
By JASON CHEAH


Close to 30 years of music from Datuk Shake gives you one impression ... a heady pop survivor. JASON CHEAH speaks to the venerable musical Datuk from Johor who lived in France and now in the United States.

Fact file

Name: Datuk Sheikh Abdullah Ahmad (aka Datuk Shake)

Age: Early 50s

Hometown: Johor Baru


Datuk Shake performing at Planet Hollywood in Kuala Lumpur last month. The musical Datuk, who has just released a new album called Keamanan (Peace), will be back in Malaysia soon to thrill his fans.
Education: Johor Baru. No tertiary education; vocal classes in England

Current base: Beverly Hills, California

Years spent abroad: Almost 30

THE music of Malaysian pop legend Datuk Shake was already hitting the European market during the disco fever craze in the mid-1970s.

And since then, 20 million unit sales of albums and singles in three languages – English, French and Malay – is an achievement few Malaysian pop stars can even dream of.

But a hiatus from the music studio realm for the last eight years might lead one to think that Shake has had his day.

The Datuk whose full name is Sheikh Abdullah is in his early 50s; he tends not to reveal his exact age. The last time he had an official album release in Malaysia was in 1996, although in 1997 a repackaged greatest hits compilation released in France called The Best of Shake sold 200,000 copies in that country.

Today the man is back, with a new album called Keamanan (Peace), just released under the new MCatalogue online format.

The album has been a long time coming for Shake, who is now based in Beverley Hills, California, where he lives with his wife and the younger two of their four children.

He was in town last month for a special one-night-only performance at Kuala Lumpur's Planet Hollywood which took place the night before this interview.

"The album was supposed to be released in 2001 but the 9/11 disaster delayed its release," Shake revealed.

"I came back with about 30 songs (for the album). It was quite hard to choose because most of the songs were quite good.

"Some of the songs – we managed to get the lyrics faster than for others. For the other songs the lyrics (of which) we didn't like, we changed them."

All in all, it took all those eight years in between album releases to finish it.

"I spent US$380,000 (RM1.44mil) because I did it from scratch from nothing to the mastering."

What helped him a lot was the fact that he had his own studio at home anyway.

"I also made a lot of friends in the industry in Hollywood and at the end we managed to choose 10 songs."

Nevertheless, if you do log on to www. mcatalogue.com, you will find that it is an EP of five songs.

"The company asked me to sell the songs like that and the price is reasonable at RM10, which includes postage and delivery to your door."

The rest of the songs may turn up at a later date in another EP, he said.

"But we're looking at selling it in great volume," Shake explained.

"I don't like to say ‘fighting piracy' because it's a never-ending story, but if people want it cheap, then we sell it cheap.

"Of course, there's a limit and I hope the fans understand it's not easy to make good music with good production (quality). If we see the success of this one then we will know what direction we'll be going.

"My fans have even been asking me to remix my old songs and I thought of doing it too."

Things are looking up even in the first territory that Shake conquered as a pop star – France.

"My (former) French record company has been asking me too because it has been quite a while since I was in the market (there)."

He had at the time left that record label after a disagreement with his French producer.

"But at the end of the day because of demand from the fans, the radio stations had been playing old songs and also my songs and the producer heard it."

That was in 1997 when he brought the compilation out, without even Shake's knowledge. "He just ‘out' the cover on TV and remixed my songs and showed my old pictures and it had already sold 60,000 before he called me."

After he travelled to France and appearing on a few TV shows, sales shot up to hit the 200,000 mark.

Back on the subject of the new album, Shake continued:

"I called the album Keamanan because of the situation the world is in now. With the song Keamanan, in English it was originally called Peace in the Eastern Town, which was actually released on a CD EP which also included the song Nothing's New and Nothing's Changed.

"I wrote that (Keamanan) song before Sting wrote Desert Rose even. But it never came out on radio," he said, referring to the Arabic styling of the vocal trill in the songs. "I was working with producer Michael Sembello (of Maniac fame in the 1980s) and at the time he was already heading to World Music."

Even with the recent activity, it is no doubt a far cry from his heady peak days.

"Between 1976 and 1986, I used to release four singles and up to two albums per year. Back then, there were not so many artistes; (the music market) was not so overloaded and it was easy to sell one or two million copies."

No longer, since the output has slowed down since 1986.

However, any way you look at it, Shake's story is certainly one of rags to riches.

Born Sheikh Abdullah Ahmad in Johor Baru, he comes from a family of five brothers and seven sisters; he was the third youngest.

Shake found his individuality in singing and spent his teenage years plying the nightclub scene of his hometown, singing cover songs of Al Green, Tom Jones, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Presley and The Beatles, among others.

A proposed trip led to him packing his suitcase and leaving all he knew behind to travel thousands of miles to Europe in the mid-1970s.

His journey first brought him to England, where he studied with classical vocal coach John Dolby, mastering his vocal skills.

Then he was introduced to a French record company, which signed him up almost on the spot. His first single, You Know I Love You, was a huge success.

That was in 1976, and especially when he sang in a language he didn't even speak, for the single to hit No.1 was something of a miracle. They called him Shake there, since most Frenchmen couldn't pronounce the original spelling of his name.

His unique name and exotic looks set him apart from the crowd, but it was his voice and that made him one of the premier artistes in France then.

Over the years, his albums reached gold and platinum sales status in France and French-speaking countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, the Ivory Coast, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

Back home, word began to spread that a young man from Johor was a pop star in France.

Shake was soon contacted by the late Sultan Ismail Sultan Ibrahim of Johor, asked to return home and be recognised for his tremendous accomplishment and was conferred a Datukship in 1979.

As Datuk Shake, he began his Malay music career, and as of today he is still one of only a handful of Asian singers to have reached stardom in another continent.

He was given the medal of L'art et de Lettre (In the Honor of Arts and Letters) for bringing the French language to an English-speaking country.

These days, in his current hometown of Beverly Hills, he is constantly working on projects related to music and entertainment.

Currently, Shake is still in Malaysia, preparing himself for a full-scale road show.

"I'll be working towards a tour here in April or end of March to do at least six towns in Malaysia, Brunei and even Singapore," he said.

And this time he should be accompanied by a full live band. "I have a choice of either getting French musicians or from the United States," he said.

But apparently it is more likely to be a band from France, because, "the really good local musicians have already been taken."

"After that I have to record a new French album. My French fans want it, and I've got to be in France to do that. When you're doing it, you've got to be in that environment."

But he still keeps tabs on the future of the Malaysian music industry, about which he seems to be cautiously optimistic.

"Takkan I balik sini I don't know who's No.1 and all," he said in typical style, meaning of course that when he comes back he has to know who is tops in the scene.

"I've got to be curious and alert to what's going on or I'll be left behind. After all, this is my business. I make it my business," he said.

"I want to see if there's a potential singer that can go far. I'm not selfish. A lot of them are good, but musical composition and direction is like a little bit here and there.

"It's all about packaging. I have seen potentials but it's not my right to tell who and who yet," he says of the current batch of up-and-coming artistes.

"A lot of our artistes are very good singers but they have to learn ‘power singing'. All they need is a good teacher."

And then, before he even thinks of making his way to France again, Shake is going back to California first.

"As a father, I have to go back to see my sons (soon)," the former heartthrob of thousands of young female fans said, laughing. The sons he was talking about are his 22-year-old twins, the younger of his four children.

"Both are still studying in Beverly Hills, one to be an actor and writer and one to be a movie director.

"My priority is my kids. All others can wait," he laughed again.

Originally published in The Star on Monday March 15, 2004