It was the boats that help Jamaica give birth to ska music in the early 1950s. Well, the war (World War II) also helped as American soldiers brought their music with them. The influx of R&B and jazz made crossovers inevitable. Through the mix of Caribbean calypso, came a genre that led to the appearance of rocksteady and reggae. As time progressed, ska developed to variations such as two tone in the 1970s and third wave ska in the 1980s. Third wave ska bands basically fuse ska with punk. And that leads us to where we are now. The journey of a local 10 piece ska punk band that began in January 2008.

‘40 Winks’ took its first steps when uITM student, Bijan, the band’s rhythm guitarist and vocalist formed a band with his university mates to take part in Youth Malaysia’s ‘Battle of the Bands.’ While each of them comes from different backgrounds, this bunch of music and audio students’ passion for music brought them together to create something genuinely original.

Why ‘40 winks?’ ‘When I was in Form 3, my English teacher was giving us a lesson on idioms,’ recalls Bijan. ‘And when she came to ‘forty winks,’ I thought it would make a cool band name.’ The band consists of Faiz on lead vocals, Anul on drums, Tam on vocals and lead guitar, Chewan on bass, Tina on keyboards. The horn section is made up of Ayed on alto saxophone, Ketapunk on tenor saxophone, Khairul and Panjang on trumpet.

It was Bijan’s suggestion (decision) to choose that particular genre; it also piqued the curiosity of the rest of the band members. ‘Ska has been around for a long time. It has never died off,’ Faiz says with confident. ‘The genre itself is easily accepted,’ explains Faiz. ‘It’s hard to play ska and feel sad.’ How true. I’ve yet to meet someone that doesn’t feel uplifted after listening to Jamaican music. That’s the sustaining power this particular music.

The music genre is easily recognised by walking bass lines, accented guitar or piano rhythms on the offbeat, and in certain occasions, jazz horn riffs. The punk influence comes in with characteristics such as guitar distortions, faster tempos and shouted vocals.

Influenced by ska punk bands from the likes of ‘Reel Big Fish,’ ‘The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ and many others, ‘40 Winks’ have come to the conclusion that crossing genres can bring interesting results. Though Bijan and Tam are responsible for writing the songs, the rest of the band members also contribute to the process. ‘It’s like this. Bijan and Tam builds the structure while the rest of the band helps with painting it, putting up decorations and the sort,’ Faiz attributes the band’s progression to the writing of their material.

‘After the “Battle of the Bands,” a lot of people showed interest in our band. We received a number of invitations to perform. That in turn pushed us to create a ‘myspace’ page and upload our compositions,’ tells Faiz. ‘Some even asked if they can buy our EP or album. So we decided to record one.’

Though you might think it’s a little too early for a six months old band to take that step, it’s increasingly common nowadays. With various affordable hardware and software available in the market to help you put together a recording, it has become an obvious career move for bands to record their material. Because of that, there are more recording studios mushrooming all over KL.

‘It’s like a business card for the band,’ says Faiz. ‘What with websites such as “myspace’ and ‘amp.channelv” available, there are so many tools for upcoming and independent bands to utilise. These are good times for the local indie scene.’

‘It’s because of local bands such as Hujan and other indie groups that took the first steps in early 2000, it opened the doors for the rest of us,’ Anul explains. ‘The chances for indie bands now are much bigger. Especially when it has become a regular thing now to go catch a live performance on the weekend. With more people wanting to listen to live original local tunes, it opens the opportunity for more indie musicians to perform at more venues.’

With that in mind, the band has performed at pretty much every gig and venue around Malaysia. And there has been a steady increase in concerts and gigs around KL in particular for the past couple of years. ‘We played at heavy metal gigs, pop and rock. Pretty much any invitation that we get, we’ll accept if the band’s available,’ Faiz explains. ‘We just go with the flow.’

This easy going bunch comes together for rehearsals once a week, usually around midnight. It helps when three of the band members stay under the same roof. ‘We save on renting a studio to practice in,’ says Faiz, with a laugh. ‘We’re still experimenting to find our sound and we’re getting there. All there is to it now is to get the EP ready and see where we can move on from there.’

For more information, check out the band’s website www.myspace.com/winkwink40