Cover Album Faizal Tahir Mirip Style Design Artis SoundCloud

Nota dari penulis: Saya tidak rasa Faizal Tahir atau teamnya mempunyai sebarang niat untuk plagiarisi kerana jika terdapat persamaan pun, ianya mungkin kebetulan. Ini kerana saya sememangnya mengagumi hasil kerja beliau dan cara penulisannya yang unik dan tersendiri terutamanya lagu Assalamualaikum, Setia dan Selamat Malam.

Baik, mari kita lihat cover album yang saya pernah buat untuk single yang saya release di SoundCloud dua tahun lepas:

Lagunya boleh didapati di sini: https://soundcloud.com/nicmrayce/not-all-things-go-our-way

Lagunya boleh didapati di sini: https://soundcloud.com/nicmrayce/ever-again-compilation-part-ii

Dan bila saya lihat Album Cover ini, saya macam Wow!:

Tidak dinafikan bahawa banyak elemen berbeza di antara cover single saya dan cover album Anatomi Faizal Tahir.

Apa yang sama?

Terdapat persamaan dari segi penggunaan elemen badan dan sayap. Posisi badan Faizal Tahir menyerupai karya Leonardo Da Vinci yakni Vitruvian Man manakala posisi badan saya di dalam cover tersebut lebih kepada "a moment of levitation" (untuk Ever Again Part II) atau bersahaja (untuk Not All Things Go Our Way). Sayap yang digunakan dalam artwork single Not All Things Go Our Way lebih vectorize compared daripada penggunaan sayap di Ever Again Part II yang menyerupai olahan sayap di album cover Anatomi - cuma beza dari segi warnanya yakni saya gunakan sayap hitam untuk melambangkan mood dan suasana lagu ini yang sedih dan pilu.

Elemen abstrak di sekeliling cover album Faizal Tahir amat menarik kerana samada ia menampilkan lagu-lagunya samada dalam bentuk gambar atau teks yang terbalik atau tersembunyi dan perlu dilihat dengan teliti.

Mengapa saya gunakan helang? 

Ini kerana helang boleh dilihat sebagai simbol keberanian dan seseorang yang suka mencabar status quo supaya menjadi lebih daripada biasa. Dan sememangnya saya dari zaman sekolah lagi, suka membuat kelainan dalam cara saya mengendali situasi sosial dan diakui daripada kalangan keluarga dan rakan. Dan helang itu dilihat mencapai atas kepala saya dan bercahaya membawa maksud bahawa helang tersebut yang membantu memberikan keberaniannya agar saya tabah mengharungi cabaran hidup.

Mengapa saya gunakan mawar di belakang dan harimau di hadapan?

Ini merupakan perlambangan bagi personaliti diri saya yang seringkali disalahtakrif sebagai multiple personality di mana masalah ini sememangnya saya sudah hadapi sejak zaman sekolah (sewaktu pencarian identiti) - namun saya berjaya atasi selepas mulakan kerjaya dan berkahwin - setelah saya berjaya mengenali diri saya yang kadangkala agresif seperti harimau dan lembut seperti permukaan mawar, saya dapat gunakannya untuk menjadi adaptif menghadapi situasi sosial yang berbeza. Dan satu lagi sebab mengapa saya gunakan Mawar adalah untuk sebagai tribute kepada album Depeche Mode - Violator kerana hasil karya saya di SoundCloud banyak mengambil inspirasi daripada New Wave, synthpop yang dihibridkan bersama rock dan rap sebagaimana kumpulan Linkin Park pernah lakukan satu masa dulu.

Adakah ianya bermaksud saya atau Faizal Tahir pro-symbolism kerana mereka bentuk design album sebegini?

Tidak sama sekali. Saya mungkin tidak mengenali Faizal Tahir secara personal, tetapi saya yakin; pengaguman beliau terhadap kerja ahli karyawan zaman Renaissance tidak bermaksud seseorang itu adalah pro-symbolism tetapi pengaguman dan pembelajaran daripada karya seni yang hebat pada zaman lama boleh dijadikan pedoman agar kita boleh menjadi karyawan Islam yang lebih hebat daripada mereka. 

Dan saya amat memahami keadaan ini kerana saat saya mereka album cover saya sendiri - ramai yang mungkin tidak tahu; ramai ahli muzik dan designer menggunakan seni sebagai cara ekspresi diri - kadangkala ianya tidak melambangkan diri yang sebenar di alam realiti tetapi sebagai alter ego apabila menulis sesebuah karya. Alter ego ini dicipta kerana ia adalah satu cara untuk mengembangkan kreativiti dan mengeksperimen dengan perasaan yang berbeza walaupun itu bukan diri ahli muzik/lyricist yang sebenar. Contoh lain saya boleh beri di sini adalah seperti Slim Shady iaitu alter ego kepada Eminem - sebenarnya, Slim Shady itu adalah alter ego yang direka supaya Eminem dapat menchannelkan ekspresi diri ke tahap yang berbeza dalam karya penulisan lagu, lirik dan melodi.

So, siapa tiru siapa?

Sepertimana nota yang saya tulis pada awal artikel ini, saya tidak rasa Faizal Tahir atau team dia ada kaitan langsung dengan cover single yang saya reka 2 tahun lepas dan seperti yang dinyatakan Faizal (di sini), ianya mengambil masa 8 bulan untuk reka! So apa-apa persamaan hanyalah kebetulan semata-mata!

Kesimpulannya:

Janganlah dihukum artis Melayu kita yang sedang naik dan cuba untuk berkecimpung di arena muzik antarabangsa kerana saya percaya Faizal Tahir mampu membawa muzik kita ke arena global dengan karya beliau yang unik - sama seperti Yuna (lagu dia dengan Usher latest memang best!)

Nik Harith adalah seorang yang sudah bekerja di bidang pemasaran digital selama 8 tahun - Seorang yang sentiasa berusaha untuk menjadi berani dan berbeza daripada orang lain, sudah berkahwin dan berasal dari Kelantan, sedang mengikuti langkah-langkah Michael Kenji Shinoda, seorang musician atau usahawan teknologi dari Linkin Park - dan berharap menjadi seorang usahawan digital di rantau Asia pada 2018 - dan berpeluang bersaing dengan syarikat teknologi gergasi seperti Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, Apple dan lain-lain lagi.

Selain itu, beliau juga merupakan seorang artis indie SoundCloud dari Malaysia yang mencipta lagunya melalui band yang dikenali sebagai Nic M Rayce dan diilhamkan oleh kumpulan-kumpulan seperti Linkin Park, Blue Stahli dan Within Temptation. Beliau sentiasa berusaha untuk mewujudkan satu genre tersendiri - yang berunsurkan hibrid kepada alternatif, rock, hip hop, electronica, soundtrack ambien dan trip-hop. Gaya vokal beliau banyak dipengaruhi Chester Bennington, Bruno Mars, Jason Mraz, Adam Levine dan Adam Young. Sementara itu, gaya rap beliau dipengaruhi oleh Rakim, Eminem, Mike Shinoda, Ryu daripada SOB, B.o.B. dan Shawn Chrystopher. Gaya muzik beliau merangkumi electronica seperti Pink Floyd dan Depeche Mode, hip-hop seperti Fort Minor dan Styles of Beyond, dan modern rock seperti Blue Stahli, Linkin Park, Apoptygma Berzerk dan Within Temptation.

A Decade Worth of Life Experiences and Political Things that You Can Learn From

A decade ago, I was just an ordinary high school student. I was one of those students who failed almost every subject - deserted by friends and teachers because you only get to be in the circle either if you're smart, talented, rich and powerful (tough reality if you're living in Malaysia - not sure about other countries though). My family was also struggling financially as well back then - I knew my dad worked real hard to get us through and survive the harsh reality - but yet, all our neighbors and friends seemed to have this funny look at us - maybe because we don't really have many things to boast about. There isn't really a big car, a big house, fancy furniture, jewelry or anything. 

I wasn't sure what I was gonna do at that time. Living under a community pressure did take its toll on my family, especially me. I was thinking, what is the one thing I can do to beat the naysayers and restore back my family's reputation. And after scrutinizing myself for solutions, there was that one day back in 2005-2006, me and the rest of the students were called into the school hall to hear the regular speeches from aspiring students who manage to succeed in their SPM studies. And there was this person, Izzat Fahimuddin - who was crowned as the best student award. I looked around me - friends, teachers, and I realized that the community looked and spoke very highly of him and his family due to his accomplishment. That was when I found out that the only way our family was to be seen and be respected highly among the community was to ensure I get that Best Student Award title.

It took me 2 painstaking years to catch up with the 'big boys' because I wasn't a book nerd and studying always fell at the bottom of my life priorities. I started entering all kinds of competitions, pitched for different club titles, and excelled in almost all my subjects. At that very moment, I could see how the community perception changed around me - and I could see who are the truthful and the hypocrites. It was the best feeling I've ever had. 

Right after I completed my studies, I grabbed the opportunity to become a cultural exchange program student to Ohio, USA, in which the program was held by American Field Service and US Department of State. The experiences I had were the best moments of my life (I felt like being at the top) - from the very moment I entered the cultural exchange program till the moment my mom called me from Malaysia telling me that I finally got that Best Student Award. Because I was still in Pennsylvania and the program policy did not allow exchange students to have a return flight any time during the program, so my parents were my representative and they were crowned instead. Finally, I got to beat the naysayers who said my family was worth nothing to the community. My face was all over the school's magazine and my Facebook profile was flooded with a lot of friend requests, and if I were to be around Gombak area, almost everyone knew me (and yes, this feels good at a point - it does feel like a celebrity - but in this case, just among local town community)

There's this saying where "What comes up, must come down" - I knew that the success of being the best student award was actually nothing compared to being in the larger world reality. I knew at this point, there will be moments where I may need to go down the slope again to reach the top. But the problem is, I didn't know what to do in life. Once you reach one goal, you always need to reach a bigger goal - but I was dumbstruck - not knowing what would my bigger goal be. 

Since then, I started doing everything. I dug my personality and asked myself what would I want to be? The very thing I love the most is art, music, leadership and technology. I started sketching stuff and put them on DeviantArt. You can view them here. There, I built a community by getting to know all the graphic artists from around the globe. 

Due to the passion I have in art, my first job was a graphic and web designer. I had the greatest pleasure learning from my very first boss, M.Lau. He may seem like a critical boss, but he's kind at heart. He was the one who introduced me to Joomla! CMS and showed me the direction on how to start tweaking the design templates and coding. And then, I became very proficient in HTML, CSS and PHP, so I started designing a lot of websites - and that journey lasted for almost 3 years before his company shut down due to financial breakdown. I am still in touch with him still because I still owe him the skills that he had thought me - plus, he was the one who introduced me to sales as well. (The journey in sales is another story)

While looking for a new job, I started composing music in my spare time - and thanks to my beloved wife (we weren't married yet at that time - just started seeing each other) - who inspired me a lot in my song writings back then. I started writing singles like, "I Don't Wanna Lose You" and "It's So Wonderful" - you can listen to them here.

And at one point, I felt like, "Hey, why don't I become a successful artist and perhaps, I can then later teach all the young artists and musicians how to be successful too?" Then, I realized this may seem like an easy goal (the fact that most young, aspiring stars nowadays gain stardom easily via YouTube) - but for me, this isn't the case. This is because I was constantly seeking to find my branding. Who would my listeners be? What will I be seen as? Will I be seen as just merely a singing artist? Or will I be respected as an industry pioneer or the one who brings an industry revolution? 

The publicity that I would like to seek is to be with like-minded individuals who are just equally talented, people who are bold in their actions and have that spiritual drive on contributing something that is higher than themselves to the community. That is why I ended up only seeking organic reach on SoundCloud by reaching out daily to like-minded listeners - hopefully to build a community who may share the passion like I do: art, music, technology. But that effort only lasted for a few months until I landed another job in the event industry. 

That time, I'll have to admit - I was struggling financially (especially when I decided with my wife that I wanted to get married). So, I was constantly seeking for a higher pay rate, a higher position, a higher role in the community - somehow, I'm always thirst for more and more success, even faster than ever. And the consequences of these are, my job was always on a contract basis. And this has been a nightmare of every employers I've met during interviews. Either they were afraid I was too good that I may take the leap of faith to build my business instead of growing with the company, or I may just get bored too easily in what I do.

But to be honest, this is partially true - I was actually looking for a people-oriented company that really takes a good care of employee's well-being and contributes employee's growth at a fast pace - an employer who knows my thirst for success and willing to be my benefactor to bring me there (my vision is that by the end of the career growth, my employer becomes my investor). And every piece of my success can be then shared with every people who actually brought me to the top on the first place. (Unfortunately, this may be far from reality since most companies don't mind having a high turnover rate and abandoning employees' well-being because the job demand will always be there)

In between my jobs, I did start my own business to ensure I got to enjoy more perks and financial freedom. I started by calling back all my contacts to see if they're interested in the services I want to sell. And in order to sell better, I entered an multi-level marketing program coached by a local doctor-turned-millionaire, Dr Shanjay. For a few months, I was under his mentoring for a few months - he was aiming for me to sell his products - but to be honest, I wasn't interested in the product that he wanted to sell - I was more interested in the ways he sold the product. So, I used his skills to earn myself around RM80,000 worth of website sales throughout my period of doing the business - but I also ended up with tons of unnecessary debts due to the bad choices I've made. I wanted to create a sustainable income from website and social media contracts but ended up being lost in the bureaucracy game. The acquisition process was far easier than maintaining them. I nearly struck a good deal which will be worthy to sustain my business for at least another 2 years, but then again, got cheated by the middle men - who played me and my business partners at that time with their great skills of bureaucracy.

I was so devastated at that time because everyone around me seemed to distrust my effort of succeeding in business (because the number of failures seemed to dominate their perceptions) - plus I was losing trust in myself as well (that was the worst moment I have felt in my life) - therefore, I had to secure another job again to keep up with the naysayers (Well, they win this time). That time, I knew I had failed, but that doesn't mean I have failed entirely. I knew that failure taught me a great deal of things about life and people. So, I decided to work for the sake of gaining enough experience to understand and tackle all sorts of bureaucracy by the time I'm opening my own business one day. I had the skills to create and innovate new ideas, but I don't have enough skills to play around with the people who are constant manipulators and do not walk the talk. These are the people who will strive to succeed at whatever cost, even to the most extreme measures - and from there, I concluded there are two types of people:

a) Type A: Steve Jobs type: the creator - this person is always the smartest one in class, the smartest one who has the smartest thing to say in meetings. Type B envy him because of his ideas and intelligence. But most of the time, due to being too smart, this type of people didn't realize - by exposing more info, they're only exposing more of their weaknesses which makes them an easy target for Type B.

b) Type B: Bill Gates type: the manipulator/inventor - these are the silent killers where they know how to innovate a particular idea into something better and commercial - they learn the ideas from Type A - and they surely know how to then manipulate those ideas to bring Type A down - and bring the spotlight or limelight to them. Even though this may seem like a cruel thing, but most leaders will definitely need to conquer the ability to do this to prevent enemies from bringing a business down.

And for the past few years, I've had pleasure working with friends and enemies who actually both taught me these skills - and it's a skill only learnt if you are dedicated to keep failing and failing. (Yes, the feeling isn't good at all although I do believe failing fast will make you succeed even faster.) I had to plot my failures to understand the entire corporate game. I can't sleep at night most of the times, thinking on how to play the game and survive like a winner. (I was thinking of sharing all of them here with you, but let's take it over a coffee chat or something, shall we, haha?)

Now, it has been a 10-years ride ever since- some good ones and some bad ones. Not so much I can proud of yet. There is still a far journey ahead and there's so much things I need to accomplish in order to reach that goal: financial freedom. And I hope in the next 10 years to come, I will then read back this piece of article - being able to continue the next chapters of the story - and hopefully by then, I have managed to climb the top of the game and inspire you with more stories. 

Therefore, my question to myself would be: How can I leverage all these skills for my future career progression? Are these skills sufficient enough for me to take that leap of faith and start my own entrepreneurial journey once again? Or do I constantly seek for potential benefactors who are willing to invest in what I do and achieve my goal of bringing something back to the community? 

Why Creative People Can Be Seen as Leaders [A Response Post]

I stumbled across an article called, "Why Creative People Are Rarely Seen as Leaders" by @Susan Cain here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-creative-people-rarely-seen-leaders-susan-cain" - and to be honest, not very delighted by the article.

My reply to the article is as per below (Credits to @Gray Hammond for encouraging this):

I partly agree with your article and disagree to some. As a designer-turns-marketer myself, it is true that some designers may be introverts or eccentric in their own ways, but there is also a niche within this community such as:

• like in Malaysia we have a designer-turned-millionaire like Irfan Khairihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46xpa4B0ljE 
• or Alec Lynch of DesignCrowd from Australiahttps://au.linkedin.com/in/aleclynch  
• or 7 other designer-turned-entrepreneur which can be found here
• And Jessica Alter of Wired.co.uk felt the same way too
• design consultancy IDEO,
• technology innovator E Ink,
• internet giant Google,
• pharmaceutical leader Novartis

who tends to evolve their ability about bringing perspective to things and sharpen their minds towards the bigger picture instead of thinking about the prolific details and this happens based on 3 factors. 

a) FACTOR 1: CREATIVE PEOPLE ARE POSITIONED WITHIN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS 

Creative people in extreme environments will eventually force their minds to be tuned to the right frequency. (which I called 'the leader's channel' - a channel for political know-how extroverts) They will then know that ideas are best kept and only to be shared when at greatest necessity - best to be observant or leverage people's skills and behaviours which will remove the perception of them from being 'creative' all the time. Speak only when needed or speak loud and sharp as possible when you do, but at the right lingo of not making the upper management felt threaten by your presence or making them think that you're gonna threaten their power or influence base. Upper management doesn't always literally mean your bosses because that is only when you're working under employment. Upper management can also mean your partners, your customers, your stakeholders or anyone who puts you into the game.

b) FACTOR 2: CREATIVE PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY AMBIVERTS

Designers who are already having the extrovert or ambivert/dual personalities (which is not always the case but there are a few) will be able to switch their personality spectrums from being an introvert (during any design tasks) to an extrovert (when it comes to other things than design) - and switch it again whenever necessary depending on the social situations they're in. These are whom I called the 'lucky ones' because they practically have every skill needed to survive (and when I say 'skill', I don't mean talent because talent can also be perceived as 'creative' - I was solely referring to communication skill) Ambiverts tend to have a diverse personality which is crucial of what it takes to be a leader. A leader must have the balance of being a visionary and a harsh critic. Micromanage only when they need to and switch their views to see things in a bigger picture. And this is what these 'ambiverts' creative people are able to do.

c) FACTOR 3: CREATIVE PEOPLE WHO MANAGE 'CREATIVE' AS MUCH AS CREATING 'CREATIVE'

Creativity has always been something too elusive and intangible; thus considered by many as unmanageable (at least, they thought it is). Concentrating on it produced a less immediate payoff than improving execution, therefore, it hasn’t been the focus of any company C-suite who practices traditional management in their organizational behavior. This 'traditional' mindset defines creativity in a way such that the one who actually becomes a leader is normally not the one who originates the initial idea. It is someone who knows the art of commercializing one's original idea and blast it off to the market. As Cook put it, “Traditional management prioritizes projects and assigns people to them. But increasingly, managers are not the source of the idea.” 

However, creative people who possess managerial skills (such as have a comprehensive understanding on mapping the phases of creative work, managing commercialization handoff, knowing how to tackle the bureaucracy throughout the ideation to execution) as much as creating the idea itself (a leader who constantly recasts himself/herself as an employee) are the people who are able to embark the leader's journey better than any other leader who practices the conventional management method.

These 3 factors multiplied by the burning desire to succeed and to do something bigger than themselves will then create a series of natural instincts of what are the next steps to do to reach 'there' (If you are from creative industry and don't know where to start, try this). It's like how you train your mind to attract wealth and abundance using the Law of Attraction. When a creative person actually tells himself/herself that he/she will become a leader, that is the channel he/she will be tuned in. Subliminally. Doesn't happen overnight. Focus and determination are vital to staying on that path. Should they choose to stay, not only they will simply show that they're creative in designs, but they will tend to show creativity in the way they view things on a bigger scale. Politics and leadership do require a strong sense of creativity on how you want to adapt to any situation. This kind of passion which lurks within a few, does push oneself further towards what it takes to be a leader.

CHANGING THE PERCEPTION

According to a research implemented by Teresa Amabile and Mukti Khaire of Harvard Business School, Cook told the story of an eye-opening analysis of innovations at Google: Its founders tracked the progress of ideas that they had backed versus ideas that had been executed in the ranks without support from above, and discovered a higher success rate in the latter category. Similarly, it was noted that Philip Rosedale, the founder and chairman of Linden Lab, the fast-growing company that manages Second Life, claims to give most workers enormous autonomy, and says the greatest successes come from workers’ own initiatives.

Research by Israel Drori, a professor at the College of Management in Israel, and Benson Honig, a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, highlights the hazards of not distributing creative responsibilities across the organization. They observed an internet start-up offering a new, sophisticated form of computer graphics from its inception in 1996 until its collapse, seven years later. While the venture enjoyed initial success, it was ultimately unsustainable because it depended too much on the genius of its award-winning artist-founder—and took organizational creativity for granted.

CREATIVE LEADERSHIP IS THE WAY FORWARD

In conclusion, creative people can be good leaders as much as the non-creative ones. The benefit of being creative as a leader is, he/she will always spark the culture of innovation within the organizational's society; encouraging an exponential momentum of business growth other than being understanding towards his/her employees due to the practice of tapping ideas from all ranks instead of letting just the managers to get the 'trophy'.

Source:

• Mostly own experience
• Bits and pieces from https://hbr.org/2008/10/creativity-and-the-role-of-the-leader

_____________________________

Author is a 7-year-experienced marketer who constantly strives to be bold and different than anybody else, Nik M Harith, married and Kelantan-borne, he aimed to follow the footsteps of Michael Kenji Shinoda, a technopreneur from Linkin Park – which is to be one of the top recognized technopreneurs in Asian region by 2018 – with the aim to join the technopreneurs’ league such as Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, Apple and many others.

Without any professional background or qualification neither in multimedia,design and music, he successfully managed to climb the ladders from nothing to a well-respected designer & music composer in which his works have been showcased not only in Malaysia, but also including USA, India, Indonesia, Singapore and many more.

His artwork alone has reached the government sectors including Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak himself and the Prime Minister’s Department, Dato’ Seri Rais Yatim, Ministry of Green Technology, MATRADE Corporation, DATUM Corporation of PKNS and many more. His musical work, on the other hand,have been premiered worldwide – gaining him a 2000 fanbase within a few months which comprises from Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, USA, Australia and many others. Due to his outstanding 11As achievement in SPM, he was granted by the US Department of State of being an ambassador representing Malaysia to Ohio, USA, in order to speak to thousands of American students about the culture and socio-politics of Malaysia.