By DENIELLE LEONG
brats@thestar.com.my

Photos by DANIEL SUBRAMANIAM

IT was just three years ago when The Impatient Sisters first performed live on online indie music platform The Wknd. Now, sisters Soraya, Nazeera and Irena Taib already have an album – written and produced on their own, in true indie spirit – under their belt.

So when the BRATs met up with them for an interview recently, we asked: Why the rush for an album?

“We just wanted to get it over and done with since we’re so impatient,” Soraya, 28, joked before admitting: “It was really a little bit of everything. Our fans had already been asking for it even before we released our EP in 2012.

And knowing that Irena was leaving for Boston last December (to further her studies), we felt that this would be our last chance to do it for a long time.”

Their first go at producing an album was not smooth sailing. It was an eye-opening experience, to say the least – and a rather costly one too. The fully self-funded project cost over RM20,000.

“We asked Jeremy Larsen (an American musician) to help with the arrangements for two songs, and we paid him quite a bit for that,” explained Soraya, who works in public relations. “We covered everything with our gig money from the past few years, along with a loan from our parents.”

While finances were pretty much covered, the technical side still presented them with a bit of a headache. In fact, the trio didn’t really know what to expect. According to Soraya, they didn’t exactly have the luxury of recording like most bands do.

“Bands are supposed to tighten their sound before going into the studio for recording, but we didn’t do it like that because we didn’t have the time to practise,” she added.

Accountancy student Nazeera, 24, also said: “We didn’t know much so the three of us just trusted the musicians to do their thing when we recorded.”

Due to their lack of preparation and planning, they struggled at the post-production phase when their vocals were to be mixed with the instrumental parts. Despite all that, the sisters managed to get everything settled in time for the launch in Damansara Heights, Selangor last month.

The self-titled album consists of 11 original songs they had written together, including Oh Kawan, their only Malay song so far.

“We’ve written a few others, but being the perfectionists we are, we don’t want people to hear them just yet,” Soraya said. “I think we should really start reading classical Malay literature to help improve our songwriting. When it comes to Malay songs, it’s hard to stray from conventional tunes, but we still want to keep our signature The Impatient Sisters sound; but I think Oh Kawan managed to capture just that.”

To get your hands on the album, you can email theimpsis@gmail.com, or download it from iTunes.