If the name Martin Vengadesan seems familiar to longtime Star2 readers, that’s because he used to write a regular column called Music Myths And Legends that ran for a decade from 2002 to 2012, in which he combined his passion for music and history.
Vengadesan recently created his own personal piece of music history with The Queen’s Gambit, the debut record by his band Martin Vengadesan And The Stalemate Factor.
The album is a personal project he started in 2010, but only managed to complete in 2017.
“It started out as a band eight years ago, but throughout the course of it, we suffered breakups and all that, so it became a recording project,” he explained, adding that half the album was completed five years ago, but it was left idle for a while.
“It sat there for about four years, and I kind of lost interest in it, and was busy doing other things like growing old,” he said with a laugh.
“Then in 2016, my life went through a few drastic changes, and I decided to get it done once and for all.”
The Stalemate Factor’s core line-up consists of Vengadesan on vocals, keyboards and most of the acoustic guitar, Hisham Zulkifli on bass, and Andrew Sagayam on drums. All three are actually members of the press – Vengadesan is a news editor with The Star, Hisham is a sub-editor with Star2 and Sagayam is a former Star journalist who is currently with Bernama.
The Queen’s Gambit is a project that Martin Vengadesan started working on eight years ago.
As a journalist, Vengadesan is exposed to a lot of different topics and news issues, and some of it inspired certain parts of the record. For instance, Song For An Abused Child is about an actual child abuse case that he followed closely while on the job.
“When you’re with the news desk, sometimes you go through a lot of depressing stuff. When you read the details and see the photos that are not published, it can really affect you sometimes,” he said.
Other songs, like Written In Water and Affirmative, are more political in nature.
“Affirmative is about being an Indian in Malaysia, but it actually has Malaysians from different races playing on it, and that for me is the real Malaysia.”
The first of a planned quartet of albums, The Queen’s Gambit features a string of different genres across the record, which Vengadesan said was his intention all along.
“It starts with blues rock with Affirmative. Across The Moors, the last song, is very different. It’s set about 200 years ago, and has a more Victorian-era arrangement, with organ, harpsichord, violin, viola and classical guitars.
“Things Fall Apart and Bamako are basically just acoustic guitar, bass and drums, whereas Petunia is piano driven.
“I wanted to have a variety of styles, and for it to be very honest. Each song is like a different story for me, and a lot of the songs are very personal.
“The point of the record was not to see if it would sell, but to harness our creativity, and also to get all those stories out there,” he concluded.
To purchase The Queen’s Gambit, search for The Stalemate Factor on Facebook or e-mail martinvengadesan@gmail.com.
