What do you call the member of a sports team who never plays in the game? A coach. What do you call someone in the classroom who never takes a test or receives a grade but participates in all of the work? A teacher. What do you call someone who takes part in creating and recording the music for Malaysian rock band Beat The System (BTS) without ever playing a note or performing onstage? Adrian Puan. This Malaysian born songwriter is okay with doing a lot of the work and foregoing almost every bit of the glory. He is in it for the music. He is the most “band membery” non-band member you have ever…sorry, never heard of. The amiable and polite Puan contradicts every aspect of the moniker “rockstar” and yet he has the credits to award winning songs and a soon to be released recording project to back the name up. He laughs as the title is proposed in conjunction with his name. It seems ridiculous to him and yet, so does moving halfway across the planet because the US music industry has discovered you. Music and friendship is at the core of his story.
BTS is an award-winning Malaysian rock band. The group is highly recognized in Malaysia with songs such as “Penipuan Berwaris” (nominated for Best Rock Song by the 2010 Asian Voice Independent Music Awards), “Shine” (won Song of the Year, Best Genre Bender, and Best Collaboration at the 2012 AVI Music Awards), and “Hero” (won Best Rock Song at the Asian BMM Global Awards). “Shine” and “Hero” were both products of the writing duo of Gerald Sellan (songwriter, drummer, and bandleader of BTS) and Puan. Sellan had an interest in working with Adrian prior to composing these songs. These early collaborations went so well that BTS asked Puan to become an exclusive writer for them. This created not only a highly successful relationship but also a highly unusual one. The situation became even more odd when Diana Meltzer (A&R, CEO of Monster Hits Music) signed the band due, in no small part, to the songs which Puan composed. Meltzer is a highly respected member of the American music industry having discovered and signed bands like Grammy award-winners Creed, Alter Bridge, Evanescence, Bright Eyes, Drowning Pool, and others. Meltzer confirms, “When I received the first ten songs that Beat The System had promised to send me, I knew that the band was great but what really convinced me were the songs. I didn’t know that Adrian wasn’t a member of the band or that he didn’t even play an instrument. The most important thing in this industry is the song. Adrian’s songs prove that he is a gifted songwriter as well as a major contributor to the sound of this band.
How does a non-performing, non-member of a band become an essential part of that band? You have to delve into Puan’s process and approach as well as the personal dynamics of BTS to make sense of it all. Puan comments, “My instrument is my iPhone. It’s my voice. My style relies much more on inspiration than on developing my abilities on a musical instrument. The thing that I share with BTS is that we all feel that the melody is the most important part of any song. You don’t walk out of a concert or leave your car humming the bass part or the guitar lick…or any individual instrument; it is the melody that sticks with you. That is usually the vocal part for me. The instrumentation is related to the melody but it is the melody that is the intrinsic thing. The lyrics and the melody are two parts of the same things, you can’t separate them. The movement in pitch and the rhythm of the lyrics are set by the melody. I feel lucky that these have always come naturally to me.”
Adrian reveals that the secret ingredient to his approach is the emotional content to his songs. The back story of a song often aids the performer in an approach similar to that of actors. As an example, he recalls the recording of “Dear Julie” from the soon to be released US debut record JOURNEY by BTS. May Leigh (BTS vocalist) is an amazing singer. She is very accomplished and great at interpreting songs with her own twist. ‘Dear Julie’ is a song I wrote about US troops. Americans love their troops so much; you can feel it when they speak about them and how they act towards them. I wrote this song from the perspective of a soldier who is out in the desert, away from his family. Although I’ve never been in that situation, I could guess what it feels like to miss your family and not be able to get to them because you are performing a duty. The initial takes of the song were very good but there was something that I was hearing in my head that just had not happened yet during the recording. I sat down with May and went into great detail about how I saw the story; the lyrics and the emotions that weren’t spoken of in the song but that the main character was certainly feeling. Rather than telling May to go higher with the notes in a part or change the phrasing, sometimes it is more effective to communicate an emotional state. Of course, May found that place and delivered an amazing vocal part to the song.”
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Even though he is not a member of BTS, the band and Diana Meltzer insisted that he accompany them to New York City to record JOURNEY with Andy Anderson (4 time Dove Award- winner) as producer and Grammy nominated engineer Damien Page Lewis. The highly unorthodox approach and collaborative relationship of songwriter and band required Puan to be present during tracking of the songs. Seven of the eleven songs on JOURNEY are Adrian’s compositions; proof of his impact on the band’s sound. It’s because of this that BTS has changed another part of the modern musical template. Puan will be touring with BTS as a catalyst for his songwriting. He explains, “It’s a requirement for me to go on the road with Beat The System. The first record is inspired by the journey of the band. The songs that I wrote came from my personal thoughts and perspective but were inspired by the experiences of the band. The second record will be the same. I have to go on the road with them in order to feel their lives the way that they feel it. If we play in small clubs or large venues, I have to get a sense of it myself as well as recognize the emotional course that the members of the band take. If I write something, they have to be able to relate to it in order to deliver it in a sincere manner. If I’m living back home in Malaysia while BTS is on the road, we are not living congruent lives. The reason that I am effective and successful as a song writer is because I am able to recognize the joy and the pain that creates an individual or a band’s soul.” That statement is true no matter where you are from. As it applies to Adrian Puan, Amelia Tan (Director of Malaysian Revival Songwriting Competition) communicates it best stating, “What makes Adrian so special is his ability to compose songs that are relevant to the artist while also resonating with the listeners in a way which allows them to connect deeply with an emotion.” Regardless of their methodology, this is the aim of all artists.