Super trio

THE three men behind S.U.P.A (short for Supa Unique Producers Around) are no strangers to Malaysia’s music scene.

Francis Cobb, Alda Tan and Selvam Gana have worked with everyone including Hannah Tan, Malaysian Idol finalist Dina, Broken Scar and Beat The System.

What results when the three collaborate is music that seamlessly meshes elements of R&B, hip-hop, rock and electronic.”

Cobb is the main driving force of S.U.P.A. “He brings the ideas, he’s got a great sense of musical direction,” says Selvam. “Alda and I then add our touches and that’s how you get our music.”

Musical diversity is very important for the three and they have no problem finding a way to agree on the final result they create.

“We’ve worked professionally together for at least four years now, so even though S.U.P.A is something we just recently formed, we are very compatible when we create together,” explains Cobb.

In spite of the trio’s creativity, they prefer to be making the music and leave the singing to other people. “We have tracks we did with Melina from Tempered Mental and Kevin from Broken Scar. We love collaborating and finding ways to musically work with different people and see how we can complement their style,” says Cobb.

The group currently has three songs done and has been creating quite a buzz since uploading its tracks at www.myspace.com/supaunique. There are no plans just yet to go full steam with an album. “We want to build more interest in what we do first before we do more music,” Cobb says.

Besides preferring to have other people sing, S.U.P.A also wants to stay visually in the background as well. The group has a music video for its first single, Take It All, featuring Tempered Mental’s Melina, that is fully animated.

“We want to explore alternate ways of being represented. I like how Gorillaz approached its image. Not to say we are following that, but we do want to see how else we can present ourselves to people,” Cobb says.

Pushing a music video before a single on radio is part of S.U.P.A’s approach of getting the word out about itself.

Cobb feels that just hearing the music and not getting the visual representation won’t convey the overall package he and his partners ultimately have. “When people see and hear us at the same time, it’s a different experience than just hearing our song,” Cobb says.

Besides being able to check out the music video soon, you can also get a dose of S.U.P.A “live” during Impulse on Nov 28 at 8.30pm in Werner’s, Changkat Bukit Bintang. Other acts performing include Thailand’s Katsue and KL’s Ray Soo.