Award-winning Mystical Mirage is based in Kuala Lumpur where they are involved in various music events.
KUCHING: A rock band ‘Mystical Mirage’ was one of the winners in the coveted 5th Voice International Music Awards (Vima) Malaysia held here last Saturday night.
The Kuala Lumpur-based band, founded in Kuching in 2006, won two awards.
They clinched the second spot in the Best Chinese Song category for their song ‘Heroes’ featuring Ryan Tan.
They also won fifth place in the Best Dance/Club Song category for ‘Top of the World’, a song by Elvin Ong and Tom Lue featuring Mystical Mirage’s frontman and vocalist Kenneth Ho Hong Hui.
According to Ho, this is the biggest milestone for the band in the past one year.
“We can now consider ourselves an award-winning band. We have finally achieved something big within just a year.
“More importantly, the top winners of each category in Vima Malaysia automatically qualify for Vima Asia, where we will face other winners for Vima India and Vima Southeast Asia.
“Vima Asia voting begins from Jan 15 to Feb 5. The awards night will be on March 22,” he told The Borneo Post when contacted yesterday.
Ho, who was born and bred in Kuching, admitted that all the band members were really nervous prior to the announcement of winners.
“We are really relieved that we won a couple of awards and chosen to vie in Vima Asia. It is a great achievement for us and another milestone in our band career.
“We are thankful for support of all our fans. We are already a winner with all the tremendous support from everyone and we hope they will continue to support us. Please vote for us again in Vima Asia,” he said.
On the band’s future plans, Ho said the members are aiming to make the band big outside Malaysia.
“It is our next target to make it big outside Malaysia. Currently we are in the process of writing more new materials, which we hope to release as a full album. We hope to receive more awards next time and to perform in bigger gigs. In fact, we will have our own big show this March,” he said.
Mystical Mirage started as a college band in LimKokWing University, where Ho met guitarist Jimmy Pui while attending classes together. Initially the band was known as J’arc to suit their image as a cover band of Japanese rock songs, playing gigs in cafes and school events.
Mystical Mirage was born when other members Jared Ng, Authur Cham and Aaron AC came along and the band decided to write their own songs.
The band officially launched their first EP titled ‘Prelude’ in Kuching last October. About 300 copies have been sold so far.
They are currently based in Kuala Lumpur, actively taking part in various music events, including the recent Music Tornado Festival where they shared the same stage with other well-known local bands such as SLaP!, Manhand and Daydream.
To learn more of the band’s activities, log on to their official Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/mysticalmirageband.