Two’s company as the saying goes. But, when it comes to Dama Asia Productions trio – Khor Seng Chew, Music Director; Gan Boon We, Finance Director and Pun Kai Loon, Artistic Director – a cord of three isn’t easily broken. Therefore, being bestowed with the inaugural Brand Legend Awards (BLA) 30 Years by Branding Association of Malaysia (BAM) is testimony to the staying power of the three directors.
“We feel very honoured to receive the prestigious award by BAM, and also to be recognised for the work that we do,” said Khor.
“There could be nothing more special than this and being recognised for the work that we do,” agreed Gan.

Pun painted an imagery of working on an empty canvas and painting a picture on it to make it “interesting, engaging and captivating for the people who look at it”. Once people see the canvas painting in terms of the music and the production, the most pleasant and enjoyable part to him is when they say this (the production) is so engaging, beautiful and captivating.
“That makes our day. So, it’s always that challenge in terms of really trying to engage the audience in terms of what you want to share with them,” he enthused.

The award they agree, becomes very special in terms of recognising what they have painted on in terms of the canvas of music production. “The most interesting part of the job is that everything we start our work or production, it’s an empty canvas and how do we create a canvas and leave a picture on the canvas. So here is the audience which is the challenging part,” he explained.

The secret behind their enduring legacy can be summed in just three elements which the directors think work best for them. “Firstly, it’s our passion for the creative work that is generate in that frequency. Without that passion, I don’t think it would work. The other aspect which is very important is our pursuit of excellence because if you don’t have a certain level of passion in what you pursue, you are just going through the routine of work which has no meaning.”

The important part also is also to “always strive to be relevant to the community because once you lose your relevance, people won’t come to see the show and you won’t have no meaning to them”.

Keeping Relevant In This Day & Age

Recognising the need to keep abreast with trends, they recognise the need to upgrade themselves continuously be it musically or exploring areas of work that they consider as artistically challenged in which they want to make good out of it.

“We do a lot of research work and suss out from the public about their interest and what ticks for them which also has to ‘tick for us’. It’s not just feeding what the community wants but we also think that we can overlap each other’s interest so that it is relatable from an arts point of view, yet interesting and pioneering. And, from the audience’s point of view, entertaining and engaging.

As for advice to the younger entrepreneurs, if they want to do what they really want to do, “understanding and knowing their market is very important because if you don’t know or understand what your market is about, it would be very difficult to produce things that the market would want.

Staying ahead of the trends, they concur that the AI issue is “very much of a staging issue”. “Right now, we have come out of the hibernation of the pandemic, so we are slowly going forward and this is definitely part of the work,” he shared adding that in December, they will be doing another musical that will incorporate the visual of LED with all these scenes.

@Paparazzi