In the last week of November, Myanmore has special guests in the building. They were talking, laughing, some of them were excited and recalling the memories about how they met. Hein Htet (rap), Poe Gyi (melodic & screaming), Abel (guitar) and Paul (bass) visited us for this Rangoon Rhythm of the month. Four of them are a part of modern Nu metal rock band Out Of The Rule. Min Ye Kyaw took notes to make this article comes alive.
Hein Htet met Poe Gyi in the first place when he started thinking of a band. He wanted to make it different from what he was into before, a rapper with huge volume of Hip Hop background. Then he gathered the remaining candidates, and eventually they became “Out Of The Rule” from scratch with two more members – A Shay Gyi (guitar) and Sann Moe Htet (sound tech and drum). The band name came from something that they wanted to do which has no boundaries and breaks the rules.
“And the logo isn’t something special, just a head of deer hanging at my house. But we are discussing our official logo now,” Hein Htet explains.
And their rule is simple. They don’t go under particular genre. They are all interested in Nu metal, Alternative rock, Rap rock, Modern rock or whatever they feel like they are going to make. But the whole band admitted that they have a big influence of Linkin Park – everyone’s favourite American rock band.
Poe Gyi added, “Aside from Linkin Park, we listen to Bring Me The Horizon and a few Nu metal bands.” The rest appended that Idiots and Lay Phyu are their favourite local artists. Together, they have released a total of 9 singles including their first EP in 2015. And four performances.
“We usually make the music/sound first and when the mood comes in, we write lyrics,” Hein Htet claims. Mostly, he writes most of the songs at his place but sometimes, he needs help from others. So it appears to them that the studio is the only place they went to record because most procedures took place at Hein Htet’s place all the time.
“We are all happy when we are together and making music. We put all our efforts there,” says Abel. Well that makes sense for a band.
When I asked them about the most memorable moment of their music journey, they all agreed to the same answer.
“At our first show of Voice of the Youth in 2017, one of the guitar strings broke when we were about to perform. Everyone in the band had gone crazy. Poe Gyi even thought about running off from the stage. But we managed to borrow a new guitar from our friend who lives nearby. But we did feel desperate to continue our performance at that time,” laughter continues.
And Paul clarified the collision of Yangon music industry in his words. “We are not really struggling. Everything is going with the flow because one music genre can’t persist at a certain era. First, it was rock, then pop and hip hop. And they bring EDM here, and it’s still gushing for now. And it will move on, like I said. It’s an evolution. Cause there are always good and bad. We have optimism. Thus, everything will come when it’s time. So we are good, innit.”
Out Of The Rule has lots of plans for 2020. To focus on their album, they admitted they need to push their limits since it’s been delayed for years.
“Everything’s good now. Like our latest single “Have Fun” that indicates our current mood,” Abel ends the story having a smile on his face.
Listen Out Of The Rule on Facebook and Youtube.
