Malaysian indie band The Venopian Solitude play with their food to drum up the Ramadan mood (VIDEO)

PETALING JAYA, May 28 — Remember always being told not to play with your food?

Even if you hold dear to your table manners, you’ll be forgiving of indie band The Venopian Solitude as they charm you into the festive mood by doing just that.

The band, led by singer-songwriter Takahara Suiko, tap and drum on a whole feast of KFC dishes including buckets of fried chicken, nuggets, drinks and more in the fast food’s Ramadan commercial.

The use of Makey Makey, an unusual circuit board kit that allows users to convert virtually any item, including food, into a musical instrument may not be new, having been around since 2013.

However, the novel experiment by KFC and Suiko’s outfit to serve up a Raya tune with it, appears to have had some appetising results.

“It’s evident that it works,” said Suiko, noting the initial reaction of a video playing with the KFC.

“Playing with chickens got everyone excited!

“It’s not like every piece has a different note, as the items are just used to trigger pre-programmed sounds, but it definitely makes people take notice.”

Suiko said the KFC collaboration was a joy, especially for a brand like KFC to believe in a local act.

“Shawn Wasabi (American producer) has been doing various things with food items and such for some time.”

“KFC could have gotten someone like him, but it just wouldn’t have been Raya. For a campaign that resonates, you need people to embed the culture in their body of work,” she said.

“Hopefully, this will open the door for more companies to take that leap of faith into investing in local talents.”

It would be interesting to note that even Wasabi himself, has complimented the band on the finger-licking good effort in the form of a tweet.

And all it took to make it happen was shamelessly promoting KFC’s nuggets on social media in an unpaid endorsement to get noticed.

“There was a lot of response over it, KFC noticed us and got in touch with us to work together for the Raya ad.

“They were going for something different away from the theme of sad Raya ads which seems to be the norm, and opting for a cheery, happier tone.”

Suiko said it wasn’t hard to come up with the bouncy tune and that the sound evolved in the translation of Malay traditional music and instruments to electronic sounds.

The Venopian Solitude’s debut album in Hikayat Perawan Majnun, received three nominations in Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) 2014, while Suiko’s own collaboration with Altimet in Janji, won the AIM’s Best Hip Hop Song in 2016.

The band embarked on a tour to bring their brand of Malaysian music abroad with various stops around Europe last year.

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