Quoting Ahmad Izham Omar, CEO of 8tv

Have always admired the young, dashing musician-turned-CEO who helms 8tv, and this piece echoes my thoughts....

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Embraceable You (2009)
by Ahmad Izham Omar
Jul 16, 2009 at 06:20 PM

I was driving back late one night. It was a nice and lonely drive, you know, the one where you are totally alone with your thoughts, lost to music in the background while the pulse of the city streets and flickering neon lights dance before you in the treasured sanctuary of your car.

The music in my car never fails to surprise me, and this is probably due to my iPod being set to randomly play any song from my nearly 11,000-strong song library (ahem).

So it was the nicest of feelings, as I was driving that night, when the familiar strings and brass of a majestic Nelson Riddle arrangement swept into the car and Frank Sinatra started singing “Embrace me…my sweet embraceable you….”.

I openly let the lush beauty of a Sinatra classic totally engulf me, feeding all my senses, his inimitable voice resonating deep into my consciousness and giving that journey home a magical elevation.

As the strings soared and Sinatra reached the top of his vocal range, my thoughts began floating, transcending into the distant darkness of the Ampang hills, the world swishing by me in a blur of buildings, cars and toll plazas, sparking in me a curious thought about songwriting and how it related with the song title Embraceable You.

It should come to no surprise that the most beautiful works of art come from the deepest of experiences. The Taj Mahal was created from deep and blinding love, Beethoven composed some of his best work under the tragic curse of deafness, Picasso’s Guernica was inspired by the horrifying manslaughter of war, Kurt Cobain screamed out his despair about selling out to success in Smells Like Teen Spirit and we could only imagine the ache in Eric Clapton when he wrote Tears In Heaven for his dead son.

Take a while and think of your all-time favourite songs. In most cases, the songs made you feel a depth of emotion rarely felt in everyday life (yes, maybe even Ice Ice Baby from Vanilla Ice for some of you).

And in most cases, the reason the song made you feel those deep emotions is because the songwriter too dug deep into his or her emotions. The result is magic; an unseen but powerful connection between strangers, tied together by their own personal feelings.

The filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad once said, “To touch the hearts of people deeply, you first have to touch your own heart deeply”.

I thoroughly agree. We need to dig deep inside ourselves, go through our deepest emotions, and explore the ironies and complexities that make us human to be able to produce meaningful works of art.

Hence the problem. As a rule, we Malaysians don’t really get over-emotional.

Maybe it’s because we always try to “control handsome”. We rarely let our guard down because it’s “frowned upon”. I’ve been getting the heat too about ever letting any of our reality contestants hug on stage.

But what is all this hoo-ha about?

I think giving your all and yes, letting your feelings get in the way are the basic ingredients of achieving seemingly-impossible things. Put everything into it, man, and miracles usually happen. People who have done seemingly-incredible feats all seem to have this characteristic trait of “wearing your heart on your sleeve”: Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Tun Mahathir, even Osama.

If you are creating something in a factory-assembled manner with all precision but no heart, then the resulting work would be easily forgettable. Yes, this applies to non-music creations as well. Heck, it even applies if you sell goreng pisang.

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone put their entire heart and soul into everything they do? Wouldn’t it be great if they were not afraid to get their hearts into the line of fire even when they know there is the risk of getting hurt? Wouldn’t it be great that nobody does things because of routine or “it’s a job” but instead put everything into it? Even activities like picking up the kids at school?

Confucius said it best with this line: “Wherever you go, go with all your heart”. Apply that to music and I really believe our music will reach soaring new heights. Apply it to life, and suddenly life is worth living.

I sat there in the darkness as my car purred itself to a stop in my driveway. With Frank Sinatra’s voice sublimely trailing away into a fade, I smiled at the irony of it all.

We sing about embracing, about loving with all of our hearts and about feeling the deepest love.

Maybe one day we can really live it.

URL: http://www.8tv.com.my/Fan8tics/Fan8ticsCEOBlog.aspx?Mode=detail&EntryID=272&BloggerID=8

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