beat the system

beat the system was formed in the late 2001 by stewart and shuresh at a church jamming session back in jb. due to the same level of musical interest, stewart and shuresh became real tight and shared ideas musically. with stewart on guitars and shuresh on drums and vocals, we started to jam our favorite cover songs. realizing we could more then jamming, we started writing original materials for fun.

at that time, they made a pact to create music with originality while using our own music influences, believing that we can make an impact in the local music scene. soon, they started looking for a bassist and drummer to complete the lineup.

sam, a close friend with the same music passion and interest, was invited to play bass. this was the beginning of bts. we committed to jam and tighten up our skills.

in may 2002, when stewart moved up to kuala lumpur, he hooked up gerald to take over the drums and thus completing the full line up for bts.

along the way, the band realized that sam had more potential in singing and we started auditioning for a replacement bassist, which led to Raja, an old friend of stewart and gerald replacing the role.

despite the distance between sam and shuresh (singapore) and the rest (kuala lumpur), time was allocated for practices and song writing regularly. it was all back to basics, “prioritize and do your homework!”

it was in 2003 that bts started gig-ing with impressive results. every stage appearance was not only about the music, but the presence and showmanship live on stage, which would become bts’ signature: tight music for both ears and eyes. the crowd loved bts. bts loved the crowd. it was good chemistry.

in mid 2004, raja parted ways with bts due to musical differences and selvam was invited to take over the position. in 2008 lenard was recruited after the departure of sel due to work commitments, though he still remains very close to bts (he’s our sound engineer btw).

at the end of 2004, bts recorded its debut ep with 5 professionally recorded tracks. but instead of selling it to our fans, we decided to give them away for free. a small token of appreciation to our current and future fans out there. songs such as friendly fire and metal heads on parade become favourites among bts listeners.

today, bts is constantly on the road from gig to gig, competition to competition and performance to performance, not forgeting the recording of our 6th track, a malay-lyriced song penipuan berwaris. where else are we left to go? time to look for a label. hmm.