plush

It was in mid-2002 when Izwin and Savy decided to form a band solely to join the 2002 Yamaha Asian Beat Competition. As soon as Sheen Tse and Hayati agreed to join the band as guitarists, Izwin approached Melina, who was already playing the bass for her own band. Melina declined at first, not liking the idea of entering a band competition. However, after some assurance from Izwin about the whole idea, Melina said yes and quickly asked Izwin to leave before she changes her mind. So, there was another spot left, for a drummer. Not knowing any girl who plays decent drums, Izwin began asking around for contacts. Not too long after that a friend recommended Stephanie, who was then already an incredible yet underrated drummer. She joined the band and soon they began jamming together for the first time. After awhile Sheen Tse and Melina decided to switch roles and the band’s lineup was finalized.The band only had 3 weeks to prepare for the competition and a week to decide for a name, thus ending up with GroundXero (Izwin’s fault, she was desperate). Determined to put up an impressive performance, they decided to compose an original song as oppose to playing a cover. That song was the funk-influenced, highly technical “Access: Denied”. Regardless of their limited knowledge of their instruments, the band pushed themselves really hard to perfect the song. At the preliminary round of the competition, GroundXero proved themselves worthy by reaching the Top 10 position, out of about 50 participating bands hence enabling them to move on to the quarter finals. The band regards this as a huge achievement, considering it was their debut appearance as a band. GroundXero performed impressively at the quarter finals albeit minor errors. They did not make it to the semis but the exciting experience was enough for them to instantly decide to go on as a permanent band.GroundXero landed their first gig from a musician friend about 3 months after the band competition. It was a two day-gig called Indiefestation at Sunway Pyramid. The thought of performing in front of a huge audience, especially well-known local bands was nerve-wrecking. The band performed “Access: Denied”, a new original song called “Favourite Temptation” and a 311 cover, “Amber”. It was yet another attention-grabbing performance. GroundXero’s biggest break was performing at a “girl-gig” called “Girls In Scene 1” at Paul’s Place, KL and the “Sunday Freestyle Jam” series at Emporium, KL. They pleased the crowd with songs of their own and covers from Incubus, A Perfect Circle, Audioslave, Taproot and even tAtU. They have been performing actively around peninsula Malaysia ever since. The band’s first international gig was the 2005 Baybeats Music Festival in Singapore.GroundXero too has made their television appearance on 3R’s “Girls Day Out” festival as well as RTM 2’s “Let’s Jam”. These appearances have since helped them to promote themselves to a bigger audience and gain performance opportunities.The band takes their music seriously and strives to be prominent in the music scene. They have recently decided to change their band name to one that better reflects their music, image and personality. After a lot of thinking and soul-searching, they have chosen the name Plush.Recently, Hayati who just came back to Malaysia after completing her studies overseas, has decided to leave Plush to give full commitment on her profession in the music business. The band respects her decision and will continue as a 5-piece band. However, that empty spot will always be available should she ever change her mind.Plush is currently recording their debut EP where all songs are written and composed by members of the band themselves.