KUCHING: Pinanak Sentah is a Bidayuh word directly translated as Family (Pinanak) and Mountain Side (Sentah).
It is also the name of a band featuring Sarawak’s latest musical talent to break into the mainstream music industry.
The band has been featured in various events including Rainforest Music Festival, Kuching Intercultural Mooncake Festival and What About Kuching Festival.
It came out top through an event called Serenading The Moon: Battle of the Bands, a side event held in conjunction with the Kuching Intercultural Mooncake Festival 2018. The organisers of the event had secured a spot for the winners to play live on TV during the upcoming Asian Television Award Show on this Jan 11, 12 and 13.
Pinanak Sentah won the first prize of RM2,000 and also the chance of a lifetime, which is playing live to approximately 2 billion people watching the show across Asia.
Sim Kiang Chiok the joint organising chairperson for the Kuching Intercultural Mooncake Festival (KIMF) explained, “The idea behind having the battle of the bands was to capitalise on this opportunity given to showcase a new talent to the world.
“The event was to allow the young generation to showcase their music on stage and battle it out so that we can find a gem amongst them.
“The live band element is the new thing this year and we will continue with the event as long as bands come out and participate like in this year. We had 23 bands participating including Wai Rejected from Pontianak.”
The organisers of the 23rd Asian Television Awards flew in a professional judge to head a three-man panel for the finale of the event held at the Hokkien Chinese Opera Hall on Wayang Street. Wallace Ang from Singapore, Nick Zynale and Pengiran Yusuf Ederis decided unanimously that Pinanak Sentah would be the champions on the night despite a stiff challenge from Wai Rejected and Draska another upcoming local band.
Dantee Temik the mentor and manager of the band is also related to the entire band. He explains, “The name Pinanak Sentah means the Sentah Generation and it is a name we come up with as a family.”
The genesis of the band was in mid-2014 when three boys, all cousins, Eric Loi, Rick Hillary and Alex Loi formed the band with Ethaniel Telon and Etheria Shana joining in later. The purpose was to play at a Gawai event in Duras Village near Siburan, about 28 km from Kuching City.
Ethaniel Telon plays the iconic sape for the band. He also plays other instruments. The band decided early although collectively they were all into rock and roll music they wanted to play on the world stage so they decided to play world music instead.
The idea paid off. They were quickly recognised for their uniqueness and started to get the attention of local event organisers. Now they have evolved and could produce their own original scores.
The band sees a good future in the world music genre and with exposure in the upcoming 23rd Asian Television Awards they hope to scale to greater hights.
