With the album out, what are you most excited for in the coming months?
I’m currently in talks with a Taiwanese world music distribution label I ve been focusing on the Taiwanese Chinese market and have been quite active in Taiwan in recent years, so I m excited for that. We’re also going to release our music video for the song
Warrior Spirit, from the album. It’s from the same team that did the
Midang Midang music video in 2019, which won several awards.
How did the pandemic keep you busy in 2020?
A week before the MCO happened in March 2020, we did the photoshoot for the
A yearning for home Alena and her trusty sape. - Picture courtesy of Kenny Loh Alena performing at the Colours of Ostrava Festival in 2019. - Picture courtesy of Tomas Parkan
NOTHING makes the heart yearn for home more than travel. When Alena Murang took the songs of the Dayak Kelabit and Kenyah to foreign lands around the world, her heart longed for the dense jungle, the rushing rapids, the longhouses, and the people of her ancestral home along the Baram River in Sarawak.
Alena usually performs alongside her bandmates – co-writer Joshua Maran who plays the guitar, Jonathan Wong who is also on guitar, bassist Herman Ramanado, and drummer Jimmy Chong.