KUALA LUMPUR, August 6 — It’s time to get your dancing shoes and your funk on as legendary Nile Rodgers & Chic are coming to Malaysia.
The famous 70’s group behind iconic hits such as Le Freak and Good Times will be performing on the third and final day on Sept 15 for art and music festival, Ombak Festival taking place at Desaru Coast, Johor Baru.
Malay Mail caught up with the award-winning musician and producer who has worked alongside music industry legends such as Madonna, David Bowie and Diana Ross.
And one thing's for sure - he couldn’t contain his excitement to be set foot for his first time ever in Malaysia.
The 71-year-old insists on seeing local festival-goers get their groove on and have a good time at the festival.
“Because this is going to be the first time that they’re seeing us, I just want people to understand that my music is about people being happy, dancing, just having a good time, relaxing and not thinking about anything.
“So, I’m just going to be playing all of my hit records,” he said, adding that fans can expect some of his timeless hits from We Are Family to Daft Punk’s Get Lucky which he co-wrote and also featured on.
Rodgers pointed out that he and the band knew they had fans throughout Asia through international charts on Billboard from way back, but they never got the chance to come here.
When asked what took him so long to come to Malaysia, Rodgers simply replied, “well, have you read my resume? I’ve sold over 600 million records..I was making records!” before bursting out laughing.
Nile Rodgers and Chic are currently on a worldwide tour which kicked off in May, and Malaysia is one of the four Asian stopovers apart from Japan, Thailand and South Korea.
“Chic has become is a touring entity to make people happy and believe it or not, in a strange way, that feels more exciting than just making records and I tell you why.
“Because (when) you make records, you're doing something that is to be captured one time so that people would listen to the same thing over and over again.
“When we perform, we have no idea what’s going to happen.”
Despite having performed for many years now and doing countless tours, he still treats every show as important as if it's the first.
“I treat every day, every show, every job as if it’s the most important thing that I’ve ever done.
“I never go into situations thinking like ‘oh it’s just another concert, oh it’s just another city’, never ever.
“I would think it as this is the beginning of my career and let’s go out there and be incredible and that’s just how I am, and thank God I have a group of people around me who feel the same way as I am,” Rodgers said.
Aside from going on tour with Chic, Rodgers shared that he’s also in the midst of working on a few other projects including a documentary on his life, a television series as well as a big theatrical show that he couldn’t share more about.
He said that the ability to share his experiences with the masses is what keeps him going in doing what he does and he wants to keep on making music for as long as he can.
Aside from Nile Rodgers and Chich, other international headliners that will be gracing the stage at the upcoming Ombak Festival are The Cardigans, Macy Gray, Grace Jones (asia’s exclusive) as well as Quantic.
Grace Jones and The Cardigans will take the main stage on Sept 14 while Nile Rodgers and Macy Gray will headline the festival on Sept 15.
The Ombak Festival will also feature local talents such as Alena Murang, Datuk Zainal Abidin, Joe Flizzow, Bunga and Masdo.
Single day and two-day passes are still available with single day passes starting at RM550 and two-day passes starting at RM990.
For more information on the Ombak Festival, please click here.
