From Bus Driver to Beat Poetry: Inside the Many Lives of Kuning Pening

By Ben Liew  •  08 Sep 2025 in Interview

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Meet Kuning Pening, the eclectic performance artist with more stage personas than we can count. The latest of them, Abang Sham, is a throwback to the cool abang bus drivers of the ’80s who used to play rok kapak cassette tapes on the stereo while taking sharp turns.

Those in the know will recognise Kuning as the frontman of Think! Tadpole Think!—a legendary but short-lived experimental music ensemble that fused improvised jazz with freestyle lyrics, beat poetry, and goofy stage antics. Although he was frequently featured in JUICE, normies would often dismiss him as a novelty—but boy, were they wrong (and basic).

Kuning never stopped performing even when T!TT! disbanded. However, each persona would not last more than a handful of gigs. Keeping things fresh, Kuning kept giving us hard resets—coming up with new personas each time we saw him, with each persona being wilder than the last.

We were finally able to catch him recently over a cup of hot Neslo and some cekodok to find out why the cult singer-songwriter refuses to be pinned down…

Who is Abang Sham and what’s he all about?

Abang Sham is a cool bus driver guy. A homage to normal day honest people. He’s working class and has a taste for Malay rock music like Ekamatra, Rusty Blade, Slam, and U.K’s.

Do you ever write your lyrics down on paper before recording your songs or is everything spontaneous?

Most of my lyrics are from the heart. Listen to your heart. 

How many solo projects have you had over the years?

A lot. More than 12.

Do you still keep any of these old projects online?

Yes. I recorded songs for each one of them. Some I played live depending on which persona I was doing the show with.

Why do you usually delete your work before it reaches a larger audience? Are any of your previous alter egos set to make a comeback? 

I never deleted my work! It is still in my personal archives. I only deleted the ones I made available online. But still, those songs are available to me, privately. 

I just feel that the music’s not that good. I often have that feeling. I think most people who make music have that sort of feeling. And sometimes I just want to delete it. No reason whatsoever. Look at Lee ”Scratch” Perry, he burned his own studio down to the ground. Now, that’s what I call commitment!

Recently, you debuted another alter ego who is a GISB member. Could you tell us more about this project? Is this alter ego still active? 

Not GISB lar. It’s more like a Nasyid kind of music. Not affiliated with GISB. But maybe you thought the persona was from GISB because I wore a GISB songkok on stage. The guy who gave me the GISB songkok was formerly from GISB but left the organisation because he thought it’s a fraud. This was a long time ago before the GISB issues exploded.

Will we see a Think! Tadpole Think! reunion some day?

I don’t know, man. Pretty hard to say. Most of the people in that band are currently doing other stuff or not doing any new stuff at all. But who knows. 

When you’re not playing music, what do you normally do?

Mostly work, riding motorcycles, and sleep.

What’s next for Abang Sham? Will he survive to play another gig or will you be performing as a new persona the next time we catch you at a gig? 

Why not. Maybe he could stay longer in this world.

You once said in an interview with JUICE, during your days with Think! Tadpole Think! that, “There’s no such thing as experimental music. We don’t make experimental music, we only make mistakes.” Do you still believe in this approach to making music?

Yes, I still do. We all learn something from our mistakes.

You must have something new cooking as usual… Do you have any teasers for us?

I’ll surprise you with another show. If people still call me to do shows lar kan? 

 

Ed’s Note: Kuning Pening provided JUICE with an IG account for Abang Sham’s music and gig updates, but deleted it before this article was published.  

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