On the right forearm of FatJob vocalist Fai (Chan Yik-fai), there is a tattoo of a Chinese character zhen. It is not the name of the 24-year-old's girlfriend. Zhen - which means 'true' and 'genuine' - is his attitude to life and the common believe of the nu-metal band. In their well-decorated and equipped band room set up in the Kwun Tong factory area, the foursome talk about how they put together their self-titled debut EP, to be released later this month, which features five numbers based on their true-life experiences. 'We write about our personal feelings and things that affect ourselves in our songs,' says Fai, who is wearing his hair spiked, with a white vest and black long pants. He has another tattoo, of Jesus Christ, on his upper arm. 'We like to provoke people to think about an issue through our genuine feelings rather than insert a statement in the song asking people to do this, not to do that.' In 1999, guitarist Shun (Lau Ka-shun), 21, and his secondary schoolmates, bassist Ho (Chan Chun-ho) and drummer Ming (So Yiu-ming), both 22, used to meet up with Fai at local band shows. The three, who were in the same band, then invited the vocalist to join them and formed FatJob. Their explosive music was well-received by local enthusiasts. In their soon-to-be-released EP, which features the band's finest creations so far, there is a piece about the grief the death of a family member can cause. 'All of us had this experience in a very close period, we were all very sad about that,' says Ming, in black frame glasses, black T-shirt and pants. 'We would like to express our sorrow and to keep reminding ourselves to treasure our families with this song.' They also created a song about discrimination. 'We try to put ourselves in the position of disabled people and imagine how they feel about the discrimination,' Ming says. The song was inspired by Fai, who witnessed the treatment his disabled mother received over the years. 'Although people wouldn't speak to you, you can tell through their eyes that they thought you were abnormal,' says Fai. 'People may be more open now, but that was not the case in the past. Even now, people sometimes link disabled people to bad luck.' Though the band seldom write songs that criticise the government or society, that should not be mistaken for apathy - they think it is normal that there are people for and against an issue. 'We don't want to provide answers for people to follow, but we want to raise questions that make them think,' Ming says. Take the controversy over Article 23. Despite being concerned about the issue, the four-piece, who have tried to learn more on the proposed law through Web searches, have no intention of creating a song about it. 'I did go to the protest to oppose the proposed law, but I didn't urge anyone to go along with me - I just went there alone,' says Ming. 'In the end, I don't insist that people have the same thoughts as I do.'
