Image by kim.l33

It’s rare for the scene to encounter a rock star as portraitist as Eff Hakim. After years of carving her name as a multidisciplinary artist — from her beginnings in a dream-pop duo to the indie-rock, angst-chic project known as Hawa, with stints in music production and theatre acting in between — she now offers a canvas of her life in her much-anticipated album Terkuburnya Seorang Gadis Di Kuala Lumpur. The title quite literally announces the death of her former self, but the eight songs and a remix by Analog K affirms the birth of another, with a kind of vulnerability we’re seldom granted front-row access to. It captures a young woman navigating reckless love and loud betrayals, with the city of Kuala Lumpur standing as its truest witness. It’s a breakup album but also a falling-in-love album all at once — but the object of affection isn’t necessarily who you’d assume. If love is the subject, then the friendships made, the starving-artist life, the romantic devotion to craft and the trials and tribulations of growing up as a true city girl become supporting characters in their own right.

Below, Eff Hakim shares five things that inspired Hawa’s Terkuburnya Seorang Gadis Di Kuala Lumpur.

Angel Olsen’s Burn Your Fire for No Witness

Eff: I was going through a rough patch where I couldn’t even begin to listen to music until I randomly stumbled upon a live version of Angel Olsen’s “Unfucktheworld”. The song truly stuck with me. After months of therapy, trauma and depression, it felt like the lyrics were saying everything I never knew I could say. I became fixated on that album for the next few years. It wasn’t a reference per se, but it definitely inspired me to write from a more guttural and honest place.

Walking Around Kuala Lumpur

Eff: From Bukit Bintang to Petaling Street, taking the monorail, MRT, and LRT mindlessly, looking at the streets, café hopping, or catching a gig at Moutou. Just the city in general. Especially when I didn’t have a day job or any money; my ideal weekend would be getting myself a coffee in KL and just exploring. The city will forever feel like an epic movie setting for me. It’s especially interesting that I’ve seen every version of it, considering I’ve lived here for almost 20 years now.

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Eff: This anime not only inspired me to dye my hair pink, but the plot and art style really won me over. It’s a shoujo anime about a girl looking for her prince charming who ends up saving herself instead.

Carl Jung’s Shadow Self

Eff: I found myself in this rabbit hole ironically after one of my old Twitch streams (I used to do Twitch LOL). I was talking about how, after my depression, I had random fits of violent rage and dark thoughts, and a viewer brought this topic up. I ended up obsessing over the idea that we all have this side to ourselves — a part where we suppress our primal needs until it’s just waiting to explode the more we ignore it.

My Fender Telecaster

Eff: It was the first expensive guitar I ever bought for myself after a miracle random influencer job I got (I wasn’t even a full-time influencer). The payment I received was coincidentally the exact amount the guitar cost. It’s a vintage, made-in-Japan Telecaster in white with dark wood veins. I wrote and recorded all the songs on the album with that guitar. Although I now play my Fender Mustang during live shows, I think that Telecaster deserves a little mention here.

Catch Hawa at Terkuburnya Seorang Gadis Di Kuala Lumpur launch party on 29th November at EX8, Subang Jaya.