The brothers of the famed De Leon Jazz Experience get real with Penang Art District about their achievements, identity crisis, and Malaysian music.
By Rachel Yeoh
It all started when Ronald de Leon took a six-month break from his six months a year voyage as a musician on a cruise ship. Since he had plenty of time to kill, he picked up his eldest son, two-year-old Vincenzo (Vince) de Leon, and seated him at the piano. With a plink and plonk on the instrument, he started to teach his son the basics of music.
The De Leon family
By the time Vince and his younger brother, Gabriel de Leon, each hit four, they were enrolled for violin classes. They stuck to the violin for a few years, but as their interest in music grew, they started dabbling in other musical instruments—anything they could get their hands on. The multi-instrumentalist brothers have an impressive repertoire. Vince, now 23, plays the piano, violin, saxophone, clarinet, guitar, drums, organ, and bass. Other than the drums and violin, Gabriel, 21, plays the piano and electric bass—and sings too.
As far as accolades go, Vince is the youngest Malaysian to complete Grade 8 in Alto Saxophone. Together with his brother Gabriel and father Ronald, they placed second at the ROLAND Piano Fest in 2011 under the Jazz Trio Category. Gabriel also drummed his way into the Malaysia Book of Records as ‘The Youngest Malaysian to Complete a Professional Drum Course’ in 2009, completing his Grade 8 drum set examination by then-existing Trinity-Rockschool London.
It came as no surprise when they landed in Berklee College of Music, Boston, a premier music and performing arts institute. Vince is currently in his final year studying his Bachelor in Music Film Scoring and also Electronic Production and Design (EPD). Gabriel is running commercial productions and also majoring in Jazz Composition.
We managed to catch them online for a little chat.
Penang Art District (PAD): Let’s start with a general, everybody-is-going-to-ask-you-this question. What are your biggest achievements thus far?
Gabriel: I always go back to the Malaysian Book of Records, but now, it is not very relevant to what I am currently doing. Right now, it is about appreciating my growth process year on year.
Vince: I don’t feel like there’s anything in my life I’m super proud of just yet, but I am proud to be part of the Malaysian concert, Berklee Budaya, that we organised in 2020. That was my first time being a music director, introducing Malaysian music and having it performed at the standard that it was.
The Berklee Budaya team. Vince is standing third from left and Gabriel is seated, fourth from left.
PAD: Tell us about the success of Berklee Budaya.
Vince: Back in 2019, when there was more than me and Gabe in Berklee from Malaysia, we decided to introduce Malaysian culture and music to the audience here. The Berklee Budaya production team consisted of all Malaysians and one Indonesian. It was a very personal project for us. We arranged all the songs ourselves and conducted rehearsals.
Gabriel: However, we didn’t want to make it too exclusive, so we had people from different parts of the world like our guitarist was from Canada and trumpet player from Florida. We aimed to expose people to Malaysian music and to raise awareness that we have good music, because it kind of goes under the radar, even back home in Malaysia.
PAD: Which Malaysian musician inspires you?
Gabriel: I look up to Yuna because of the global outreach she’s achieved, her humility, her image, her mental strength, and also how she stands up for women and their identity. That is very respectable. Others include Michael Veerapen, John Thomas and many others. Then there are musicians from Penang, like the Rozells and the Scullys.
Vince: I’m one of those people who do not like worshipping celebrities, so, all my biggest inspirations are my closest friends. One of them is violinist Nisa Addina from Kuching. She graduated from Berklee a year after I arrived. We met a long time ago in a youth orchestra called Permata Seni, so I see her as an inspiration. She is around my age, there isn’t a huge gap, and it feels more attainable in terms of being inspired.
Gabriel (left) and Vince (right) as children.
PAD: Both of you have very different points of view. Did you have brotherly competition growing up?
Gabriel: Not really, because we always find ourselves doing different things. We play different instruments. I won’t steal his gig because I won’t be able to play the saxophone. He will never steal a drum gig because he can hit the drum but it’s not gonna go far. Even in terms of writing, we write quite different stuff. However, we realise we kinda have an identity crisis…a bit?
Vince: Yea…like we as individuals don’t have an identity. It is always the De Leon brothers or Ronald’s sons. It is never Gabe or Vince, you know, it always has to be a collective.
Gabriel: Which is cool, because it is rare to find a pair of siblings doing this and it is a nice brand. But now we are venturing to do our own stuff—we are trying to diversify.
Vince: It is more like we are gravitating towards different things.
PAD: Do you spur each other on then?
Vince: Yes, we do. Most of the time it is helpful, like, when he plays a song and I think it can be better, I’ll let him know. Because nobody will be as honest as your family, right? So it is good to have that kind of support.
Gabriel: It also works as a reality check. Sometimes I’ll be like “Vince, you know school is not everything, and you should build your portfolio and do networking, right?” and then he’s like “Shut up”. But yeah, that’s how we spur each other on.
PAD: What potential do you see in the Penang music scene and its talents?
Gabriel: There is a high potential, but there is no platform, hence it does seem difficult to break out of the Malaysian mould. It is kinda insular, especially for Penang, because we are an island, we are physically isolated from the rest of the country. However, the potential is super high.
Vince: I believe the lack of audience appreciation leads to a lack of ownership of skill. Only after coming here, and seeing how people are so engaged with performance quality, did I see how the music scene can grow because of appreciation. It goes both ways, both audience and the musician.
Having known and pursued music all his life, Vince cautioned that it is not always rainbows and butterflies. In fact, his advice to those going headfirst into music is to be prepared to lose their passion and be mindful of their mental health. He believes one can pursue other interests along the journey too. To those who are looking to head off to music college, Gabriel encourages extensive networking as most musicians in a music college are so talented they do not need music education anyway.
Alas, now they are at the fork on the road. Vince is looking to invest his talent in Malaysia, while Gabriel has his eyes set on incoming opportunities in the United States. One thing is for sure, they will be making sweet, sweet music wherever they land.
A concoction of oxymoronic attributes, Rachel Yeoh is a lazy overachiever. She writes for a living and runs a homemade granola company. Always planning for something to do while procrastinating on her bed, she sometimes finds herself performing a little something-something in front of an audience.