Indie musicians battle odds to keep recording originals

It took independent musician Azmyl Yunor about 10 years to finish selling 1,000 copies of his album Warga which was first released in 2010.

“My 2010 album Wargawas quite popular, people in the community liked the music but I think it only finished selling 1,000 copies last year.

“So that’s my window for selling albums, 10 years,” Azmyl said in a recent phone interview with Malaysiakini.

Not that it has stopped the 44-year-old who just released a music video for his latest single, Penghasut Blues, released amidst ongoing corruption court cases involving former national leaders, from his 2020 album John Bangi Blues.

Azmyl's persistence is just one example of how Malaysian independent musicians have to be tenacious in sticking to their creative goal of crafting original music despite the lack of a supportive ecosystem and wider audience market.

Another independent musician, Bihzhu, told Malaysiakini it was only late last year that some of the major English language radio stations started playing local English songs in their regular rotation.

“The ecosystem around independent music (in Malaysia) is not built to help us succeed. It’s not just music, it is also theatre and cinema and so on.

“Whenever we get a new minister, or there is a ...