WHEN people find out I’m a musician, the standard question I get asked is, “Where do you usually play?”

People have become more interested and curious since the pandemic began on how musicians are surviving the coronavirus.

A lot of the problems and issues with live music and the music industry in Malaysia as a whole has since revealed (to attentive observers) the systemic failures  but also the general ignorance of the public understanding the economics of making a living through live music in Malaysia outside of the mainstream industry (which is more about selling trends, personality, and the lowest common denominator values of the status quo).

Recently on The Waiting Room – a podcast co-founded by friends from the live music community – KL-based Irish sound engineer/ musician Derek Rushe, singer-songwriters Brendan De Cruz and Fabian Mark Peter and yours truly – an interesting point that has emerged out of the conversations with various musicians is the distinctions of live musicians and how they make a living.

There is very little crossover of audiences and musicians from the pub scene and the indie circuit – with the indie circuit being the least visible to the general public (which is not a measure of its buzz of activity) – although there are many instances of crossovers among singer-songwriters (easier to adapt to different repertoires and occasions) and production personnel (like sound engineers).

In fact, we started the podcast solely because of the MCO – Derek and Brendan, being full-timers in the circuit, were out of work while Fabian and myself at least have day jobs to supplement ourselves but weren’t earning from live music.

An important aspect to know when discussing the plight of live musicians in this Covid-19 age is the cultural and financial economics in this line of work.

The archetype of the “professional musician” in Malaysia, from my observation, is still the enigmatic pub musician. Some of them have successfully crossed over into mainstream but a majority still call the pub circuit their home and perform well beyond their middle age (unlike pop singers who often end up as “product ambassadors” by their 30s or even earlier).

The anecdote I mentioned in the introduction is important because a lot about the public’s urban encounter with live music in Malaysia is often either at the pub or seeing buskers on street corners or malls.

Live musicians in pubs have been a staple since the 1960s – it’s the usual fertile hunting ground where full-time musicians ply their trade – and this trend continues to today until the arrival of Covid-19 and the subsequent “lockdown” on live music and performances.

The Alleycats came from a long line of Penang pub bands before they were offered a lucrative long-term contract to perform in Hong Kong as the unit they are best known as.

They were later offered a recording contract because of their musicianship and charisma and the rest as they say is history (oh ya, and M. Nasir, too).

According to Derek, Malaysian pub musicians are unique because unlike pub musicians in Ireland they are often energetic, charismatic and draw huge crowds based on their loyal followers, which is good for business for pubs they play at.

Most pub musicians in the West, even from my own recollection from my travels concurred with Derek’s: they tend to be very “quaint” and do not attempt to draw too much attention to themselves (probably because the pub is also a communal space and ritual for conversation and not just inebriation).

Unlike most “regular” employment, earning from live music performances depends a lot on the musician’s repertoire (there’s no official hourly rates that I know of).

Pub musicians tend to be contracted to perform on a regular basis on a particular day(s) of the week consisting of a repertoire of cover songs of popular or Top 40 hits (past and present) and this is the model most members of the public and full-time musicians are exposed to.

A pub management generally pays musicians based on their handle of the repertoire and how well they can draw a crowd – who in turn purchase drinks and food and probably get their friends to come along – and this is the conventional revenue stream of how a pub would be able to keep itself afloat.

Pub musicians are also free agents who may also perform at other pubs any other night of the week (sometimes the same night!) and how much they earn is purely based on their time management and labour.

Pubs do not charge door entry so their revenue stream (which predetermines the income of pub musicians) depends wholly on sales. Some musicians may receive tips from punters as an added bonus.

While pubs and night spots remain closed after the first MCO was lifted in 2020, busking was allowed to return albeit indoors during the subsequent CMCO (although disallowed again in the current MCO).

Busking has only recently become publicly and legally acceptable in the past decade and a half or so. Busking used to have negative connotations and buskers often bear the brunt of social stigma of being bums or drug users but that has passed.

Like pub musicians, a busker’s repertoire also consists of popular cover songs and Top 40 hits and often now are members of a busking association, which allocates slots and locations.

Busking is wholly dependent on public spaces with good crowd traffic and on tips from the generous and appreciative passing public. Some buskers also ply their trade playing at pubs to supplement their income and vice-versa.

Weddings are also a common income ground for pub singers and buskers.

When the first MCO came along, most had to find alternative forms of work to survive (most commonly selling food – bring out the well-kept family recipe!) or even selling their musical equipment (a last resort) or offer some form of musical services (like teaching music online).

A lot of indie or underground musicians, however, tend to have some steady day job or freelance work to fall back onto and that’s the biggest difference in the nature of the independent and underground live music circuit compared to the pub and busking scenes.

We’re now back to square one. From my experience (by no means empirical data), pub musicians tend to be from the middle to lower end of the M40 income group while buskers from the B40 income group.

The experiential and social nature of live music, the nature of Covid-19, and the institutional policies to curb its spread makes for not only strange but also contemptuous bedfellows.

Online streaming concerts are no substitute for the live experience still (buskers would include their bank account details on their Facebook live streaming for tips at the most) and investing and developing digital content in the downtime may be an option for indie and underground musicians, but not really a sustainable option for pub musicians and buskers due to the differing cultural and financial economic structures of income stream.

SOP and social distancing not only defeat the ritualistic purposes of such a communal experience – it’s a killjoy. The live music circuit, unfortunately, continues to be at the behest of ministries and local councils which are, in turn, at the behest of their own narrow-minded KPI.

Until then, the struggle continues and all forms of communal merrymaking is put on hold. Passion can only take you as far as the economic realities goes. – January 29, 2021.

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.