LIVE music – or gigging to us troubadours – is probably the most misunderstood activity. I use “activity” because I want to be inclusive: not everyone who gigs is a full-time musician.

In Malaysia, most musicians who gig are a mix of so-called part-timers and professionals.

I don’t like using this term because it suggests that part-timers are not as invested in the activity, this could not be further from the truth.

While full-time musicians do obviously invest 100% of their time in gigging – since that is their sole bread and butter – these indies or underground part-timers do invest too, just in not the standard economic lens with which society has been indoctrinated.

To part-timers, gigging is not solely tied to economic intentions or motivations but one of broader activities tied closely to their individual and group identity and meaning.

What distinguishes each gig is obviously the genre of the music performed.

Some music genres have been culturally associated with wealth and status (jazz and classical music, for example), while some have been associated with deviance and depravity (such as punk and heavy metal).

These music genres are not naturally imbued with these connotations – they are socially constructed – oftentimes the construction is political.

In fact, the origin of jazz is the minority, subordinated and discriminated class of black Americans in the early 20th century, of which the presence of heroin and marijuana was a constant since it was the Prohibition era.

Jazz in contemporary Malaysia is very urban and bourgeoisie. Some may argue that it has lost its subterranean roots.

A lot of the original illicit rituals of going to a jazz concert have been replaced with very middle to upper class rituals of (expensive) wining and dining.

Now, if we bring our attention to punk rock. Its live venues tend to be less commercial spaces – jamming studios, grungy community underground locations – which gives it a sense of street credibility to its participants but contempt and misunderstanding by the general public.

This is a distinction that is actually part of the identity of being in a subculture: appearance (how we dress and behave).

City councils naturally gravitate towards supporting the more upmarket live acts, since they can afford to pay (permits and sometimes under the table), unlike indie or underground music, often part-timers from subculture that isn’t profit-driven.

This, oftentimes, has led to such venues not obtaining the proper licences and permits. Paperwork and red tape, for your information, is very expensive.

Part of the ritual of an underground gig is the merchandise table where you can buy or exchange vinyl, CD, or cassette albums by the bands, T-shirts, tote bags, stickers etc.

This is missing from more commercial gigs and it’s probably the aspect that most distinguishes between the two.

A music venue-cum-cafe-cum-record store called Ruas Store in George Town was raided by police last Saturday for apparently not having the proper permits to house a live music gig (it’s upstairs, one floor up from the cafe and record store).

Ruas Store is a beautiful establishment co-owned by several people from the music subculture, who all have day jobs (I performed there last November).

While it may be justified for authorities to punish them for not having a permit, it is unjustifiable that such raids are still happening in this country, even more so with our prime minister’s concept of Malaysia Madani.

Three people – one of them the co-owner – were detained because they took photos of the raid (photographing a gig is part of the live gig ritual, by the way) and all the equipment was confiscated.

Now, why was a community music event where no drugs or alcohol were consumed given the treatment of a gambling den raid?

This has been the norm of authorities since, well, independence. This has to change.

The silence from our elected representatives is also telling. There’s just no political mileage for them to ride standing up for the subculture.

Are we not “Anak-anak Malaysia”? Why the heavy handedness and double standard?

We need a reform our licensing and permits by city councils across the country but also police reforms, especially on how it acts upon music communities.

We are not criminals but are treated as such. I published a case study about this 13 years ago, in which I examined the 2005 raid of Paul’s Place and we haven’t progressed.

Since police reform is highly unlikely, let the public elect our mayors. If public officials are elected, only then will they be held accountable and be truly representative of the people, not the bureaucracy. – February 3, 2023.

* 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.