I AM definitely having the post-tour blues. While “blues” may denote “sadness”, a post-tour blues is a combination of happy exhaustion and a lucid state of mind that lasts for approximately two weeks after returning from a tour.

Since I’ve had two tours back-to-back – the US Tour 2023 with Azmyl & the Truly Asia in May and the recently completed Kembali Tour Malaysia 2023 with Indonesian singer-songwriter Rull Darwis in June – I am “suffering” from a prolonged post-tour blues to repeated “exposure”.

Not that I’m complaining.

Touring is not really sustainable for the average mortal, especially in long stretches which tends to be the norm for a lot of bands in the West where the local, regional and international touring circuit is part and parcel of the songwriting-recording-touring cycle by music labels.

This isn’t something well-established or the norm in Malaysia yet, at least amongst bigger musical acts and music labels. Touring in this region tends to be the parlance of independent and underground bands or artists.

This is primarily due to the fact that most independent and underground bands and artists have a separate means of earning a living from their music making.

Among the different bandmates in my many different bands throughout the years, you will find a banker, a lawyer, a graphic designer, a businessman, a writing coach, a chief editor, an insurance agent, a computer programmer, a salesperson, a software engineer, a copywriter, a petrol station owner, and a research fellow.

Only two bandmates, both bassists, are full-time working musicians. 

Most of the musicians and singer-songwriters I have toured with have a different “hustle” to make ends meet. Some “full-time” musicians you might meet might actually make ends meet teaching music.

Technicalities aside, performing while touring is not the sole means of earnings. Earnings really come from merchandise sales on the road.

Since most independent and underground musicians usually multi-task aside from being a performing artist – in Rull Darwis’ recent tour, I was also the de facto tour manager who helped contact the venues, plot the traveling routes, book accommodation, plan logistics, and liaise with organiser or venue owners – on top of also being the driver and merchandise stall handler.

While it may seem like a lot to do, it is the only way to do it if you adhere to the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) culture. Of course, sometimes a friend or two may tag along to document the tour as a photographer, videographer or even as a roadie.

The aforementioned “happy exhaustion” is most definitely a result of the above multitasking but also an emotional exhaustion stemming from a form of sensory overload of being in different times and places in short and rapid successions.

We tend to be in a town for at least 18 hours at best, if the tour dates are tight.

 In the recent tour with Rull Darwis, the first three stops of the tour were Kulim in Kedah on a Friday, Kangar in Perlis on a Saturday, and then George Town in Penang on a Sunday.

We stayed overnight in the first two stops but headed back to Kuala Lumpur after the post-gig dinner in George Town since most of us had to clock in to work the next morning.

The intense second half of the tour – after a three-day reprieve in the Klang Valley (which included one recording session on night and a show on another in Petaling Jaya) – covered Kuantan in Pahang on a Thursday, Bandar Melaka on a Friday, Kajang on a Saturday, and the finale show in Kota Damansara on a Sunday night.

Most of these places were familiar to the local artists on the tour, myself included, but some of the venues were first-time visits, so we had a lot to process mentally, especially for Rull and his guitarist Stanly Bactian.

Mind you, it’s fun too along the way – with a fair dose of sleep deprivation – but hey, that’s why we still do it.

The lucidity that comes along post-tour, to me, is the culmination of these intense movement and adrenaline – settling back to routine and normalcy isn’t as challenging since we were away for months, but it does recalibrate your principles in life and gets you to reflect on what is meaningful and what is not in your life as the post-tour blues sets in.

It’s very different from coming back from a vacation, which I hate taking since I’m not the sort who enjoys just lazing around.

Even if I am forced to take a vacation, I will often try to find if there are places where I can perform, as it’s the best way to engage with the locals. –  June 23, 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.