REFLECTING on my recent tour of Peninsular Malaysia with Indonesian singer-songwriter Rull Darwis, I was struck by the type of venues we performed at.

Most of these venues were not typical entertainment outlets or bars where one would expect live music is played. Instead, they were mostly food and beverage outlets founded and run by millennials. One exception was Ruas Store in George Town, Penang, which combined a record shop with a cafe.

This is hardly unique if you consider the history of music scenes in the West – New York City in particular – where coffeehouses played a central role in the folk movement of the 1950s and 1960s and where artists like Bob Dylan first emerged.

Coffeehouses, however, are not an American phenomena. They date as far back as 1555 in Constantinople.

I realise that my generation, Gen X, primarily focused on being performers and organisers rather than opening and running establishments. The idea of establishing a cafe, as opposed to traditional kopitiam or mamak stalls, was relatively new and economically impractical at the time.

Coffee culture in Malaysia is still in its infancy though one might think otherwise by observing the landscape in the cities and major towns.

As a teenager, I was laughed at by my classmates when I ordered coffee, which was seen as an “old person” beverage back in the 1990s.

We all started with Nescafe before discovering brewed coffee, in my case, in Delifrance outlets in shopping malls. I wasn’t a connoisseur – I just needed something to keep me awake to study or watch a movie.

You would be hard-pressed to find a cafe 15 years ago or so, let alone an affordable one.

Starbucks opened its first outlets in the Klang Valley in the mid-2000s, hosting singer-songwriter acoustic shows.

However, live music in coffeehouses has never really caught on here, where it is still mostly associated with bars and nightclubs that serve alcohol.

Beyond coffee, I appreciate the ingenuity displayed by local millennials in establishing ventures such as live music or art spaces, which serve as gathering points for like-minded individuals in smaller towns. For example, in Kuantan, we performed at a venue called Warung Adri, founded and managed by a millennial couple. The ground floor operates as a cafe, while the wife leads yoga classes on the second floor.

In Kuantan, for example, we performed at a venue called Warung Adri . Founded and managed by a married millennial couple, the ground floor of the establishment is a cafe while the second floor is used for yoga classes run by the wife.

Similarly, in Kangar, specifically in Kampung Balik Chuping, Balbuk Haus is run by a millennial husband and wife team. They decided to establish an arts venue with a cafe on their picturesque family rice field plot, where outdoor events take place. Interestingly, they live just across the street from the venue.

For both establishments, the food and beverage aspect provide economic sustenance but at heart, they see themselves as arts spaces.

Alongside the music events we held during the tour, these venues also host various other events such as talks, bake sales, film screenings, art markets, workshops, and performance art. The term “cafes” might be somewhat inaccurate, but it serves as a reference to explain these places where we performed during the tour.

To me, these venues foster a greater sense of community as they serve as meeting points for local arts practitioners and enthusiasts. For instance, the sound systems for our shows were provided by members of the local music community. Moreover, these venues are family-friendly, devoid of most vices (except perhaps for cigarettes), which is a crucial criterion given the popular perception that music events are associated with sinful behaviour.

If these millennial-run venues can sustain themselves, they have the potential to contribute to the normalization of live music as a community event centered around arts and culture in the long run. – June 30, 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.