I RECENTLY gave an online guest lecture on the subject of arts and society in Malaysia to a group of music and film students from my university.

Aside from one public lecture-performance I did for my faculty at my university, I haven’t done much of or been invited to such sharing sessions with tertiary students through the years. This, to me, isn’t so much about telling the young on the usual run-of-the-mill talks of “how to be successful” or “how to break into the industry” sort of drivel but more about sharing some scruffy wisdom from life’s travails.

Judging by the increasing number of self-appointed self-help gurus online (including those that take up the advertisements I swiftly “skip” on free non-Premium YouTube), either the public is really in need of sound advice or there is a growing number of people migrating online to make an extra buck riding on the back of uncertain and trying times.

After some consideration, I too am jumping on the bandwagon since Malaysians love free stuff (especially advice) – here’s Azmyl’s 4L’s guide to make any creative endeavour work for you instead of vice-versa. In hindsight, it makes a pretty good guide to living, too – you be the judge. Let’s start:  

Leverage everything

Modern capitalist societies often berate on the individuals on what they lack rather than what they already have – this is after all the point of consumerism: to provoke a sense of incompleteness that can only be filled with products or services being shoved in your face (like those annoying YouTube ads). Very seldom do these advertisements tell the individuals to look at what’s already at their disposal and MacGyver.

Leverage on whatever resources and skills you have now is one way to hack your way through creativity and not spend a single sen – creativity is problem-solving after all and one of the main problems we now face is a financial one since making art isn’t going to have very high return-of-investment (ROI) as a dodgy pyramid scheme advertised on a PLUS Highway billboard.

Life will throw you lemons, accept it. However, do not waste the lemons that life throws at you: everything is a resource. The old advice is to make lemonade, but why not further this proposition to proverbially selling the lemonade or why not sell the peel and pulp too. One has to stubbornly turn grit into gold for that is how nature operates and we are part of nature, whether you realise that or not.

Let it come

My ayah (father) is a big influence on me in how to deal with the vicissitudes of life. As a kid I used to play tennis with him (when free public tennis courts were in abundance before they were mostly demolished and turned into more profitable and higher density futsal courts).

One of the blues of playing an outdoor sport is the tropical weather that we have here. I used to pray for it not to rain until my ayah said “Don’t fear if it looks like it’s going to the rain – challenge it to come!” and lo and behold oftentimes it didn’t rain.

Reverse psychology the world around you – for a crusty stoic like myself, one must come to accept that there are many things in this world which you can’t change but one thing that you still have control over is how you deal with the change.

If you play individual sports, psychology of the self is paramount in seeing through your competition and oftentimes the biggest competitor is yourself – how you emotionally respond to challenges and situations.

Take ownership of your emotions and put into action a loose plan ahead if what you had envisioned goes southward – that trip southward might be exactly the inspiration you actually needed.

Let it go

Modern consumerist societies like Malaysia force us to part ways with our hard-earned ringgit on frivolous things that we don’t really need. As a guitarist, there is the phenomenon involving an obsession over buying guitar effect pedals, which is an actual condition known as guitar acquisition syndrome, or GAS. Many of my friends suffer from this syndrome although like most medical conditions, they do not notice it until symptoms such as being broke or running out of space starts to emerge.

While it is recommended in most faiths to always actively attempt to reduce desires and attachments on worldly things, it is overlooked when it comes to creative or artistic endeavours.

There is always an overwhelming fear of not having enough of the right tools to create an artwork. The guilt actually grows proportionately to the desires fulfilled and the actual physical attachment staring back at you.  

Modern life is centred around desiring and consumption – and humans desires are never satisfied since that’s just how we are wired: ever noticed that the most unhappy person you know is the one who is trying too hard to be happy’? “Happiness” has become an ideological carrot in consumerist societies, ignore it at your own peril.

Limit it

Embracing your limitations is probably the most empowering thing you can do for yourself. This does not mean you leave it to fate and just accept flatly your lack – imposing limits or boundaries to what you are trying to create is a useful creative challenge.

Write a 300 word story with a clear beginning, middle and end? Go for it! Shoot a one-minute film without editing anything? Eureka! Write a song with only two or three chords? Rock n’ roll!

Historically, many arts movements have revelled in the limits of not only resources but also the boundaries of the available art form at their disposal. Filmmaking movements such as Dogme 95 forced filmmakers who took up the challenge to bring filmmaking back to its basics and “take back power for the directors as artists”.

Just like the best dishes (and Malaysians know our food, don’t we?), it’s often the simplest and quickest recipes that yield the highest satisfaction over overpriced gluttony-inducing Ramadan buffet.

Just because you are “more” equipped doesn’t mean you are “better” just as surely how displays of affluence does not necessarily equals taste by the number of misplaced Roman pillars on lavish bungalows and even terrace houses in your neighbourhood.

Allow limitations to define your creativity – don’t give any excuses and don’t buy anything extra…even if you can afford it. – April 23, 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.