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Six rising indie bands showcase Malaysia’s young talent
SIX indie bands, a costume party and barely enough time to catch a breath. The Everyone Talked About You Therefore… show, organised by Junkyardz, brought together some of Malaysia’s youngest indie musicians for an energetic night at Moutou in Pasar Seni earlier this month.
Most of those gathered were in their late teens or 20s, some barely entering adulthood. The performers were hardly older.
Between the costumes, crowd-surfing and near-constant music, the evening offered an encouraging look at a Malaysian indie scene, finding fresh faces faster than it can find a break between sets.
Om!ssion’s Kii Leong, just 18, hosted the entire event and handled the role with remarkable confidence. There was little downtime between performances and none of the six acts allowed the energy to drop.
Cartoons, covers and instant noodles
Dirt House opened in Adventure Time costumes, fitting for an indie band interested in having fun without pinning itself to a genre. The lineup featured rhythm guitarist Qaish Dadameah, lead guitarist Nancy Mustards, bassist Ezekiel Leong and drummer Shane J, with Raziq Danial joining on saxophone.
Its set moved through covers of Black Midi, Title Fight and King Crimson alongside originals Competent and Hello stranger.
For only its second-ever show, the band received a reaction most newcomers would envy.
“People were going crazy over some covers and they were just as crazy over our originals,” the band said.
Om!ssion followed with a similarly playful approach, featuring Leong, Nick Tang, Ariff Zareen and Cate Yeon.
Its sound takes inspiration from Midwest emo, while songs such as Drumasia regulations and the wonderfully titled Semenyih aint big enough for the both of us, so I’m moving to TTDI with all my friends showed its taste for peculiar names.
An instant-noodle costume gimmick referenced Indomie tanpa U, K?, a song Kii said emerged during a difficult period earlier this year.
Beneath the jokes was an indie band enjoying the support of its peers. That feeling ran through the gig: People cheered for songs they knew and enthusiastically embraced those they did not.
SameOutfit arrived in Five Nights at Freddy’s costumes and delivered a substantial 16-song set.
Frontman Aidan Temple writes and produces the indie band’s low-fidelity rock, with Kwok Hui Sen, Syahmi Hariz and Dylan Owen helping bring it to the stage. Tracks including Beverly, Green thumbs and Vitriol showed that new bands need not rely on familiar covers to hold a room.
For Temple, hearing people sing its lyrics back was a first.
“Our set is pretty long and purely originals, so seeing them go crazy and turn up for each and every song is so heartwarming.”
One drummer, several bands
Proximity Party kept the pace up with emo and pop-punk, performing songs from its Minecraft Dirt House EP and a cover of Scott Pilgrim vs My GPA.
Guitarist Haziq Hamzi dressed as Harry Potter, while bassist Ammar Faridz appeared as Mordecai from Regular Show and drummer Arfan Shafey as Simon from Adventure Time. The costumes were ridiculous, but the enthusiasm was entirely genuine.
Next came Compound Notice of The Student’s Personality, a name almost as unwieldy as keeping track of the musicians. The indie band featured guitarists Ammar Faridz and Hafiy Rahman, bassist Johan Arief, drummer Arfan Shafey and live synth player Farhanah Amani.
Its blend of indietronica and noise rock offered another texture to the evening, with synths adding layers to the guitars and drums. Tracks including Planetary Dive and Within my near and dear future kept the crowd engaged even with unfamiliar material.
The overlap was hard to miss. Ammar played bass for Proximity Party and guitar for Compound Notice, while Hafiy moved from Compound Notice’s guitar to Fictions’s bass. Arfan, meanwhile, was perhaps the busiest musician of the night, handling drums for all three indie bands.
When asked whether Arfan’s involvement in multiple bands suggested a shortage of drummers in the local indie scene, Fictions guitarist Akmal Jarris had a response.
“Nowadays, there’s for sure more drummers compared with a year or two ago. Our drummer is unfortunately the greatest so we have to lease him to other bands.”
Fictions closed the night with an expansive lineup led by Ezriq Nazhif and Akmal Jarris, with Raziq returning alongside Kenanga Juwita on saxophone and Hafizin Adli on synth.
The costumes were just as varied, with Ezriq dressed as a bass clef, Akmal as Batman, Hafiy as one half of The Garden, Arfan as Simon from Adventure Time and Hafizin as a Minion. Raziq and Kenanga, meanwhile, simply came as themselves.
Songs including Postcard, The Sun in Your Mouth and Somewhere, all the time gave the finale a sense of scale. With a first album attracting listeners beyond Malaysia and a recent performance in Singapore, the band offered a glimpse of where the younger acts might be headed.
Yet, the evening belonged to all six groups. Musicians cheered one another on, played in multiple bands and joined the audience when their own sets were done. It was this communal energy, as much as the music, that gave the event its character.
Losing the rooftop to the haze was unfortunate. Given the noise, costumes and enthusiasm packed into Moutou, however, the indoor gig hardly suffered for it.
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