Malaysia Indie Music Crying Out Loud!!

Organising a Gig is not easy. First the organiser must find a suitable venue. Not many in Klang Valley though. Then they have to find a date (not an easy task, alotsa screening must be done). Then they have to come up with money to book the venue for the date. Then they have like a week or two to finalise the line ups, permits, sound systems, lightings, tickets, marketting materials and finally to market. Please also be informed that marketting a gig is not easy. Many mainstream media dont run or publisise Indie Gigs. The most common way of marketting is thru Myspace, other gig web portal and posters at Jamming studios. Even this dont promise good return or broad audience.

The next problem is ticketting. Not many Indie Gig Organisers use tickets. They are more 'Entrance Fees at the door type'. The organiser must price thier ticket accordingly or the crowd will shy away from it. Normal rate are from RM10-RM20. However, in average normal tickets rates are either Rm13 or RM15. Most of the gigs doesnt give returns. This is because not many organisers can cover the cost of bringing in the bands and meeting the cost. Most of the time they will loose a couple of hundred bucks. And they dont get paid for all their working hours. Which sometimes is a pity because most of the time it is in 100s of hours.

Big bands ask for big amount of money. But in reality they dont give back good returns. So organisers must be smart enough to bring in bands that cover thier payment and cover each band cost. Most of the time, the organiser will introduce one or few new bands in the gig. They dont get paid, but its still a lose to lose situation because the stage time and cost will not be returned. So many organiser are just doing this for the love of the music.

Then there are numerous problems. Like bands for instance. Everything is done via telephone or e-mails. So the organiser have no legal right if any bands dont turn up. They cant actually make the crowd to understand thier plight if these bands suddenly dont show up. I myself personally have gone thru shit because of this. Then there are bands who dont or prefer not to play with other bands. They have thier own mind in looking at who else playing in the gig.

Other problems such as Venue closing down, venue being taken over by new managment, bands acting up, police problems, clashes of gig dates, clashes of ego between bands and millions other problems are there. The most common problem are crowd turn out. Crowds who comes to local gig also do not have a good ethics. They are there to support one band and then they leave leaving the venue empty by hours.

From my point of view. Malaysia media should give more to Local and Indie act. They work thier butts off for just the love of music. Most of the bands do perform for free. All they need is good support from the media and the people. People should know making music without any form of support is very expensive. So they should atleast support the indie music and willing to part with a little more money. If they can afford to pay in hundreds to watch one International Band to play why cant they fork our a mere RM30 t watch about 10 Local Indie band in playing right.

Sponsors like telecommunication giants who fight to be the sponsor for foriegn bands should also support Malaysian Act. You dont have to give us Hundreds of Thousand or Millions. Just small amount of token money to cover our cost. We do use you fucking telecommunication services okie, Not MCP or DEWA. They dont even know who the fuck you are.

Mika