Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
Yue Wai Ming is the producer and co-owner of MassMusic Studios (established in 2018). The company now holds a repertoire of creating sonically good music for its clientele. MassMusic is also currently known as a music collective that houses music producers and artists.
Before that, Ming had shown interest in making music since his University years. He and Alan D have known each other since High School, and when they went to different Universities, they would keep in touch through Skype, where they made music together.
From there, Ming and Alan would begin their journey of humble beginnings in the music industry.
Here’s his story!
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How they started
“Alan D bought this drum machine (Maschine Studio) which he started using to make beats on, and when he showed it to me, he was like “yo, you should try and do something with it as well.”
For illustrative purposes
Alan and I have always been really into music ever since High School. Still, when we furthered our studies, we separated as I went to the UK and he went to Australia.
One time, he came back and showed me his drum machine, and I thought it looked interesting and something I would want to venture in, so I invested in one too.
After messing around with it, I absolutely fell in love with it. After getting that drum machine, I immediately knew that music production and engineering were something I wanted to do as a career.
“When I was younger, I actually wanted to become a drummer, but my parents advised me to get a safety net first.”
Ming at 18 years old and then, at 25 years old.
So, a fun fact about me is that I have two degrees; one in business and one in audio engineering. So I finished my business degree in the UK first, then went to the US to get a half degree in audio engineering.
My university years were fun and a learning experience of various cultures. It’s definitely chill. I am grateful to study abroad because it allowed me to see the world and how people live different lives.
Making Their Name In Malaysia & Growing The Business!
Ming’s table at MassMusic Studios. [Image taken by the author, Armani]
“Before we moved our work to this studio, we did all the mixing and recording stuff back at my parent’s place.”
So, imagine a small room cramped up with Me, Alan and a couple of other friends with whom we were making music together. Since my family was also living in the house, it was hard for them, too, cause we’d stay up late at night and be noisy. My brother slept in the next room too.
My parents were being amicable and supportive. They cooked dinner for us every night, so you can imagine we would make music every day, and there would be food on the table. This helped take some burden off us because we had no money coming in since we were just starting.
After a while, it felt like something needed to be done cause we had been there for about one and a half years.
“We were one of those SoundCloud rappers.”
We were in our infancy and experimented with various methods of music distribution. We thought, oh, SoundCloud is free so let’s just put our music there. We also uploaded videos on YouTube where MassMusic used to do what we called “MassMusic Lifestyle”. This was a social experiment where some members would go and film social content like pranks and approaching random strangers.
We got a bit of traction from this, too, because there weren’t many other Malaysian Youtubers who also did these kinds of content.
[Source: Ming’s Facebook]
“Even in the first year we started the business (MassMusic Studios), it wasn’t easy. No one knew about us, and no one knew we had a studio. We had to think of ways to bring it up.”
So, we do a lot of collaborations with other up-and-coming Malaysian artists. For instance, last year, we did a duet with Faizal Tahir called Luka Hati, and we also made songs with K-Clique in 2019. The most recent project was Kita with Aziz Harun, which we released last month.
But the business really started to kick off when we brought K-Clique into the studio in 2019, and we collaborated with them. So K-Clique was emerging then, and working with them helped bring both theirs and our name up with the hit record “IMSO”, released in the same year.
“There were a few events that helped bring our name up. We get the minimal token fee as ‘payment’, but we just do it because it’s a chance to perform and invite friends to the shows.”
MassMusic at Good Vibes Festival in 2018 [Source: Ming’s Facebook!]
So, what we did was we spent quarantine, mainly composing music at home and selling beats online.
Why Bilingual Music?
With bilingual rap, we managed to broaden our target audience since there aren’t many who would listen to fully English Malaysian rap. We also didn’t want to go complete Malay since English is much more incorporated into my and Alan’s lives.
“So, since we studied at an International school and went to the UK/US for our degree, we struggled a lot with the Malay Language. Sometimes I didn’t understand what our clientele was saying, and I would have to ask them to repeat themselves.”
When we first opened this studio, we had a lot of clients who spoke Malay as their first language. When they talked throughout the whole session in Malay, I would have trouble conversing because my Malay isn’t that strong.
But, I feel the best way to learn a language is to speak it, so after a while, my Malay is slowly improving, and I can converse in Malay now.
Put yourself out there!
[Image taken by the author, Armani]
“I believe if you’re just going to stay indoors and keep within your comfort zone, then you’re not gonna get anywhere.”
We aren’t extroverted, but we soon learnt that once you’re in the entertainment industry, you just have to put that hat on and be like PR people, where you go out, network and talk to people at shows or events. For instance, we managed to link up and connect with many corporate clients and artists because of the time we have spent at events.
It was funny at first because we didn’t know what to do or say to network with people. But it’s a learning curve, and we’ve come a long way.
Do you know anyone with an interesting story to share? Drop us an email at hello@inreallife.my and we may feature the story.
For more stories like this, read:
Malaysian Creatives Are Underappreciated & Undervalued – 5 Local Creatives Share Their Stories
5 Reality Checks by A Small Malaysian Business #girlboss Owner
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