KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 13 — ‘Music is medicine’ is a common phrase used by artists and musicians when describing how music impacted their lives.
For example, Grammy-winning singer songwriter Bruce Springsteen used the concept to describe how music helped him in his struggles against depression while legendary hip hop producer Pete Rock uses it when talking about the longevity and purpose of hip hop.
However, this particular Malaysian band, Tarimosi, is taking the ‘music is medicine’ concept to a whole new level, by using it not just as a motto but as the basis of their whole band image.
This can be clearly seen through some of their rollout singles from their recently released debut album Audiopamine+ where the cover image is literally a medicinal tablet – even the name of the album sounds like medicine for some chronic illnesses.
The five-piece post hardcore and alternative rock band also coupled the concept with their outfits or getups mirroring the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces – where they would dress in black while wearing Kevlar vests along with light blue armbands and helmets, which is also a homage to the iconic colour of the UN.
“My reasoning behind it is because when people come to any live shows, they don’t want to see somebody that looks like them.
“They come to see a show, to see a performance and when you perform wearing these getups, there are high chances that people will remember,” said the manager and creative director of Tarimosi, Art:tech.
They also referred to their members as the Auditory Rescue Unit and viewed their live shows as rescue missions.
Tarimosi and the comeback of emo music
Tarimosi is actually a wordplay that derives from the combination of two Malay words; tarian and emosi, which directly translates as dances and emotions – it can also be poetically read as dances of emotions.
The band is led by 41-year-old Art:tech who’s also the drummer and consists of 26-year-old guitarist and sound engineer Mal, 30-year-old second guitarist and backup vocalist Jack, 30-year-old bassist Tim, and Project Phantom as the main vocalist (more on him later).
The band formed during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic back in 2020 was the brainchild of Art:tech and their former vocalist Ayin.
Art:tech is responsible for the band’s image, concept and overall sound, while Ayin came up with the songs for their debut album, which is also the result of a grant they secured from the Cultural Economy Development Agency (Cendana).
Cendana is the industry development arm of the Malaysian government’s investment agency, MyCreative Ventures Sdn Bhd.
“When I started the band with Ayin, we could already see that emo music was making a comeback and when I approached the other members, I remember my brief was that we’re going to play sounds from the mid-2000s.
“And that turned out to be true – bands like My Chemical Romance came back, and locally we have the Emo Nights KL (a local event series), which was making waves on their own, and then the US groundbreaking festival When We Were Young came, and that further strengthened our belief that emo is back.
“Which is why I want the band to go with the early to mid-2000s sounds,” Art:tech told Malay Mail.
The band with multiple bands
Despite Tarimosi being a relatively new band – all of their members are experienced musicians with most of them currently having commitments with several other local underground bands.
One might see this as an accomplishment or even greedy, but the reality is, that’s just how these underground musicians get by most of the time, especially for full-time musicians, which reflects the volatility of their income and their dependency on live shows.
And Tarimosi is not exempted from this landscape – for one, their guitarist Mal, currently a student at the National Academy of Arts, Culture, and Heritage (Aswara), also has commitments with two other bands namely The Patriots and Julia Duclos. He is also has a full-time job as a music instructor.
Their other guitarist Jack, also has responsibilities with two other bands Nusroh and Bright Minder. He also works as a media research specialist in Cyberjaya. This is also the same with their bassist Tim, who would regularly come in as a session musician for local cosplayer and singer Amelia Khor, on top of being a music instructor.
Art:tech, who has played for several bands previously since 1999, is the only member without commitments to other bands. However, he currently has to juggle between his freelance job as a graphic and motion designer, and managing Tarimosi.
“On the positive side, I am exposed to so many things in terms of sounds, audiences and their appreciation – the treatments differ between bands but sometimes I do feel like f***, I don’t want to play for any of these bands anymore,” Jack said.
“I remember this one festival, I had to play for three different bands in one day – all three of the bands have different sounds, different outfits and I was playing from morning until the evening. I even forgot to bring my Tarimosi outfit for the show.
“At that time, it was a bit overwhelming but then again, it’s all about time management, once you get the hang of it, it is manageable,” he said.
For Mal, despite having plenty on his plate, joining a band with a concept is unique to him and he admitted that audiences do get confused whenever he plays with his other bands live.
“One good thing about the concept, it’s easy for people to identify us especially when we are in our getups.
“But I do remember when I was performing with The Patriots, a member of the audience asked me ‘Mal, where’s your helmet? I had to clarify with him that the helmet getup is when I am with my other band,” Mal said.
For Art:tech, he understands the commitments of the band members. This is also why he chooses to curate Tarimosi’s live shows. He will pick the ones that resonate most with the band image and genre.
The Project Phantom and the rollout of Audiopamine+
In August 2024, just as Tarimosi completed the recording of their last song for their debut album, their vocalist and co-founder, Ayin, made the decision to pull out from the band due to creative differences.
This left Art:tech having to figure out the next steps for the band on his own, as he is the creative director who now has to take up managerial duties for the band.
It took the band a few months to figure out the solution which came in the form of Project Phantom – where instead of going with one vocalist, they would hire a session musician to fill in the shoes of Tarimosi’s vocalist.
“At first, we thought about sticking to one vocalist, we even considered getting a female vocalist but that didn’t happen and we came up with the idea of hiring a sessionist as our vocalist and they would have to wear the Tarimosi mask at every live show.
“This gives us a bit of flexibility and we can use different vocalists for different shows and that is an interesting aspect we love to explore.
“But of course we will have to audit all the vocalists in advance to see if their voice is compatible with our sound,” Art:tech said.
He pointed out that they also had to re-record all the vocals for their album with another session vocalist, who used to sing for a famous local underground band.
The Audiopamine+ album was finally release in August this year with Tarimosi focusing on physical releases first, which came in two options – one in the form of a standard USB ‘Medicine Box’ album and the other, a special edition ‘Auditory Emergency Kit’ box set.
The USB ‘Medicine Box’ album comes with the full 11-track album along with exclusive band materials including lyric sheets, artwork and visual content – all themed around a clinical and medical aesthetic which reflects the band’s identity as the Auditory Rescue Unit.
Meanwhile their Auditory Emergency Kit box set includes the ‘Medicine Box’ USB album, a CD album along with a t-shirt, a sticker pack, a guitar pick, a floppy disk and a medical care kit – all packed inside a custom-made Emergency Kit pouch bag, created in collaboration with local streetwear brand called Civilian Brands—impressively, they managed to sell out all 25 copies of their special edition box set within an hour of its release.
The album also featured two guest vocalists on a couple of the tracks namely on Surrender where they feature Soraya Taib from The Impatient Sisters as well as Syarul Reza of Love Me Butch on their track titled Relapse.
The digital version of Audiopamine+ is expected to be released sometime in January next year on all available streaming platforms however it will contain only 10-tracks as they have decided to keep one bonus track exclusively available only on their physical albums.
For those looking to discover Tarimosi, here are two suggestions:
