Yet, there are the few who press on regardless, determined to keep singing until the beat drops.

One such artiste is Alex Ungku, whose latest single, “Losing Game”, was released on all streaming platforms on March 10.

While he may not be a household name yet, the 32-year-old has done fairly well for himself, with over 1.9 million streams on Spotify to date.

In addition to having released a song on a French music label in 2019, Alex put on a great performance at last year’s Good Vibes Weekender concert.

Sitting down with FMT, he shared how he got to where he is now and where he hopes to take it from here.

According to him, “Losing Game” was recorded shortly after the “stressful” Covid-19 lockdowns, though, in his own words, the demo sounded “quite bad”.

It took some effort from his producer, Zain Zainuddin, to tinker with it and make the song worth a listen.

“I wrote ‘Losing Game’ based on the idea of toxic relationships between two people. Relationships are supposed to bring out the best in you, but when it’s with the wrong person, both sides end up losing. There’s no winner,” he said, likening relationships to a game of chess with both players “checkmating each other”.

“There’s no one winning and the only solution is for both players to go their separate ways.”

The lyrics thus reflect this, with one person contemplating to leave but relenting, and staying on for just a little longer.

Sometimes people do not know what’s good for them, added Alex, and they get drawn to the wrong thing. “I think it’s part of human nature, where we get addicted to certain things.”

Meaningful lyrics aside, how did Alex wander into the local music scene?

“I got into music quite early on. I picked up guitar when I was 16 and the moment I picked it up, I played in my school band.”

During those years, he would play songs from the indie rock genre, but Alex found that these did not suit his vocals.

At first, he did not think much of it as all he enjoyed was jamming. It was while studying in Australia that Alex discovered that R&B was the genre that called to him the most.

“I started playing at open mics, I played at bars in Melbourne. There were nights I played when no one was there and the owner was just like, ‘Just do your gig. You’re still getting paid.’”

Upon returning to Malaysia, Alex decided not to sing covers any longer and focus on writing his own songs instead.

However, Alex struggled to get support from local industry players for two years. “The thing about the Malaysian music scene is that it’s very connection-based,” he said.

Other than being stonewalled, Alex was still recovering from a breakup and he was in a bad place when he wrote a song about his troubles.

That song would later go on to be repurposed as his previous single, “Someone New”, and ironically, it was the foot in the door he needed.

“When I think back, I don’t want to call it destiny or whatever, but if I hadn’t released that song, I wouldn’t have played at Good Vibes last year.”

With these small successes, Alex is looking to press onward with more songs this year.

He said he is surprised he even got this far, particularly since no one in his family are music practitioners. “My brother is tone deaf,” he laughed. “My dad loves music but none of us play instruments. That’s why I picked up the guitar relatively late.”

Still, Alex hopes to find more opportunities to perform, with the music scene at the moment being in an “interesting” place.

“Shows are coming, festivals are happening. Problem is, not enough artistes are being given the opportunity. It’s always the same line-up every other week.

“Event organisers should look in their backyard to see the talent Malaysia has,” he said, adding he was sure local music lovers would welcome new faces.

“I hope Malaysians will open up to local music. We need more local support. It is easier now to be an indie artiste, but we just need it to be developed further.”