“We know that the music we write ourselves is better than any other. We like other bands but we don’t want to play their music, we want to play our own,” said Kyar Pauk frontman from the punk band Big Bag.

Han Htoo Lwin

And he knows what he’s talking about as Big Bag has already released two punk albums of music written and performed by the band.

Over the past three years a few young bands have sprung up which perform their own original music.

Most of them are made up of young guys who are crazy about music. They write their own songs, play their own instruments and do their stage performance with their bands - some remade and some original.

This is a new trend on the Myanmar music scene where most singers perform with different famous bands and few bands have permanent singers. There are only a few bands that play their own songs, Big Bag is one of them.

Big Bag was formed with Kyar Pauk (vocal and guitar), Sin Pauk (bass) and V No Tun (drummer) and released its debut album Arr Lone Atwet Punk (Punk for all) in 2002.

The album, which included both their original compositions and some remade versions of foreign bands such as Green Day, became a hit.

Moe Moe

Kyar Pauk, the son of rocker Ringo, said that the advantage of having their own band was that all the members write songs and they arrange the music together.

Their second album Punk Akyaung Ma Pyaw Ne (Don’t talk about punk), released last year, was successful with the audience, cementing their popularity among the young.

Like Kyar Pauk, Kai Zar Tin Mone, 25-year old vocalist and bass guitarist of rock band Antibiotic, wanted to record his own original compositions.

He said, “Since the beginning, we only wanted to record our own music. We write all our songs and arrange them ourselves. It is a lot of hard work, but we don’t care.”

Antibiotic was formed with Kai Zar Tin Mone (vocal and bass guitar), John Koe De (lead guitar) and Banyar (drums) in 2000.

Tin Mone

“A friend of mine suggested the name Antibiotic. But we don’t focus much on the name – it is the music that will make our band successful, not the name.”

Kai Zar Tin Mone released an original alternative music album in 1998. It was not a success but he thinks it was good experience.

“We knew our music was good, but we didn’t know anything about recording, or how to market our album – now we know what we did wrong.”

Four years after forming Antibiotic, they released their all original album Myat Hnar (Face) in 2004 and it was well received by the fans.

Moe Moe, vocalist and bassist of the band Tittito, is only 22 years old but he shares a belief in his own music creation.

“I think every singer should have his own band and also every band should have their permanent singer,” he said.

When he came to Yangon from Monywa, he joined the Peanut Butter band as a bass guitarist, bit then formed Tittitoo with drummer John Koe De and bassist Boe Lay in late 2004. They released an album Kyae (Star) earlier this year.

“I liked the name because it’s the name of a bird which sleeps with its feet sticking up in the air. It is weird and unusual, just like our band,” Moe Moe said.

Ko Maung Maung Htway, the director of Heart Music Production who produced Antiobiotic’s debut album, said he believed original music had great potential and he liked to encourage new young bands.

“It is a risky business, but it’s worth it when they’re good,” he said.