MALAYSIANS KINI | She was putting finishing touches on a cake. He had just come home from work.

It is an unassuming scene, but individually, singer Takahara Suiko and online personality Anwar Hadi are media icons with large followings. Together, they make up one of Malaysia’s most creative power couples.

27-year-old Takahara fronts The Venopian Solitude, a musical group which she originally started in 2013 as a one-woman show. Now a seven-piece band, the group’s unique sound and xylophone-led live performances have forged a new direction for Malaysian music.

Takahara is a pseudonym for the singer’s public persona (she prefers not to reveal her real name to protect her privacy). She penned all lyrics to her band’s 2014 debut album Hikayat Perawan Majnun (Tale of A Lunatic Damsel), which was nominated for Best Album, Best Song Arrangement and Best Music Video at the Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) that year.

In the album, she critiques deforestation and colonialism in Kehadapan Para Pencemar (Come forward, polluters), and chronicles her experience with depression in Tenangkan Bontot Anda (Calm Your Buttocks).

“I wrote the song 'Mahar' (dowry) after my sister pointed out a scar I had on my leg, and said ‘tolak lima ribu!’ (minus RM5,000).

“She explained how the more scars a woman had, the less hantaran (wedding gifts) the groom's family had to offer for her. And then my brother showed me how a newspaper had published dowry “ratings” for women based on their educational qualifications.

“I got so angry and wrote Mahar,” she explains to Malaysiakini.

Like how she is in person, her songs are unabashedly bold and endearingly zany. She sings in a voice that is equally shrill as it is melodic - wailing, whistling and laughing her way through the melodies.

Her determination to use uncommon Malay words gives her lyrics added depth.

“I’m tired of listening to love songs that repeat the same words; sometimes I can even guess what words will come next in a song.

“I use a Kamus Dewan Edisi 4 (a Bahasa Malaysia dictionary) so I don’t repeat words used in my songs.

“Did you know there are more than 84,000 entries in that dictionary? And all these songs on the radio use less than 200 of them!” she says, making dramatic hand gestures to illustrate her point.

Plus, she says, radio stations simply play too many love songs nowadays.

“There are too many love songs out there and I don't need to add to that. I write about everything else.

"I also feel love songs are really personal, so if someone listens to my love songs, they fall in love with Anwar and that can't happen!” she says, pretending to block her husband.

Aside from Malay, Takahara sings in English and Japanese. Sometimes she raps in all three languages within one song, as exemplified by 'The Rojak Uta: Stampede'.

Since coming home from attending the prestigious Red Bull Music Academy in Montreal, Canada late last year, she has been writing music for the band’s second album, a more conceptual piece of work.

“Each song is its own world, for us to shape. In terms of the dimension and atmosphere of the album, everything is bigger.

“On this one song, we have four percussion instruments, two bass players, three guitarists and ten backup vocalists. All the dynamics of an orchestra, basically.

"We started writing last year, and now have two out of 12 recordings done. It’s taking forever,” she laughs.

Only recently did she move in with Anwar, despite being married since December 2015. The couple explains how they first met online when Takahara was studying in Japan and when Anwar was training to be a teacher in Australia. He went on to teach in Penang for several years before moving to the Klang Valley this year.

"Before 2017, we had never been physically close to each other. Even after we got married we had to have an ‘LDR’ (long-distance relationship).

"This year is the first time we are close to each other, it is finally a ‘CDR’ (close-distance relationship)," he smiles.

Twitter famous, YouTube serious

Anwar, also 27, is an influential online opinion-maker when not at his day job teaching English in a primary school.

With more than 149,000 followers on Twitter, Anwar is one of the most followed Malaysians on the social media platform despite not being a professional musician or actor.

Takahara points out how her husband is known for his puns and “dad jokes”, a statement he grins in agreement to.

“I try to contribute some form of positive release (to my followers) - lame jokes is my vehicle.

“I’ve noticed there is a lot of anger and frustration on Twitter, so I want to contribute to somebody not feeling negative for, like, a second when they scroll through their timeline and come across my tweet,” he explains.

Anwar is also a local YouTube sensation.

A lack of local content on YouTube led Anwar to start his own channel, @IniAnwarHadi, in 2010 as a college student at a teachers’ training institute in Penang.

His earlier videos, some of which have amassed 200,000 views, featured him talking about his daily experiences and listing his resolutions for the upcoming semester at college.

While many Malaysians have since made it big on YouTube, he continues to make videos but with a different approach.

Today on his channel, he conducts book reviews, offers financial advice, explains Islamic finance principles and has recently begun discussing current issues in a series called ApaKesah (What’s The Matter).

The series features four other hosts apart from Anwar, and has so far discussed the Kelantan state assembly’s move to allow public whipping, Watson pharmacy’s controversial Hari Raya advertisement, bullying victim T Nhaveen's death, the criticism Subang Jaya MP Hannah Yeoh received for her autobiography, and how a Shell cardboard poster of a woman was “molested” by men.

While not a novel concept on its own, Anwar explains what inspired the series.

“Nobody is talking about current events like how we are at ApaKesah.

"We try to talk about news in a productive and fun kind of way. We also try to cover issues fairly, giving more than one side to the story.

"I hope this will encourage the audience to expand their way of looking at things. Even with Twitter, I want to use my influence to encourage this," he says.

So far, some of his students have come up to him after watching his videos. And that has made him uneasy, he admits.

"I don't know how to react to them. If 40 people came at me at once to talk about my videos or tweets, it would become really tough to get any teaching done.

"Because they'd see me as my online persona. A person who is trying to equip with them tools and skills - not so much. More like a show.

"But I do try teaching my students to express themselves in ways more than one. During lessons, I try to tap into what they think about certain things so they can speak from their own perspectives," he explains.

Being creative together

Later, the duo takes turns playing the guitar for one another. Anwar raps about “working through mediocrity” while Takahara sings a song she wrote for people stuck in traffic congestion.

The couple says they enjoy being creative together, and have recorded themselves performing multi-instrumental covers of their favourite Italian and Hindi songs on YouTube. They also host a weekly podcast called Buah Mulut.

But they have yet to formally collaborate on a project.

"She's like an 'international star' and I'm like here (points to the ground)," jokes Anwar. Takahara playfully jabs him in the stomach.

They prefer doing their own thing, but enjoy brainstorming ideas and projects together.

"We learn from each other. It's fun," says Takahara.

MALAYSIANS KINI is a series on Malaysians you should know.

Previously featured:

War has no victors, says last surviving WWII vet

The one-man Malay literature archive

The last of generations of storytellers

Sarawak's sape travels across the South China Sea

Art for the people - Manjat's work transcends controversy