Rocking At Night While Working By Day

Jakarta Globe, Jonathan Stray

Kid Immigrant members Oki Rahadianto, left, Reza Achman, Dika Sunarya and Cipta Croft-Cusworth. (JG Photos/Jonathan Stray)

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"Pop music in Indonesia, it’s all love songs. It won’t not be [about] love songs for a long time,” says Cipta Croft-Cusworth. “And I guess anything that isn’t that kind fits into the alternative box.”

Cipta is the vocalist for Kid Immigrant, a young Jakarta-based band with a unique cross-genre sound. But good music alone doesn’t pay the bills, especially if it’s not pop. Many of Jakarta’s most creative musicians must make ends meet in other ways.

Some moonlight as glam-rockers in spandex suits. Others are professional musicians, working in recording studios or playing session gigs. There’s at least one stock broker. And some work at restaurants.

The relentlessly creative Cipta, 31, runs GoodGuysNeverWin toy company, which designs and manufactures quirky robot figurines for exhibits and collectors. He also works for Trans Studio Theme Parks, where’s he’s been an art director for the past three years.

“That’s what I do as a day job. That’s where the money comes from,” he says.

Kid Immigrant’s music is all over the place. The bassist likes jazz, the drummer also crafts electronic beats and the guitarist cut his teeth on heavy metal. Some songs are built around punk vocal hooks, while another recites the stanzas of the nonsense poem “Jabberwocky” from Alice in Wonderland. The music is wildly original in the Jakarta scene — and unlikely to ever be heard in taxis and malls.

Drummer Reza Achman, 38, makes his living as a session player. He’ll sit in for anyone who needs a drum track. He used to dream of making it big as a musician, but is now focused on supporting his child. He said he could never give up his work for the band.

“It’s good for my soul, I think. Because every time I perform, every time I’m on stage, I just realize that I cannot buy that feeling,” he says. “That’s why I keep on doing it.”

The musicians in GRIBS know that feeling well. The name is an acronym for Gondrong Kribo Bersaudara, which roughly translates to Long-Haired Shaggy Brothers. This metal band puts on a phenomenal glam stage show, complete with spandex and torn fishnets. They play a ridiculously energetic set of original Indonesian hard rock songs, with a few classic covers thrown in.

Bassist Arief Tri Satya is a lot less imposing without his costume when the sun is up. He’s 22 and in his final semester at Al-Hazar University in the capital, studying communication with a focus on advertising. His parents support his music, but made sure he went to university. He acknowledges that it’s probably a good idea to be “responsible,” but doesn’t see advertising as his future.

“When I graduate, I truly want to be focused on music. That’s all I want to do,” he says.

His band makes money, but not rock star money. GRIBS released their first album last year and sold 200 copies in the first month, which Arief sees as a “positive reaction” to an indie band. More importantly, they get gigs, often playing several times a week. Even better, some of these appearances are paid.

“My band gets paid between, maybe the lowest is Rp 1 million [$108], and so far the highest is 5 million,” Arief says.

But just as often, the gig is free for a friendly club owner or event organizer. A young independent band needs all the practice and exposure it can get.

“The four of us, GRIBS, we want to be rock stars. We want to play full-time as musicians. It’s our dream,” he says. “It’s not wrong to chase your dream, right?”

No, but it is work. That’s what Andi Jaka is saying. This 33-year-old musician is one of the organizers of Black Hole, a twice-weekly independent music event.

“I mean, yeah, everybody’s got that dream,” he says. “But music is a very competitive industry, and music demands discipline. So if you don’t discipline yourself, discipline your band, you’re gonna be nothing.”

Andi should know, because a lot of bands go through Black Hole. Three or four local bands take the stage every Monday at the Manchester United Club in Sarinah, and every Thursday at BB’s in Menteng. The event was an Indonesian indie legend in its first incarnation between 1992 to 1994, hosting bands from Bandung and Jakarta. Some of the original organizers reunited in 2008 to bring it back to life.

“Black Hole is basically an idea, an idea about community, where people with a lot of different tastes can come and play,” Andi says. “Black Hole is a home for all sorts of underground indie artist music.”

Andi also plays in a band. He used to trade derivatives at PT MDIB, but quit last year just to be a part-time stock broker. He says he “demoted” himself to have more time for his family and his music. It cut his pay in half, but he’s not worried.

“Maybe you’re not gonna be a millionaire, maybe you’re not gonna be the one who drives five BMWs, no,” he says. “But you’re gonna support your music, and you’re gonna live by your heart.”