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"The Music As Source Of Existence"
Interview with
Jeff Arwadi, guitarist and vocalist of this great Indonesian
band
By Sergio
Vilar
Since this it is the first interview for Nucleus, I would like that you
commented us how the band is formed and which has been your history
until the present.
That's a long
story... Perhaps anyone is encouraged look to the band's bio on our
website, it tells everything, I could copy all of them entirely here but
that would look a bit boring...
So yeah please visit this page:
http://kekal.awardspace.com/bio.htm
In what musical line do you identify the sound of Kekal? What so
close you do feel of the progressive rock?
We identify our sound as an explorative way to express ourselves in
music... For us, progressive rock is not a
sub-genre of music… It is a term to refer to bands that are explorative
in nature, and keep willing to do something new… Experiment is the key
factor... If you want to explore your music more, you have to be willing
to experiment, and sometimes things do not work, but they are worth a
try, because otherwise you'll never know unless you try... Right...?
Right now, progressive rock only used to refer to the 70's sound of some
certain bands... The nostalgic sound of the 70's rock... But that's not
the case of the real progressive rock means... For instance, if you have a new
band that sounds exactly like 70's era of King Crimson,
they are not progressive... King Crimson is progressive because
when they did albums like "Lark's Tongues in Aspic" or "Red",
no one else did like that before... But if a band from year 2000 has an
album out which just copy King Crimson's style on those albums,
for example, this band is not progressive at all... To me, progressive
rock is a state of being and a state of becoming, not a sub-genre
of
music...
That bands your direct influences are?
There are lots of bands and musicians that I think have inspired us
in some way or another through the entire Kekal history, but if
we have to go for certain bands that have made some big impact into our
progression not only musically but a progression as a band as well, I'd
go for Depeche Mode, Rush, King Crimson, and
Iron Maiden. But if you need a complete list of our influences,
just visit this page:
www.musiklopedia.com/forum/viewtopic.php
Beyond the musical thing, how is the band organized? Who is in charge of
what thing in particular?
We don't have the
'things-to-do' list and assign who's in charge of this and that... It
just comes naturally... I've been in charge for all the creative
process, but for the other administrational process, we just see which
one is available and capable to do the best... Of course for the best
results...
What opinion do you have today on each one of the albums that you
published along your career?
Personally, I am not too proud with our first 2 albums, because they
were poorly recorded and poorly
mixed-down,
but they are a part of the process, you know, and there are
lots of lessons for us from those
albums. When we recorded our first 2 albums we had to prepare each of
everything before entering the studio, even to the very
detailed ones,
because we only used 16-track analog machine and with very limited
time... Guitar tracks should be done in couple takes, setting amp in 15
minutes and so on... And you cannot not edit the mistakes later on, it's
on analog tape not Pro-Tools... The next 3 albums we did all in DAW or
hard-disk recording in a PC, so all the process were changed
immensely... I don't want to comment on each of 5 albums we already
recorded, but if someone asked me like "I'm new to Kekal, which
album should I start with?", then I'd recommend him/her to check out
either “1000 Thoughts of Violence” or “Acidity”, or both…
Check out these pages for more details about those albums:
http://kekal.awardspace.com/album-acidity.htm
and
http://kekal.awardspace.com/album-1000thoughts.htm
Which of them you do believe that it reflects the musical essence of
Kekal better?
“Acidity” has the
elements of first 10 years of Kekal, because this is some kind of
a 10th anniversary celebration album... I think about 3 songs were
written during 1997 to 2000, so “Acidity” has some caleidoscopic
tendencies... “1000 Thoughts of Violence” is what Kekal
had in 2002 - 2003, and for me, that album reflects Kekal as a
progressive band that keeps progressing... I think those 2 albums, plus
the upcoming album “The Habit of Fire” that reflect the best
about the musical essence of Kekal…
Would you cheer up to describe the discography of the band?
Full-length albums: “Beyond The Glimpse of Dreams” (1998),
“Embrace The Dead” (1999), “The Painful Experience” (2001),
”1000 Thoughts of Violence” (2003), “Acidity” (2005) and
“The Habit of Fire”, to be released early 2007.
Split CD: “Chaos & Warfare” (2002), (split with Slechtvalk).
That it forms would you say that it has matured your music along the
years?
When first we formed a band in 1995, we considered ourselves a bit
close-minded... We only wanted to hear and played extreme metal… But as
years went by and through the songwriting process we did, especially
when we wrote material for our 3rd album “The Painful Experience”
by the end of year 2000, then we found out that we
had to continue
shaping our music and progressing and to bring Kekal into the
next level, as that time we already passed 5 years as a band... Then we
started to listen to other stuff like jazz, trip-hop and experimental
rock and they broaden our horizon... That was the first time that I
discovered that bands like Massive Attack is actually cool...
During those years, not only our musical horizon, our
technical/instrumental and songwriting skills were
also matured so we were able to write play more complex music…
You are from Indonesia, a not very habitual country for the
progressive rock. Could you tell us how the progressive scene is there?
Do people dedicate attention to this type of musical proposals?
I know some bands that are great. The progressive scene is
something that I'm still questioning to as for the dedication and
such... But I'm telling you, with or without the progressive scene,
there will be more progressive bands coming out, even they are not
considered as 'progressive rock' and they are still being a part of
their own communities, like punk, metal, emo, indie-rock or whatever.
But as long as you can still finding a band that is progressive in
nature, like what I said as 'willingness to explore', then it is more
than good enough... Rather than having endless lists of Dream Theater
copycats and having a solid 'progressive scene' only based on those kind
of bands...
Exist radio shows, fanzines or publications that are devoted to the
diffusion of this music type?
In Indonesia I don't think there are publications that are devoted
to that, if you mean progressive music.
We are known here as a metal band, and we have been around for about 10
years as an independent metal band.
So people just put Kekal as a
part of the metal scene, and in the underground metal scene there are
lots of zines
and radio programs...
Is it difficult to maintain a band like Kekal in
Indonesia and also to try to
be projected to the rest of the world?
It is difficult,
yes... It needs a lot of hard work…
Would you say that the form of seeing the progressive rock that you
have in
Indonesia differs of the one that we have in occident?
I don't know and
I don't care.. It might be, and it might be not.. For Kekal, we
just make our own music and we don't relate ourselves as Indonesian
musicians that have to pay homage to our own culture or tradition... For
us, music is a product of self-expression, and by my opinion, the way a
human express him/herself is unique to each other and it is
cross-cultural... If we only see our own cultural tradition as a basis
to write music, that means we already limit ourselves to that, and we
hate limiting ourselves in term of creating music...
In general, how do you come the current international progressive
scene? Would how new bands highlight?
I don't really get the question, hope I could answer this
correctly. Sometimes I see that progressive scene as a kind
of nostalgia. Progressive
Rock was huge in the 70's, and there are certain people that always look
into that era and set the limits to what is 'progressive rock'. Actually, nowadays, there are lots of great bands
that are very progressive, very experimental, but still, people do not
see them as a progressive rock for some reasons... There are new terms
like post-rock, post-metal, avant-garde metal, art-metal, experimental
electronic, noise-rock, and so on, to refer to these newer bands that I
would call them progressive..
Have you already begun to prepare material for the next album?
Well, we already finished recording and mixing our new album called
“The Habit of Fire”... It supposed to be released by November
this year, but we've had some label delays and stuff, so I hope the
album will hit the road sometime in January 2007...
In that will differ of the previous disc? With which novelties will
be?
It is really different in term of the music style… Man, I hate that
term "music style"… hahaha... But yeah, on our last album “Acidity”
(2005), even that one has a lot of jazz and electronic influences, you
can still call it a metal album...
But
our upcoming album “The Habit of Fire” has a very broad range of
musical elements that even "metal" is not a right term to refer the
music...
To say goodbye, I would like to request them some message for Nucleus
and for all those that visit us in the entire world.
Please check out our Myspace site while you can listen to
some Kekal songs:
http://myspace.com/kekal
Also visit our website for updated news and more info:
http://www.kekal.cjb.net
Thanks a lot and have a nice day!
www.anathallo.com
Nucleus interview: 27/11/06
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