Lain emerges from independent music scene

Joko Anwar, Contributor, Jakarta

The huge hall in Jakarta Convention Center was only one-third full when Lain played their first song at an acoustic event organized by high school students of SMU 8 Jakarta last week.

Most of the kids were hanging around outside, waiting for the "main" attractions like pop band Padi and female singer Audy to perform on stage.

By the time Lain finished playing their last song, not much space was left inside the hall as it was packed with a young audience, seriously tuned in to the band as if they had been hypnotized.

That day, the band not only gained many new fans; it also proved that it was accessible to a younger audience.

Unlike most groups, the band members changed roles during the gig -- a member might play guitar in one song, but turn to play piano in another.

Lain's music is moody, melodic and in English, with clear influences from experimentally daring artists like Radiohead, The Beatles, Bjork, and orchestras from Japanese anime.

But instead of falling short as a blatant rip-off of their inspirations, the band found its own voice in expressing life's hopes and fears over self-defeatism or self-loathing.

Their music is earnest and arguably more mature than that of many artistes who currently dominate the local music scene. With a relatively small, but strong fan base, cult status has been unavoidable.

One of the band's virtues is that they are not trying to be or associate themselves with anything in particular -- it would be wishful thinking to expect them to show up on MTV with clothing of a particular style or with makeup, saying something like, "We call our music dark-pop", to camera.

How they look onstage is how they look elsewhere. The band members are intelligent and engagingly humble, but strongly opinionated.

"Some people tend to think of music as a medium for idols; we don't do that," said member Aghi, 28.

But that's not why their gigs are always devoid of a stage act.

"We're just not cut out for that," another member, Bambie, 26, giggled.

"People always say that you must have a stage act or be communicative on stage. I don't think so. When I'm on stage, I want to be my true self," vocalist/lyricist Zeke, 27, said.

"Doesn't it feel better when people like your sincere artistry rather than you as a creation?" Zeke added.

Still, aware of the importance of stage attraction, they commissioned a multimedia artist to design a visual display for their gigs, which helped create a suitable atmosphere for their shows.

Lain was formed in 2000 when Zeke was studying liberal arts at Seattle University in the U.S. He made several songs with some help from Aghi and Aghi's older brother, Arie, who was also studying in Seattle.

Arie then sent the songs to Jakarta to their friends, Bambie and Iman, for them to add some instrumental texture.

In the beginning, the group's work went back and forth from Seattle to Jakarta before their album could be realized.

They worked on a record in 2000 in Jakarta for two-and-a-half weeks. The rough material was then taken back to Seattle by Zeke, Arie and Aghi.

Happy with the rough result, the other two members -- drummer Bambie and bassist Iman -- were summoned to Seattle to record the songs properly.

With the help of a Norwegian sound engineer they successfully realize their dream record, titled Djakarta Goodbye, and released it to local record stores in Seattle. This marked the establishment of their own indie label, Our Coffee Records.

The 11-song album explores the subject of alienation with careful experimentation of sounds, and Zeke's voice sounds uncannily like Radiohead's Thom Yorke.

The band was happy with the result, as those who heard the album said they loved it. However, the fact that two of the members were in Jakarta meant they could not appear in gigs to reach a wider audience.

The band was reunited in Jakarta in 2002. With Arie still in Seattle, they asked bassist Yudi, 20, to join them.

The youngest member of the group admitted to being more than happy to join them since he had been in love with Lain's music the first time he heard it. "It gave me shivers all over my body," Yudi said.

The band began doing gigs and released the album on cassette under a local indie label. According to the band's manager, Dewi, the album sold a promising 5,000 copies.

The band has already received an offer from a major label, but it requested the band record at least two of their songs in Indonesian.

"We don't want any kind of intervention in our music-making. Next, they'd be saying to us, 'don't speak like that, don't dress like that'," Bambie said.

The band, which does not believe in the concept of a front man and therefore does not have one, continues to work on new songs while also playing in other bands as an outlet for expressing themselves in ways that would not necessarily reflect the group's persona.

Bambie plays in Sore, a band that he thinks of as a lighter version of Lain, while Zeke also has a band, Popo, which is more experimental and darker than Lain.

However, that does not mean Lain is a band with conceptual boundaries: As individuals, they are not constricted by them.

Even though they have emerged from the capital's independent music scene, they immediately distinguished themselves from their retro-rock peers who currently dominate the local indie scene.

"We really don't want to be pigeonholed," Zeke said. "But we want to leave our mark and be remembered long after we're gone. I think we've got the potential."

That, they surely have.