Maliq & d'essentials aim high at becoming a legend

Armando Siahaan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Pioneering new music is a challenging task -- especially in a country where the populace is already spoiled by the "cheap" sound of dangdut, middle-of-the road rock tunes and, most recently, hip-hop.

But the seemingly daunting task did not dissuade local group Maliq & d'essentials from introducing a new subgenre that still sounds alien to the ears of most Indonesians: neo-soul.

Such determination paid off when the band performed at the Java Jazz Festival 2005 -- the country's first noteworthy music festival in years -- when the music drew a large crowd and eventually persuaded many to dance to their songs, including foreign performers such as Eric Benet and Amp Fiddler.

Maliq & d'essentials has started their own small revolution.

Their debut album, 1st, comprises songs that tread a fine line between soul, rhythm & blues, hip-hop, jazz and blues.

Despite their instant appeal, many people are still confused at their name, wondering whether it is the name of either the singer or the founding members.

"Maliq" stands for "music and live instrument quality" while "d'essentials" is the name of their backing band, which has been a permanent fixture over the past three years.

Maliq & d'essentials got their inspiration from contemporary soul artists like Erykah Badu, Maxwell and D'Angelo.

How the band got to know neo-soul was a family affair.

The band's lead singer, Angga Puradireja, is the nephew of Ekky Puradireja, commonly known as EQ Humania, a local jazz singer who scored a couple of hits in the early 90s. It was EQ who introduced a bunch of neo-soul records to Angga.

EQ later served as producer of 1st.

Angga said that introducing new music to the unknowing populace was indeed an uphill battle and their debut was released into the wilderness on indie label Sould Out earlier this year.

Only a small number of copies were sold.

Realizing that the indie label lacked the necessary networking to market their music, Maliq decided to cast aside their idealism and joined major label Warner Music Indonesia.

"We believe that Warner Music Indonesia have the best networking capability to spread our unique music," Angga said in an interview at a plush hotel in South Jakarta.

Coupled with their electrifying performance at Java Jazz, the strategy worked well.

Posting fewer than 30,000 copies in February, Maliq's record label shipped 80,000 copies shortly after Java Jazz.

"Our debut album become a chart-topper in a record store near the venue at which we played during the Java Jazz festival," piano player Widi Puradireja said.

Angga said that Java Jazz not only brought the band to the surface; it elevated them to their present popularity and in turn helped sell more records.

Joining a major label however, is not the panacea that could solve every problems for any aspiring artist.

As Warner Indonesia serves only as distributor for 1st, it therefore has little obligation to launch a full-blown promotion to market the album.

Apart from their live shows, Maliq rarely appeared on television compared with other groups such as Peterpan and Ello, who bombarded viewers with their glossy video clips.

And as if to thumb their collective nose at TV stations, the band embarked on a guerrilla-style marketing campaign by focusing on radio stations, where some of their songs have already ruled the chart. "We are putting much more effort into promoting our songs -- we don't want to be one-hit wonders."

When asked what would be their ultimate goal, with perseverance Angga said, "We want to be a legend!"