PAS band's harsh music tunes blare their 'individuality'

By Helly Minarti

JAKARTA (JP): Parents, if you pass your teenage children's bedroom and hear harsh music blaring out loud, it could be one of those mind-boggling tunes from PAS, an Indonesian band stamped as the flag bearer of so-called alternative music.

You might not want to hear the music, let alone the lyrics. Along with their shocking music, come those angry words, including obscenities in some of their first English songs.

Off-stage, the four members of PAS, the two brothers Beng Beng (guitar) and Trisno (bass), with Richard (drum) and Yukie (vocal) seem like any other young guys. Funny and calm, these four lads in their late 20s can surprisingly turn wild once they're on stage, singing their angry songs about injustice, social concerns and Generation X's frustrations.

Why all that angry attitude? They all laughed in response to the question. "Why not? There are too many people singing cheerful tunes already," giggled Beng Beng, whose versatile fingerpicking on the guitar can be soul-wrenching. "There are some critical conditions in society and if they endure too long it makes you want to kick them out. And we face it everyday on the campus and in the outside world," Yukie added angrily.

Yukie has just finished his studies in the Japanese Department of Padjadjaran University, Bandung. Trisno and Beng Beng are still studying at the same university, majoring in, respectively, German and in the school of Agriculture. Richard was the only one who didn't continue his study after graduating from high school.

They set up the group in 1993. After wrestling with unmatched ideas -- and their egos, so they confess -- of playing the ideal music according to their individual points of view, the four agreed to just set everything free. It means, "each of us is free to play what he's truly like based on his previous music background," said Yukie.

As for "what" they like, Beng Beng is fond of everything old and classic in rock. "Stuff like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and others from the evergreen era," he said. Trisno is a true punk- lover. Richard loves the 1990's bands like Pearl Jam and Faith No More, while Yukie absorbs any music genre from pop to contemporary.

"We all are fans of the renowned guitarist Steve Vai, who has inspired us deeply in playing and acting on stage," Richard said, adding that they also like Panthera.

As for "how" they play, all the members agreed to take the extreme side of the act. "Rather than putting aside our egos and tolerating each other, why don't we make room for every ego in the group, unite them and set them free," said Yukie. Not everyone can get along with their "set-your-mind-free" style in playing music. "We had two keyboard players come along before, and told them just to play along the way they wanted and felt. They got confused," said Beng Beng. So, now they prefer to stay with the original format of a traditional band of bass-drum- guitar.

Their differences and spontaneity in expressing their music are the key to finally reaching the middle ground of every composition. The result is harsh music with rich composition and arrangement, smart lyrics and, painstakingly, frontal rejections from big major labels.

"They're confused on how to categorize our music and don't think that ours is anywhere near commercial," said Beng Beng.

Albums

On the other hand, PAS also refused to compromise by changing their music to something trendy the market will easily accept. Luckily they had a good fan, who then turned into their first manager and friend, the late Samuel Marudut (1970-1994) -- the owner of a radio station in Bandung. And so it was with Samuel's back up that they decided to produce their first album.

Samuel found someone who was willing to lend them some money so PAS could release their first mini album, 4 Through the SAP, in 1993, which comprised only four songs. "We actually had more, but producing costs a lot," said Beng Beng and Yukie.

That's how PAS got their stamp as the first Indonesian indie label band, which referred to their independence in producing an album away from a major label. Unlike some indie label American artists who deliberately refuse to cooperate with major labels to reflect their 'individuality', PAS got the indie label because it was simply the only choice left. "If we had found a recording company who were willing to accept our music, we'd have loved to work with them by then," said Beng Beng.

4 Through the SAP was distributed throughout Bandung by a local distributor and managed to sell 6,800 copies in that city alone. Since then Bandung radio stations have started to air PAS songs.

The second album, In (No) Sensation, was released in 1995 by a major label. "Under one condition, that we're free to compose anything we want," said Beng Beng. Their first hit, Impresi (Impression) -- a political tale personifying a modern demagogue -- started to be played and became known from its video clip. It sold around 40,000 copies -- not bad for their music genre. The sales of the third, indieVduality, released in January 1997, surpassed the total sales of the second album in its first two months.

PAS albums may not sell as much as other local alternative groups and musicians more well-known -- although their latest hit, Anak, Kali, Sekarang (Child, River, Now), once managed to sneak to the top it never became a popular song, the lyrics of which everybody could fluently chant. But PAS creates another phenomenon on stage. "Trisno and I had had enough of playing music well onstage while wondering if the audience really enjoyed our music since they didn't react much -- simply staring at us -- while we were playing in our previous group," said Beng Beng.

Besides, "In gigs people see more than listen, so we decided to give them a "view" by acting out ourselves so the audience would be in turn moved to act along and be entertained," he added.

So they bang their heads to every beat, jump as high as they can and use as much of the stage as space allows them to while keeping their music intact. "At the beginning, the audience are surprised -- perhaps shocked -- and seem so "silently busy" watching all the movement we make on-stage, but after the fourth song, normally they melt and start to react as we hope," said Beng Beng. And those acts are more than headbanging as PAS suggest in one of their songs, Bang Your Head, ("the lightest song we ever wrote, simply an invitation to enjoy our music" so they said) but also "moshing" (throwing your whole body at the stage).

In their unexpectedly successful gig at Hard Rock Cafe recently, the band attracted a big crowd. Those teenyboppers who swarmed around the stage, joined in every word of the lyrics, even in the only song written in German, Schiebung des Maedchens (Swindle the Girls).

Yet, each of the group members humbly said that the band's name, PAS, reflects just how they play. Pas means "just enough". They said they owe it to Bandung, home to bottomless musical talent, which gives them such a musical atmosphere and enables them to get everything they need -- from the latest edition of good music magazines to a musical peer circle with whom they can improve their playing.

By the way, what is PAS music? "Anything but black metal," quipped Richard who later added that rock is the root of PAS music. "Alternative is what the press call us. We don't categorize the music we play," said Trisno.

PAS will be going on a self-arranged tour through 11 cities in Java, Bali and some parts of Sumatra in November before they record their fourth album at the end of the year. "We will end up in Bandung, our town, in a free-of-charge gig. It's our tribute to Bandung and its people who have been supporting us all the way," said Yukie.