Our
first interview with SOUND REACTION (Lembang Gigs)
Date:
Thursday 17 May 2018.
At:
Teguh’s house, Lembang, West Java.
Interview
with: Agrog (Beside) and Nce (Depresi Jiwa).
Translation by: Teguh Prasetyo
(bassist, Interfectorment / Digging Up).
Teguh
Prasetyo: What is the reason to make Sound Reaction gigs?
Agrog Beside:
Sound Reaction is an accident. I worked in a café bar. I had a place that had a
lot of music equipment and sound system. I had the idea to bring together all
the bands from Lembang to play at Route 64. It is a café / cottage / recording
studio at the same place. For the first gig we invited Implore from Germany
(grindcore). They had a tour of Indonesia. This was December 2017. Three
hundred people came to the venue and it was very crowded. After this I asked our
friends who have bands in Lembang to play in Route 64.
Kieran
James: What are some of the big bands that played there?
Agrog:
Turtles Junior and Under 18 (hardcore). I had an idea to bring Lembang
musicians to that place to do a sharing session (nongkrong). In Lembang we don’t have a place to do that. Then we
had one first gig with ten Lembang bands, mixed genres. I had a problem with
the owner of Route 64. At every gig a lot of alcohol was consumed in that
place. I argued with the owner about this issue and so I left my job at Route
64. Originally the owner did not mind that people brought alcohol in from
outside but later he was unhappy with this. The gigs were finished because I
resigned from the job. There were around six gigs in total.
Teguh
Prasetyo: It is hard to have gigs here without alcohol because people want to
have fun in their spare time.
Agrog: After the gigs were cancelled we
tried to relocate them. It is quite hard and expensive to hold gigs in Lembang
so we held the gig in Ciater. At the new place we need a really high budget. At
the place we don’t have to pay a lot of money to the police; the owner of the
place will take care of the police.
We held gigs where 35
bands played on one day. We considered the first chapter a success so we went
on to hold the second chapter with the same name in Lembang. We opened the
registration and in two days 35 bands wanted to play (Sound Reaction 1 and 2). The first one had only 10 bands and the
second one had 35 bands. At the registration there were more than 40 bands
wanting to play. The main aim of the gigs is to promote Lembang bands so,
sadly, we had to reject the bands from other cities which wanted to play. It is
purely a collective so no money was paid to any headliners. Maybe, in the next
chapter, we will bring in some headliners.
The second gig was
successful too so the next gig will be held in August [2018]. Most of the crowd
comes from Lembang. There were around 500 people in the crowd in the second
show. At the first gig it was only the bands and the crews because it was
invitation only, no ticket sales.
We
had 35 bands with a 30-minute set each. There was one stage but with two sets
of equipment. There were no break times. It was like a marathon; when one band
stopped the next one started. We are learning and adapting from the biggest
festivals. I played in Wacken before
and we adapted some of the rules from Wacken.
(Beside played in Wacken 2017.)
KJ:
What are the future plans?
Agrog: The next plan is we want this gig
to become an annual event. We see a lot of potential among Lembang bands but
they [the bands] don’t know or think about the techniques needed to make the
gigs sound better. This is why we adapted the rules from bigger events. It
becomes a learning ground for us and them especially in Lembang. We never knew
that in Lembang we have a lot of punk bands. We thought we had a lot of metal,
rock, and reggae bands. At the second show it was 70% punk bands. We had ska,
reggae, skinhead, metal, and hardcore. We are still waiting for pop musicians
who want to play but it is OK for us. We have a blues band too. We don’t want
people to just go to the gigs, play, and go home. We want the gigs to become
more memorable. This is why we have a camping area which we open one day before
the show so everyone can have a good time and get drunk together. We want the
bands to come on time and not late. Many bands want to turn up late in Lembang.
They want to arrive three hours after their scheduled starting time. This makes
it harder to have gigs in Lembang. One band has 30 minutes to set up and play.
There is so much
enthusiasm in Lembang – the bands want to play. In the future we might have
gigs with fewer bands.
We have not yet opened
registration for the third chapter but 13 bands already want to play. In August
we will use two sets of equipment for the main stage. We will have welcome
stage at the front as we got quite a big venue this time.
People
just want to be part of the gigs. We are glad to know that because it means the
bands really believe we can organise the show quite well. This is almost the
first time we had gigs in Lembang without fights because usually we have fights
among the audience.
Teguh:
The second chapter was held last week, 12th May. Interfectorment had
recording session in Bekasi so we could not play.
Agrog:
We had gigs in Lembang before but they have been dead for a while. Now, after
several years, we can start these new gigs.
Teguh:
Any message for the supporters?
Agrog:
Lembang is full of people who come here for recreation. I want Lembang to
become a music recreation place. I hope to also bring in traditional music such
as karinding as we cannot forget our
roots.
****THE END****
 |
| Left to Right: Bobby Rock (Turbidity / ex-Bleeding Corpse), Daniel (Turbidity), Kieran James (Busuk Chronicles), Agung Prasetia (Interfectorment), and Teguh Prasetyo (Interfectorment / Digging Up), Bandung, May 2018. |
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| INTERFECTORMENT from Lembang, feat. Teguh Prasetyo (second from left). |
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