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| THE OLD JASAD. Left to Right: Dani aka Papap (drums), Man (vocals), Yuli (bass), and Ferly (Guitar) @ Papap's house, Ujung Berung, Bandung, 26 February 2011. Papap now plays for DISMEMBERMENT TORTURE. |
By Dr Kieran James (University of Fiji)
Interview at: JASAD office, Tee-shirt printing factory, Ujung Berung,
Bandung, 24 February 2011
JASAD was at time of
interview: Man (vocals), Ferly (guitar), Yuli (bass), and Papap (drums)
JASAD now is: Man
(vocals), Ferly (guitar), Yuli (bass), and Abaz (drums)
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| Man and Ferly @ band practice, 25/2/2011 |
Man JASAD: For me, 1996. I met
the band INJECTED SUFFERAGE and then [in] 1999 I joined with JASAD. JASAD is an
old band, started 1989. I joined JASAD ten years later with Ferly in Bandung.
Since me and Ferly joined the band we changed our music concept, music style.
All old style is NAPALM DEATH grindcore.
KJ: When did you first get
involved in the metal scene?
Man: Since I was young I’m a
metalhead. My older brother poisoned me into some metal bands; he introduced me
to KREATOR, METALLICA, [and] old version SEPULTURA. He has the oldest metal
label in Indonesia, EXTREME SOULS PRODUCTION. I have always been a singer. In
the beginning of 2000, I had one project called PLASMAWEED but not [for] too
long, maybe [for] two years. It is grindcore, political grindcore. In JASAD [we
write] nothing about politics. I write about sadism under death-metal bands.
Chris Barnes influenced me to write lyrics in the past.
Ferly JASAD: My first band is
called FORGOTTEN. I played guitars too. My main influences are both SUFFOCATION
guitarists, technical death-metal.
KJ: Did you see there was one
negative review of your album on www.metal-archives.com?
Ferly: The negative review is not
a big problem of course, everyone has their own opinion.
KJ: How did the recording
contract with SEVARED RECORDS in USA happen?
Ferly: First time I made contact
with SEVARED by email. I sent a couple of demos to them. They were interested
to sign us because of the demos. Witness
[album] is not on SEVARED. It’s called Annihilate
the Enemy, one album on SEVARED.
KJ: How was the response from
people overseas for Annihilate the Enemy?
 |
| Yuli, Jasad bassist, 25/2/2011 |
KJ: Do you know how many copies
were sold of Annihilate the Enemy?
Ferly: Annihilate the Enemy sold 2,000 around the world. I think there is
a good response to us. We recorded it in External Studio in Bandung, the demo
songs.
KJ: Before this interview Man
told me you have two demo songs already recorded for the new upcoming album. Are
there any changes to the band’s sound or style for the new album as compared to
Annihilate the Enemy?
Ferly: It’s a different style
from the previous one; it’s more melodic [and] more classical perhaps. Man has
multi-layers [for vocals].
Man: I use vocal techniques...
Ferly: We push him to have three
characters for vocals: low, mid, [and] high-pitch.
KJ: Man told me that there are
128 active death-metal bands here in Bandung. Why do you think death-metal is
so popular now in Indonesia?
Ferly: I don’t know why
death-metal is so popular. Bandung is the biggest one. Every time we have gigs
here there are always big crowds. When we played Bandung Death Fest, [with]
20,000 people, we are the headliners. We always play last.
Ferly: I just write the music. I
hope you like it. [The new demo song plays in the background.]
KJ: How long have you had the
same line-up for?
Ferly: We had the same four since
we recorded the Witness album [2001].
Everyone says we have a solid line-up now hopefully. Man plays traditional
mouth organ instrument in bamboo band [KARINDING ATTACK].
 |
| Dani aka Papap, Jasad drummer 25/2/2011 |
Ferly: No album yet for bamboo
band.
KJ: How would you describe the
music of the bamboo band?
Man: Death vocals and scream
vocals over traditional bamboo instruments, groove-oriented music, [and] slower
pace than death-metal.
KJ: How old are the JASAD band
members?
Ferly: 30-years-old.
Man: 33-years-old. I’m the young
one!
KJ: What does the regular
Indonesian society outside the metal community think of you?
Ferly: I don’t know what other
Indonesians think of us, they think we are crazy [laughs]. Mostly we had
trouble with police [not ordinary Indonesian people].
Man: We have problems with police
here.
Ferly: It’s all about permission
[to play shows].
Man: [In] 2008 there was a metal
accident here [at show by Bandung metalcore band BESIDE]. My friend he produced
first album, eleven people died but it’s an accident. People outside wanted to
go in, people inside wanted to go out. Biggest problem is there is no
designated place for music venues here. Only a few places can become our
performance place.
KJ: How did you obtain a venue
for Bandung Death Fest 4?
Man: [For] Bandung Death Fest 4 I
arranged to rent a football field at army place. Basketball stadium is too
small. Football stadium is very expensive for us to rent. We looked for a cheap
field to rent, [and] army field is cheap one to rent.
KJ: Ferly, please tell us how you
first got into metal when you were a youngster? These personal stories are
always very interesting to hear...
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| Ferly Jasad and Ayyub Anshari Sukmaraga |
KJ: What are some of your
favourite old-school death-metal albums?
Ferly: I love all OBITUARY
albums; Cause of Death is the best
one I think. James Murphy has his own style every time he does solo, I love
him. He did a good job too [in] TESTAMENT.
KJ: One thing missing from JASAD’s
band history is a DVD. Are there any plans?
Ferly: Yes we have a plan to DVD.
Right now we are focused on the new album then after that we may release a DVD.
KJ: Have you played any gigs
outside Indonesia and SE Asia region?
Ferly: We had an invitation from Tokyo
Death Fest 2005. We had a problem in applying [for] visa in Japan. Jason
[Hutagalung, XENOPHOBIC RECORDS, sponsor of BURGERKILL and DEATH VOMIT tours of
Australia] always told me about [the] Australian scene. He said JASAD must
visit Australia. We want to go there. We had a lot of invitations to play gigs
in other countries but [the] biggest problems are flight ticket and visas.
Man: We don’t even have enough
money for flight tickets.
Ferly: The classical reason. We
had invitations from Germany, the States, Italy, Spain, [and] New Zealand. It’s
because of SEVARED and the promotion there. The last album sold out. SEVARED
has a plan to re-release the last album [Annihilate
the Enemy] with bonus tracks I think.
KJ: Are you close to the guys in
BURGERKILL and DEATH VOMIT?
Ferly: We have close relation
with BURGERKILL guys, they are our friends. We often play same gig with DEATH
VOMIT, I don’t know who will headline [laughs].
Ferly: I watched SUFFOCATION, we
are speechless, [and] it’s exactly like on the CD. I talked with Mike [Smith]
and with Terrance Hobbes, he’s funny.
KJ: Ross Dolan, IMMOLATION?
Ferly: He is good.
KJ: Do you like Ralph Santolla?
Ferly: Of course.
KJ: Man, we were talking at length earlier about
your band KARINDING ATAACK and the Friday evening Sundanese culture classes you
have been promoting at The Common Room Network Foundation here in Bandung. Can
you tell us more about this please and why did you get interested in such
issues after years of just being a standard gore-lyrics death-metal band?
[Before answering the question
Man shows me the YouTube.com video-clip titled “Man Jasad interview – Kujang
Rompang”]
Man: That is my responsibility to
the young generation who live and stay here to keep our culture alive. Few
people here care about their culture. There are a lot of good things in our
culture and Sundanese philosophy that people don’t know. People here always
think they become Arab and western and [they] don’t know their own culture. For
example lots of people cared about this earth when Al Gore spoke about global
warming but in our culture there is a tradition as to how to keep our earth,
there are rules in Baduy tribes that we should not be abusing our land and our
forests. [KJ: Baduy are a traditional indigenous people of West Java now
divided into “inner” and “outer” Baduy.] However, they don’t need money and
technology, they keep barter, not using money.
KJ: Do the Baduy live near to
Bandung?
Man: In West Java, closer to
Jakarta. They refuse modernity, they live in the past. Their religion is not
Islam; their religion is called Sunda
wiwitan. Before Islam and Christianity came there is the old faith. I am
Muslim but I make good relations with people of different kinds of religion. I
want to keep friendly with everyone and spread [knowledge] about Sundanese
philosophy.
Man: [No], in death-metal we can
express what we want. Everyone who lives in this world should care about their
environment; it’s not only about hardcore [ideology] or death-metal
[ideology].If we have profit here from Bandung Death Fest we buy seeds and
plant the trees in the mountains. We are not politicians [only] talking, we
have a movement. Today and five years ago are different. Five years ago if
there was cultural ritual only old people came, now many young people come
wearing black metal tee-shirts and batik tied around their heads [KJ: Man shows
me the batik tied around the head]. I’m not campaigning about our culture, I
campaign to all people I meet. A lot of people still think we are weird. They
are familiar with Arabic dressing – there is an issue [for some people] if I
mix black tee-shirts with traditional culture. A lot of people are adopting
Arabic, Roman culture for Christianity, western culture, Arabic culture as Muslims.
I refuse that.
KJ: Tell me more about the
Islamic fundamentalist metal scene in Indo?
Man: I know some Islamic
fundamentalist bands mostly from Jakarta. They are pushing their ideas to the
[metal] society. I disagree about this. If they want to spread about Islam in
good ways there are better ways than fundamentalism. There is an Islamic spirit
within Sundanese philosophy; we can spread by laughter and respecting each
other.
KJ: What is your comment about
the Bali bombers?
Man: I think they are stupid
people who do that. Islam is not [to] hate each other but [to] spread love to
the universe. Some want to “give hell” to other people. One month ago I
demonstrated [just as] one person. There is some pop star here [KJ: “Ariel” or
Nazril Irham, the vocalist for PETERPAN] going to the jail for porn case, it
was stolen and spread on the internet. I came to court when the punishment
came. Many fundamentalists demonstrated outside the building. I’m in the
middle. Many demonstrated in favour of the pop star. I did a banner: “Peace. Do
not fight each other, mother****er”, in Sundanese. People were all very
shocked. Lots of national TV wanted to take my picture but I refused them. I
don’t want people thinking I want to become famous.
Last year [2010] my friend had
some issue, on FaceBook there is a group. One hundred thousand people became my
supporters. Many thought I was serious to want to become Governor (Mayor) so my
friend made the sticker: “Man Jasad for President”. On FaceBook [it is] “Man
for Mayor” started by my friend.
KJ: Do your parents support your metal
and culture promotion activities?
Man: My parents support me; my
mom is my favourite supporter to become metalhead.
Ferly: They have no problem with
our activity.
Man: They support us.
KJ: Is the band sufficient for
you to support yourselves and your families?
Ferly: We can’t make enough from
metal for our life.
Man: The death-metal people here
work many kinds of activities. Some police and army become metalheads. I have
three snakes in my room, last [time was] five snakes.
KJ: Kerry King of SLAYER likes
snakes...
Man: They are same like mine;
Kerry King has a carpet python. My dream is to go to Queensland. Many snakes
there - extreme pets for extreme people.
KJ: Man, who are your death-metal
influences?
Man: My influences are Chris
Barnes [CANNIBAL CORPSE], Frank Mullen [SUFFOCATION], the vocalist from KREATOR,
Mille Petrozza; others are Sundanese puppet masters from wayang. There is a
death-metal technique and there is also a technique from wayang.
KJ: Other influences?
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| The mighty DEMONS DAMN, 25 Feb 2011 |
Ferly: Tom and Jerry [laughs].
Man [laughing]: Glen Benton. One
of my snakes [is] named Benton.
Ferly: Indonesian metal scene is
big but I don’t see one metal magazine here. I don’t know why.
KJ: What are the most popular
Indonesian bands?
Ferly: Most popular death-metal
bands [are] DEATH VOMIT, DEAD SQUAD, BLEEDING CORPSE, ASPHYXIATE. Many
Indonesian people are groupies for metal bands. There is a TV show every Sunday
night for metal bands, my friend does that.
Man: I try to introduce
Tarawangsa to the young people.
KJ: Have you considered having a
second guitarist?
Ferly: Personally I want to get a
second guitarist but the other members don’t allow me to get one, I don’t know
why.
KJ: Do you guys drink alcohol?
Ferly: We always drink alcohol after we play gigs in
other cities, vodka with 40% alcohol.
KJ: When you began to promote
Sundanese culture in death-metal were you influenced by what SEPULTURA did with
Roots?
Man: I was not really influenced
by SEPULTURA but I love all the albums such as Arise and Beneath the Remains.
I like Roots album but [it] did not
influence me so much. In junior high-school I had a band [which] played
SEPULTURA and KREATOR songs.
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| Bamboo band KARINDING ATTACK @ Old Common Room |
KJ: What are some important
recent developments in the scene here?
Ferly: Over here maybe ten years
ago metal and punk were separate but these days they unite. That is one of the
recent developments.
KJ: Last of all: have you got any
message for your fans:
Ferly: “Thanks for your support”.
Actually, personally, I don’t like the word “fan”. I would prefer to call them
“friends” or “supporters”.
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