Thursday 12 November 2020

NEW INTERVIEW: Our second interview with UNDERGOD (Bandung Sundanese Death Metal), 13 May 2019.

Our second interview with UNDERGOD 
AT: Bandung. Date: Monday, 13 May 2019. 
By: Kieran James and Popo Demons Damn, 
Translation by: Popo Demons Damn. 

UNDERGOD line-up: Kinoy (vocals), Dias (guitar1), Dani (guitar2), Ega (bass), and Gilang (drums). First album: Saguru Saelmu (2010); second album: Rawing Revenges (2015). 

Kieran James: Please give us the update about Undergod. 

Kinoy Undergod (vocalist): Undergod is in process to make a new single. We will make a new EP and we will release four or five songs for the EP after Idulfitry around July or August [2019]. The lyrics will be a mixture of Bahasa Indonesian, Sundanese, and English. 

KJ: Any comments about the EP? 

Kinoy: For the process for the new EP, the other members agreed me to learn English. 

KJ: However, Undergod is famous because of its use of Bahasa Sunda. 

Kinoy: We want to represent some new things; we want to show to the people that we love Bahasa Indonesian and the local language. We also want to learn English and prove to people that we cannot only write Sundanese lyrics but also write and sing the English songs. 

Popo Demons Damn: For those who don’t know Kinoy they will not understand why. For those who know Kinoy they will be amazed. For the first album he found it hard to write in Bahasa Indonesian. He wants to take up the challenge; it is not too hard or impossible for him. 

KJ: Is there any change in the music? 

Kinoy: it will be more variable. The EP will sound similar to the first album. It will be different from the second album. 

Popo: What are the hard things on the stage when you play in the other cities, e.g. Central Java? Is it hard to communicate with the Indonesian language? How do you communicate with the fans and the organizer? 

Kinoy: With the organizer I never talk much. Dias, Ega and Dani (or sometimes the manager) will talk more with the organizer. Onstage I say only three sentences to the crowd? Apa Kabar? Bikin lingkaran (make a circle); Selama tuhan masih apa, metal tetap saya (if God still exists, metal it’s still alive). 

Popo: How is the response of metalheads in the other cities (those who don’t know Sundanese language)? Do they still like and understand the Undergod songs? 

Kinoy: The fans in the other cites can’t speak Sundanese but they can sing along to the words of the Undergod songs. 

KJ: Why did it take so long for Undergod to have a new song or album? 

Dias (guitarist): The main vocalist is busy with his other band, Pascodex. 

KJ: How does Dias enjoy working with Kinoy? 

Popo: He was additional for Undergod from 2010-12. Then he concentrated on Disinfected. This year Kinoy asked him to come back to make new songs for the new EP. 

Dias: The music and the circle (friends and fans) – I like the chemistry when Kinoy is on the stage with me and the other members. 

Kinoy: I still use Google Translate for talking English but my daughter does not need to (she is 12-years-old). My daughter was born because the condom was broken – this is the title of the song, but we didn’t put it on the album. We play the song live. In the lyrics I tell the story of the tragedy but I’m very thankful for the broken condom. Because of the broken condom, I can have the beautiful daughter and finally my goal was achieved. I was able to marry my girlfriend. My girlfriend’s parents did not accept me originally. Because she got pregnant, they had to make the marriage. If you can translate the lyrics you will see how funny the lyrics are. Undergod talks about Sundanese mythology, to dream about to defecate is bad luck. This idea is in one of the songs on the first album. 

Popo: If you see an Undergod performance, you will see how funny Kinoy is on the stage. He is like a comedian in metal. If he uses Indonesian language he will freeze. He will need to translate first into Indonesian. Dias will know how crazy Kinoy is on the stage. Metalheads are always laughing when Undergod plays. Sometimes Undergod plays using bangbarongan (traditional big puppet) and sometimes using gatot kaca costume. It represents a kind of giant or monster in Sundanese mythology. (Gatot kaca is Javanese mythology.) Death Metal band people mostly look brutal but Kinoy is a laughing comedian on the stage. 

Dias: Like a clown. 

KJ: Message for the fans? 

Kinoy: Wait for the new revolution music. We will make the new EP in August [2019] and I hope that kujang mangprang (name of the fans) will be collecting money to buy our EP CD. 

Dias: Thank-you for supporting Undergod. We will be back. 

*****THE END*****

UPDATED NEWS (from Ega, bassist): 2021 new Undergod single coming up.  And we have a new player on guitar.

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