The trees are alive: Of love and other global catastrophes

Sun, 03/02/2008 11:45 AM  |  Entertainment

ADPARA>Hello, my lovelies, it is time for yet another Underground Hum, and time to sneak a peek into some of the hidden gems of our local scenes with another edition of Main Stage; where I introduce you to yet another musical act you have never heard of (but is definitely worth listening to). Thanks again for the lurvely emails you guys have been sending. Keep them coming.

And now, on to this week's edition of MAIN STAGE:

Main stage:

In the last few months, I've started noticing a trend. It might be something that's been slowly brewing for a while and I've been slow at picking up on it, or it hasn't been well-exposed.

Nevertheless, I'm very excited about it.

The trend I'm speaking of is the slow emergence of lo-fi/home-recorded/bare-bones and honest singer-songwriters. This trend pleases me very much.

What warms my heart even more is the fact that most of them are quite decent. More impressive is that these individuals all quite young; the bulk of them still in or just out of high school. Their lyrics tend to follow the usual pattern of solo singer-songwriters: either deeply introspective musings about their own emotional experiences, or observations about the world around them through the eyes of their generation. The best among them do both.

A good example of the latter is The Wispy Hummers (18-year-old Joan Lumanauw (the subject of Main Stage a couple of months back), with her musings on religion, love, and isolation. Now we also have the subject of this week's Main Stage: The Trees Are Alive.

The Trees Are Alive is the moniker chosen by Global Jaya High School student Jamal Soemadipradja, and it represents his music quite well. The songs created by Jamal, a self-described songwriter/environmentalist/vegetarian/hippo fanatic, are a combination of simple mid-tempo acoustic guitar arrangements and lyrics merging his inner (emotions running the gamut from unrequited love to fear for the future) and outer worlds (the issues of deforestation, global warming and the eventual extinction of human beings).

Anyone familiar with the current wave of folksy singer/songwriters coming up in the American indie scene who listens to The Trees Are Alive, will immediately recognize the influence of the commonly called "omaha sound" pioneered by Conor Oberst and his Saddle Creek record label; most specifically the vocal quality and technique of Joe Knapp AKA Son, Ambulance. Despite this clear influence, Jamal's work is still very much his own.

To give you an idea of how this very young man accomplishes this, here is an excerpt from the poetic lyrics he combines with gorgeous guitar work in All that Ends Well Goes Well: The clock strikes 12/ And we brace ourselves/ for the blast that ends our past/ they take to the skies/ and uncover the disguise that they have held for so long/ Now I know my dear/You know that tonight will end this year/ and all we've come to fear/ Oh my dear/ Don't let those tears fall off your cheeks/At least we'll be together here.

To get a firsthand listen to how The Trees Are Alive weaves these thoughtful words into his emotional acoustic pieces, go to: www.myspace.com/thetreesarealiveandliving. If you like it, tell him so by leaving comments on his page.

Thus ends this week's Underground Hum. Do tune in next week for Reverb.

If you have any questions or suggestions for this column please contact me at undergroundhum@yahoo.com

Stay clean and go green!

-- Paul F. Agusta

For all of you indie bands or artists out there, let us know if you have a gig coming up so we can include it in Reverb. Be sure to include the name of the event you are playing, what other acts are billed, time, place, date and entry fee if any.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.