As I listened to his demo through a set of high-end earphones attached to his iPod Touch, staring at his hopeful face, I had two things on my mind. One, these earphones are darn good and I need to add them to my "to buy" list for when my fat paycheck arrives in about, oh, two decades. Two, I have to lie about what I really think of the track.

Frankly, I don't know what to say about the song. It started as a formulaic down-tempo beat with a woman's voice sultry voice whispering "bring me the music". Then it intensified in the middle when the beat turned into what I assume was meant to be drum and bass. The singer chanted "dance dance. oooh.yeah" with that full-forced voice that you find on every top-40 track, you know, that "I will Survive" vibe. Then a heavily distorted guitar entered and suddenly it was Nirvana meets Goldie meets Agnes Monica, if you can imagine that. The song stopped abruptly and I had not yet prepared any suave pseudo-intelligent comments to make about it.

So out came the very word that everyone says when they are cornered and don't quite understand: "It's. interesting".

This masterpiece-of-crap was a music project belonging to a long time client and his college buddies. I've known the guy for more than 5 years and the reason we've had a long and fruitful professional relationship is because he had no creativity and lots of investment resources, while I am the other way around. Now, suddenly, he is eager to start a music career.

"Nothing too big" he said. "The music is quite segmented so we've decided to go for indie". "Aaah indie." I said. As if I wasn't sick enough of that grossly-exploited word.

This is the third time in two months I have been approached by someone asking me to sample their new band. The first was brought to my attention by a girl my cousin was trying to impress. It was reminiscent of Trio Libels with a touch of funky guitar that everyone deems to be love these days. The second one was a bunch of advertising executives experimenting with synthesizers and a noisy vintage amplifier, which I must say wasn't half bad.

But good or bad is subjective and it isn't my point. It's the phenomenon behind it that intrigues me. This last couple of years I've noticed that everyone I know in Jakarta, and their second cousins, seems to have started a band. I am going to put aside the disturbing fact that record labels are stooping low by getting actresses and comedians to take singing lessons, hiring hit makers to write cheesier than Mac'n cheese songs, and releasing albums made in three recording shifts (most full length albums are produced over15 to 25 recoding shifts).

With the right technology and enough cash, a good sound engineer can make someone's Do Re Mi's sound like Celine Dion. As we know, the music industry is more interested in the money than the music.

Enough cynicism. Back to my point. This past year or two, I've noticed that Jakarta is suddenly full of bands. A few years ago, bands were so few that you could buy every album that came out and not go broke. The superstardom of mega musicians only lasted for a few years. Now superstars only get fifteen minutes of fame before the next big thing pushes them overboard. And on the more fringe side of the "independent music scene", indie bands are blooming in every corner of town like fungus on a Bajaj seat. Everyone from high school students, to real estate brokers seem to be coming out of their shell and embracing their creative sides.

David Tarigan, A&R of the reputable independent label, Aksara Records, says the number of people forming bands has increased at a steady level since the 90s. It's the leap of technology that makes it seem like it has exploded over the past couple of years.

"Now it's so much easier for bands to make their music accessible to the public. Digital recording can be done from home and promotion is easy and cheap with the Internet."

Now radio stations are also giving opportunities for unsigned bands to be heard on the air. Trax FM, a radio station targeted to the young market, has its own program called Indopendent where unsigned acts can send in their demos. Sandra Asteria, the music director, says she gets an average of 60 to 80 demos from hopeful bands every month.

Vera, an IT entrepreneur with little personal interest in music, smells profit in the trend of urban kids and their bands. She is currently developing a Website for unsigned Indonesian bands to trade their songs online for free, saying her Website will rival MySpace in its impact. Working with big media, the Website promises promotes new acts as delicious treats.

But is it truly equal opportunity for all? With so many bands throwing demos around, naturally there's a selection process. David for example, tends to sign bands to Aksara Records that he already has full faith in. Good songwriting skills, handsome performance, and all the kicks. These things are hard to tell by merely listening to a demo, unless they really stand out. Sandra admits that she narrows down her options through recommendations from her colleagues in the music scene. This is where Vera's upcoming Website is sure to help, supposedly.

"These bands don't care about money." she proclaimed. "They just want their music to be heard. But most of them don't know the right people to help them. We are giving them an opportunity," says the woman before explaining the amount of profit she is projecting to reap from this "opportunity".

Don't get me wrong. I love the fact that people are out there realizing their passion after work hours. I love the fact that teenagers are creating music instead of just spending daddy's cash playing truth or dare at Starbucks. Some of them are going to grow out of this musical phase and become stock brokers. Some of them might find that music is their true calling. Time will by itself weed out the trend followers from the truly passionate. But while we are all enjoying it, let's make some noise in Jakarta.

-Kartika Jahja

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