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Ramadan brings changes to Gigi
JP/J
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JP/J.Adiguna
JAKARTA: The holy month of Ramadan means not only extra religious performances for rock band Gigi, but also positive changes in its members’ lifestyles.
Trying to walk the talk of their religious albums and appearances during Ramadan, the group members are also trying to transform themselves spiritually.
“The most apparent change is perhaps of Thomas [the Gigi bassist]. In the past he rarely fasted, but that changed after we start launching religious albums and performing at fast-breaking events,” said Gigi vocalist Armand Maulana, as quoted by newsportal vivanews.com on Monday. “Nowadays, he fasts every day of the month.”
The Bandung-based rock band has for the past six years recorded religious albums to coincide with the holy month of Ramadan.
The band’s guitarist Dewa Budjana had his own moment of enlightenment during the group’s show at Suralaya Islamic boarding school in West Java’s Tasikmalaya. He received a firsthand lesson that Islam is not about hard-line terrorism.
“Once an old cleric with a long goatee came to me. I thought he was going to criticize me or something, but instead he asked us to compose more upbeat religious songs,” Arman said, of his changed perspective of the conservative stereotype of Muslim clerics.
“‘I’m bored of slow religious songs’,” Armand quoted the cleric as saying. “It turned out that he’s a heavy metal cleric.” — JP
