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Gugun Blues Shelter: Can't stop, won't stop
Gugun Blues Shelter
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Gugun Blues Shelter.
Genre-crossing blues band Gugun Blues Shelter has come a long way since their humble beginnings in 2004, but the hardworking trio is upbeat that the only way is up.
The band ' vocalist Muhammad 'Gugun' Gunawan on guitar, Jonathan 'Jono' Armstrong on bass and Adityo 'Bowie' Wibowo completing the group on drums ' started as Gugun and The Blues Bug, releasing their debut album Get The Bug in 2004.
Fast forward a decade and Gugun Blues Shelter is an established band that has toured the globe, where it is known also as Gugun Power Trio.
The band has shared the stage with Bon Jovi, Adam and the Ants and The Killers at the Hard Rock Calling Festival in Hyde Park, London, in 2011 and secured a record deal with the prestigious independent label Grooveyard Records in New York the same year.
'With the current music business condition, we have no other way but to do much of our own promotion,' Gugun said.
'In the 1990s, bands were dependent on producers, but they can't survive [in the same way] anymore. We were always very hands on, even printing the album by ourselves. I remember going to a factory to get the empty CD cases myself back then.'
The trio released its latest album, its seventh and third production with Grooveyard, Soul Shaker in November last year.
Soul Shaker has been described as a powerfully-guitar driven album with amazing solos and a solid rhythm section that conjures up a 1970s vibe with its blend of blues, rock, soul and funk.
'We are cooperating with independent label Demajors for the distribution in Indonesia,' said the 39-year-old vocalist, whose guitar skill reminiscent of legendary Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix and Lenny Kravitz.
In the past and coming few weeks, Gugun Blues Shelter have been and will be touring around major media offices in Jakarta as part of its promotional efforts.
'For the time being, we are going to visit newspapers, magazines and radio offices. We'll hit our target audience better through these medias. We are not sure whether we'd go to TV music shows; their audience is not really our fans,' said Jono, who hails from London and first came to Indonesia in 2000.
Asked whether they were doing the Indonesian version of NPR's Tiny Desk Concert, Gugun said that they were using the exact same concept.
'We'd like to entertain journalists who've been working hard on their computers, inviting them for a short break to listen to our music near their desks. Besides, media offices tend to be more flexible in allowing musician to play live in their environment,' Gugun said.
The band started after Gugun, who has been performing in blues festivals and clubs and making albums since 1994, had an incidental jam session with Jono. With drummer Iskandar, they then released the debut album.
'We really started from zero, playing at cafes and getting paid very little, sometimes we are paid with nasi goreng,' the 33-year-old bassist remembered their old days.
Their early fans always encouraged them to write songs in English and send their records to international festival, convincing them they would go big.
'From the start of the band, our target was to become an international band,' Jono said.
While the Indonesian scene has yet to catch on to the band, the band gained great exposure at the KL Blues Festival in Malaysia and the Singapore Timbre Arts Festival in 2008.
The same year, they were joined by then 25-year-old Bowie, a local drummer-boy wonder who has worked with jazz singer Syaharani and jazz guitarist Tohpati. Gugun dubbed him 'the most wanted drummer in Indonesia'.
They then toured in Jono's homeland between 2008 and 2009 marching through Colne Blues Festival, Belfast Big River Jazz & Blues Festival and Skegness Blues Festival.
Then 2012 saw the band's first US tour ' covering Chicago, Charlottesville, Washington DC, West Hollywood, San Francisco and New York. They are investigating the potential of another US tour in July.
Even after all this time, the band continues to develop its style and investigate possible avenues of collaboration. A mini album with guitarist Ibrahim Imran, who is known for his solo projects and group projects Ada Band and The Dance Company, is an example of this and is set for release soon.
'We want to keep on playing music. Many Indonesian bands lose their creative energy after only three albums; we want to be more and more creative and release more and more albums,' said Gugun.
' Photo JP/R. Berto Wedhatama
