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Melati: Spreading universal message of love
Girl band: Melati comprises of (from left to right) Nadira, Islam, Shakurah, Husnia and Naimah
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Girl band: Melati comprises of (from left to right) Nadira, Islam, Shakurah, Husnia and Naimah. JP/Yuliasri Perdani
With her friends, Husnia walked through a South Jakarta mall while pushing a stroller carrying her toddler. From a distance, it seemed like another window-shopping time.
But it wasn't. They were heading to the US cultural center @america at the mall where they plugged in a guitar and a bass and turned on microphones.
It was show time.
Husnia took the lead vocals and juggled between her guitar and Turkish guitar, the baglama. Shakurah, 35, played the keyboard, while Naimah, 35, delicately created melodies with her mandolin. The youngest member of the band, 15-year-old Islam, played the bass guitar, alongside Nadira, who vigorously beat the drums.
Looking at their hijab and loose-fitting clothes, some spectators may have braced themselves to hear Islamic lyrics with Arabic tunes from Melati, the band's moniker.
'Our songs, our lyrics aren't actually religious. I mean they are religious for us, but anybody can listen to them and relate to it,' Shakurah said before the gig.
For instance, one of the band's songs, entitled 'She Don't Love You', tells a story of a broken heart, but it also holds a subtle reminder about people's desire for wealth.
'It is [a song that reminds us] not to fall for the material side of the world because you will be disappointed. If you are relying on money to make you happy, then you won't necessarily be happy after you get the money,' she explained.
All of the Melati band members, except Islam, are part of Debu, an American-founded Sufi band living in Jakarta and led by Shekh Fattaah. They moved from the US to South Sulawesi in 1999 before settling in Jakarta in 2001.
In 2012, the female members of Debu formed Melati, which became their alternative channel to perform, in addition to Debu.
'We've had many people ask if just the ladies could perform and at the time we couldn't perform without the men. So, we learned how to play songs and made our own songs with just the women,' Shakurah said.
Like Debu, many of Melati's songs are based on poems written in Indonesian, Arabic and English by the multilingual Fattaah.
While opting for song lyrics that can be enjoyed by the general public, Melati also prepares an Islamic repertoire by request.
'Whoever is listening to our songs can take whatever they want from the song. However, we do have religious songs. If somebody has an Islamic event, we do have religious songs that we can play,' Husnia said.
'Same as Debu, [our mission is about] spreading the message of love through music, but our music is different. We are more like Islamic pop,' Shakurah added.
Many of Melati's songs are a fusion of pop and Mediterranean music, greatly influenced by mandolin and baglama tunes. But, the music also contains hints of ballads, blues and hip hop. Also, Islam raps in one of the songs.
Sarah Bareilles, Maroon 5, Taylor Swift and Adele have been the band's sources of inspiration in crafting their music.
'I look up to songwriter Sarah Bareilles because she didn't actually go to school to do what she did. She kind of taught herself. Her music is different,' Shakurah said.
Nadira, the sole Indonesian member of Melati, said the band helped her to expand her music skills.
'Some of us play different instruments when we are in Debu. So, in Melati, we are learning to play the instruments while creating our songs. This becomes an exciting experiment,' she said.
In Debu, Nadira had mastered the art of plucking the strings of the Middle Eastern zither, the kanun. After joining Melati, she replaced the kanun with drumsticks.
'Since a child, I always loved to beat the kendang [a double-ended drum]. When I was asked to learn the drum set, I gladly took up the challenge,' she said.
Islam, who is the daughter of Naimah and the niece of Shakurah, first started with singing before learning to play the bass guitar.
Melati seems like their musical playground. It showed in their performance in the evening, when Husnia, Islam and Naimah took turns to sing and Shakurah shifted from the keyboard to the bass guitar.
Between activities with their families and Debu, the women find time to practice regularly twice a week in Cinere, South Jakarta, where most of Fattah's Sufi community lives.
'Right now, we only have two or three shows for Melati at the most. So, it is not that busy. Right now, it's kind of a side hobby for us,' Shakurah said.
Melati hopes that they can release a single or an album in the near future.
'We're not signed to a label yet, so because we're doing it ourselves it takes longer,' Shakurah said.
