Its latest release is an album by Sunlotus, whose mashing of wistful melodies and textural guitar haze should satisfy fans of the shoegaze and noise rock genres.

The album, titled This Old House, is the brainchild of Made Dharma, an independent musician from Blora, Central Java, who has been in various bands, including Warmouth, Deadly Weapon and LKTDOV. The album's two singles, “Picturesque” and “Heatstroke”, are full of loud guitars, hazy vocals and immediate melodies.

Album "This Old House" by Sunlotus. (Sunlotus/Hema Records/-)

The band name was inspired by the geography and climate of Blora, which the band described as dry and hot, giving one the feeling that “the sun is only 5 centimeters” above their head.

“People need to drill for about 40 to 100 meters for water to rise up through the ground,” Made explained.

“So it kind of influenced me in some way. But I realized that I wanted beauty inside the loud music that I played, which I believed was also present in the heart of this town, where we formed the band.”

Made, who had lived in Yogyakarta for the past few years, returned to his hometown only to be reminded that not much was happening there. He tried to form a band with a few friends, but their songs, which had odd-time signatures and constant synchronicity, resulted only in a three-song demo before the group broke up.

A self-described introvert, the lack of any fulfilling activities made Made weary. It did not help that his new work forced him to meet a lot people – something that made him extremely anxious. Though he calls Blora his true home, he explained his return was “reverse culture shock”.

“I was used to being at shows, producing music at the studio, playing music or listening to loud amps and drums, and so I realized the only way to reduce my anxiety was to find a comfort zone that could allow me to carry out my old routines,” he said.

Though most musicians and bands in Blora favor hardcore, punk and metal music, Made was drawn to more textural, mood-driven pieces.

“Playing hardcore music was just not loud enough to satisfy my needs at that moment. I hunger for more but I had no medium to play loud noise music here, and nobody understood what I wanted.”

He forced himself to contact a few musicians he felt might be open to playing music that did not fit on the typical rock spectrum. His idea was to draw inspiration from the base of shoegaze music then expand on it.

The first member who was contacted was DF Ahmad, who dropped his drumsticks to play guitar, allowing Wiwit Nugroho to take on the percussionist role. The trio settled with having no bass player, feeling that there was slim chance that anyone would be on the same page as they were musically.

Delving deep: Shoegaze band Sunlotus wants its music to capture the dry, hot feel of its hometown. (Sunlotus/Hema Records/-)

The band wanted to delve deep into shoegaze music's sonic possibilities, trying to unlock its cerebral elements.

“It’s as if you were being hypnotized by an amazing painting and you start to decipher the picture differently because of the amazement,” Made said about shoegaze rock.

“I also used to experiment […] and listened to music with my headphone’s volume on max, and I started to hear the different details that I couldn’t capture while listening to it in a regular state.”

Made and his bandmates want their music to offer such an experience, though in a different way than the usual shoegaze aesthetic.

“I want people to visualize the sound as a dessert, or a harsh and dry land, which fits where the band was formed. I guess in most cases in shoegaze bands, people tend to visualize the sound as the ocean with waves crashing and stuff, or even a rainbow maybe. I want this one to be different.”

The band's influences go beyond shoegaze though – they listened to classic rock bands Yes, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, the Beatles and King Crimson during the recording of This Old House. Made said that the classic rock era had bands that were trying to constantly push their sound forward, through whatever means necessary; something that Sunlotus tried to do during production.

“We recorded every instrument at 432 hertz. We borrowed a lot of different amps, combined it together, mic’d it up differently, used several different guitars, played with different guitar and bass tunings, experimented with dozens of guitar pedals, tried to record vocals in the bathroom and played with field recordings. It was fun,” Made recalled.

Lyrically, Made wrote about his anxieties and nostalgia, both of which were triggered by his return back home.

“This is also about how you see and perceive things differently, broader than most people in society. In my case, it is affected by how Javanese culture is still quite conservative here.”

The band hooked up with HÉMA Records due to its owner Bagus Purwoko's appreciation of the band and Made's “cool” songwriting. “Sunlotus is a band that represents HÉMA's style,” he said.

The band members all agree that their favorite song on the album is “A Step Away Further”, which is “so epic” that it makes them “want to perform it live as soon as possible”.

That will be something that the band will be able to do, as they will soon embark on a promotional tour.

“So far we’ve already got plans on which cities we need to play and what stage concept we need to bring for the show. I really want to make the live ambience feel special,” Made said. (hdt)