(JP/Ricky Yudhistira)

While most artists go all the way to make sure that their message gets through to the audience, four young, multi-talented individuals go the other way, making sure that their audiences understand that the message rarely gets across.

"We have a moral obligation to entertain others," said Haris Kasali, also known as Zeke, the vocalist in Zeke and the Popo, "although in the beginning we only wanted to entertain ourselves".

Zeke and the Popo or Zatpp -- the abbreviation the band officially uses -- began five years ago, when then twenty-five year old Haris clicked with the twenty-seven year old Leo Ringo.

"The two of us started as a group of two. Zeke played the piano and I played the guitar, and we called ourselves the Fretilin Face. It was the weirdest time, but what's even weirder is that we were still invited to play at events," Leo said.

When invitations became regular, the two realized that they needed something more in-depth. This was when Iman Fattah, with a passion for making soundscapes-synthesizing sounds with his guitar, joined.

"I like playing with new sounds on my guitar. It's like guiding people into a world of imagination through the sounds we produce," Iman told The Jakarta Post during the band's practice session last Friday.

The formation was completed when the band roped in Yudi, the youngest in the band, to play the bass guitar.

Zatpp performed live as a band for the very first time in ak.sa.ra bookstore in Kemang after one of the band's songs was featured in a compilation album containing Indonesian indie bands.

In 2005, Zatpp contributed three songs to the soundtrack of Joko Anwar's Janji Joni (Joni's Promise), including one of their best songs, "Mighty Love".

Zatpp launched Unrescued World, a compilation of four of their songs, later in the same year.

The band have produced several other soundtracks for Indonesian movies like Rinaldy Puspoyo's 6:30 and Joko Anwar's Kala.

Zatpp launched its first album Space in the Headlines earlier this year. They sold their CD in premium packages advertised on social networks on the Internet, like MySpace and Multiply.

The album contains more experimental and imaginative songs compared to their first compilation, with compositions that present boldly unique sounds, and lyrics that build up like prose fiction.

"Right now we are moving forward, and we believe that we need to be realistic and idealistic," Zeke explained.

He said people had recently started to place more trust in indie bands.

"Personally, I think indie is a term we use when we refer to an organized playground," he added.

The band is now managed by Blackmorse records, an independent label owned by Zeke. Promotions and communication with their fans -- who they call "Friends of the Popo" -- is done through the Internet, where everything is easier and free, they said.

According to Zeke, being in an indie band these days requires artists to become good entrepreneurs, as they have to manage things on their own.

Their music has often been described as too much like the Beatles, Oasis and even Gorillaz, but the band is not concerned by what people think about their style of music.

"We are offering a concept that collaborates art and music. That's why we take and plan our concerts seriously," Leo, who came up with the concept of the band's concert held in January here in GoetheHaus.

During their concert, which featured a fictional character called Tankface that decorates the cover of their recently launched CD Space in the Headlines, Zatpp gave a theatrical performance, combining electronic puppeteers and visual art.

A man in a pink pig costume sat with the crowd, doing nothing but cheering for the band. It symbolizes the audience, who off-stage tries to appreciate Tankface in a war against his own ego.

"We wanted to show what's on stage and what's off stage. It's like this, we sing our songs but you don't know what they mean," Leo explained passionately.

Despite the idle minutes the audience endured as the band prepared a new stage setting for every song they played, no seats remained empty during the concert.

"We need to be fair with the situation. Playing your own songs should be considered cool in Indonesia, where it's difficult for those who want to make a living out of music," Zeke said.

"Frankly, Indie bands are becoming the 'hype' of today's music industry, but you really have to be sure of what you want to believe.

"Being indie is okay in spirit, but once you enter the world of marketing your music, problems will rise, as the rules and regulations that apply are those of the major bands," he said.

"We want people to listen to the first few seconds of our song and go 'hey, this is Zeke and the Popo'. People don't need to like our songs, they just need to identify with them," Iman said.

Currently, Zatpp is busy preparing compositions for the soundtrack of Fiksi or Fiction, a new movie starring Ladya Cheryl, Dony Alamsjah and Kinaryosih.

"I think movie scoring is something we have always taken for granted. We rarely realize that the scoring shapes our interpretation of, for example, the good and the bad," Zeke said.

Zeke and the Popo may be open to interpretations about their songs, but don't ask the band about the origin of the name they chose for the band. They'll give you a different answer every time you ask them.

The last time I heard the word Popo was taken from the name of a pharaoh in ancient Egypt. His name was -- let's not take this for granted -- King Popo Tut.

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