Felix Dass.

After five long years, rock band Seringai returns to the music arena.

The comeback is already more than enough on its own and the reason is obvious.

The Indonesian rock scene is in a happy state because one of its most brilliant sons, Seringai, has just released its second full-length album, Taring (Fangs). The album is one of the most anticipated of the year in the Indonesian music industry.

The buzz started a few months ago, when the band announced it would release “Tragedi” (Tragedy) – the first single off Taring — for free on seringai.com.

Within minutes, the website collapsed with thousands of hits in such a short space of time. There was no big budget involved in the promotion, people just simply loved the band and had been waiting for some new material.

Word spread and the numbers soon reached more that 200,000 downloads, arguably the most successful digital campaign conducted by an independent band.

The song itself managed to meet everybody’s wish list. Seringai had delivered a good introduction to their album with “Tragedi”.

When the full album finally went on sale, things got really wild.

The band prepared two editions: a deluxe version with fancy content targeted at die-hard fans, and a regular version to cater to those who only want to listen to the songs.

They shipped 1,000 copies of deluxe edition in only two days, leaving hundreds of people in jeopardy because they were too late to post an order. Then, the regular version also started to find its way to the top, with 6,000 copies gone in only two weeks.

The band members could not have been happier, their long hours of hard work paying off instantly.

“The break even point is coming soon,” chuckled Arian, the band’s humorous lyricist and front man.

Arian, together with bassist Sammy Bramantyo, guitarist Ricky Siahaan and drummer Edy Khemod, have played together for years on weekends, and have shared the passion of working on Taring. It’s been a hard process but by the end of the day, everybody in the band is happy.

“We already know Seringai’s, the formula is already there. We want to improve as a band but we don’t want to be so progressive,” says Ricky who also produced Taring.

The album is filled with formulas the band tried back in the old days. There’s room for improvisation and the record looks forward to another, brighter part of life. All these formulas were born after long workshop sessions.

“We did lots of workshop sessions for this record. A few times we did it in Sammy’s house, sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t,” said Ricky.

“Sometimes we also fought. My progressive drum playing style was sometimes cut out by Ricky,” adds Khemod. “Or, even the way Arian wrote the lyrics.”

“It’s easier now because we already know what we want,” explains Arian.

Internally, the conversation about their new work has been interesting. Cat fights happen on a daily basis when it comes to work, but then brilliant work comes out as a result. Two tracks from Taring, “Gaza” and “Lisoi”, are good examples.

“Gaza” is a 6-minute credo to rock music where Arian takes a back seat while other members of the band play their part. As an instrumental, “Gaza” is a breakthrough composition that the band has never tried before.

“We don’t even know when we’re going to play it live. If someone can pay to bring together all the musicians in that song, it’s worth to try,” says Sammy. The song consists of trumpets, keyboards and a few other additional musicians.

“We even use an iPhone as one of the instruments,” added Khemod.

“Lisoi” is traditional Batak song the band has covered.

“We didn’t want to put a rock arrangement for the album version of the song. We let it be, an original hang around song that people could sing in front of alleys in their homes,” says Sammy.

Khemod said the song was not played because Ricky was a Batak.

“The others envy that Ricky has that song as his cultural reference,” he said.

The band has managed to keep “Lisoi” a simple yet fun composition.

“To make everything simple, that’s actually the hardest part,” says Khemod.

These four old friends, who are entering their ninth year together as a band, have a good understanding with each other. Each member manages to display a hard working ethos and a do-it-yourself mantra.

“Except for Sammy,” joked Khemod. “When we packed our album, he went on holiday to Europe.”

Sammy said that he would take his turn the next time the band was packing up albums.

They had hand packed the deluxe version of Taring few days prior to its release date. It’s one example of their hard working ethos.

After their brilliant full album debut Serigala Militia in 2007, Seringai topped the rock scene in Indonesia.

The band sold more than 15,000 copies of its debut album, had a public argument with its distributor and then became a touring artist with dozens of memorable performances across the country.

They are loved by their fans - the main reason why they’re still producing music today.

Taring will probably turn out to be just another album from Seringai, with other albums to surface in the coming years.

There’s nothing revolutionary about Taring, but you can enjoy a decent piece of work from a high profile band in their golden years.

“In terms of my musical career, this is the best moment,” said Sammy. “It has led me to where I want to be as a musician.”

As for Taring, with this record satisfaction is guaranteed.

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