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Pandai Besi: Efek Rumah Kaca in full swing
(Courtesy of Pandai Besi)Arriving on the scene a few years ago with a self-titled debut album, indie pop band Efek Rumah Kaca offers a refreshing change for the local music fans
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(Courtesy of Pandai Besi) (Courtesy of Pandai Besi)
(Courtesy of Pandai Besi)
Arriving on the scene a few years ago with a self-titled debut album, indie pop band Efek Rumah Kaca offers a refreshing change for the local music fans.
Their single 'Cinta Melulu' (Always Love) gave a new sound direction to radio stations all over Indonesia. That success placed them on the forefront of the industry. The band has been touring virtually non-stop until now.
They're still one of the busiest indie bands, scoring numerous gigs. Busy on the road, the group finds time is standing still, at least for them personally, as artists. Their third album is currently in an unconfirmed state, as they need to wait for few things to be settled.
'The boys are bored, so they need to find something new to fill the gap in between,' says Yurie, the band's manager.
Then came an idea to start a new project, Pandai Besi. With additional members and a new name, the band 'covers' their old songs.
Pandai Besi has produced more intricate works. If the boys initially played in a simple three-piece format in Efek Rumah Kaca, Pandai Besi has more enriching sound with eight musicians on board. There are also more girls now among the boys.
Besides two original members of the band, Cholil Mahmud on guitar and vocals and Akbar Faisal on drums, Pandai Besi includes Andi Sabaruddin on guitar, Muhammad Asranur on keyboard, Poppie Airil on bass, Agustinus Panji Mahardika on trumpet, Nastasha Abigail on backing vocals and Irma Hidayana also on backing vocals. All the new members are known widely from the work in other bands in the indie scene.
With Pandai Besi, Yurie wanted to try a new method to market their music using crowd funding.
Pandai Besi accepted pre-orders on their website. People can support the band by ordering records and exclusive merchandise to fund the band's recording process at the legendary Lokananta Studio in Surakarta, Central Java.
'We need more money for recording and releasing records. This method has been helpful for us to test the market as to whether we can find alternative funding or not. It's been working very well,' explains Yurie.
In total, more than 600 participants joined the crowd-funding campaign. Some of them were even willing to spend more money to order the albums on vinyl.
'[Crowd funding] is much more important than just sitting and blabbering around about the pirate industry out there,' says Yurie.
Pandai Besi is now working to produce an album. They can be found at efekrumahkaca.com.
' Felix Dass
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