White Shoes and The Couples Company (Courtesy of Felix Dass)

Writer and music critic Felix Dass has captured one of Indonesia’s most successful indie-pop bands through on-tour and behind-the-scenes images in Going South to the North.

Retro-pop sextet White Shoes and The Couples Company (WSATCC) has had a long and colorful career, releasing records through a variety of international labels and traveling globally for solo performances and festival appearances in countries like Korea, Japan and America.

Going South to the North: Menikmati White Shoes and The Couples Company dari Dekat bersama Felix Dass (enjoying WSATCC up close with Felix Dass) covers part of the adventure these Jakarta musicians have enjoyed as a band, specifically their trip to Australia for the Darwin Festival 2013.

The book features stories and quotes from the band’s members, as well as a good amount of behind-the-scenes photos from their journey that were taken by Felix. 

Felix has been involved in the local indie music scene for many years as a music critic, radio host, a band manager and several other roles. Joining WSATCC on the trip to Darwin, he indeed experienced the band’s daily interactions and private moments up close. What was special about this specific trip was that the band had decided to play in an Australian city that was less known among most Indonesians, rather than performing in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth or Melbourne as a few other Indonesian bands have done.

“The trip to Darwin Festival 2013 was their Australian debut,” Felix recalled. At the time, Felix was working as a public relations officer for AirAsia Indonesia, which sponsored the trip.

“What was very interesting [was that] they played a non-popular state when it comes to music in Australia. It wan't Melbourne or Sydney or Perth. It was Darwin, a place where even many Australians have never been to,” he said, reminiscing about the uniqueness of the endeavor.

“The city was freaking expensive, but it has a unique character. They’re 24/7 tropical life, very close to Indonesia. So yeah, just being there was already a special experience. We also saw crocodiles and the Northern Territory’s breathtaking landscapes,” he said.

The entire trip was unforgettable, Felix said, with him snapping hundreds of photos. Still ecstatic when he landed back in Jakarta, Felix went straight to WSATCC’s manager Indra Ameng and proposed his idea for the book.

Felix approached the project through the lens of a fan, unabashedly gawking at the band from behind his camera.

“I’ve been always a massive White Shoes and The Couples Company fan. The first thing was that I wanted to have a good stash of memories that I could share with other fans. The life during the band’s trip, as told by someone other than a band member, had never been done before in the case [of WSTCC],” he said.

The band, which took its name from the fact it originally had two couples, showed the closeness of its members during the trip. (Neither couple is together now, but remain on friendly terms.) This reliance on friendship, even outside their work relationship, was something that Felix wanted to highlight.

“I found that the band was larger than the music they were playing. It’s a family that takes care of each other,” he said.

“The bond in the band is very strong. When you see them from the inside, you understand why they were able to go far — see the world, play music at prestigious festivals, bag [renown] as one of the giants of Indonesian music, all the while being a bunch of nice folks in real life. I think that’s the best part of being [part of] the White Shoes and The Couples Company family.”

That the book took five years from its initial concept to publication is not lost on the author, who calls it a “long journey”.

The reason behind this, Felix explained, was that it took him a year before focusing earnestly on the project, and then it took another two years to find a suitable collaborator — in this case, independent publisher Binatang Press.

The experience was rough, but Felix felt that it was something that needed to be done, not just with WSATCC, but with other local bands.

“For me personally as a writer and a music guy who lives in the scene, this book is my effort to show people that we need to document our experiences. Whatever format you are OK — books, videos, podcasts, whatever,” he said.

The journey has taught him the many aspects of publishing.

“I want to show photographers out there that you need to expand on the stories of the pictures you take. Going South to the North is a photographic book, and it’s made by a guy who operates a professional camera in auto mode,” he said.

“I know the angles that would look good in print and I don’t have a super deep knowledge of operating a camera, but I can make a book out of my auto mode pictures, because I want to document things and share the stories of my time with the band to [other] people.”

“Let the spirit lead you [...]. Don’t think too much. Sometimes you won’t end up with anything if you think about things over and over,” he advised.

The journey — from the actual trip to publishing the book — was an unforgettable one that Felix gets to relive through Going South to the North. He promises that he is not resting on his laurels, and is already hard at work on another book project.

“My next book will be out in the next few months. It’s about the massive change that went on in Soundrenaline, one of the biggest music festivals in Indonesia. I just can’t stop.”

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Going South to the North is available for Rp 200,000 on binatangpress.com

Felix Dass also contributes music reviews to The Jakarta Post.

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