The pioneer

Among the names, Erix Soekamti from the Yogyakarta-based pop punk unit Endank Soekamti has been at it longest. He started his massively popular channel in 2011, with a series titled DOES (Diary of Erix Soekamti). Its popularity and casual quality proved to be inspirational for other front men.

“I started this channel as a personal diary. I always document all of my activities with my band during tours, and at that time I wanted a separate outlet to archive my personal activities to differentiate from that of my band, ” he told The Jakarta Post. “I posted these videos on YouTube and it turns out people like to watch them.”

“Now I have the habit of carrying a camera everywhere and documenting all of my activities. Nothing is staged,” he claimed.

The channel now has over 300,000 subscribers, many of whom are fans of Endank Soekamti. The diary typically contains his daily life with his family as well as his travels around Indonesia sponsored by various enterprises. As the channel grew, Erix expanded his project to building Does University, a school for children who want to learn skills for creative industries, free of charge.

“I said in one of the videos that I wished I could build a school for children who want to learn creative skills, the kind of skills that are not taught at formal schools. In that video I said I wondered if I activate a fundraising platform, would my viewers chip in to help make my dream come true. Turned out they did, enthusiastically,” he said. The DOES University is now admitting its 8^th batch of students.

Talk show hosts

If Erix’s content is more on the vlogging side, the other rock stars have shifted gears to become talk show hosts and depend on their fan base for initial subscribers. As all of them are based in Greater Jakarta, Jimi, Eka and Buluk like to have each other as guests, which consequently pumps the number of views with the combination of each of their fans.

Front man of new wave band The Upstairs and alternative rock quartet Morfem, Jimi Multhazam, started his successful YouTube channel Ngobryls in early 2019. He hosts the show with college buddy, actor Ricky H. Malau. Their show presents topics mainly on music and visual art, and occasional nostalgia of their school days at Jakarta Art Institute (IKJ).

Still rocking: Jimi Multhazam (R) with one of his bands, Morfem, during band rehearsals. Jimi became popular as the singer of the influential new wave band The Upstairs. (Instagram /Courtesy of Jimi Multhazam)

“I think people like to watch my shows because they want to know how it feels to hang out with interesting people, like the ones I get to hang out with,” Jimi, donning a T-Shirt of punk band Hüsker Dü while lounging at his house in South Tangerang, told the Post. Jimi said many people told him they envy him because he got to have conversations with the likes of contemporary artists Wok the Rock and Ade Darmawan, and they wonder what kind of insights they can get if they listen to them talking.

“Not only from the music and art scene, I also have talked with writers such as Nuran Wibisono, and it was one of my most interesting interviews,” Jimi said. In 2018, journalist Nuran Wibisono published a compilation of music articles he wrote in the span of 10 years as a book titled Nice Boys Don’t Write Rock ‘N Roll: Rotten Obsession of Writing Music 2007-2017. Jimi invited him to talk on Ngobryls in 2020, and ended up with a two-hour episode full of juicy exchanges of knowledge with a lot of spicy jokes.

Journalism and micro businesses

Eka Annash of garage rock unit The Brandals, who started his channel Diskas in September 2020, said a sense of curiosity was important in being a YouTube host.

“I am first and foremost a musician, but I also have a sense of a journalist in me,” he told the Post. “When I was an art student, I took journalism as an elective course. I also like to read musician biographies. I realized that I like to dig a little deeper about people’s process of becoming.”

Eka, who also wrote fanzines and worked as a radio announcer, said his experience as a musician helped him to walk in his sources’ shoes. “I hate it if journalists ask me similar, boring questions so I try my best to entertain my guests while interviewing them,” he said, mentioning that Canadian interviewer and musician, Nardwuar, was his role model.

Garage rawness: Eka Annash made his name as the leader of the garage rock band The Brandals, which found popularity in the early 2000s. (Instagram/Courtesy of Eka Annash)

Lukman “Buluk” Laksmana, the front man of popular rock band Superglad, just celebrated the anniversary of his channel Catatan si Buluk on June 4. Already gaining 55,000 subscribers since its launch in 2020, Buluk said he was positive that the channel would get even better in its second year.

“Besides inviting my musician and celebrity friends I also like to promote micro businesses during the pandemic,” Buluk said, adding that the micro businesses usually send their products to the production to be promoted. “And also, I haven’t got the budget to pay my guests with money, but they always agree if we share the sample products we get from sponsors.”

Buluk said to differentiate his show from the others, he highlights his slacking rock 'n' roll persona that he claimed made his sources more relaxed and can tell more interesting stories, uncensored.

“I think YouTube is the perfect platform for me because the conversation I have with my guests is not PG. I don’t think any national television network would have the guts to commission this show,” he said, laughing.