Tuned in

Wahyu, 16, sharp, ambitious and of small build (a common characteristic of several great men: think Napoleon), wants to sing. Badly.  His band will be called Rock’n’ Roll Volume, and if everything goes according to plan, will eventually join rock nirvana alongside John Lennon and several other music legends. Marc-Antoine Dunais reports.

For the time being, we’re at the former Air Force Headquarters field in South Jakarta, watching Indonesia’s best indie acts perform thanks to the marketing efforts of a deodorant firm.

Wahyu, for starters, would settle for reaching the popularity of the band that is strutting its stuff on stage, The Upstairs. A bunch of gangly performers with a penchant for tight pants (preferably pink) and ‘80s era synthesizer pop, the band has a fervent following judging from the number of similarly dressed kids swinging wildly under the afternoon sun. And boy do they swing.

It’s pretty unlikely you will see Wahyu, or any of these kids, at malls such as Plaza Indonesia or Plaza Senayan. Their homes are Jakarta’s kampongs, underlit cafes where bands are made (or float in relative oblivion for years) and low-key record shops badly in need of ventilation. It’s anywhere they can escape the culture gap that separates them from their family and find a place to be with their own.

This is also a world far removed from the saccharine pop that flows from Indonesia’s mainstream radio airwaves. Or dangdut music, for that matter. Marking this point, some teenagers run by yelling “hard core!”, and pile into the crowd, a hysteric organic mass of flailing limbs that occasionally fragments into fighting.

Wahyu surprises me with a “religion drives my music” confession, adding that his songs promote “ideals for a better Indonesia”. When I broach the subject of current affairs in the country, the visionary talk slips to downbeat. I hear, “I want to cry when I see how things are going here, Om. I wish there was something I could do to give us a better image”.

For the kids that are bopping in front of us, thoughts like this may not be that uncommon. No wonder they are letting loose like there is no tomorrow.

The conversation drops, eyes turn back to the stage, now quiet again. The deodorant samples have been tossed to the crowd, The Upstairs have gone offstage, and the sweaty crowd melts into the early evening traffic of Jl. Gatot Subroto. Meanwhile, Wahyu is off to compose Indonesia’s brighter future.

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