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Molek FMWhite Shoes & The Couples Company: Power Couples
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Ah, that’s information worthy of Wikipedia. You prefer singing in English or Indonesian?
Sari Indonesian because English isn’t my first language. And it’s difficult for me to mix and match the words from the two languages literally.
Ricky If we just want to write and sing in English, it’s easy. But to really write good lyrics in English, it’s hard.
Then why do you guys have songs in English anyway?
Sari Sometimes certain songs can’t be interpreted in Indonesian, certain phrases are simpler said in English. Certain songs don’t necessarily have to be written with complicated lyrics, so we choose to write in English for these tracks. Our Indonesian songs are mostly written with detailed lyrics due to the fact that we’re fans of Indonesian literature, so we take references from there.
Do you guys really wear white shoes all the time?
Sari Just for the stage.
Ricky I wear ‘em in my house – naked with the white shoes.
4 of you are actual couples. Are Saleh and John secretly a couple?
Everyone (laughs)
Mela They used to be a couple but now they broke up already!
What’s it like to have 2 couples in the same band? You guys see each other all the time.
Sari We hang out all the time since we were in college in Jakarta, we’ve been together almost 10 years or more. Everything was just blurry, we became like family. We can fix a problem instantly, there’s no mix of business and pleasure with us.
What happens when one partner can’t make it for a show?
Mela If there’s a conflict or whatever, it’s common. But we remain professional when there’s a gig.
Rio A band is a collective, if you have your own problem, you solve it by yourself. You can’t bring the other bandmates to your problem – it’s not fair.
Everyone (laughs)
The Rolling Stones named you guys as one of the Myspace bands to look out for. Don’t you think being called a Myspace band something of an insult to your cred as a real band?
Ricky That’s exactly why we don’t think too much about Western media coverage. We don’t want to overanalyse.
Rio The Western exposure – the reviews, the awards – they don’t impact us in real life really. If they review your album and you get money out of it then alright, awesome! Haha. But that doesn’t happen.
Ricky The important thing is they like our music.
What was the experience playing to a Western audience at SXSW like?
Rio The funny thing is that people think when you write in English, you want to cater to your Western fanbase. But our single in the States is in Indonesian.
Ricky So we just played there and the audience seemed to enjoy our Indonesian songs better, that made us happy.
And Vakansi was inspired by your tour in the USA?
Ricky Not just the States! Every single place we ever played at. Inside and outside Indonesia, but there was one song on the record that was particularly inspired by our tour in America. It’s called ‘Hacienda’, it was during our experience en route from LA to the next city, San Francisco. There were two routes you can use, Route 66 or Highway 101, the Pacific West Highway. We’re like Sonic Youth that way.
You guys made retro music, say you are transplanted in the 60s or 70s, would you be just as acclaimed as the bands from back then?
Ricky I don’t know, only God knows. Back then there were so many good bands, they made music purely from the heart. The industry was still pure unlike now. Especially in Indonesia’s music industry.
You’re really into music from the past, huh? We’re unfamiliar with Indonesian music from back then, enlighten us.
Ricky There already a lot of good old Indonesian music catalogues released internationally. There’s Those Shocky Shaking Days from Now-Again Records. Guruh Gipsy from Shadoks Records, Dara Puspita from Sublime Frequencies.
You guys were on the soundtracks of a couple of renowned Indonesian flicks, like Janji Joni. You don’t have such a high opinion of Indonesia’s current music industry, but what about the movies?
Ricky The funny thing is all the big acts from outside Indonesia who had performed here had indie bands opening for them. Vampire Weekend, Phoenix, Kings of Convenience, you name it. This is an industry we don’t understand.
Rio Almost similar I think – the music and movie industries. There are so many cheesy movies – the horror and cheap kind – playing in the theatres for almost a month whereas the really good ones only last 5 days.
