OREMA NEBAKEP #2 (JUN 2010)
Orema Nebakep merupakan zine dari negeri Sarawak. Hamba kurang ingat kawasan mana, tapi rasanya dari kawasan Unholy Triangle. Editornya mahir bertutur brunei jadi kami kerap bertukar emel menggunakan bahasa brunei. Bila difikirkan semula, sememangnya lama hamba tidak berhubung dengan saudara Henry Orema Nebakep ni. Agaknya beliau sedang sibuk dengan aktivitis keluarga juga barangkali. Seperti kebanyakkan temuramah-temuramah lain, hamba amat berasa seronok menjawap temuramah ini. Menyegarkan. Teruskan usaha Henry. Hamba sokong.
ON: Sejahtera upon thee! How’s a day now at Tanah Melayu and what you and other member doing there? Who is responsibly to answer this? What song being played at your palace now?
PA: Daulat, it’s 1.00 a.m in the morning now at Senggaramasin (Tanah Melayu), it is I Pengiran Andika, the mastermind of Singhasari, well it has been really busy for me during the past week, as my beloved late grandmother has just passed away last Tuesday (22nd June), she suffers from kidney malfunctioning, it was a sudden blow to me as I have been living with her since I was just a kid and that I considered her just like my very own real mother.. Well currently I’m listening to Chur’s (Ukrainian Folk Pagan Metal) Brate Vitre album, good folk metal honoring their ancestors!! Folk metal lovers check this out!!
ON: Singhasari reminds me a lot to “Uprising”- long time forgotten Malaysian black/dark metal band. From your “Kebangkitan Nusantara” title and tracks name, there’s been a similarity with “Kebangkitan” album from them. Do you have any connection with them? Please divulge us a brief about Singhasari background?
PA: Uprising, how can I not remember them? I must say I am fond of their sincerity and love towards our folk and tradition, but there is something that I hunger for more, as you can see, there is no other band in our country unlike Uprising that honors our folk with all their heart, I remember there was Tasyim, Visitant and the likes, but these two bands are more into the Tahyul and Occult practices, there is no really band who talks about Nationalism with all their heart, even Uprising, they have their lyrics in English, I prefer to have everything in our mother language so that the outsiders will know more of our culture and learn our language! And least, the sad thing is, Uprising is no more! Be it Enforcer or Uprising, this band no longer existed! It seems that Nationalism has long been forgotten and has not been an avid subject in our metal scene, and this is what Singhasari fight for. Our mission is to bring National Romanticism and inject our love towards our mother Nusantara into our local metal scene, no more Satanism, no more Goat, no more pointless message or whatever, it is time for revolution. Let’s fight for something that is real, that is indeed, FOR OUR NUSANTARA!!
ON: What we must know about the basic thing or a root in your musical concept? Do you think Singhasari escapes from the typical local bands?
PA: Ok frankly speaking it’s really hard to define, as there is no avid real musical inspiration during the composition of most Singhasari song, so everything 100% comes from my own idea and no riff stealing from anywhere. As for the concept itself I should say it’s Folk Pagan or something related, I am highly influenced by Graveland, Nokturnal Mortum and the likes and me myself also an average fan of thrash and black metal so you can hear the influences here and there, and of course our beautiful Nusantaranese traditional scales (Javanese, Malay) so easily said Singhasari is a mix of Nusantaranese folk with various Metal. I would just name it Nusantara Pagan Folk Metal. Yes, what I am trying to do is to make something original, something that has been long forgotten, I want this to be easily remembered, I don’t want to be another clone. Eventhough being the similarity in terms of ideological and names with Uprising, but do listen to our music and our lyrics, there is something different that you can differentiate between Singhasari and Uprising.
ON: How’s the feeling when the band will release an EP soon or just by now? Do you wish this release as your first big hope to spread Singhsari name? And what make you serious to introduce the malay history/ folk music to whole world?
PA: I must say that I am excited to know what others will think of our upcoming EP, it should be out soon in July, expect it soon by now. My sole objective is to spread and let be known our Nusantaranese culture to the world, and by Singhasari I hope this will become a reality, everyone knows of European traditional folk and Pagan Metal bands, but little they know about our traditional folk and culture, and this is what makes me serious to spread this message all across the globe! The reason why I chose Malay for the lyrics is so that the outsiders will know how our language sounded like! In fact, we want to introduce our culture, in order to do that, we have to introduce our language too!
ON: You’re not just spreading folk malay music but also the pure image of malay people. What’s your aim on it?
PA: I want our culture to be known all across the globe, that’s the sole purpose of the creation of Singhasari, it is an honest message and deed, and I am satisfied with it.
ON: Frankly speaking. What do you means by the lyrics –“AKAN MUSIBAH YANG BERLAKU..KE ATAS TANAHAIR KITA YANG TERCINTA..BETAPA NISTANYA PENYIKSAAN YANG KU LIHAT,
TANAHAIR KITA BUKAN LAGI MILIK KITA”…is there any hidden message in this lyric/poetry? Tell us…
PA: As you can see our lyrics mainly focusing on Nationalism, thus that part of lyric is a nationalistic call to all our brothers and sisters who long forgotten about our culture, tradition and objective, well look around us, our land has been corrupted by the modern politic, globalization, immigrants, that call is more to make everyone know that the war is not over yet we need to reclaim back this ancestral land of ours. In that part of song “Seruan dari Pusaka Silam” and “Srivijaya” I made the lyric as though it is a called from our ancient ancestor, calling from hundreds and thousand of years ago.. Mourning to see the destruction of the recent years..
ON: I’m surprised when you’ve mention one of your music inspiration is un-well known artist such as Sabahan oud girl Fauziah Gambus. How do you know of her existence although you’re not Sabahan people?
PA: I am from Selangor, Senggaramasin that’s true, none of my family and relative are from Borneo or Banjarmasin, in fact my family most of all came from Kedah and have Siamese and also Sumatran blood, but let’s just make it this way, in order to have Nusantaranese pride I do research a lot, and not forgetting my brothers and sisters from the island of Borneo, you guys are a part of the Nusantaranese descent too. It might be suprising for you if I say I can speak fluently Sarawakian, Sabahan and Bruneian dialect, hehe.. Fauziah did a great job of covering most traditional folk songs from Brunei and Sabah, and that’s the part where I got my attention to. For our upcoming effort you can expect something original from the Borneo island as I am planning to cover Bruneian folk song titled “Samalindang” in metalized version, this will happen next year! Ibanese, Makasar, Bugis, Dayak, Kadazan, Melayu, Jawa, Acheh etc we are related, brothers of Nusantara!!
ON: Do you often read book and create poetries? Who are the best poets that you inspired most? What book or drama being Singhasari influence/inspiration?
PA: Yes I am highly influenced by Sirat Pararaton (The book of Kings, chronology of Singhasari empire, indeed this is where we got the name Singhasari from), Hikayat Hang Tuah, Sejarah Melayu (Sulatus Salatin), Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa (History of Kataha and Langkasuka), Kartanegara etc etc.. As you can see the song “Srivijaya” actually was taken from accounts of Sejarah Melayu especially the part “Dari benua Makaduniah berkembanglah biak keturunan Nusantara” according to Sejarah Melayu, our ancestors came from Macedonia and conquered the ancient Hindu empire in India, our ancestor married the local queen and their sons travelled south to the island of Sumatra and built the empire Srivijaya. The song Srivijaya is a mix of historical account from Sejarah Melayu with Nationalism.
ON: Mysticism, supernatural or what ever element that you’ve found it interesting to put in your inspiration. Do you believe of it existence?
PA: To be frank, I joined Silat 7 years ago and everyone knows whoever joined Silat there must be a little bits of mysticism and supernatural needed to be learnt too. Approximately thousand of years ago, long before the arrival of Islam and Hindu to our lands, we in Nusantara believes in Animism, these traits of the past still lives in each every one of us, Kuda Kepang, semangat Harimau, semangat Ular etc are all part of our ancient spiritual beliefs, I was deep into that before but not anymore now as I wanted to make myself clean after I had a motorcycle accident. That incident gave me a serious blow, right after the accident I was then infected by Typhoid disease and then suffers from penyakit angin and all, until I decided to throw away all the ilmu that I had. So now let’s say that I am no longer one of those.
ON: Musically, you’re into eastern melodic black metal, a blend of thrash metal on some guitar and drum part. A mixture of fine folk music gives Singhasari a lot satisfaction for me to listen on plus a complete image of ‘malay’ warrior that was good enough package to you on how to attractive more new listeners. What’s your view on this?
PA: Everything you hear and see in Singhasari came directly from our honest heart, the love for our mother Nusantara and people, it’s flowing deep in our veins, in fact we are a traditionalist and nationalist individuals so we are just doing what we feel like to. The spirit of our ancestors live deep in each every one of us, what we are trying to do is not for our own purpose but for our beloved Nusantaranese descent, we want to awaken that long lost spirit in our recent generation. May Nusantara live forever!!
ON: Does Puteri Ledang, TunTeja or who’s the most legendary princess you admire of? What’s your point of view about the legend of Hang Tuah? Who’s supposed to be the real malay heroes between him and Hang Jebat for you?
PA: The four names you mentioned are a piece of Medieval Nusantara history, I rarely take subjects from that era because it is part of our history that is most well known, I prefer the earlier era (Ancient Nusantara history) because of it’s obscurity. But to answer your question, Puteri Ledang is a mythological character taken from accounts of Hikayat Hang Tuah, she is a powerful wise immortal women whose empire at the heart of Mount Ledang, she was told as a very beautiful women no mortal women can match, while Tun Teja, also taken from accounts of HHT, is a princess of Pahang Kingdom, at that time Pahang was a part of Melaka empire, Tun Teja is of more a dilemma story as she was told in love with Hang Tuah but the latter was asked to bring back Tun Teja to become the wife of the Sultan, it’s a tragic dilemma piece of history as the both of them had to sacrificed their love in order to the loyalty for the King. Well most modern people will think of Hang Jebat as the hero, but I would say Hang Tuah is the real hero for his loyalty to the Sultan. That’s the basic principle of our Nusantara people that we must honor, honor our folk, our people, our beliefs, our family and our King, NEVER EVER BETRAY THEM!!
ON: I really enjoyed all 3 tracks available in your black site space. Really impressive song on “Srivijaya”,greats “Rajawali” track and good intro of “Seruan dari pusaka silam”. Anyway who is responsible to updating your myspace, answering e mails, interviews, etc…
PA: Thank you, the three tracks is our first endeavor and introduction to the scene, it was released as 30 limited CDR copies and I spread it to all the zines and labels whose in kontakt with me during that time. It is I Pengiran Andika the sole mastermind of Singhasari who are responsible with all the updates and replies.
ON: I guess I’m not the first to ask you about gig. What makes you feel sick to play on gig? For how long is Singhasari just being a studio band?
PA: Indeed, haha there is no such thing as being sick of performing on a gig though, we would love to but for your information, when I do something I want to do it the right way and really doing it, for Singhasari if needed to play live I shall acquire the assistance of traditional folk musicians as well, instruments such as gamelan barong, gong and the likes should be included when performing live, I don’t want just go up the stage with simple typical metal attire, simple common instruments, nanti orang kata tak serupa bikin pulak kan?? Hahaha.. Speaking about attire, the baju melayu you saw on our inlay photo is not my main objective actually I wanted to do something more, I have contacted several persons from the dance academy for renting their dance costumes, but unfortunately because of our low budget and time constant it was cancelled, supposingly for the inlay of the EP you will see us in traditional Kampuchean royal attire, this does not happened unfortunately because of the problems which I mentioned earlier. Ahh and returning back to your question, one day we will be performing live, and we will shock everyone with that very performance! Expect pure vibe and atmosphere of our 1000 years history, complete attire and complete Nusantaranese atmosphere!
ON: I assume there’s a lot local label/production interested to release your EP but why choose Hellhouse production 666 from Thailand? Does the produce cost in Thailand is cheap than our country? Who’s idea come first to start this deal?
PA: Actually the first label who kontakted me was our good friend, Nusantarajim Production from Penang (also editor of Al Zannakh zine), but unfortunately he offered us CDR release and we are not interested. I am little bit choosy when it comes to releases, actually I was looking for a label who is interested to release our EP in cassette format as I actually prefer cassette release over CD, and to come to this conclusion, Phithak of Hellhouse Production was the very first cassette release label who kontakted us regarding releasing our EP, he even showed his high interest in our projekt and said we are a unique band, with that we agreed to have our EP release under his label. As for now, there are two labels who will be releasing our EP, one is Hellhouse Production (cassette format) and Ziekte records from Holland for CD version and European market. I am planning to have this EP to be released for local market too, but for this one I would like to have it released in pro-CD or digipack format, just don’t know which label can do this, if any of you local labels interested to have our EP released under your label feel free to kontakt me.
ON: You are not that bad in classic Malay and English writing, so that was a ticket for Singhasari to travel all around the world scene easily. You must be erudite person right? Why you choose this scene as your place to meditate? What make you glorify to metal scene?
PA: Educated? Haha.. Nah I’m just an average person who are very into cultural studies, languages, history and literature that’s all. I can speak most Nusantaranese languages though not that very good I’m still learning though, I am also very into Eastern European languages, the Slavic language in fact. I’ve been playing in a metal band since 2003, back during those days I was with my first band, Raptor (Leather Army) playing heavy/thrash metal (indeed, this was way back before the plaguing trend of revival thrash metal came down to Tanah Melayu!), and then with Banshee (R.I.P) primitive black/thrash metal. Let’s just say I am a fan of metal music myself and I wanted to create something too, that’s the sole reason of creating a band in my opinion, making something that was long forgotten and different from others was always my objective.
ON: What instruments do you play and favourite type? Who teach you to play those instruments?
PA: I play Guitars and Bass most of the time, eventhough I am not good at it as I never attended any formal class, haha, let’s just say that I learned everything by myself, I don’t even know any scale, hell I don’t remember the name of the chords and shit either! Hahaha.. But I must say that I have the specialty of playing by heart and ear, everytime I listened to any tune played by someone else I might just follow it directly on my guitar. That’s the most valuable skill I possess I must say that I’m happy to have that specialty, it makes me easier to compose my own songs too. Other than that I can play Serunai (silat flute) too, I learned this while I was in the Silat group, it’s not really that hard to play this instrument when you have the feel for it flowing in your heart.
ON: I’m not into political mind but just curious to know you. What’s in your mind right now about our country and the leaders? What’s your personal think to them? Could you predict what would happen to our country in the future soon? Does your lyric in “Seruan dari pusaka silam” have a related to them?
PA: I am very into politics as a whole, but no, not those modern political ones! The real politics, the politic of right and left, I am more to the right politics, being myself I am a traditionalist, nationalist and I fight for the revival of Monarchism system. This is what I fight for, I want to see the democracy and modern system collapse once and for all, look at Brunei, they are an absolute Monarchy country, I want Tanah Melayu to be like that, no more of all these lies, democracy creates lies and corruption and I hate to see that. The lyric “Seruan dari Pusaka Silam” as mentioned earlier is a nationalistic call, yes it is also related to the current political problems in our country, but it is more of a fight to retrieve back our ancestral land. Singhasari against all modernization and globalization, we are traditionalist revivalist!!
ON: Cattarh, Silent death, Suffercation, Braindead and other legendary bands from our local scene will make a performing soon. Will you be there watching them? Where are you when all of this band still in the early day of existence? How’s about Slash concert (the pioneering member of Guns ‘n’ Roses) Will you not be missing his slashing guitar soon?
PA: Of course I will be attending the show, I am a fan of old-school local acts and owned their tapes in my shelf, it’s a shame if I don’t attend their show, I am an average metalhead, I went to gigs for fun with my fellow circle mates, there is no such term as “No Mosh, No Fun” in my circle, we all enjoy going to gigs! Don’t be hypocrite! In fact I will be performing as opening band for Blackfire too on 1st of August with my another band, Vetis. As for Slash concert, I am not really a fan of him so I don’t really care though lol, but if I got the chance to witness it why not? ;)
ON: Nowaday our metal scene just like growing big day by day with old and new bands coming on it way. What we must do for strive our scene more long for it future? And do you care for unity?
PA: It is growing indeed, what I wanted to see is bands doing their own ways, not cloning others and follow others path, it’s boring to see trends though if you know what I mean! Do what you feel right indeed! As for the scene as a whole, I don’t really like to care much, so many backstabbers and hypocrites, I rather being concern with my own circle. Unity with other scene yes, I have plenty of supporters from the Skinhead scene, they supported me honestly, that’s one thing I treasured most.
ON: If you have the chance to go back to any of past time…what’s time would you go and what would you do?
PA: I am fond of the ancient history of Nusantara, the Kingdom of Majapahit/Singhasari/Sailendra, Kingdom of Langkasuka and Kingdom of Srivijaya. I would love to see our glorious days that even very less historical information carved according to that period of time.
ON: I’m hoping that the band would success soon with the new release. Thanks to thee for accepting this interview. Your last words for everyone…
PA: Thanks for this interview, I enjoyed answering them, very good questions and thank you for supporting Singhasari and our eternal war! Singhasari – Kebangkitan Nusantara EP will be out soon, expect pure Nusantara Pagan Folk Metal straight to your face!! Daulat Nusantara!! This is war!!
ON: Sejahtera upon thee! How’s a day now at Tanah Melayu and what you and other member doing there? Who is responsibly to answer this? What song being played at your palace now?
PA: Daulat, it’s 1.00 a.m in the morning now at Senggaramasin (Tanah Melayu), it is I Pengiran Andika, the mastermind of Singhasari, well it has been really busy for me during the past week, as my beloved late grandmother has just passed away last Tuesday (22nd June), she suffers from kidney malfunctioning, it was a sudden blow to me as I have been living with her since I was just a kid and that I considered her just like my very own real mother.. Well currently I’m listening to Chur’s (Ukrainian Folk Pagan Metal) Brate Vitre album, good folk metal honoring their ancestors!! Folk metal lovers check this out!!
ON: Singhasari reminds me a lot to “Uprising”- long time forgotten Malaysian black/dark metal band. From your “Kebangkitan Nusantara” title and tracks name, there’s been a similarity with “Kebangkitan” album from them. Do you have any connection with them? Please divulge us a brief about Singhasari background?
PA: Uprising, how can I not remember them? I must say I am fond of their sincerity and love towards our folk and tradition, but there is something that I hunger for more, as you can see, there is no other band in our country unlike Uprising that honors our folk with all their heart, I remember there was Tasyim, Visitant and the likes, but these two bands are more into the Tahyul and Occult practices, there is no really band who talks about Nationalism with all their heart, even Uprising, they have their lyrics in English, I prefer to have everything in our mother language so that the outsiders will know more of our culture and learn our language! And least, the sad thing is, Uprising is no more! Be it Enforcer or Uprising, this band no longer existed! It seems that Nationalism has long been forgotten and has not been an avid subject in our metal scene, and this is what Singhasari fight for. Our mission is to bring National Romanticism and inject our love towards our mother Nusantara into our local metal scene, no more Satanism, no more Goat, no more pointless message or whatever, it is time for revolution. Let’s fight for something that is real, that is indeed, FOR OUR NUSANTARA!!
ON: What we must know about the basic thing or a root in your musical concept? Do you think Singhasari escapes from the typical local bands?
PA: Ok frankly speaking it’s really hard to define, as there is no avid real musical inspiration during the composition of most Singhasari song, so everything 100% comes from my own idea and no riff stealing from anywhere. As for the concept itself I should say it’s Folk Pagan or something related, I am highly influenced by Graveland, Nokturnal Mortum and the likes and me myself also an average fan of thrash and black metal so you can hear the influences here and there, and of course our beautiful Nusantaranese traditional scales (Javanese, Malay) so easily said Singhasari is a mix of Nusantaranese folk with various Metal. I would just name it Nusantara Pagan Folk Metal. Yes, what I am trying to do is to make something original, something that has been long forgotten, I want this to be easily remembered, I don’t want to be another clone. Eventhough being the similarity in terms of ideological and names with Uprising, but do listen to our music and our lyrics, there is something different that you can differentiate between Singhasari and Uprising.
ON: How’s the feeling when the band will release an EP soon or just by now? Do you wish this release as your first big hope to spread Singhsari name? And what make you serious to introduce the malay history/ folk music to whole world?
PA: I must say that I am excited to know what others will think of our upcoming EP, it should be out soon in July, expect it soon by now. My sole objective is to spread and let be known our Nusantaranese culture to the world, and by Singhasari I hope this will become a reality, everyone knows of European traditional folk and Pagan Metal bands, but little they know about our traditional folk and culture, and this is what makes me serious to spread this message all across the globe! The reason why I chose Malay for the lyrics is so that the outsiders will know how our language sounded like! In fact, we want to introduce our culture, in order to do that, we have to introduce our language too!
ON: You’re not just spreading folk malay music but also the pure image of malay people. What’s your aim on it?
PA: I want our culture to be known all across the globe, that’s the sole purpose of the creation of Singhasari, it is an honest message and deed, and I am satisfied with it.
ON: Frankly speaking. What do you means by the lyrics –“AKAN MUSIBAH YANG BERLAKU..KE ATAS TANAHAIR KITA YANG TERCINTA..BETAPA NISTANYA PENYIKSAAN YANG KU LIHAT,
TANAHAIR KITA BUKAN LAGI MILIK KITA”…is there any hidden message in this lyric/poetry? Tell us…
PA: As you can see our lyrics mainly focusing on Nationalism, thus that part of lyric is a nationalistic call to all our brothers and sisters who long forgotten about our culture, tradition and objective, well look around us, our land has been corrupted by the modern politic, globalization, immigrants, that call is more to make everyone know that the war is not over yet we need to reclaim back this ancestral land of ours. In that part of song “Seruan dari Pusaka Silam” and “Srivijaya” I made the lyric as though it is a called from our ancient ancestor, calling from hundreds and thousand of years ago.. Mourning to see the destruction of the recent years..
ON: I’m surprised when you’ve mention one of your music inspiration is un-well known artist such as Sabahan oud girl Fauziah Gambus. How do you know of her existence although you’re not Sabahan people?
PA: I am from Selangor, Senggaramasin that’s true, none of my family and relative are from Borneo or Banjarmasin, in fact my family most of all came from Kedah and have Siamese and also Sumatran blood, but let’s just make it this way, in order to have Nusantaranese pride I do research a lot, and not forgetting my brothers and sisters from the island of Borneo, you guys are a part of the Nusantaranese descent too. It might be suprising for you if I say I can speak fluently Sarawakian, Sabahan and Bruneian dialect, hehe.. Fauziah did a great job of covering most traditional folk songs from Brunei and Sabah, and that’s the part where I got my attention to. For our upcoming effort you can expect something original from the Borneo island as I am planning to cover Bruneian folk song titled “Samalindang” in metalized version, this will happen next year! Ibanese, Makasar, Bugis, Dayak, Kadazan, Melayu, Jawa, Acheh etc we are related, brothers of Nusantara!!
ON: Do you often read book and create poetries? Who are the best poets that you inspired most? What book or drama being Singhasari influence/inspiration?
PA: Yes I am highly influenced by Sirat Pararaton (The book of Kings, chronology of Singhasari empire, indeed this is where we got the name Singhasari from), Hikayat Hang Tuah, Sejarah Melayu (Sulatus Salatin), Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa (History of Kataha and Langkasuka), Kartanegara etc etc.. As you can see the song “Srivijaya” actually was taken from accounts of Sejarah Melayu especially the part “Dari benua Makaduniah berkembanglah biak keturunan Nusantara” according to Sejarah Melayu, our ancestors came from Macedonia and conquered the ancient Hindu empire in India, our ancestor married the local queen and their sons travelled south to the island of Sumatra and built the empire Srivijaya. The song Srivijaya is a mix of historical account from Sejarah Melayu with Nationalism.
ON: Mysticism, supernatural or what ever element that you’ve found it interesting to put in your inspiration. Do you believe of it existence?
PA: To be frank, I joined Silat 7 years ago and everyone knows whoever joined Silat there must be a little bits of mysticism and supernatural needed to be learnt too. Approximately thousand of years ago, long before the arrival of Islam and Hindu to our lands, we in Nusantara believes in Animism, these traits of the past still lives in each every one of us, Kuda Kepang, semangat Harimau, semangat Ular etc are all part of our ancient spiritual beliefs, I was deep into that before but not anymore now as I wanted to make myself clean after I had a motorcycle accident. That incident gave me a serious blow, right after the accident I was then infected by Typhoid disease and then suffers from penyakit angin and all, until I decided to throw away all the ilmu that I had. So now let’s say that I am no longer one of those.
ON: Musically, you’re into eastern melodic black metal, a blend of thrash metal on some guitar and drum part. A mixture of fine folk music gives Singhasari a lot satisfaction for me to listen on plus a complete image of ‘malay’ warrior that was good enough package to you on how to attractive more new listeners. What’s your view on this?
PA: Everything you hear and see in Singhasari came directly from our honest heart, the love for our mother Nusantara and people, it’s flowing deep in our veins, in fact we are a traditionalist and nationalist individuals so we are just doing what we feel like to. The spirit of our ancestors live deep in each every one of us, what we are trying to do is not for our own purpose but for our beloved Nusantaranese descent, we want to awaken that long lost spirit in our recent generation. May Nusantara live forever!!
ON: Does Puteri Ledang, TunTeja or who’s the most legendary princess you admire of? What’s your point of view about the legend of Hang Tuah? Who’s supposed to be the real malay heroes between him and Hang Jebat for you?
PA: The four names you mentioned are a piece of Medieval Nusantara history, I rarely take subjects from that era because it is part of our history that is most well known, I prefer the earlier era (Ancient Nusantara history) because of it’s obscurity. But to answer your question, Puteri Ledang is a mythological character taken from accounts of Hikayat Hang Tuah, she is a powerful wise immortal women whose empire at the heart of Mount Ledang, she was told as a very beautiful women no mortal women can match, while Tun Teja, also taken from accounts of HHT, is a princess of Pahang Kingdom, at that time Pahang was a part of Melaka empire, Tun Teja is of more a dilemma story as she was told in love with Hang Tuah but the latter was asked to bring back Tun Teja to become the wife of the Sultan, it’s a tragic dilemma piece of history as the both of them had to sacrificed their love in order to the loyalty for the King. Well most modern people will think of Hang Jebat as the hero, but I would say Hang Tuah is the real hero for his loyalty to the Sultan. That’s the basic principle of our Nusantara people that we must honor, honor our folk, our people, our beliefs, our family and our King, NEVER EVER BETRAY THEM!!
ON: I really enjoyed all 3 tracks available in your black site space. Really impressive song on “Srivijaya”,greats “Rajawali” track and good intro of “Seruan dari pusaka silam”. Anyway who is responsible to updating your myspace, answering e mails, interviews, etc…
PA: Thank you, the three tracks is our first endeavor and introduction to the scene, it was released as 30 limited CDR copies and I spread it to all the zines and labels whose in kontakt with me during that time. It is I Pengiran Andika the sole mastermind of Singhasari who are responsible with all the updates and replies.
ON: I guess I’m not the first to ask you about gig. What makes you feel sick to play on gig? For how long is Singhasari just being a studio band?
PA: Indeed, haha there is no such thing as being sick of performing on a gig though, we would love to but for your information, when I do something I want to do it the right way and really doing it, for Singhasari if needed to play live I shall acquire the assistance of traditional folk musicians as well, instruments such as gamelan barong, gong and the likes should be included when performing live, I don’t want just go up the stage with simple typical metal attire, simple common instruments, nanti orang kata tak serupa bikin pulak kan?? Hahaha.. Speaking about attire, the baju melayu you saw on our inlay photo is not my main objective actually I wanted to do something more, I have contacted several persons from the dance academy for renting their dance costumes, but unfortunately because of our low budget and time constant it was cancelled, supposingly for the inlay of the EP you will see us in traditional Kampuchean royal attire, this does not happened unfortunately because of the problems which I mentioned earlier. Ahh and returning back to your question, one day we will be performing live, and we will shock everyone with that very performance! Expect pure vibe and atmosphere of our 1000 years history, complete attire and complete Nusantaranese atmosphere!
ON: I assume there’s a lot local label/production interested to release your EP but why choose Hellhouse production 666 from Thailand? Does the produce cost in Thailand is cheap than our country? Who’s idea come first to start this deal?
PA: Actually the first label who kontakted me was our good friend, Nusantarajim Production from Penang (also editor of Al Zannakh zine), but unfortunately he offered us CDR release and we are not interested. I am little bit choosy when it comes to releases, actually I was looking for a label who is interested to release our EP in cassette format as I actually prefer cassette release over CD, and to come to this conclusion, Phithak of Hellhouse Production was the very first cassette release label who kontakted us regarding releasing our EP, he even showed his high interest in our projekt and said we are a unique band, with that we agreed to have our EP release under his label. As for now, there are two labels who will be releasing our EP, one is Hellhouse Production (cassette format) and Ziekte records from Holland for CD version and European market. I am planning to have this EP to be released for local market too, but for this one I would like to have it released in pro-CD or digipack format, just don’t know which label can do this, if any of you local labels interested to have our EP released under your label feel free to kontakt me.
ON: You are not that bad in classic Malay and English writing, so that was a ticket for Singhasari to travel all around the world scene easily. You must be erudite person right? Why you choose this scene as your place to meditate? What make you glorify to metal scene?
PA: Educated? Haha.. Nah I’m just an average person who are very into cultural studies, languages, history and literature that’s all. I can speak most Nusantaranese languages though not that very good I’m still learning though, I am also very into Eastern European languages, the Slavic language in fact. I’ve been playing in a metal band since 2003, back during those days I was with my first band, Raptor (Leather Army) playing heavy/thrash metal (indeed, this was way back before the plaguing trend of revival thrash metal came down to Tanah Melayu!), and then with Banshee (R.I.P) primitive black/thrash metal. Let’s just say I am a fan of metal music myself and I wanted to create something too, that’s the sole reason of creating a band in my opinion, making something that was long forgotten and different from others was always my objective.
ON: What instruments do you play and favourite type? Who teach you to play those instruments?
PA: I play Guitars and Bass most of the time, eventhough I am not good at it as I never attended any formal class, haha, let’s just say that I learned everything by myself, I don’t even know any scale, hell I don’t remember the name of the chords and shit either! Hahaha.. But I must say that I have the specialty of playing by heart and ear, everytime I listened to any tune played by someone else I might just follow it directly on my guitar. That’s the most valuable skill I possess I must say that I’m happy to have that specialty, it makes me easier to compose my own songs too. Other than that I can play Serunai (silat flute) too, I learned this while I was in the Silat group, it’s not really that hard to play this instrument when you have the feel for it flowing in your heart.
ON: I’m not into political mind but just curious to know you. What’s in your mind right now about our country and the leaders? What’s your personal think to them? Could you predict what would happen to our country in the future soon? Does your lyric in “Seruan dari pusaka silam” have a related to them?
PA: I am very into politics as a whole, but no, not those modern political ones! The real politics, the politic of right and left, I am more to the right politics, being myself I am a traditionalist, nationalist and I fight for the revival of Monarchism system. This is what I fight for, I want to see the democracy and modern system collapse once and for all, look at Brunei, they are an absolute Monarchy country, I want Tanah Melayu to be like that, no more of all these lies, democracy creates lies and corruption and I hate to see that. The lyric “Seruan dari Pusaka Silam” as mentioned earlier is a nationalistic call, yes it is also related to the current political problems in our country, but it is more of a fight to retrieve back our ancestral land. Singhasari against all modernization and globalization, we are traditionalist revivalist!!
ON: Cattarh, Silent death, Suffercation, Braindead and other legendary bands from our local scene will make a performing soon. Will you be there watching them? Where are you when all of this band still in the early day of existence? How’s about Slash concert (the pioneering member of Guns ‘n’ Roses) Will you not be missing his slashing guitar soon?
PA: Of course I will be attending the show, I am a fan of old-school local acts and owned their tapes in my shelf, it’s a shame if I don’t attend their show, I am an average metalhead, I went to gigs for fun with my fellow circle mates, there is no such term as “No Mosh, No Fun” in my circle, we all enjoy going to gigs! Don’t be hypocrite! In fact I will be performing as opening band for Blackfire too on 1st of August with my another band, Vetis. As for Slash concert, I am not really a fan of him so I don’t really care though lol, but if I got the chance to witness it why not? ;)
ON: Nowaday our metal scene just like growing big day by day with old and new bands coming on it way. What we must do for strive our scene more long for it future? And do you care for unity?
PA: It is growing indeed, what I wanted to see is bands doing their own ways, not cloning others and follow others path, it’s boring to see trends though if you know what I mean! Do what you feel right indeed! As for the scene as a whole, I don’t really like to care much, so many backstabbers and hypocrites, I rather being concern with my own circle. Unity with other scene yes, I have plenty of supporters from the Skinhead scene, they supported me honestly, that’s one thing I treasured most.
ON: If you have the chance to go back to any of past time…what’s time would you go and what would you do?
PA: I am fond of the ancient history of Nusantara, the Kingdom of Majapahit/Singhasari/Sailendra, Kingdom of Langkasuka and Kingdom of Srivijaya. I would love to see our glorious days that even very less historical information carved according to that period of time.
ON: I’m hoping that the band would success soon with the new release. Thanks to thee for accepting this interview. Your last words for everyone…
PA: Thanks for this interview, I enjoyed answering them, very good questions and thank you for supporting Singhasari and our eternal war! Singhasari – Kebangkitan Nusantara EP will be out soon, expect pure Nusantara Pagan Folk Metal straight to your face!! Daulat Nusantara!! This is war!!
Orema Nebakep #2
Kover belakang (Pengiran Andika bersama zine Orema Nebakep #2, berbaju T Apraxia).