Medan, Indonesia – Indonesian female metal band Voice of Baceprot is worried about their upcoming performance at Glastonbury in western England, but not because they will be playing in front of thousands of people at one of the biggest music festivals in the world.
Instead, they are thinking about the weather and what they could eat.
The trio, made up of vocalist and guitarist Firda “Marsya” Kurnia, 24, drummer Euis “Siti” Aisyah, 24, and bassist Widi Rahmawati, 23, had never been to the UK before. and they have been watching videos of the festival on YouTube to prepare.
“We have heard that it rains a lot in England and, although it doesn't rain, it always drizzles,” says Siti, with a pained face.
They are also, he says with a grimace, “worried about food.”
Voice of Baceprot (VOB), which means “loud” in Sundanese – a language spoken by around 15 per cent of Indonesia's 270 million people – will be the first Indonesian band to perform at Glastonbury, which begins this week.
For Siti it was the band's “biggest dream” and a surprise when the offer first appeared via email in March.
“We thought we would have to play other smaller venues first, but we got the gig right away,” Marsya said. “We are very excited.”
VOB was founded in 2014 in Garut Regency, a conservative region in West Java province, when the trio joined an extracurricular theater group at school. According to Marsya, their performance was “terrible” and, in an effort to cheer up the girls, her teacher suggested they try music.
At the age of 14, the girls picked up their instruments for the first time and began to learn to play them. They had never heard metal or rock songs before, but their teacher gave them his laptop and they discovered playlists full of songs by bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Armenian-American heavy metal group System of a Down.
“That's when we discovered metal,” Marysa said.
The women began playing at local music festivals and uploading their shows to Facebook, where they quickly began to attract interest. They also released cover songs that also received positive reviews.
In 2018, they released their first single, “School Revolution,” which took on an unexpected life of its own thanks to social media.
“In 2019 there were protests [by students protesting against changes to the criminal code] All over Indonesia and people were uploading videos of the protests with our song playing above,” Marsya said.
From that point on, the group became synonymous with music that resonated with Indonesian youth and addressed themes of female empowerment, environmental destruction and pacifism, with the trio singing in English, Indonesian and Sundanese.
Flourishing music scene
Indonesia is no stranger to heavy metal and outgoing president Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, is known to be a fan of bands such as Metallica and Megadeth.
The country is also home to the Hammersonic Festival, Southeast Asia's largest metal music festival.
“Throughout its history, the punk and rock scene in Indonesia has been greatly influenced by events over time,” Mikail “Mike” Israfil, lead singer of the Indonesian punk band, told Al Jazeera Marjinal.
“Technology and modernity have had a great influence on the shape and development of the scene. The current challenge facing artists is how to respond to change itself. The interesting thing is that the punk and rock scene in Indonesia is increasingly open, aware of space and form, in order to show its quality.”
In this context, Israfil said, the VOB “continues to push the boundaries of classlessness and borderlessness.”
Hikmawan “Indra” Saefullah, who played guitar in the Indonesian indie band Alone at Last from 2002 to 2013 and is a professor of Indonesian studies at the University of New England, told Al Jazeera that “the existence and achievements of VoB deserve recognition.” ”.
“The rock music scene in Indonesia has quite a long history and legendary bands and musicians. Unfortunately, it has generally been dominated by male bands and musicians with few female performers, although in the 1960s and 1970s we did have a legendary all-female rock band called Dara Puspita.”
With this in mind, Hikmawan described VOB as “the new generation of the Indonesian rock music scene.”
“They started their careers from the bottom and developed dynamically. Her appearance wearing hijab. [the Muslim headscarf] “It hasn't stopped them from continuing to play rock and metal, even though many people have criticized them, especially in conservative circles.”
These “conservative circles” included the women's own families, who were initially hesitant.
Marysa's parents forbade her from playing music, and one night when she came home late from performing at a festival, she discovered that she had been locked out of her house as punishment.
“I had to sit outside for hours before they opened the door,” he says, laughing at the memory.
In Widi's case, her older sister did not want her to attend music festivals, telling her that she was “ruining her future” by playing metal music, a sentiment echoed by Siti's family, who called her new music career ” a not very serious pastime.”
But as the band's fame grew, their families changed their minds.
“It was when they first saw us on local television that they started supporting us,” Widi said.
'Moral responsibility'
The band draws inspiration from their personal experiences for their music and some of their songs are direct responses to criticism that women should not play heavy metal.
Marysa's favorite song is What's the Holy (Nobel) today, which she says is about ignoring the haters and “surrendering to a higher power,” while Siti prefers her 2021 hit, the intended name, God, let me (please) play music.
Before going on stage, the band prays and spends time together as a trio without outside interruptions, something Marysa said is important “to foster their chemistry as a band” – although they still have their differences.
When asked if they ever argue, the women burst out laughing. They argue about a lot of things, Marysa says, but it's usually trivial, like what they want for dinner.
The women lived together for three years in Jakarta, from 2020 to 2023, before parting ways with their record label and becoming an independent band. When asked what prompted them to make this decision, they respond in typical metal style.
“We are too wild and we can't control ourselves,” says Widi, laughing.
They are happy to be back in Garut, for now, where the weather is cooler and the atmosphere calmer than Jakarta, but independence has also brought its own challenges. They have had to manage their social media themselves and are also building a studio in Garut which needs to be managed by the project, as well as planning a tour of Indonesia, having previously toured France, the Netherlands and the United States.
While they find life in Garut more peaceful in many ways, there has been backlash in the conservative regency as well as online, with women regularly receiving threatening messages. Are they worried that people might actually hurt them?
“I am very worried that this could happen,” Marysa admitted.
Once, when the vocalist was returning home after practicing with the band in Garut, someone threw a rock at her. She didn't practice again for a week. Siti has also received hate comments online, mostly in the form of body shaming, with trolls calling her “too short and too fat” and commenting on her skin.
“They said that as an international musician I should watch my diet, then they harassed me about my acne, saying I should have money to treat it.”
When this happens, Siti talks to her bandmates about the comments.
“They usually tell me to ignore them and point out that the people making the comments are ugly too,” she said, laughing. “The next day, I usually forget about them.”
Widi said that trolls also like to attack his skills as a bassist.
“They tell me that there are many bassists who are better than me and ask me why I bother playing. Normally I respond and tell them that I am going to continue playing whatever they say.”
Marysa also points out the obvious sexism in the type of comments they receive. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has thousands of male rock, punk and metal bands who are never accused of doing anything haram or forbidden in Islam.
“In Garut there are many male bands and they never have any problems. It’s very contradictory,” Marsya said.
When asked what the future holds for VOB, Siti's message is simple.
“When I play music. It makes me happy and I can also financially support myself and my family. So it's something very positive for me. We will continue playing as long as we can,” she stated.
“I will play music until I don't want to anymore,” Marsya added.
For now, however, they are focusing on Glastonbury and plan to camp out during the festival so they can fully immerse themselves in the atmosphere of Worthy Farm.
They are also busy designing their costumes for the show, which will feature traditional Garut fabrics and Indonesian motifs, including the country's crimson and white flag.
Within the vortex of controversy that has always surrounded the trio, the women are aware of the weight that the June 28 performance carries.
“It's a lot of pressure and we feel a moral responsibility,” Marysa said. “Not only is our name on the stage, but also that of our country.”
