FEATURE: Spotlight: Voice of Baceprot

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Ismael

Voice of Baceprot

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EVEN though…

PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Ismael

this group have been around and getting some positive buzz for a while now, there are many who might not know about Voice of Baceprot. There are a number of aspects that stand the group out. I have not featured any Indonesian artists before I don’t think. The trio from Garut, West Java, formed in 2014. The group consists of Firda Marsya Kurnia, Widi Rahmawati, and Euis Siti Aisyah. Voice of Baceprot sing in English as well as Sundanese. The word ‘baceprot’ means ‘noisy’ in Sundanese. I think that press in the U.K. have connected with them relatively recently. Thanks to a fantastic singles like God, Allow Me (Please) to Play My Music and PMS, they have captured a wide audience. Definitely one of the most inspiring groups around, I hope they get a bigger foothold and fanbase across the world, as they are definitely ones to watch. If you need some biography about Voice of Baceprot:

“Young, Indonesian, hijab-wearing, female metal trio Voice Of Baceprot (VOB) have been covering the members’ favourite metal songs since they learned to play their instruments. Their prowess at playing these covers got them attention from fans and media worldwide and enabled them to develop to the point where they could, as a band, create original songs.

Consisting of Marsya (vocals and guitar), Widi (bass), and Sitti (drums), the trio first met when they were still junior high school students in their hometown of Singajaya, a small village two hours’ drive away from the city of Garut, West Java. The word “baceprot” from their band name comes from the Sundanese language meaning “noisy”. It was chosen to represent the type of music that they play.

Since their formation, VOB have become a point of discussion for a host of renowned global media, including The New York Times, NPR, BBC, DW and The Guardian, featuring them in the pages of their online publication. VOB were recently named by heavy metal and rock magazine Metal Hammer as “the Metal Band the World Needs Right Now”.

I was interesting finding out what it was like for them getting together and how that happened. I can’t imagine there were many women in Indonesia playing Metal when Voice of Baceprot started life. Maybe there are relatively few now, but the young trio have definitely opened doors and changed the conversation when it comes to Metal. Not only because of gender – Metal has often struggled to embrace women -, but because they wear hijabs. This is something that has not really been seen in the mainstream. I think that Voice of Baceprot will get worldwide acclaim and demand when they release an album. Louder Sound featured Voice of Baceprot back in 2021. They were a sound of rebellion that the world needed – and that is needed even more now:

“In 2014, in a classroom in rural Indonesia, three schoolgirls fell in love with metal. During an extra-curricular arts programme at their school in Garut, West Java, Firdda Marsya Kurnia (vocals and guitar), Widi Rahmawati (bass), and Euis Siti Aisyah (drums), then aged 14, were introduced to metal by their school guidance counsellor, Ahba Erza.

Immediately, the teenagers were drawn to the “unique and beautiful” lyricism of System Of A Down, and “rebellious” spirit of bands such as Rage Against The Machine, Lamb Of God and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Before long, they had formed Voice Of Baceprot, (the word ‘Baceprot’ means ‘loud’ in Sundanese) and were making their own incendiary racket. Their 2018 single, School Revolution, is a fiery blend of elastic bass and furious RATM-indebted thrash.

Emerging as an all-female, Muslim metal band in a conservative community in West Java has posed its own challenges however. The girls have received death threats, while Ahba, who is now their manager, has received calls pressuring him to break up the band. The trio spoke to Metal Hammer about overcoming these challenges and demolishing cultural and gender norms.

What’s the scene like in Indonesia for metal and are there many women playing in bands?

Marsya [lead guitar / vocals]: “Every year the metal scene in Indonesia keeps on developing and growing. There’s a bunch of bands all genders and ages, a lot of Indonesians are familiar with metal music and there are a lot of local metal bands in Indonesia.

Euis [drummer]: “There are women that play rock and metal. It’s there, the amount is relative, but there are more and more women playing in Indonesia.”

Can you remember your first gig?

“The first performance was a school event, a farewell concert and it was the first time our parents saw us perform. They school we went to was a pretty religious Islamic school, when we performed, everyone was pretty shocked.”

Shocked in what sense?

Marsya: “[Our parents] didn’t explicitly show their support or forbid us from playing music. Deep down, we knew that they were actually proud of us. Perhaps a little bit worried. They did prohibit us from playing music after [our first show], but we carried on regardless and didn’t think too much of it. [The band practised in secret for a year after their first gig following reservations from their parents.] We never thought about packing it in or taking a step back. As time went by, we realised that the lack of support from our parents and community played a huge role in fortifying our mental strength, and the resolve that we have in proving that our music does not negatively affect our morals.”

You have faced challenges in your own country, and even death threats for playing metal. How did you deal with that?

“They were just comments made on social media. We were a bit scared at first, but we just put our heads down and focused back on our music. As the cliché goes, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. We get a lot of curse words and people saying you should stop playing. They want us to stop playing music. For the most part, people are saying that stuff because we’re women, but we’re not scared to say what’s on our mind. A lot of people don’t like that. If we were men maybe we wouldn’t get such a hard time. Music gives us such a great joy that’s why we want to continue to play. So we are focusing on our music and screw the others!”.

I am going to bring in a couple of other interviews before wrapping things up. SPIN chatted with Voice of Baceprot last year. Recognising the fact that they are delivering their feminist worldview in a world and through a genre where it is very much needed, it is great that they were getting so much love and respect from the media in 2022. I think that this amazing trio will be making music for many more years to come. Their sound is so compelling and powerful. I would urge people to keep their eyes on Voice of Baceprot:

“When this writer was 15, his passions and obsessions were limited to obscure prog music, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and where to get some of that magical elixir known as beer. When the young women of Indonesian metal band Voice of Baceprot started playing at that age, they honed their abilities and found fans on both sides of the rock ‘n’ roll stage. Now in their early 20s, they’re learning firsthand how having the temerity to play hard rock can be a crash course in having to deal with inequality and patriarchy. It helps that they can throw down a stomping cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” in front of any assembled multitude at a festival like they wrote it themselves.

Not even the most-polished Magic 8-Ball could have predicted Indonesia as being a flashpoint for one of metal’s most promising new outfits. Metal is something that is genuinely celebrated in Indonesia, a social bacchanal for riffs and shredding. Hell, Indonesian president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has been livin’ la vida metallic for a while now. (Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe described Widodo as “the world’s first heavy metal president,” citing the leader’s love of Metallica, Napalm Death and LoG amongst many others.) The young women of Voice of Baceprot were introduced to each other by the guidance counselor from the school in their village of Garut, assisting in everything from gear acquisition to songwriting assistance.

But Voice of Baceprot (“baceprot” is the Sundanese word for “noisy”) are adding a new dimension to their art. The band—guitarist/vocalist Marsya Kurnia, bassist Widi Rahmawati and drummer Sitti Aisyah—routinely deliver the driving riffage that conjures synovial headbanging and some old-fashioned metal-thrashing-mad sweat. And they still do it wearing hijab, the head coverings worn by Muslim women. But forget about the music: When the band traveled to France, it seemed as though dullard Muslim male and female journalists had an agenda. While the girls say they found the predictable ranting of hardliners both laughable (“Girls are not supposed to play metal music. You should stay at home and cook instead”) and vengeful (“You are going to hell because music is haram [forbidden]”), the frequent, most tiresome question was always centered on their hijab, the Muslim headdress. The follow-up question usually asked if Voice of Baceprot were “being oppressed” and forced to wear them.

Instead of letting the queries slide and sharing eyerolls and laughs about it later, a consciousness was created. What are you people thinking? Why the fuck would you think that? This dovetailed nicely with the news of the U.S. Supreme Court gearing up to repeal Roe vs Wade, the landmark decision legalizing abortion—which also had the band examining everything from body issues to discussion of exactly who owns women’s bodies.

These discussions manifested into a new track, “[Not] Public Property,” the first song the girls wrote as a trio. As a prelude to the single, the video features brief interview clips with women who have been marginalized for everything from lacking the outmoded notions of “ideal appearance” to their own experiences regarding what choices they made about their bodies. (An American delegation of Butcher Babies singer Carla Harvey and Eva Under Fire’s Amanda Lyberg appear in the clip.) Voice of Baceprot backs it up with a lyrical sentiment that no one should have trouble understanding. “This is how the fight will be remembered/and this is how the voice gets louder and stronger,” Marsya sings as the band generates a loping groove that defies both calendars and passports of origin”.

The group are about using their platform to spread messages of peace. They look at humanitarian and environmental issues. There is this importance in their music that needs to be heard. They have also raised money for victims of sexual violence and abuse. One of the most important bands in the world, they are helping to change the face and sound of Metal. Not that I have anything against the, but I don’t think we have seen and heard anyone like Voice of Baceprot. At first, the band’s parents were not too keen on them going into music. Firda Marsya Kurnia, Widi Rahmawati, and Euis Siti Aisyah told Kerrang! last year why they are supportive now, and how life is different from when they were starting out:

“Yes, because we were able to make money playing this kind of music,” adds Sitti and the trio dissolve into laughter. They laugh a lot, both throughout the interview and, you suspect, as they go through life. This still young band have talked previously about receiving abuse and even death threats for the temerity of wanting to start a band and play shows. They’ve encountered a range of negative reactions but prefer to focus on the far more common waves of positivity and generosity that have helped them along the way.

“At first we were treated differently [for being a female band] because it’s maybe not a common thing, especially where we live,” shrugs Marsya. “But when we got to big cities like Jakarta, people are kind and we got a lot of support from local musicians. We met a lot of metalheads and learned a lot more about metal and had a great experience.” She’s also proud of the fact that people are now starting to reach out to the band, often saying that they’ve found them to be an inspiration. “We get a lot of messages like that, especially from the girls. They say before they knew us, they were afraid to play music, but when VOB got a little bit popular, they had the courage to start a band themselves,” she beams.

This giggly sense of positivity doesn’t mean that things don’t piss them off, however – although they almost certainly wouldn’t phrase it like that. When they first came to Europe, for example, the press honed in on a single aspect: the fact that these were three girls playing metal in hijab. In December the band shared a video from their set at the Trans Musicales festival in France. “There’s one thing that made me shocked,” Marsya told the crowd. “All of them mostly asked me about our hijab. And you know what, it makes me feel like I’m coming here for a fashion show. They focus only on our appearance.”

They also display a righteous anger on their latest single, the incendiary yet infectiously grooving [NOT] Public Property. “This song is born of our concern for women’s issues, especially regarding bodily autonomy which, in our opinion, is quite urgent to be voiced. Because we are sick of hearing how people talk about women’s bodies, even when sexual violence happens to us – our bodies and actions are still to blame. And we don’t want interference in deciding what we should wear, what we should do and how we are in public. It makes our bodies public property. And honestly, we don’t like it".

An essential and hugely important group that everyone needs to get behind, Voice of Baceprot are primed for very big things. With such a remarkable backstory and road to prominence, they have definitely captured the ears of the media and fans across the word. I think we will be hearing their music for years more. Years ago, one did not really see many female groups in Metal who wore hijabs. Not that there was necessarily a barrier, but there was a sense of the genre being quite white and male. Now, with Voice of Baceprot leading a charge, this will inspire into the music scene…