CLOWNS SIDOARJO SHOW 7th FEBRUARY 2012
oleh: Akhmad Alfan Rahadi
at DOLOMITY CAFE SIDOARJO FEBRUARY THE 7th 2011
Beberapa minggu yang lalu tepatnya Desember (sudah tahun lalu ya? hehehe) saya mendapati invitation dari teman saya di Sidoarjo untuk menonton sebuah band dari Australia bernama Clowns berikut link videonya. Beberapa saat sebelumnya saya memang juga berencana ingin menonton band dari Australia juga bernama Night Hag namun karena saya berhalangan saya pun melewatkannya dengan sesal dan berharap ada band sebagus mereka datang lagi ke sekitaran Jawa Timur (supaya ringan di ongkos transport).
Kemudian saya coba telusuri dan tonton video mereka yang berjudul “Repeat After Me”.Tak ada bayangan dan ekspektasi lebih sesaat sebelum membukanya. Namun yang saya temukan ternyata mencengangkan, Clownsmerupakan band yang bengal!. Keras dan Fun! It's not being poppy but it's anthemic!. Cocok bagi penggemar GG Allin, The Bronx dan Black Flag (mereka sempat mengcover lagu "Wasted" dari Black Flag malam itu dan di live cassete album spesial edisi tur SEA ini).
Akhirnya berangkat lah saya menembus hujan lebat dan bensin yang menipis di Selasa 7 februari itu. Sempat tersesat karena pertama kalinya saya ke Sidoarjo sendirian dengan motor. Mereka ke Sidoarjo dalam rangka menjalani rangkaian tur Asia tenggara meliputi Singapura, Malaysia dan Indonesia selama Februari ini. Saya berhasil mendapat ijin dan kesempatan wawancara ini di akhir performance mereka setelah sempat mengajak kenalan Tristan dan James di saat sebelum show dan dikenalkan lagi oleh Anca The Shantoso kepada Jake dan Steve. Namun di kesempatan itu yang mampu saya temui hanya James dan Tristan yaitu bassis dan gitaris Clowns karena yang lain kelelahan dan perlu istirahat.
guide: A: Alfan, J: James , T: Tristan
A: how did you guys meet each other?
T: we met at school, we met our guitarists, drummer and singer
at school, at university, and we met our bassists through a circle of friends, sort of friends of friends.
A: Like you guys met at the same scene at the local gigs?
J & T: yeah yeah, pretty much
A: So until now, how many recordings that you have released?
J: Umm, We did an EP in 2010, Clowns EP 2010, then on 2011 we did a split 7" with Them Orphans from Perth, and now we're gonna do another 7" when we get back to Australia and also we've done a live album, recorded on rehearsal for this South East Asia tour.
A: How did you guys came up with the idea of touring South East Asia?
J: Well we came up with the idea when our friend from our fellow Australian band like Straight Jacket Nation, cameback from south east asia tour, then we met Cher from Singapore online and then she lead us to these people we met so far, these people we can contact and organize us a tour.
A: Your most favorite Australian band
J: Hard Ons
T: probably Carnival
A: And when you got here, have you also had particular band that you like?
J: In South East Asia? Yeah, yeah lots of good band, The Shantoso we love it soo much, and then Sleeping Police, and in Malaysia we saw Boulevard, and then some bands we watched in Singapore.
A: When you got this tour idea, have you ever imagined where you're gonna be landed and headed?
J: No, We knew Indonesia, We knew Malaysia, and We knew Singapore as well. Then we met Cher, and She told us where to go, where to play, the guys we should meet and hangout with, who to talk to. and she mentioned about Borneo or something of it, and we're gonna play there by the end of this tour.
A: Hmm in terms of CLOWNS, I saw that your vocalist Stevie, wore a t-shirt with a picture of Jack Nicholson's Joker on it. So who do you think is the best JOKER? Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger?
J: Jack Nicholson probably, he's pretty bad ass, but yeah Heath Ledger who played the recent Joker is an australian guy, alright he's dead now hahaha
T: Favorite Joker for me is probably some comic book dude, not a real actor..
A: How about from the animated series?
No no, also not animated, comic book, comic book
A: Favorite food in here?
T: Cumi, cumi goreng dan nasi goreng
A: Aaah yes hahah it's obvious , nasi goreng it's all time favorite
J: Yeaa... hahaha is good
T: Cumi goreng is suprisingly good, it's really tasty
J: Sounds a bit weird but it's really nice yeah hahaha
J: But we didn't like even the durian, heheehe...
T: Not. Not too happy with the durian
A: So How do you come up with the theme on the 7"?
T: Depends on the single, so The 7" is the new single, the "Arst One is Repeat After Me", then "Eat A Gun", so the artwork depends on the single name and kind of that's how we themed it.
J: Well I did the artwork myself. It's like trying to get as much as crazy stuff into the picture, before it gets out of control
A: So did you do it when you were sober or drunk?
J: Well a bit both, hahaha.... Well i'm not really mess around with photoshop, or expensive gadget. I did it like with just a pencil, and sharpen the texture and an eraser
A: Beside doing band stuffs, what do you guys do?
J: Yea we're all going to school, university , we all study, we also have a job as well, like me driving a box car sending things around, Tristan work at a doughnut shop, Steve And Jake works in a call center and, apart from that...
T: Whatever makes ends, make money, pay bills
J: Well outside study, we go to shows in melbourne, play Arecracker, hanging out..
A: So how do you guys, adjust with that? between music and daily routine?
J: We play gigs, None of us work in the weekends, so we have works and school
T: Yea and on Saturday we got to see a big gig night in melbourne always
A: whooa does the gig done routinely?
T: Sometimes thursday, wednesday, but yea mostly saturday
J: We play with someone on thursday spare gigs, commonly friday and saturday night. We have school, we school and work at the daytime during the week, afterwork or school we practice and play gigs on the weekends
A: You see, when I'm doing these scene things, me and my friends make gigs on university. Do you guys also organize a show on university or are there authorities which make it harder?
T: I used to go to Melbourne University, every thursday they had decent band playing.
J: Popular band
T: Yea it was like popular bands not playing like King GIzzard and The Lizard Wizard, Barbarian, etc, like big in Melbourne-band.
A: I thought you can play your friends in university gigs..
J: Mostly the gig in the Melbourne not done in university, they're on pub, club and house house shows. not very often..
A: So do you guys have any plans on the near future?
J: Aa.. just keep doing what we're doing, play as many shows as we can , record very soon
J: Singles on 7 inches, doing album when we have enough money. After we do the 7 inch we'll do an album, doing more tour, meet more friends.
A: I was wondering, when we in Indonesia usually rehearse by renting a rehearsal studio, do you guys do the same there in Australia?
T: Yea, you know we rent a rehearsal space, its a big room, soundproof, bring a lot of stuff drumkits all that, and we play usually from 6 o clock til midnight.
J: We don't play that long but yea thats how long we got the session
A: Whooa that soo long for us 6 o'clock til midnight...
T: It is a long time, yea we usually we got there at 7 or 8 and finish at 10
A: Is it like an empty space?
J: It's a big building full of lotsa room, it's like a big factory and got lots of big room
A: And you guys bring your own equipment
T: We can hire stuff between each
J: Plus there's lots of band in there play at one time in different rooms
T: Thats how usually in Melbourne, but there are few places like that with a bunch a rooms and we hire a single room for a couple of hours , and bring in all of your stuff, play for as long as you want and no one will give a shit
A: Hahaha i envy you. other than doing shows do you guys also organize shows?
J: We also organize shows, with our friends and our friends band and if a band wants to come to Melbourne we can help em organize a show for them
A: Is it collective or you guys also search for a sponsor?
J: Yea, collectively, get a good show and having fun
A: And for the equipment you bring yourself?
J: If it is in Australia we bring our own amps, and guitar and simple drumkits
A: Whoa.. thats a bit different in here..we rent from studio and bring it to venue
J: Yeah, everyone seems have their own stuff
A: Thats real pro and DIY
A: So any plans for next year's tour?
J: There are few places in our mind, we just think like kinda go like, if anyone or we meet anyone who tell us to go to particular area or wanna make a tour with us, we should go there
T: I do want to get to UK, Europe, that'd be freakin awesome , but it would be expensive though
J: We definitely go somewhere but we just don't know where yet
T: Maybe Asia again, might be good
A: Through years of your career, have you guys faced criticsm and how do you deal with it? It forms of internet review and stuffs?
T: A little bit, every, you know cause there's always someone out there gonna say "ohh this is bad this is good" but doesn't really bother us too much
J: Here's the thing, you got one little thing, one little thing on the internet, but when you play show and theres a hundred people who's gonna its awesome
A: So you just play.. play.. play...
T: Yea right and like there's always gonna be people out there who hate whatever you do, and the same time there's people who love what you do. So just do what you do, and hope the people would love it, listen to it and get into it
J: I like what I do, so it doesn't matter
A: last message for people here?
J: You have an awesome scene, and your bands are really good, and you people are really friendly. and we hope, we hope you dont change...
T: Yeah dont change at all, keep it real, keep it rockin, keep rocking
A: And thats a wrapp!! thanks!
James dan Tristan kemudian berpamitan untuk istirahat karena besok melanjutkan perjalanan tur ke Kudus. Saya menyempatkan ngobrol sebentar dengan Anca tentang scene underground di Surabaya dan Sidoarjo. Setelah itu saya pulang karena besok ada ujian yang ternyata tidak jadi. A killing joke it is.....
Namun hari rabu itu tak mengecewakan juga karena saya dapat album live Clowns dengan cuma cuma pemberian teman saya Kuro yang bingung bakal diputar dimana kaset itu.