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Rockers Get a Lot More From Morfem

Local music fanatics should already be familiar with The Upstairs and their hard-to-miss mix of new wave, disco and post-punk music. Bursting onto the scene in 2001, the band became a mainstay of the independent scene before leaping into the mainstream with appearances on local TV shows and the soundtracks of movies, tight colorful pants and big sunglasses intact. The Upstairs’ biggest selling point was vocalist Jimi Multhazam. Known for his comically boorish persona on stage and his robotic-seizure disco moves, the charismatic frontman became an icon for expressive teens everywhere. It is quite a change then to see Jimi on stage with his new band Morfem. A much more subdued affair, Morfem delves deeper into The Upstairs’ post-punk roots, resulting in a much more jagged sound reminiscent of British bands Magazine and the Psychedelic Furs. Embedded in Morfem’s sound are also glimpses of the noisier side of early ’90s indie-rock bands such as The Jesus Lizard and Rapeman.

Music lovers will get a chance to hear that jagged and noisy sound in an even more stripped-down mode at a free acoustic show on Sunday, when Morfem performs alongside White Shoes & The Couples Company and Monkey to Millionaire at Senayan City Atrium in Central Jakarta. Morfem began as a cover band that performed songs by US art-rockers Velvet Underground at one of Jimi’s art exhibitions last year. At the time, the band featured only Jimi and Pandu Fathoni, who played guitar for doom-rockers The Porno. After the exhibition, the two realized they were on to something more than just being a cover band. The chemistry was undeniably there. “In terms of progress, being in a cover band is boring. So we decided to form a full-fledged band,” Jimi says. “We began to write original material that, quality-wise, was beyond our expectations” Pandu adds. They decided to look for a bass player and drummer, which eventually led them to Bramasta Juan Sasongko and Alexander Warnerin. Both also played in local hard rock acts: Bram in JARB and Alex in Nervous Breakdown. In July, the band was officially christened Morfem — an Indonesian word that means the smallest linguistic unit in a word that still retains meaning. Jimi says the word was chosen because it used to “bedazzle” him as a student studying Bahasa Indonesia in middle school. “It’s an interesting term that’s yet to be adapted as a band name. It also serves an aesthetic purpose from a graphic-design standpoint” he says. Morfem quickly began gigging, garnering a fast following along the way. Their first single, “Gadis Suku Pedalaman,” or “Inland Tribe Girl,” topped Trax FM’s independent chart. Though they’re becoming increasingly known, most people still consider Morfem a mere side project for Jimi, a claim band members are eager to deny. “To me Morfem is definitely not a side project,” says Pandu, adding: “This band is where I managed to discover the bright spot of all of my years playing music.” Jimi concurs: “Morfem is where I can project all of the ideas I had that did not necessarily suit my other band. This is where I also correct all the mistakes that I’ve experienced playing in other bands. Morfem is a band that can be categorized as serious but much more fun.” Their eagerness to get the public totake Morfem seriously might also stem from the close relationship between band members. “There’s more laughs in this band,” Jimi says, pointing to the members being “more communicative and spontaneous. All of us are eager to get our idea across.” Pandu says the closeness has affected the music quality. “I come up with riffs and hooks I am astounded I came up with,” he says, adding his fellow band mates, who refer to each other as “Morphene rockers,” are a constant source of inspiration. It seems the only real correlation Morfem has with The Upstairs are the poetic lyrics of Jimi, who is known to paint the urban landscape with off-kilter analogies in his songs. “I tend to use a more natural approach, though,” he says, adding that he prefers simpler lyrics for Morfem. For now, the band is preparing to release its debut EP. “It’s been a fun recording process, and I’ve done things I haven’t done in the studio before, like playing acoustic guitar and the tambourine,” Jimi says. “These songs are hot and ready to go.”