Australia Noise Punks My Disco Return For Third Indonesian Tour

The Melbourne-based post-hardcore band My Disco aren't interested in doing things the easy way. The band's sound has evolved into something darker and more experimental than before. Their latest album Severe is a bottom-heavy mix of electronics, pounding drums, and droning vocals. It's a mix that even the band admits can be a bit much for the audience at times.

"Our live show is definitely not for everyone," said guitarist Benjamin Andrews. "Sometimes we'd play and at the beginning everyone is watching and at the end there's only a handful of people left."

During this band's 14-year career, they've toured Indonesia twice, once spending a year exchanging emails and international phone calls to set it up. In 2014, Andrews moved to Jakarta, immersing himself in the Indonesian capital's nightlight and DIY scene. Now, the band's third tour will bring him back for shows in five cities.

VICE Indonesia's Yudhistira Agato spoke with Andrews about touring before WhatsApp, the global DIY scene, and why Jogja's experimental noise bands are among the purest.

VICE: Most bands don't make money touring DIY style. Why do you still do it?
Benjamin Andrews: I don't really know any other way to do it to be honest. We toured Australia that way. We toured Europe that way. We toured in America that way. We toured in Japan that way. Obviously playing non-commercial music, you're not going to play to 10,000 people every night and charge $50 ticket and have expensive merchandise. Those are just not the things on our cards. And I think Indonesia has a strong DIY scene. I'm still friends with a lot of people I met in 2005. I'm happy to work with people that have been friends of ours for a decade or more, people who we trust. I think that's more important than anything else.

My Disco has toured Indonesia twice. How did the previous tours go?
I remember in Jakarta we played this club. I don't remember what it was called now but the band that played before us were this successful indie rock band from Jakarta.

The Brandals?
I can't remember the name. It was so long ago. They had this really like tight sound, like a rawer version of The Strokes. And I remember the venue had this concrete floor and everyone played on the floor. When we played, part of the floor was coming up because people were dancing and all this dust was coming up in the air. It was an awesome experience.

What was the most memorable thing about touring Indonesia?
Obviously Jogja is really famous globally for having very good experimental music, but at that time, we didn't know anything about it. I remember there were bands doing like contact microphones, distortion pedals, like experimental noise sets that were completely improv. At that time, that sort of stuff was also in its fledgling state in Australia. Everyone was influenced by Japanese noise like Merzbow, Keiji Haino and stuff, but we saw was in its really pure form in Jogja.

How did this new Indonesian tour came about?
Deden [the tour organizer for Indonesia] came to our shows in Malaysia and Singapore back in 2015. He wanted to put out Severe on cassette and do a full Indonesia tour. So we've been planning it ever since.

Severe is a lot different and more atmospheric compared to your previous releases.
We really wanted to be dark and heavy and totally different with more electronic influences. We wanted it to be even more crazy sounding. Our live show is heavily drum influenced. Like more than anything else, it's very drummy. So there's even a drum solo that sometimes goes to 15 minutes.

[Laughs]
Yeah, it's very drum heavy. But there's a lot of restraint from us, because we like a lot of space in the music. But it's still very heavy and intense live. It's awkward and uncompromising. There's large periods of silence. It's definitely not for everyone.

My Disco has been a band for 14 years. How do you keep things fresh?
It's very difficult actually. Most of the music I see in here, I don't like. So, in order to keep it interesting, you have to find music that you're passionate about. To me, that's doing this sort of dark, droney kinda stuff. And even that sometimes is boring. So if we're happy with something, then that's our new progression or whatever. If not, then we'd take another five years.

But I also like playing out of our comfort zone. It's too easy, especially in Australia, for bands to just play in their town, with their own equipment and it might sound great and 100 of their friends come and they think they're having the greatest time ever. That's kinda boring after a while. And after being a band for 14 years, that's definitely boring. I prefer playing in Poland, or Russia, or Indonesia and having a completely unique experience. It's not always gonna be good. You might have a bad tour, or your guitar might break, or immigration officers might come or whatever. But at least you're pushing your experience to the limit because that's what music should be. It's not always gonna be pretty. It should be difficult. You should have to work for it.