Eka Annash is a pioneer in the Jakarta underground music scene. He cut his teeth as the vocalist of the dance-punk/ska band Waiting Room in the 90s before he left for university in Australia. When he returned, Eka took over vocals for The Motives—a band formed by his brother, the late Rully Annash. The Motives were never the same.The band morphed into The Brandals, one of the most significant bands of the aughts' underground music scene. Music journalists described the band's early albums as an Indonesian take on The Strokes—a complement when the world in the middle of a garage rock revival fever.
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The description makes sense. The Motives used to cover Strokes songs during their early practices and both bands were drinking from the same well of influences: The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, New York Dolls. They embodied a sort of youthful, dangerous vibe that was missing from Indonesian indie rock at the time.But by the band's fourth album, The Brandals had dropped the "The," and all the vowels, as they grew into a more radio-friendly sound. That album, DGNR8, alienated some fans while winning over a whole bunch of new ones.So which albums are Eka's favorite?"To me, all Brandal's albums are personal favorites," Eka said. "It doesn't feel fair to compare one another, much less choose the best. It feels like playing favorites, like choosing which chid you love best."OK, fair enough. But what if you had to rank them, we asked. He eventually agreed and sent over the following list."I'm trying to put together a chart based on my own personal relationship with each album," Eka told VICE Indonesia. "If someone disagrees it's OK. Make your own version of the list and drop it on The Brandals Facebook page."
4. Audio Imperialist (2005)
Some bands might feel a lot of pressure and stress when it comes to releasing a second album, one that's better than the debut. But not us. From the beginning of the process we knew for sure that we had better material for this second album. We were confident. We were at the top of our game. After the first album tour, we were more solid and focused. We were a well-oiled war machine. We came up with so many new songs that the selection process became hard.
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I also felt like our material was more eclectic. It's as though we were trying to show that The Brandals were not just a rock 'n roll band. There's rockabilly ("Career Crackin'"), funk ("New World Declaration"), psychedelic ("Disorder/Disharmoni"), Merseybeat ("Dari The Brandals Buat Yang Bercinta"), et cetera. We really wanted to put out a record like The Clash Sandinista! where they experimented by blending so many elements into one intense journey.The material was solid and ambitious, but still today we think the sound is to 'clean.' It's not what we imagined it would sound like. But then again, maybe that was what eventually won us mass appeal. With the help of Warner Music Indonesia, this was our best-selling album and this period was the peak of our exposure to a wider audience. At one point we played three to four cities in a single weekend. We were at our peak, living the whole rock 'n roll cliche and not knowing that it was only downhill from here.
3. Brandalisme (2007)
This record feels the most personal to me because I was going through a tough time. I had personal problems and I was pretty depressed. My dad had just passed away, my relationship was doomed, my best friend had died…This was also the farewell album for our guitarist Bayu and our bassist Dodi who each left to build families of their own. But the problems started to rise long before we started recording. I guess lesson learned—if you want your band to move forward, you can't do it half-ass. You have to focus and prioritize it 24/7. It needs a constant push.
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By this point most of our members had day jobs and girlfriends. Subsequently, we got pretty distracted and that became the beginning of a period of stagnation. Some members thought they could stand on their own two feet and decided they didn't need the band anymore, which was sad since it was actually The Brandals who gave them that voice in the first place. There was so much friction and we got into a lot of arguments.Despite all of this, we still could come up with some pretty strong material. Songs like "100% Kontrol," "City Boy," and "Restless" were total bangers. They became instant hits with our fans. Some of the songs that had pretty dark atmospheres have also become personal favorites. They were my medium to write about my personal turmoil. Every time I listen to this album, it takes me straight to those troubled times. This makes me appreciate it even more in hindsight because i know that survived one of the toughest periods of my life. Although I didn't know that much heavier storm clouds were still yet to come.
2. The Brandals (2003)
A lot of fans say this is their favorite record. To some extent, maybe it is mine too. It was a perfect album for a perfect time. I was away for school for almost 3.5 years. I came back to Jakarta in 2002 and our music scene felt stuck. There were almost no substantial rock bands, none who were making a statement.Then I was The Upstairs at IKJ and they were so inspirational. Apparently there was this post-punk band in Jakarta. It made me want to go out and do it on my own. After failing to begin several new projects, I got to join my brother's band and it was a match made in heaven. They were all young, angry, and hungry. They were the perfect human time bomb. So I laid down my plan and they just ate it up. We were ready for war.
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We had a mission to be a band who brought the issues of Jakarta to the stage. So we got moving quickly. We wrote one song after the next. It all happened very quickly, like a moving train. In early 2003, we recorded in Doors Studios, in Pisangan, East Jakarta ,with a limited budget and few skills. None of us knew how to produce an album. I produced two albums with Waiting Room, but only as the vocalist. We were helped by Yuli Fox and Giox, now of Superglad. But our limitations here made for a unique sound that we still can't duplicate.It was released in December of 2003, right at the beginning of the Aksara era with bands like The Upstairs, Sajama Cut, Seringai, The Miskins, et cetera. Although at first, we didn't even know there was a scene. We were on our own. We played pensi, campus parties, collective gigs, community events. We carried with us the dirty, aggressive, wild face of Jakarta. A lot of audience members and event organizers thought we were nothing more than cheap provocation and hyperbolic antagonism. But we didn't give a toss. We had a bit of a reputation back then, which meant mission accomplished. The audience didn't realize they were looking at a reflection of themselves. They couldn't handle the truth. And then our close friend Eunice Nuh asked us to play at a small club called Bar Blues on Jalan Sidoarjo, in Menteng, and the rest is history.Looking back, this era always makes me feel nostalgic. It was definitely the best time in The Brandals. We were a family. A gang as a band should be. We were fearless and always up to no good. While it didn't last long, I've always been fond of these times.
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1. DGNR8 (2011)
This was the album that put The Brandals back into shape. We have Joseph Sariyuf to thank for that. For this record we got to experience what ti was like to work with a producer who could open doors to experiment in ways we didn't know existed.We had almost called it quits. There were only three of us left. But we finally found a guitarist, PM and a bassist, Radit, who brought in fresh ideas. With new members come new musical characters. We decided to change everything, our music, our image, everything. There was no particular reason, we just thought it was a new chapter, so we should reintroduce the band to a new audience. And we deliberately made this record to be divisive, either you were with us or you weren't.This album represents progress. If the old fans wanted the old Brandals, they could fuck off and listen to our first three records. I mean what band wants to stay the same after almost a decade? It's fucking boring, right?We worked hard on this album. It's great to have a producer involved to give us input and options. Eventually we became a different band. Different animals. Inside we're still The Brandals, but we shed our old skin and revealed a new one. It's like starting all over again. It was very challenging at first. We used new tools and digital instruments and it took time for us to learn to use them and get used to it. Rully started learning to make backing tracks where the beats had to be precise. And he was literally our heartbeat. We played to the tempo he set. It was very disciplined and technical. And, of course, it got boring after a while.But old habits die hard and we had a tendency to sweep problems under the rug and pretend they didn't exist. Soon, everything was bottled up and it interrupted our creative process. We became bored playing the same songs and different gigs and we had communication problems. Soon everything turned black and faded away. Some members of the band suddenly thought they were better than sliced bread and put on these extreme displays of superiority. That includes me, probably. All of that plus managerial issues. We decided to take a break.Then tragedy happened. On November 27, 2015, we lost Rully for good.Today we're giving it another shot and making music again. It's gonna be tough and we can't guarantee that it will work. But we're trying. Everyone in the band as been through major, life-changing events and it feels like we are evolving again as a band. The fact that we still carry on after getting knocked down by death, egos, and a string of unfortunate tragedies is a bit of a miracle. So let's hope there's an album number five sometime this year.
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