Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?

The Jethroes consists of Surianto Suband as the singer and guitarist, M. Ridhwan Shazni is the guitarist, Jailani Juhili as the bassist and Agus Susanto is the drummer.

I am Ridhwan Shazni by the way (again...) and I am 32 years old.

Have you had other previous members? Yes, before, it was M. Afieq on bass and Azlan on drum but they left the band slightly after we released our debut album and the latter left the band on 2009 so it’s hardly a fact to be told. Either way, we are still in contact with each other as close friends.

What year did the band form? The band started back in 2006 as The Retrock, a hard rock band, slightly different than what we are today but the essence is still the same. The facts that we are using more fx and louder distortion and fuzz , which are the facts that needs to be high-lighted because when we were The Retrock, we used minimal guitar fx and still, we manage to produced self-titled and self-released single(s) and demos here and there but that’s just it.    

How often and where do you rehearse? This one is a tricky question but it’s safe to safe say that we usually rehearse 4 times a week if there’s an upcoming show and if not, then it’s likely going to be the once a week routine and usually we rehearse at a rented jamming studio.

What are your songs about? We usually compose our song with what we felt is needed, in all honesty, Surianto is a great lyricist. We could have a great love song to the motivational and hype ones even I myself made a few and to me, all of our song is about peace, love and with a lot more complicated feelings and worldly gestures and there are sjut too many things in this world that we can express. Because we love to voice our our opinion in our lyrics and in it, it’s a vast world where everyone is living harmoniously because nowadays, the lack of apathy is the world’s number one disease and it’s destroying everything, say, a beautiful country that is destroyed by the corrupted ones, the march of a revolutionary, everything, even death is beautiful to an extent albeit everything cease to exist, the feeling is mutual to every existence. Such is our song.

Do you have any new material? Our most recent material is a single called Jesselton Stereoroid MXVIII with a bonus track called Doomsday Blues. You can find it at iTUnes, Spotify and Deezer.

How have you developed since you started with the music? It’s been awhile since we first started and now that we finally found our identity, with our black figures, always in our leather jacket, from plain rock and roll to blues, the songs that we made has matured, more like in an industrial vibe within the sound and everything, lyrics included, if we are to compare it to when we formed the band back in the days.

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Yes we are and currently we are looking for a very specific agent that could help us to go through for a European tour. We somehow connected with the DIY circuit there but since we are playing stoner rock, the lack of crowd and the fact that we are still an unknown band to most people from the outside, most agents would incline to help us. This is very encouraging because in a way, we not only realize that we need to find the right way but also, the needs has to be precise for us to choose the country we are going. So what we need, is a good promoter that can help us promote this type of genre and that’s just it.

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Yes, we are looking for one. We are currently on recording sessions for our second album. We are still doing it, without knowing which label will release it but that’s the whole point of forming a band, we make music and playing it live to share it with the rest of the world. The lack of having a label won’t stop us from making music. It’s just that to ensure that we are in a right path as a band, we ought to have a proper material for it and for it to be properly done, we absolutely need a label for that. But if we can’t, then again, it won’t stop us from making one.

Have you done any covers live? Yes we did a few covers of The Sigit, The Hellacopters and Graveyard.

What language do you sing in? We do have a few Malay song but most of our song is in English.

Where do you plan to gig the coming year? Like I mentioned above, we are currently planning for a European Tour and next year, 2019, hopefully we can cover South East Asia first. We need to go step by step.

Where can people buy your merchandise? People can contact us on facebook for our merchandise. We have The Hellish Dogma metalpin and shirt, Doomsday Blues shirt and more to come.

What do you think of my work? I am always fascinated by interviews and I always found it very intriguing and for bloggers such as yourself, I honestly believe that what you’re doing is great because for an unknown band such as ourselves, you could get people to listen to us after reading this interview. We really appreciate your kind intention. I am sure that you have helped so many in your line of work.  Therefore, we salute you!

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? This is also like playing a gig for me. It gives us more exposure towards acknowledgement and giving so much info about us is helping not just other people to know us, but it’s helping ourselves to tell them what we are all about and eventually, will help us getting more listener in your country.

Do you have any role models or idols? Yes of course, everybody has one but not to an extent of the likes of Bieber fans. Mine is Nicke Andersson of Entombed/Hellacopters/Imperial State Electric and the late, Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead. This is also why I want to go Europe.

Thank you for this cool interview