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›An Interview with NOXA
› Headbang interviews Oxen from Noxa
To coincide with the review of Noxa’s latest release ‘Grind Viruses’, I managed to secure an interview with Oxen (Robin), the drummer and founder of the Indonesian grindcore masters.
This isn’t just an interview about Noxa but an insight into the metal scene in another country as he talks about the scene in Indonesia and how it compares with his experience gigging in Europe.
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HB - Hey man, when you decided to form Noxa, what made you all decide to play grindcore?
Robin - Hey James, first of all thanks a lot for supporting Noxa and giving us this interview. I decided to form Noxa in March 2002 at my store “ISH-KABIBLE”, I invited all the members to meet me at my store, and we agreed to start Noxa and play straight up GrindCore, no compromise! All the members agreed with that so I told 'em that we would have to work hard to support Noxa, as we can't be dependent on the mainstream music business to be successful. I also said that we must be active as a band, recording an album every year so that we can actually get somewhere in the future. Now after 2 albums and 7 videos, as well as a few compilations in Jakarta, we’ve managed to secure a deal with Finnish label ‘Stay Heavy Records’ for three records.
HB - Is grindcore one of the most popular forms of metal in Indonesia?
Robin – No, not at all. Nowadays, Emocore bands have got the biggest part of the market here. Before that it was nu metal, and industrial metal before that! But grindcore was popular in Jakarta way back in 1988, which was what I was playing when I started my old band. Now, thankfully, grindcore is getting a bit bigger and scratching the surface of the metal scene in Indonesia once more.
HB - Who came up with the name Noxa, and what does it mean?
Robin - I made up the name Noxa, I made the logo myself as well! I took the word from a Medical Dictionary, which said that Noxa meant; “ if you consume bad stuff it'll cause problems you” so I take it to mean, you’ll get nowhere if you play grindcore when you’re drunk, or something like that!
HB - In your songs, there seems to be lots of themes of personal turmoil as well as anger at bigger issues like greed and the state of the world. Who writes these lyrics and what do they mean to the band?
Robin - Most of the lyrics are written by our Vocalist, Tony. Although I do write some of them like the song ‘Catastrophe’, which I wrote about the tsunami that killed over 100,000 people in the Aceh-Nothern part of Sumatra, Indonesia, which is our countries saddest loss. For me in general all the lyrics mean that we hate something shitty that happened to our country because of the Politricks and sh*t people! Tony also created some lyrics about his hatred of sinetrons (soap operas) that made a load of women become stupid things.
HB - What is the metal scene in Indonesia like? Do Indonesian metal fans prefer home grown Indonesian bands, or are a lot of international bands popular.
Robin - Back in 1998 Jakarta was the first base of metal, I started my band in 1988 with some other bands, and the scene has just kept getting bigger and bigger until now. As we all know, the internet puts everything, Indonesian and International into one box. Sure, all the fans support local bands as well, and a lot of the new blood have got albums to promote and gigs to play etc so it's not too difficult for them to get some fans. But international bands are very popular when they play here, first of all around 2004 Napalm Death played here for the first time. After that lots of international bands have come here to play because, thanks to the internet, Indonesian people are able get all the information on what’s happening in the world of music.
HB - In 2006 you were offered the opportunity to play at a festival in Germany but were unable to, due to visa problems. How much work and effort did it take for you to finally get out of Indonesia to play at Tuska Open Air?
Robin - Yes, when we were invited to play the ‘F*ck the Commerce’ festival in Germany, it was during the world cup and we applied for Tourist visas because we weren’t sure what the rules were as musicians so our application was turned down. For Tuska this was less of a problem, as I had met Tony Taleva every year since 2002 at Tuska so I had been promoting Noxa to him before 2008. He then offered the chance for us to play at Tuska 2008, and also offered us a deal with his label Stay Heavy Records! So Anchelik Kaspinen helped us to contact the Indonesian Embassy in Finland to ask them if they would support Noxa. Luckily for us the Ambassador helped us loads; with our accomodation, foods, calling visa, etc. So from there I thought that was no way we would miss out on this festival, and thankfully we didn’t.
HB - How did you find your first European experience? How does it differ from touring in Indonesia?
Robin - Incredible, we were really Grind shocked! That was our first time playing in Europe, and we played in the land of Heavy Metal, Finland, at a festival where and loads of big bands have played. We really loved it and we want to do European tour again some time soon. We don’t do lots of tours in Indonesia, because it’s mostly pop or rock bands that have markets here, not extreme bands. We are working most of the time so I have to ask all the band members to make sure they can get time off. We do play gigs in Indonesia, but we don’t tend to tour. Now, we're just preparing our new material for full length album for 2010. We're getting big impact after our Finland mini tour, I got quite a lot of contacts asking for Noxa dates as soon as we landed in Jakarta.
HB - Your newest release, Grind Viruses is now being sold by Stay Heavy Records of Finland, how are you finding this partnership and how well do you feel your record has been received here in Europe.
Robin - It began 2002 when I met Tony Taleva, that's the first time I visited Tuska. From then on I always came up to Finland every year to watch the Tuska Open Air Metal Festival. I talked with Tony “eye for an eye” in Tuska 2007 and he was interested in releasing the Noxa album that had already been released in Indonesia in 2006, so i took him up on that offer. Actually after Tuska 2008 we recorded 7 songs at Ateljee studio in Lahti – Finland. These songs are planned to be released on a split CD with an as yet unconfirmed Finnish band. After this split release we still have a deal with Stay Heavy for full length album in 2010 as well.
HB - Are there any concrete plans on coming back to Europe any time soon?
Robin - Yes, well nothing concrete, but sure, we're planning to hit the skies, roads, and festivals in a big European tour next year in 2009. We’re still saving some money for our flight tickets to reach Europe though. Hopefully all the plans will happen and hopefully people in Europe can accept us as a newcomer band from south east Asia.
HB - What is the best show you have ever played?
Robin - number 1, is when we played in Tuska (Open Air) of course! We flew 15 hours from Jakarta, transit in Bangkok for 15 hours all to play in front of loads of crazy people!
Number 2, there's a crazy festival we have in Indonesia that Noxa played which had massive pits to every song we play
Number 3, the first time we played abroad was in Singapore & Malaysia around 3 or 4 years ago I think, that was a great experience for us also.
HB - What can we expect next from Noxa?
Robin - We’re gonna try to make a great album for all the maniacs, fans, lovers and haters in the world of extreme and mainstream music !!! We also plan to make a film about “Noxa” the documentary will be produced by Takuya Suzuki ( Japanese - Finnish ). We hope we can spread our album and film all over the world and become the best grindcore band ever! Thanks for the interview James, success always...
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Jim Hodgson
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