santa monica

As you all may already now, one of Jakarta’s new promising electronic indiepop act, Santamonica, is going to release their debut album entitled Curiouser and Curiouser next month. They have been releasing radio singles, Wanderlust and The Boy (which only comes with the limited edition package), and now their releasing another single for digital download with us, Tinkerwish.



Some Q&As with Deathrockstar

Hello, how are you guys? What are Santamonica up to lately?
Hi, we’re doing just fantastic. We’re busy doing interviews for magazines, radios, and shooting for our first clip ‘Wanderlust’.

Can you tell you the story behind the pre-order version for your upcoming album?
For the special edition album, you’ll get additional 8 reworked B-sides that won’t available anywhere else, not in the previous album, compilations, or future albums. The CD will also have unique alternative packaging than the regular one. There are also videos and other extras there too, so you know that it will be special. We have released the single ‘The Boy’ on radios for listeners to get a taste of what we had in this special edition album.

Why did you choose the title ‘Curiouser and Curiouser’? Did you find it a bit hard to spell (especially with the Indonesian tonque)?
We took the name ‘Curiouser and Curiouser’ from Alice in Wonderland. In chapter Two, when Alice was following the white rabbit into the tunnel, she was so excited, surprised and confused at the same time, she started crying ‘curiouser and curiouser’, although she knows that there’s no such word as curiouser. I guess the word Curiouser describes our album perfectly.

How would you assure those who had been pre-ordering and paying full up front n their expectations?
It would be impossible to describe Santamonica music in this album. You need to experience it by yourself. It will be nothing that you ever heard from other bands in this country, we know that for sure.

Have you been working on a videoclip for your single?
Now we’re preparing to shoot our first video, ‘Wanderlust’ which is also the first single of the album. It will be directed by newcomer Dibyo Kusumo with help from famed director Anton Ismael. It will be surreal and awesome, we promise you!

Any last words?
Believe in yourself, don’t believe the fad

About Santamonica

In 2001, when Joseph Saryuf returned home to Jakarta after studying in Hamburg, Germany, he decided to become a full-time musician; starting to compose songs for his own music project and working as a freelance music director for various production houses in Jakarta. Not long after that, Joseph met Anindita, a fashion editor and freelance illustrator, and decided to form a duo based on their similar taste in music and their love for analog sounds.

They also took part in two compilation albums, Pop Shower (2003, Quince Records Japan) and Todays Of Yesterday (2005, Bad Sectors Records). Recently, Anindita also contributed in the latest album from shoegaze veteran, Loveliescrushing, which will be released sometime in 2007.

In September 2005, Santamonica finally released their first EP titled ‘189′ to stamp their name in the local music scene and as a warm up prior to the release of the bands full-length album. The EP includes three songs ‘Please Say Yes’, ‘Sought and Found’, and ‘Serenade of Yellow Park’ which have a more acoustic, warm feeling than the songs in their upcoming debut album.

Other than the release of ‘189′ EP, they have played in many respectable gigs around Jakarta and Bandung, such as PL Fair, La Voila, and Indonesia’s biggest music festival: Soundrenaline, along with the country’s top bands and performers. From their ninceptions, they have gathered fans both locally and overseas, thanks to their unique sound, dynamic live performance and exposures from websites like
Myspace, Tweenet, etc.

After two years of waiting, Santamonica’s full-length debut ‘Curiouser and Curiouser’, will be released in Indonesia, this October 2007, under Sinjitos Records (Joseph’s own records label). This album is a follow-up to the band’s EP ‘189′ which was already sold out (1,000 copies in limited release).

In this album, Santamonica has shifted its musical direction from their patented bossa nova and indiepop sounds into an eclectic mixture of electropop, modern jazz, and progressive rock while their musical roots still remain intact. They described their new sound as the musical version of a trip down to Alice in Wonderland; listeners can expect a roller coaster of musical journey accompanied with the band’s trademark whimsical sounds. “The whole experience when listening to our music is quite eerie, yet I think it (our music) also possesses a beautiful quality in it” explains vocalist, Anindita, in one of the local radio interview.

Wanderlust, their first single, were inspired from French electropop with a strong touch of analog sound, unique synth-bass rhytm which visualizes velocity in suspended animation, whispering vocals as instruments and an adrenalin-rushing climax toward the ending.

The recording itself was an endless experiments, such as mic positioned between guitar amps with different tremolo rates for the electric organ, mixer-direct keyboard amps for the fuzzy-noised guitar sounds, and harmonies from a combination of 4 distinct type of mics sampled with guitar frequencies to produce the eerie vocals.

BAND MEMBERS
Name : Joseph Saryuf (Guitar, vocals, synthesizers, sampling and drums)
D.O.B : 24 July 1980
Likes : Photography, Heroes and composing music
Dislikes : Soap opera actors
Influences : My Bloody Valentine, Blonde Redhead, Broadcast. Yo La Tengo

Name : Anindita Saryuf (Vocals, synthesizer, lyrics)
D.O.B : 17 November 1979
Likes : Kooky fashion, lomography, Nancy Drew PC Games
Dislikes : Cold coffee, models who have B.O and attitude problem
Influences : The Carpenters, Astrud Gilberto, Pale Saints, Stereolab