Domestic Groove: Kartika Jahja

Seringai's Taring. Over and over and over. Best purchase I've made this year.
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KARTIKA JAHJA
Songstress

What music are you into at the moment?
Seringai’s Taring. Over and over and over. Best purchase I’ve made this year.

What was the first record you bought—any interesting story behind it?
Tone Loc’s Loc’ed After Dark when I was in fourth grade. Hiphop has always been my first love. Still is. The only reason I haven’t made a hiphop album is cause I am a horrible rapper. And the first song that got me into hip hop was “Funky Cold Medina”, hahaha. From there I started discovering other artists like Public Enemy, Wu Tang Clan, NWA and found out the more roots stuff like Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash even later. So basically I found my way in through the more pop stuff, like “Funky Cold Medina”. Just like everyone, I began as a poser. That’s why I’m always nice to posers. Hahaha.

What is/are your all-time favourite album/s? Why?
Tough question. If I had to pick one, it would be Nina Simone’s Wild Is The Wind, for obvious reasons. Nina Simone’s like a Goddess to me. I once kicked a guy out of my car, left him in the middle of a road, for talking shit about Ms. Simone. Hahaha. But I can’t leave out Suzanne Vega’s 99.9 Fahrenheit Degrees, and Noa’s self titled album, which are big influences in my own song-writing. I still play Kula Shaker’s K every time I get on a plane, and to this day Public Enemy’s Nation of Millions still helps in directing my temper in the right direction.

What was the worst record you ever purchased?
You know how sometimes you buy an album just because you know the artist, but you actually have no idea what their music sounds like, and when you bought it and listen to it, the first thing that you think of was “Damn it, what am I gonna say to these guys when they ask me my opinion about their album”. Hahahaha.
I can’t name the artist, but let’s just say I have been avoiding them since I bought the album because I am not a very good liar. Hahaha.

Who do you want to be, other than yourself, next time you reincarnate?
Probably a cop. I grow up resenting the police. It’d be interesting to reincarnate as someone you simply can’t relate to, just to see what it’s actually like from their point of view.

What book are you reading now and what’s the score (1-10)?
Re-reading an old series of zines called Brainscan by Alex Wrekk. It’s a 10. Definitely.

What new movie should people see? Why?
I don’t know, you tell me. Hahaha.

What song do you choose to start your weekend?
Depends on what kind of weekend you’re looking forward to. I think this weekend, mine would be Slank’s “Reaksi Kimia”.

And song you choose to end your weekend?
Melancholic Bitch’s “Nasihat yang Baik”, and Beethoven’s “Sonata Claro de Luna”.

Tika recently put together, direct and write songs for a children’s choir called Little Devils while with her band, Tika & The Dissidents, is currently working on an EP due to be released early next year.

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*This interview was firstly published on The Beat (Jakarta) #73, Oct 15-28, 2012
*Photo on the front page is borrowed from Ananda Suryo Anindyo

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Picture of Rudolf Dethu

Rudolf Dethu

Music journalist, writer, radio DJ, socio-political activist, creative industry leader, and a qualified librarian, Rudolf Dethu is heavily under the influence of the punk rock philosophy. Often tagged as this country’s version of Malcolm McLaren—or as Rolling Stone Indonesia put it ‘the grand master of music propaganda’—a name based on his successes when managing Bali’s two favourite bands, Superman Is Dead and Navicula, both who have become two of the nation’s biggest rock bands.
Picture of Rudolf Dethu

Rudolf Dethu

Music journalist, writer, radio DJ, socio-political activist, creative industry leader, and a qualified librarian, Rudolf Dethu is heavily under the influence of the punk rock philosophy. Often tagged as this country’s version of Malcolm McLaren—or as Rolling Stone Indonesia put it ‘the grand master of music propaganda’—a name based on his successes when managing Bali’s two favourite bands, Superman Is Dead and Navicula, both who have become two of the nation’s biggest rock bands.

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