HOMOGENIC - and a very little part of their innermost thought

Photo by: Frian Indrasmara

You and Homogenic. Imagine that it’s sunday afternoon, and you’re on a beach house with them, having a nice and long conversation. From silly questions to philosophical answers. Sometimes giggle. Sometimes laughing pretty hard. Sometimes silence. And just thinking for while. It will be a nice holiday, after all. One thing that people should know: Homogenic for Dina, Dea, Manda and other members of this family, it is a daily dose because they’re living on it.
So here’s the convo:


------------------Let’s back to basic for a while. How did you joined Homogenic?

Dina
How did i join? i create this all...=)

Dea
On the process of producing the debut album "Epic Simphony" (2004) Dina asked me to join Homogenic as a fellow producer. From similiarities until my realization that their material song was more than amazing, i decided to fully contributing my passion to be a part of homogenic as an officially line up.

Manda
It happened in one click. At first dina contacted me and told me that homogenic was looking for a new vocalist. By the progress, as soon as i finished the trial for singing their songs, we have a chat and sharing about the vision for the future mission of homogenic. And from that moment, magic happens.

------------------------------How meaningful Homogenic is for you?
Dina
Homogenic is my lifetime affair. I cannot easily says no for this Homogenic thingy. Whatever it takes, it always become my priority. I'm rarely open nor share my thoughts to public but i become naked whenever you listen to my song and read my lyric.

Dea
It’s more than just a 'band' for me. something that make me who I am these days. Most of the people inside and around homogenic has been friends since the debut album and such things like line up change is rarely happened in Homogenic. It’s the beauty of professional relationship combined with loyalty friendship.

Manda
it’s feel like i finnally found a perfect harbor for my 'desire ship'. Homogenic is my new home, my new family, my new life and I'm so ready to live my life's journey together with them, in good or bad.

------------------- Homogenic is clearly a piece of art, what are some of the more affecting pieces or artwork or film or design or theater you’ve seen (personally) in the past few years that might’ve given Homogenic some of its shading?
DINA
I believe that art is personal, when it comes to "well designed" eventually it'll crossing your sense without any cogitation and appreciation. But i do plead there are some piece of arts that inspired me a lot in this creation process, as well as movies (dancer in the dark, science of sleep, virgin suicides, lost in translation, dogville,etc), book/novel (Kill the radio, the alchemist, etc)...well at the end the most noble art is human story itself.


DEA
i admire movies or graphic novels which gave me a deep impressions. I tried to translate those into the band's composition to create similiar ambients with the impressions that I get from the scenes. Movies by Michaels Gondry,Stanley Kubrick, and Michael Moore whilst sometimes enjoyed some crude humor from Judd Apatow's comedies. For the Graphic Novels, other than the Evangelion Saga, I really admire most of the works by Naoki Urasawa, specifically his ingenious collaboration with Osamu Tezuka to re-create one of the greatest story arc of Astro Boy into a suspense-thriller.


MANDA
While our song has deep meanings and and variety interpretations, for me, on the other way, Homogenic somehow remind me of a piece of work which has simple messages that everyone can accept. From “Serendipity” the movie, The Bird and The Bee, even ancient Indonesian Dictionary until the art of two way monologues between two lovers.


---------------------Homogenic had done a lot of collaborations at this point, and they’ve always been fairly eyebrow-raising (in a good way). have you ever consider doing more cross-medium collaborations (like you did with 12 authors in the 3rd album)

DEA
Sure! Most of the time, a work of art can be more conclusive if we enjoy it in a complete form. I believe that a collaboration with other artist can multiply the impact of the contents that we want our listeners to get, to understand our music as a whole work of art. In addition, it's better to work together than alone.

DINA
We believe in collaboration, and we will do it again for sure. But we still need time on focusing the subject of collaboration. Eventually, the collaboration itself will be worthless without any positive outcomes for two sides of collaborator. Before thinking about the new one, we consider to maximize the project we've made with this 12 astonishing writers.

MANDA
I believe that collaboration would always be one of the reason to make the band becoming greater and exist in society. I hope, not just writers, but we can make another breakthrough collaboration in the future.

----------------------------- Is the music as fun to make as it is to listen to?

DINA
Sure, indeed. At least i won't make song that i don't like to. The ambiance that come with the song listened, represent the state of the creation process at that time. Creating a song is not merely lyric writing and music arranging, but putting the soul on it.


DEA
It's not exactly the same actually. Sometimes you get that shiver when enjoying a very good music that impress you so much and makes you want to immediately share it to everybody you know. On the other hand, when you make a good music and truly enjoying it, you get the exact same feeling, plus an absolute happiness when you find that other people enjoy your work as much as you do.

MANDA
It’s a matter of responsibility, after all. You get the enjoyness from just listening your favorite music until it gets you some inspirations, but when you create it, you also have the responsibility from every other single details, such copyright, creative invention, the messages behind the songs.

-------------------------What is "Hope and Change" from your point of view?
DINA
It's what we try to convey in this third album. It's a message for our listener. It's as simple as short text message but as important as state address. It's a humble sentence that aiming the emergence of one's better life with positive attitude.

DEA
Never afraid to hoping for something, and never be reluctant to accept the changes. We don't want it to be somekind of a big 'national campaign' or anthemic. We just want to keep it low, aimed for each of ourselves first, about how we can do things better, do things which we hope can give a good impact for people near us. That's how good things are working, starting right from a personal level, at the very basic.

MANDA
Hope and change is a learning progress in life, where us, as human, willing to understand and dealing the doubts, gaining the good faith, and elevate us more to a new better way.

--------------------------- what kind of strong personality that you and other member of Homogenic have that makes the band becoming something colorful?

DINA
A chemistry bond among us. Three of us have different characteristic, and the hardest part of it is to conceive each person. Above it all, homogenic is not really a band. We talk personally, we're caring each other, we rely on each other, we spend most of our day together without always talking about music. We are a family. That might be the reason why our music become so colorful, because we colored our day concurrently.

DEA
Homogenic is not only me, dina, and manda. There are many people that involved, the label, the management, the tech-guys, the band-players, and the other artists that been collaborating with us since a long time. Each of us have a very different characteristics, different approaches to make things done, and it quite a challenge for us to make sure that everyone involved in the band are 'syncing'. We're always facing new challenges as band, as a collective of people with huge passion for music. Based on that, I'm quite sure that at this time, our bonds are keep stronger and making us more and more solid than ever before.

MANDA
Homogenic for me is a perfect package. We have different lifes, different thoughts, different interests, but what makes us united is the fact that we have the same vision, with our imperfectness and good value.

And in the end of this conversation, one of them said, “See you on the next story, my friend”. Till we meet again, shall we?

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