Berberapa bulan yang lalu, saya mendapat ajakan dari teman saya untuk mampir ke sebuah acara  musik di JK7, sebuah bar di basement hotel di kawasan Kemang, Jakarta.

Meskipun saya tidak bisa lama-lama, saya tetap mampir dengan tujuan menyapa teman yang mengajak. Di pintu masuk, saya diberi stiker dan cetakan fisik dari sebuah zine, NoiseWhore yang terbaca dari buku mungil itu. Saya ternyata datang pada hari kedua acara, dimana hari sebelumnya dilaksanakan di The Reading Room, Kemang, dan pas, pada saat saya masuk, band pertama yang main dalam rundown sedang main.

Saya ingat membisikan ke telinga teman saya.

“Ini siapa yang main? Kayanya enak deh” — dan akhirnya, saya stay di JK7 sampai band ke 3.

Ternyata berberapa bulan kemudian, Noisewhore mengadakan acara lagi. Sama seperti yang pertama, NOISEWHORE LIVE VOL. 002 diadakan 2 hari dengan lineup yang lebih ramai lagi, saya cuman sempat datang ke hari ke-dua (and stayed the whole night), dimana dibuka oleh Bising Kota dan ditutup dengan Circarama.

Dan ternyata, baru saja pekan lalu NOISEWHORE mengadakan rangkaian event offline mereka yang ke-3, a curated music event at a house in Bintaro. And thats when I wanted to know more and more about this so called NOISEWHORE clan. Jadi, lewat Kratonpedia — saya mendapatkan kesempatan untuk berbincang sedikit dengan Argi, founder of NOISEWHORE. Dari bagaimana terbentuknya, dream guest star dan masa depan untuk zine online yang dikelolanya.

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N: Apa latar belakang terbentuknya NOISEWHORE? Siapa saja, sejak kapan dan bagimana proses terbentuknya kolektif ini?

A: Well first of all I wouldnt call noisewhore as a real collective. Basically, kita awalnya adalah sebuah tumblr blog buatan gue sama temen SMA gue yang namanya Kareem. Sekarang sih, udah cabut dari noisewhore. And went on and off after that. Untuk zine pertama kita terbit, itu terbit pada tahun 2013.

Boleh bercerita tentang perkembangan zine lokal?

Zine lokal sendiri menurut gue udah berubah banget dari jaman gue seneng bgt ngumpulin zine, seperti pada jaman-jaman Wahyuacum circa 2011/2012 dan I think, sampe sekarang yang banyak banget itu adalah zine digital. 

If you would call that a zine of course. It's all the same for me. NOISEWHORE sendiri sih, gak tentu untuk kapan kita mau publish online atau zine fisik. Tapi gue sendiri seneng dengan zine fisik jadi every once in a while itu bakal gue terbitin.

Bagaimana bentuk pengkurasian untuk line up NOISEWHORE LIVE?

Pengkurasian noisewhore bener-bener suka-suka gue sama anak-anak hahaha dan tentunya tergantung duit kita saat itu. 

Ada tidak, band Indonesia yang menjadi dasar terbentuknya NOISEWHORE

Gak ada sih haha.. I was just so mesmerized by the bands that had new releases on 2012/2013 such as Pandai Besi, oh and No Love Deep Web by Death Grips. They, were sort of a push — it made me feel that I should write about it. 

Menurut kacamata NOISEWHORE gimana perkembangan kumpulan kolektif di Indonesia?

Kolektif di Indonesia keren keren haha apalagi di Jakarta juga bisa dibilang lumayan rame. Di beberapa kota di Jawa juga banyak kolektif asik-asik lainnya yang bikin acara yang mungkin jauh diatas noishor hahaha. Kita mah masih baru brow. 

Apakah ada niatan memasuki unsur lain kedalam pembahasan zine kalian? Seperti sosial, politik, film atau hal-hal mistik sekalipun? (terlepas dari musik)

Ah about that. Kita lagi mikirin gimana biar zine dan live shows nya noisewhore tetep seimbang karena skrg kita lebih fokus bikin-bikin show daipada nulis. And we're pretty much open to anything at this point.

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Was there any particular reason why NOISEWHORE Live was created, as I can see the zine itself has already ran for about 3 years, but the offline activation was just this year.

Well noisewhore live itself is an idea invested in noisewhore since early 2015. Back when it was all by myself, I didnt have enough guts at that time and by 2016 I have asked some of my friends to join noisewhore and we did it. We did our third show this year since march and it was soo good. Shame u didnt come. 

Sorry I missed it, I saw the poster and it was held at a house in Bintaro — if I’m not mistaken? Sounds interesting as gigs or events like this are rarely held at just a “house”. Also, the additional performers which was outside the band scene.

Well.. haha it was surptising for me as well. Considering it was in Bintaro and I invited some djs to come over — it went pretty well I guess, there was around 100+ people that came,  Future Collective and Oscar Lolang were thebest performers that night for me.

And yes, pertama kalinya lo absen ya.

Haha, next time it is then! Was the house yours or a friend’s?

It’s my friends empty house — it was empty as in really, really empty empty and we’re free to do anything.

Gimana untuk rencana kedepan? Apakah kemungkinan akan ada musisi-musisi lokal di ranah arus utama (mainstream) yang diajak untuk acara berikutnya?

Gue saudara Isyana Sarasvati sih haha, it would be funny as hell to have her on NOISEWHORE.

Should I take this as a joke or—?

Hahahaha, it’s a half joke — but you can take it seriously, because there is a chance. Like around 5% of her coming, but after that NOISEWHORE will rest in peace.

Any thoughts on Lagu Radio vs. Lagu Bandcamp (or in otherwords mainstream vs indie).

My stance? I keep some of ‘em as my guilty pleasure to be honest. Especially some Meghan Trainor sh*t but yeah the production values annoy me as much as anything else.

Salah satu penampil lokal yang ingin kalian bahas untuk edisi-edisi berikutnya? Dan kenapa?

Oscar lolang! He's new. He bring all the good stuff in the equation. Will be up on the site pretty soon.

So as a whole, is the offline event in chance of looking for profits? Or to build a certain brand perhaps?

To be honest, we never have any profit dan selalu rugi (big time). We just wanna have fun I guess and I personally hope that'll continue.

Any words or anything that you could say to convince people to come and watch your events?

No, haha certainly not because as I could’nt care any less whether its a fullhouse or an empty gig we have to pay either way so why dont we just have fun and all.

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Saya berharap di Jakarta, dan sekitarnya bisa melanjutkan budaya kolektif seperti ini, karena konten dan acara yang seperti ini yang menjadi salah satu hanging threads untuk industri musik independent di Indonesia. Bagi yang masih penasaran dengan NOISEWHORE bisa membuka website-nya disini dan juga instagramnya, disini.