Interview: Viewing The Greenhouse And Rimpang Effects From Reza Ryan's Glasses

Reza Ryan (Instagram @ehhafishah)

JAKARTA - Starting from his involvement in the Iron Pandai - the 'alter ego' Greenhouse Effect (ERK) band - Reza Ryan was then named a new member by Cholil (vocals), Poppie (bass), and Akbar (drums). Reza Ryan was honored by the decision. Because, long before becoming a member, he looked at ERK as a band of intelligence students who were critical through his music.

Although Reza Ryan thinks ERK does not promise a solution through its songs. However, at least, they give music listeners space for social issues that are rampant. So that through the music he echoed, indirect cooperation can be established between listeners, including elements of society in the country.

Reza Ryan's view at that time certainly came from the glasses of outsiders. Even though at this time, he was already in the body of the intelligence band. And that big achievement was not a lucky thing. But because ERK felt the good impact in terms of musical, thanks to Reza Ryan's contribution and knowledge.

Of course, Reza Ryan got all this knowledge through his hard work studying jazz, progressive, and art-rock songs with guitar instruments in eight hours a day by himself for years. All of these skills are also supported by his educational background at ISI Yogyakarta by taking classical music studies. No wonder ERICK is interested in recruiting him.

As a result, it was clearly radiated through ERK's latest album titled Rimpang. Reza Ryan's presence as a new personnel was able to perfect the order previously in ERK. Then, VOI was moved to explore more deeply about the figure of Reza Ryan and how the process of working on the Rimpang album through him. Check out the following interview.

The reason Greenhouse Effects designates you as a new member is because they feel you make a lot of contribution. What is the contribution in question?

"Oh, I don't know if that's the case. But what is certain is that there are two times of time. Assume the'renaissance' in my musical life phase, first at Yogya when I first listened to the album The Inner Mounting Flame from the Mahavishnu Orchestra band. Second, when I moved to Jakarta and met friends with Greenhouse Effects, Mas Mondo Gascaro and Mas Adrian Yunan, who opened the horizon of my thoughts in looking at music. In short, I want to say, instead I make a lot of contributions to ERK, it is ERK who contributes more to me.

What did you see and feel when you first worked on the material with the Greenhouse Effect?

"It's fun! At first I thought they were a band with a tendency to scale the orientation of the lyrics heavier than the musicals, but I was wrong, it turned out that they were a band that highly upholds musical aesthetic values.

How long does the process of working on the Rimpang album last until it is released?

From the writing of songs, selection and sorting of materials as well as the arrangement of charts and song structures, since 2016 before I joined. During the process of writing, selection and sorting material for the future of the Rimpang album, the Greenhouse Effect also released the single Merdeka (2016), such as Rahim Ibu (2018) and EP Jalan Six Tiga (2019). Then I joined in January 2022, involved in the arrangement of the songs collected and arranged in 2016 and engaged in new material absorption outside of old materials such as Heroik, Sondang, and Livestock Herd. The album Rimpang itself was released in January 2023, exactly one year from when I joined. Before the Rtipang, we also released Sapa Pra Disaster, a reinterpretation of our song on the work of Candra Darusman/Joealiard in Soenender.

What ideas are outlined in this album?

Since most of the songs have been written, arranged and arranged, I only contribute ideas about how the sound sharing is, what else is needed to further support the life of the song so that it is more lively, so that the personality of the song appears. For example, by filling out keyboard-based instruments and synthesizers such as sampled sound from mellotron (sampled string, woodwind, brass), sound from digital FM synthesizers and analogue synthesizers, ideas to fill out the choir, etc. On the Rimpang album, my portion of filling the guitar part is not even as much as keyboard/synthesizer.

With the existing order, how do you construct ideas into the current Greenhouse Effect?

By discussing, playing music (sometimes only with piano and guitar) and dissecting people's songs. Impossible we can make great work without being able to analyze good works first. Let's say this is a repertoire review. Reviewing other people's repertoires, then sit and analyze why it can be like that, dst. Music from The Common Practice Period (1600-1910) to music today is a long series of human thought journeys. Musician today is the successor to his predecessor's thoughts. By knowing the history, we can put our feet down to determine the orientation point from where, now where and where to where. A label record may just conjecture wanting new music from others, looking for tarzans in the forest, asking him to record music albums, but his music will never be able to speak because tarzan does not experience a musical cultural civilization line that produces idioms that can be understood together. You could teach hundreds or even thousands of vocabulary. But he will not be able to understand and understand the expression and idiom phrases and their context usage if he does not live in a society that gave birth to such idioms. Each musician, when writing a series of melodies, cannot be, surely has been influenced by musical language and idioms from the musical-musics he had previously listened to.

When this album was released, was it what you expected?

Alhamdulillah. It feels relieved, because when I started to join, there were at least two obstacles in the Greenhouse Effect when working on the album Rimpang. First, because Mas Cholil's domicile in America will certainly affect the flexibility of the creative process, especially when ideas are thrown and executed within the musical area. Second, we were chasing a gig schedule. At that time it was very tight time, after a gig, tonight we will immediately practice and record track-tracks that are still needed additional instrumentation. Entering the days of the mixing process, usually after performing, arriving at the airport, we did not go straight home but to the studio to continue the mixing process and sometimes ideas for overdub on the sidelines of mixing.

Many people feel that your entry into the Greenhouse Effect has had many positive impacts on this album. What do you think?

From my perspective, what I feel, the one who has a positive impact is me. If it turns out to be in people's opinion, with the entry I will have a positive impact on the album Rimpang then I would like to say thank God and Alhamdulillah. Even if there are those who have the opposite view, I am okay. Music has its own place in my life in the way of looking at the cosmos in my mind. But music is not something sacred and we don't need to defend ourselves, especially in terms of a very subjective orientational taste. It doesn't have to be experts and academics, everyone can have an attitude and express their opinion about whether music is liked or not, regarding music that is considered good or not. It's normal.

Menurut Anda, apa lagu terbaik Efek Eumah Kaca di luar album Rimpang?

Jalang. The title has explained everything. Jalang, both in lyric, arrangement and how to play it. The song is simple, there are only two parts of Verse - chorus, in the context of analytical science, this is called the AB song form, but this AB part is not symmetrical. A iterated over and over again until it was felt that the tension was very high to go further to B in outbursting anger. But ERK does not want to spend energy in B, they attract the emotion of listeners in B. Like expressive music, this song is more concerned with the expression of the sound as the main medium of its submission, so instead of sticking to the symmetricity of the structure, this song is more concerned with intensity as a medium of expression.