Read the story in Bahasa Indonesia
Voice of Baceprot are a devoutly Muslim all-female thrash metal band hell-bent on shattering the genre’s masculine image and misconceptions about Islam.
Originally from the small farming town of Singajaya in religiously conservative West Java, the three-piece have spent the past decade overcoming prejudice and pressure to conform, to achieve global fame.
VOB — as they are often known — have toured Europe, the US and UK and were earlier this year named in Forbes Asia’s 30-Under-30 list.
Next week they will become the first Indonesian band to play at the UK’s Glastonbury music festival, alongside the likes of Coldplay, Dua Lipa, and Cyndi Lauper.
Firda ‘Marsya’ Kurnia, the band’s 23-year-old lead singer and guitarist, said the invitation to play at the iconic festival came out of the blue and they had to double-check the email really was from the organisers.
“Glastonbury wasn’t even on our list of festivals to play at,” she told the ABC.
“It seemed too high-profile for us.
“We thought we needed to go through more steps before performing there.”
Origins in school
Marsya first met drummer Siti Aisyah in elementary school and after becoming friends with bass player Widi Rahmawati the three joined a theatre group at their Islamic middle school.
Fortunately for their fans, they were not suited to acting and were given responsibility for the production’s music.
They started playing covers of top 40 hits under the guidance of their teacher and mentor, Cep Ersa Ekasusila Satia, but everything changed after a chance find.
“We borrowed his laptop,” Marsya said.
“That’s when we discovered a song by System of a Down.”
Influenced by the seminal Armenian-American heavy metal band and other acts like Metallica, Slipknot, and Rage Against the Machine, VOB developed their own distinctive sound with lyrics addressing political themes like climate change, peace, and misogyny.
‘Annoyingly noisy’
Baceprot means “annoyingly noisy” in the band’s native Sundanese language and they faced discrimination, harassment and even violence, especially during the early days.
Although there is nothing in the Qu’ran about music, religious conservatives in Indonesia branded them “hell-bound” or “women of Jahiliyyah”, a term that carries barbaric connotations relating to a pre-Islamic Middle East where women were commodities.
They also had rocks and abuse hurled at them, which Marsya said only made them more steadfast in their mission.
“If we’ve had unpleasant experiences, we turned them into songs and released them as singles,” she said.
Within the music industry, they were told to remove their hijabs to make them more marketable.
“We went through a phase where we really hated the music industry because it was so cruel,” said Marsya.
Finding record labels to be too prescriptive about their image and wanting to reclaim their narrative, they decided to go independent.
“All women who want to get involved in this industry are pressured to meet the masculinity standards,” said Marsya.
“We’ve decided to bring a feminine energy into this industry, to broaden the [industry’s] perspectives.”
‘I just want to sing a song to show my soul’
Refusing to conform to stereotypes VOB’s songs often feature soulful and spiritual lyrics.
Their single God, Allow Me (Please) to Play Music was written in response to the harassment they received for their music.
Marsya said as long as God approved of their music, it did not matter what their critics thought.
“I’m not the corruptor. I’m not the enemy,” Marsya sings in the 2021 single.
“I just want to sing a song to show my soul.”
The song (Not) Public Property released the following year is a battle cry for women’s autonomy over their own bodies, expressions and decisions.
It was released to coincide with a campaign the women were spearheading condemning violence against women.
Along with other female creatives, they began raising money to help victims of sexual abuse.
“Our value is not determined by the number of children that we bear or age at which we marry,” said Siti on one of the campaign’s Instagram posts.
“Instead, it comes from how we appreciate ourselves by not allowing anyone to be hurt or belittle us.”
Metal parallels Islam
Home to Hammersonic, the largest metal festival in South-East Asia, Indonesia is a hotbed for metal heads including outgoing President Joko Widodo.
It is also the country with the world’s largest Muslim population.
Marsya said Islam and metal music shared many similarities, including misconceptions that she and her band mates were determined to correct.
“Metal music has been known for its dark image, but that’s just a perception,” she said.
Marsya said they were not often recognised offstage because their demure, modest, and devout personalities did not match how the public anticipated rock stars to behave.
The women credited metal for introducing them to tolerance, peace, and equality, values also taught through their faith.
Marsya said one of the reasons they performed wearing their hijabs was to challenge the Western narrative of Islam and Muslims.
“Islam is often viewed negatively. This is because [the public] only perceived Islam as being violent and conservative,” she said, referring to how Islam has been portrayed in Western media.
“But it’s not Islamic teachings, it’s the result of some individuals…We want to portray an image of Islam to show that Muslims are also not anarchist.
“We bring peace through our music.”
Yet, while VOB have lofty goals, in many ways they are not that different to most other 20-something-year-olds around the world.
Dua Lipa, Coldplay and Avril Lavigne topped Siti, Marsya, and Widi’s list of people with who they would most like to get selfies with.