[Article] Shorthand Phonetics, Wujud Musikal Sebuah Buku Harian Personal

"A Medical Student-Bedroom Musician-Japan’s Anime-Manga Freak-Kind of Double Personality-English Literary Preference"

Shorthand Phonetics

Malam itu sehabis berbuka puasa, saya ber-online ria. Agak bosan, lalu mulai muncul percikan ria untuk porn browsing. Haha.. tiba-tiba notification di Yahoo Messenger bunyi, hmm.. Ababil Ashari baru saja menjadi kontak saya di YM. Lalu tak lama dia mulai menyapa ”Doing the interview through IM maybe fun, come to think of it...” he said. He is the man behind Shorthand Phonetics (SP), if you don’t know. Dan saya memang berjanji untuk menginterview SP, akhirnya berbincanglah kita, let’s say we did an interview. Haha..

Coba buka Yes No Wave di www.yesnowave.com disitu ada dua album yang bisa diunduh gratis (ya, selalu gratis memang). Album yang saya maksud adalah OST Ngintip!…Run, Budi, Run! dan Apparently...I'm In Medicine / Love, or the Illusion of the Beginning Symptoms of It, kedua album ini hasil kreasi SP. Dan pada akhir bulan September, album ketiga SP akan segera rilis via Yes No Wave juga. Anyway, Ababil give me the album two weeks ago, jadi saya sudah mendengarkan album barunya. Tiga album SP, dirilis sejak 2006 sampai 2008 sekarang, kesemuanya lewat internet, gratisan, dan tanpa bentuk fisik sama sekali! Untuk apa seorang mahasiswa kedokteran seperti Ababil Ashari terus melakukan hal ini, dan sendirian?

Bermaksud memainkan cover lagu Radiohead, bersama jenius fisika yang bisa bermain piano, bernama Kevin Yapsir, Ababil dan Kevin malah membuat lagu pertama SP yang berjudul Green Apple Green. “Selagi kita bikin Green Apple Garden di ruang musik, anggota lain mulai datang soalnya penasaran, ada apa sih rebut-ribut gak jelas di ruang band” dan line up SP kemudian adalah Ababil Ashari (voc, guitar, programming), Kevin Yapsir (guitar, voc), Alfonsus Tanoto (bass, voc), Daniel Sastro (guitar), Alvin Lasmana (drum). Tepat setelah formasi ini terbentuk, Ababil dkk langsung ingin membuat sebuah album. And they did, menggunakan laptop NEC Versa dan webcam mic. Tidak seperti kebanyakan band atau musisi, yang bertapa dulu mengumpulkan materi baru kemudian menyusun materi itu kedalam album. Ababil membuat garis besar konsep album dulu, baru kemudian membuat lagu-lagunya. Bahkan judul lagu datang terlebih dulu daripada lagu-nya “I wrote the titles for album 2 first THEN write the song” jelas Ababil.

Formasi SP pada album pertama, tidak bertahan lama. Album pertama yang rilis di internet pada 2006, lumayan sukses dengan konsep fan fiction-nya ”Kebetulan lagu-lagu Harry Potternya ngena di audience Wizard Rock jadi bisa kedownload 19,415 kali” jelas Ababil. Setelah itu, formasi SP tercerai berai ”Abis rilis album 1 bubar deh! Soalnya pada mau keluar negeri”. Ababil sendiri melanjutkan kuliah di Fakultas Kedokteran Unpad. Kevin Yapsir si jenius fisika, bahkan bersekolah di MIT. Nah kemudian Ababil meneruskan petualangan musiknya, masih dengan nama SP.

Sebenarnya SP bukan sekedar profil bermusik seorang Ababil Ashari. Shorthand Phonetics adalah buku harian dari Ababil Ashari. Sejak album pertama, SP selalu mengisahkan seorang Jepang bernama Hanabishi Hideaki. Album pertama adalah tentang cerita yang dibuat oleh Hide tentang dunia Harry Potter, Ranma ½, etc (a fan-fiction made by Hide). Album kedua adalah tentang tahun pertama Hide di medical school. Album ketiga adalah tahun keduanya. Album ke empat bakal menjadi tahun ketiga-nya Hide. You can simply replace the name “Hide” with “Ababil”, karena memang ini adalah cerita si Ababil sendiri. Ababil menegaskan “What happens to me here in Indonesia happens to Hide in that parallel universe version of Japan".

You might think Ababil is kind of freak kid. Yeah, a medical student-bedroom musician-Japan’s anime manga freak-kind of double personality-English literary preference, you don’t find a kid with such a profile very often in the neighborhood, don’t you? But wait, English literary preference? Yah, 75% pembicaraan YM ini dibalas oleh Ababil dengan bahasa Inggris. Awalnya saya pikir emang dia suka sok-sok an pake bahasa Inggris. Ternyata dia semacam Cinta Laura! Haha.. Ababil pernah tinggal di Kanada selama dua tahun, dan sekembalinya di Indonesia, ibunya selalu membuat Ababil berbicara bahasa Inggris di rumah. “I actually speak Indonesian as a second language, because I speak English better than Indonesian, it's just that I grew up knowing English first Indonesian second”. Ouw, ternyata bukan sok-sok an pake bahasa Inggris. Ababil ini memang semacam Cinta Laura, “I actually talk like Cinta Laura kind of” katanya.

Kembali ke Shorthand Phonetics, jelas sudah bahwa SP adalah upaya dokumentasi yang dilakukan Ababil dalam kehidupan sehari-harinya, melalui karakter Hide. Karakter lain yang dia ciptakan dalam dunia SP juga adalah berdasarkan karakter nyata di kehidupan Ababil. Seperti karakter Fujioka Tsubasa yang seringkali menjadi tokoh sentral selain Hide. Tsubasa adalah cewek yang disukai oleh Hide, dan banyak lagu yang berkisah tentang bagaimana Hide berusaha mendapatkan Tsubasa ini. Dimana sampai album ketiga ini Hide masih belum bisa mendapatkan Tsubasa, and so did Ababil of course. Track pertama di album ketiga adalah tentang rasa depresi Hide karena ditolak Tsubasa, dan track-track selanjutnya masih di dominasi cerita tentang Tsubasa juga. Jangan terlalu berharap semua lagu SP sangat story telling dengan cerita-cerita tentang Hide. Walaupun memang itulah yang disampaikan Ababil, tapi Ababil melakukannya dengan caranya sendiri. Beberapa lagu adalah lagu tanpa vokal, tapi sebenarnya ada cerita monumental di baliknya. Ababil mengaku bahwa lagu-lagunya di SP adalah lyric-based, menanggapi tentang adanya lagu non vokal, dia berkata bahwa judul lagunya yang datang duluan dan baru membuat arah musikalnya.

Well, berbicara tentang musik dari SP, sebenarnya sampai sebelum berbincang dengan Ababil, saya sempat bingung dengan arah musikal SP. Pada awal interview, Ababil menjelaskan bahwa SP memainkan  lo-fi indierock. Saya masih bingung, karena beberapa lagu sulit ditarik benang merah keterkaitannya, dan beberapa lagu juga terdengar eksperimental. Sampai pada pertengahan interview, saya mulai bisa melihat konsep garis besar-nya, bahwa SP adalah proyek musikal Ababil Ashari yang sangat personal. Ini adalah representasi preferensi musikal seorang Ababil Ashari. Indierock is enough to describe it in a genre, because indierock is wide enough. And lo-fi? Saya rasa sedikit banyak istilah lo-fi dipakai Ababil untuk menjadi pembenaran kualitas teknis rekaman SP yang memang tidak terlalu jernih. Walaupun saya rasa cukup stand out untuk sebuah solo work, mulai dari song-writing, rekaman, sampai rilis. “I maximizing the potential of my current equipment” jelas Ababil. Bagaimanapun SP di deklarasikan berpijak di ranah lo-fi music, “The general belief in the lo-fi scene is that a good song recorded crappily is still a good song, while I don’t agree with that 100% I think it's a bit true” kata Ababil.

Satu hal lain yang sangat mencolok dari SP adalah, judul-judul lagu dan albumnya yang sangat panjang dan berbentuk kalimat. Lihat saja, contohnya lagu dari album ketiga "21st of March 08: "The Ravenclaw Common Room is a IDM Discotheque Now!, or, Above the Stratosphere Is Where My Happiness Lies (Which Is to Say, "I Can Never Jump Up and Reach It")" judul untuk track 5. Judul albumnya sendiri adalah "Fire! (I Could Have Died and All I Could Think About Was My Charred Diary)". Ada apa sebenarnya dengan judul serba panjang ini? “I'm trying to convey something that has only one meaning” jelas Ababil. Ababil ingin pesan dalam lagunya tidak menjadi bias, “I want the mood and message of the to be as clear as possible the way I wrote it.” jelasnya. Susah di ingat, ya pastinya. Bahkan Ababil sendiri menyebut lagu atau albumnya dengan “Track 1, track 2, track 3” dan “Album 1, album 2 album 3” pada interview ini.

Dengan membuat album dari SP menjadi se-personal ini, apa yang ingin dicapai Ababil melalui SP? Tidak ada ambisi berlebih bagi Ababil melalui SP. Mengerjakan SP adalah sebuah kesenangan pribadi baginya, “If more people listen to me, so be it” jelasnya. Jika tidak ada yang mendengarkan juga tidak ada masalah baginya, “I'm in this for my personal satisfaction, nothing else” katanya. Sekalipun, Ababil memiliki ekspektasi terhadap pendengar SP, “Well, I want them to listen to the albums from start to finish at least once” jelas Ababil. Walaupun begitu Ababil hanya meninggalkan sedikit ruang bagi pendengar untuk menginterpretasikan lagu-lagu SP secara bebas. Tidak seperti band lain yang biasa bilang membebaskan pendengar untuk menginterpretasikan lagunya, SP tidak malas untuk membuat deskripsi dan definisi yang cukup detil tentang pesan dan mood dari lagu-lagunya.

Siapa yang tahu apa yang bisa dihasilkan Ababil Ashari lewat Shorthand Phonetics kedepannya? Tidak banyak orang yang mau share buku hariannya kepada orang lain, Ababil do. Walaupun buku hariannya berupa konsepsi dokumentasi musikal fiktif bernama Shorthand Phonetics. Ababil sudah berancang-ancang, bahwa akhir untuk SP kemungkinan adalah setelah album ke 5, dimana menceritakan tahun ke empatnya di Fakultas Kedokteran Unpad. Setelah itu Ababil akan Ko-Ass, dimana waktu luang akan semakin sedikit baginya, karena harus berjaga di rumah sakit. Menjadi dokter adalah masa depan kehidupan nyatanya, Shorthand Phonetics adalah sebuah hobi. Well, we’ll see how Ababil will kill Hide. Hahaha…


*Trivia quiz with Ababil Ashari:

Deskripsikan Fujioka Tsubasa! what kind of girl is she?
- She is 150-160 cm tall, glasses, incredibly smart, incredibly neurotic, slightly depressed, braces, ex-video-gamer, opiniated, extremely shy, etc.

Okey, kenapa Ranma bisa berubah gender? Jelaskan secara medis.
- Umm... Because Rumiko (author) has this double oedipal fantasy in which she wants to experience both sexes...this is reflected in her main characters the bi-gender Ranma and unisex Inu Yasha... Psikiatri sih. Tapi tetep medical kan? Hahaha..

Mesin waktu di Doraemon, apakah berarti paralel universe? Atau gimana?
- The way time is demonstrated in Doraemon, is similar to Back to the Future, so yes...it is a parallel universe, in which they create. They disappear from their original universes constantly.

MP3 format dan internet: kehancuran dunia industri musik atau masa depan?
- Kehancuran dunia INDUSTRI musik. Di masa depan semua musik akan gratis dan artis harus main pertunjukan untuk sukses ha ha ha ha.
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Shorthand Phonetics

That night, after I broke my fast, I get online. A little bored, then suddenly an intention to porn browsing comes. Haha.. Sudden, Yahoo Messenger notification beeping, hmm.. Ababil Ashari just has been my contact on YM. Not very long, he start to chat, ”Doing the interview through IM maybe fun, come to think of it...” he said. He is the man behind Shorthand Phonetics (SP), if you don’t know. And I have a promise to interview SP, so, we’re talking then, let’s say we did an interview. Haha..

Go to the Yes No Wave page at www.yesnowave.com there are two albums can be downloaded for free (it’s always free). The two albums I mentioned are OST Ngintip! !…Run, Budi, Run! and Apparently...I'm In Medicine / Love, or the Illusion of the Beginning Symptoms of It, the two albums are the work of SP. And in the end of September, the third Album of SP will be released under Yes No Wave. Anyway, Ababil give me the album two weeks ago, so I already listened to it. All the three SP’s albums were released on the internet, for free, and without any physical evidence, since 2006 until 2008. Ababil Ashari, a medical student, keep doing this work, alone, but what for?

Willing to play a cover song of Radiohead, with a physics genius that can play a piano, named Kevin Yapsir, Ababil and Kevin drive to made the first song for SP titled Green Apple Green instead. “During we create the song in the music room, the other members start to come, wondering the sounds came out from there.” and the line up for SP are Ababil Ashari (voc, guitar, programming), Kevin Yapsir (guitar, voc), Alfonsus Tanoto (bass, voc), Daniel Sastro (guitar), Alvin Lasmana (drum). Right after formed, Ababil and friends start willing to make an album, and they did, using a NEC Versa Laptop and webcam mic. Unlike the other bands, who make the album materials first then composed them into an album. Ababil made the general concept of the album first, and then make the songs. Even the song title was come first instead the song itself “I wrote the titles for album 2 first THEN write the song” said Ababil.

Shorthand Phonetics first lined up didn’t last long. The first album who bring up a fan fiction concept, released at 2006, considered as a succeed “Luckily, the Harry Potter’s song get into Wizard Rock’s audiences, so it’s already downloaded for 19.415 times” Ababil explained. After the first album, the line up were separated “After the released of the first album, it comes to an end! The rest members were study abroad”. Ababil itself continue his study at medical faculty of Unpad. Kevin Yapsir, the physics genius, even going further his study at MIT. Then, Ababil continue his musical experience under the name Shorthand Phonetics.

Actually, Shorthand Phonetics not just a musical profile of Ababil Ashari. Shorthand Phonetics is the journal of Ababil Ashari. Since the first album, SP always telling about a Japanese named Hanabishi Hideaki. The first album was about the story written by Hide about Harry Potter Ranma ½, etc (a fan-fiction made by Hide). The second was about Hide’s first year at medical school. The third was his second year. You can simply replace the name “Hide” with “Ababil”, because this is just the story of Ababil itself. Ababil said “What happens to me here in Indonesia happens to Hide in that parallel universe version of Japan".

You might think Ababil is kind of freak kid. Yeah, a medical student-bedroom musician-Japan’s anime manga freak-kind of double personality-English literary preference, you don’t find a kid with such a profile very often in the neighborhood, don’t you? But wait, English literary preference? Yeah, 75% of the YM conversation answered in English by Ababil. Firstly, I think Ababil just like to pretending to talk in English. But, nope, he is Cinta Laura kind of! Haha… Ababil ever stayed in Canada for two years, and after his comeback to Indonesia, his mother always push him to talk in English at home. “I actually speak Indonesian as a second language, because I speak English better than Indonesian, it's just that I grew up knowing English first Indonesian second”. Ouw, it’s not a pretentious thing, he is just kind of Cinta Laura “I actually talk like Cinta Laura kind of” he admit.

Back to Shorthand Phonetics, it clear now, that SP is a documentation effort by Ababil regarding his daily life, through Hide character. Each character he created in the world of SP, is based on real character in Ababil’s life. For instance, the character of Fujioka Tsubasa, who is oftenly being a central character beside Hide. Tsubasa is a girl whose Hide crushed on, and many songs telling about how Hide trying to get Tsubasa. And until the third album, Hide still couldn’t catch Tsubasa’s love and so did Ababil of course. The first track at third album, is about a depression feeling of Hide after Tsubasa’s rejection, and the rest tracks is still dominated by story about Tsubasa. Do not expecting too much, that the SP’s songs are story telling enough. Although, that is what Ababil try to deliver, but Ababil do that with his own way. Some songs are without vocal, but there is monumental story behind. Ababil confess that his songs is pretty much lyric based, commenting on non-vocal song, he said, the title of the song came first then the music follow.

Well, talking about SP’s music, before I talked with Ababil, I still confused, about SP’s musical direction. At the beginning of the interview, Ababil tell me that he play lo-fi indierock. I still confused, hard to see the red line between the songs, and some songs seem quite experimental. In the middle of interview, finally I can see the whole general concept, SP is a very personal project of Ababil Ashari. This is a representation of musical preferences of Ababil Ashari. Indierock is enough to describe it in a genre, because indierock is wide enough. And lo-fi? I think, much or less, Ababil use the lo-fi term as a justification of the technical quality of the record is not very clear, though. Instead I think is still a stand out for a solo work, from the song-writing, record, and release. “I maximizing the potential of my current equipment” Ababil explain. Somehow, Ababil claimed SP in the field of lo-fi music scene. “The general belief in the lo-fi scene is that a good song recorded crappily is still a good song, while I don’t agree with that 100% I think it's a bit true” said Ababil.

One more thing that is very catchy from SP is the long and sentenced song and album title. Look for the instance, from the third album, "21st of March 08: "The Ravenclaw Common Room is a IDM Discotheque Now!, or, Above the Stratosphere Is Where My Happiness Lies (Which Is to Say, "I Can Never Jump Up and Reach It")" the title for track 5. The album title is "Fire! (I Could Have Died and All I Could Think About Was My Charred Diary)". What happen to this long-sentenced title? “I'm trying to convey something that has only one meaning” Ababil said. Ababil don’t want the message is biased “I want the mood and message of the to be as clear as possible the way I wrote it.” he explains. Hard to recall, of course. Even Ababil himself call his songs as “Track 1, track 2, track 3” and “Album 1, album2, album3” on the interview.

By way of making Shorthand Phonetics this personal, what is Ababil try to achieve with SP? There is no excessive ambition for Ababil through SP. Working on SP is a personal happiness for him “If more people listen to me, so be it” he admit. Whether no one listening, is not a problem for Ababil, “I'm in this for my personal satisfaction, nothing else” he said. In the other hand, Ababil have expectation for his listener “Well, I want them to listen to the albums from start to finish at least once” he told. Instead, Ababil only left less space for the listener to interpret SP’s song freely. Unlike other bands who usually said make the listener free to interpret their songs, SP wasn’t lazy enough to make detail description and definition about the message and the mood of the songs.

Who knows, what would Ababil’s result with Shorthand Phonetics in the future? Not much peoples who want and pleased to share his personal journal with others, Ababil do. Although his journal is a conception of fiction musical documentary named Shorthand Phonetics. Ababil already prepare the end for SP is about after fifth album, where he’ll tell about his fourth year in medical school. After that Ababil will be a Co-Assistant in hospital, he’ll have less spare time because he must stand at hospital 24/7at worst. Being a medical doctor is his future in the real world, Shorthand Phonetics is a hobby. Well we’ll see how Ababil will kill Hide, haha…


*Trivia quiz with Ababil Ashari:

Describe Fujioka Tsubasa! what kind of girl is she?
- She is 150-160 cm tall, glasses, incredibly smart, incredibly neurotic, slightly depressed, braces, ex-video-gamer, opiniated, extremely shy, etc.

Okay, why Ranma can changing gender? Answer in medical explanation.
- Umm... Because Rumiko (author) has this double oedipal fantasy in which she wants to experience both sexes...this is reflected in her main characters the bi-gender Ranma and unisex Inu Yasha... It’s rather psychiatry . But it’s medical, right? Hahaha…

Time machine in Doraemon, it’s a parallel universe or what?
- The way time is demonstrated in Doraemon, is similar to Back to the Future, so yes...it is a parallel universe, in which they create. They disappear from their original universes constantly.

MP3 format and internet: doom for music industry, or the future?
- Doom for music INDUSTRY. In the future all music would be free, and artists must playing shows to success ha ha ha…


*PS: Shorthand Phonetics akan merilis album ketiga nya, melalui Yes No Wave pada 30 September 2008!
*Interview and Story by: Jay
*Photo from: Shorthand Phonetics doc.