With his bandmates either back in Indonesia or working long hours in Taiwanese factories, Haris doesn’t have many opportunities to perform these days.
In his heyday between 2009 and 2011 as the lead singer of the rock band Relix, comprised of Indonesian migrant workers, Haris says it would be pretty common to play three gigs per month.
“The Taipei City Government was more familiar with our band and whenever there was an Indonesian-related event, they would always contact us,” Haris says.
Photo courtesy of Relix and Fresh
However, Haris has soldiered on, merging the remnants of Relix with another local Indonesian band, Fresh Morning, and despite half of the band being in Taipei and the rest in Taichung, they still get together to play gigs whenever possible. The five-piece outfit will be bringing Indonesian, Chinese and English pop and rock tunes, many written by Haris, to the annual Daniel Pearl World Music Day on Sunday at the Taipei Hakka Cultural Park.
Now in its 17th year, the event is part of more than 13,000 concerts held in 136 countries to commemorate the life of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was abducted and killed while on assignment in Pakistan.
This is the first time the concert is featuring new immigrant bands under the directive of sponsor, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), as the concert not only celebrates press freedom and the value of journalism, but also tolerance and cultural understanding.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Pearl
“As a nation of immigrants, our own experience has shown us that immigrants not only make enormous contributions to our economy and society, they also make major contributions to our culture. We wanted to give Taiwan an opportunity to showcase its cultural richness. Plus, these bands rock,” AIT public affairs officer Jesse Curtis says.
As usual, the lineup is eclectic. Following Relix and Fresh are Hakka folk-rockers iColor (愛客樂), Balkan funk outfit Balkazar and Taiwanese underground mainstays 88Balaz (88顆芭樂籽).
“I always like to include one or two bands I’ve never seen and never heard of, to give them a chance,” organizer Sean Scanlan says.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Pearl
Haris considers himself lucky to have Saturday and Sunday off, as many of his bandmates have to work overtime on weekends. With migrant workers having to return home after their contract is up, lineup changes have been the only constant for the band since its inception more than 10 years ago. But with more than 240,000 Indonesian migrant workers in Taiwan, they’ve always been able to find replacements and carry on.
Videos on YouTube show the energetic quintet rocking out to a frenzied audience at various Indonesian cultural events, although Haris says they’ve played plenty of non-Indonesian shows as well. Their music appears to be mostly pop and rock-based, but some songs, such as Cemberut, incorporate the Indonesian dangdut style, a popular dance genre that draws from Arabic, Indian and Malay folk elements.
Curtis says that AIT has kept the concert going for so many years as it sees Daniel Pearl as an embodiment of American core values of press freedom and tolerance, which the country shares with Taiwan. Also, popular demand keeps them bringing it back year after year.
Scanlan says the event’s message is especially important now as the media has been under attack for the past two years.
“These [values] … are relevant now as they were 20 years ago and as they will probably be 20 years from now,” Curtis says.
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