All girl, teen-age metal group Voice of Baceport made up of Firdda Kurnia (lead guitar/singer), Eusi Siti Aisyah (drummer) and Widi Rahmawati (bass) are blazing new paths in Indonesia, pushing past resistance from family, friends and their community.
According to a NY Times profile, all three girls (one is 15, two are 17) grew up in the small town of Singajaya. The name of the band, “Baceprot,” translates to noise in the local dialect.
While metal music is popular in Indonesia (the country’s president, Joko Widodo, is a major fan) it’s not a female-friendly format and the girls have faced resistance from the start, playing in secret for the first few months of the band’s existence.
Once the girls were able to convince their families to let them play, as observant Muslims, they still faced resistance at their school where the school principal has told them music is “haram” or forbidden under the rules of Islam.
Beyond home and school, they’ve been attacked by strangers. According to the article, they were attacked one night while riding home on motorcycles from a recording studio with rocks covered with paper containing verbal attacks on their character.
Musically, the girls perform a mix of their own original music plus covers by System of a Down, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Slipknot and Rage Against the Machine.
Check out one of their performances below.
Image via Kemal Jufri for the NY Times.
