Tag Archives: environmental activism

Taking on the role of the animal: An interview with LoonRise (Arnaud Delannoy)

Searching the tags of the internet for new music can lead you into some exciting rabbit holes. This time I was in search of artists who use their talents to elevate the plight of those without a voice. Namely animals. I stumbled upon an album named “Eulogy for the Wordless Souls” by LoonRise. The name alone told me I was on the right path. From there though, it just became more and more interesting. Firstly, even if nowadays music is so incredibly mixed and inspired by the past, I have to say I was, pleasantly, surprised to hear the grunge coming at me through my very worn out headphones.

Personally, grunge played a major factor in my music listening early days, as for so many. But to hear it in 2023 and for it to sound fun and fresh, that just put a big smile on my face. The fact that the singer was then singing about animals, their liberation and humans’ connection to them, well, that just sealed the deal for me.

On the project’s Bandcamp page there is no social media links or nothing. Just a name for the artist responsible: Arnaud Delannoy. Turns out, he is a French multi-instrumentalist and composer who is, apparently, on a mission to learn how to play every instrument in the world. Or so it seems, judging by his moderately popular YouTube channel.

When I wrote to Arnaud inquiring about a possible interview, I told him I really enjoyed his album. He told me, humbly, that mine was the only feedback he’d gotten besides close friends. Which makes sense when you read the interview below – Arnaud has not rushed into telling the world about this particular part of his musical endeavours. Far from it, he is focused on his family and his goats and his countless other musical adventures as well. Good things happen slowly, someone said, and “Eulogy for the Wordless Souls” is a very good thing.

A kind and powerful thing.

Photo by Margaux Chalmel

Halldór Kristínarson: Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions. I‘m very excited about sharing your album, Eulogy for the Wordless Souls, with the world. What can you tell me about your musical background and who Arnaud Delannoy is?

Arnaud Delannoy: I’m not going to tell my whole life here, I’ll try to make it short! I was taught classical music lessons as a child, first in piano, and much later in cello. Then, for the past 25 years, I taught myself around a hundred instruments, European classical, but also from all over the world. I have always focused my profession as a musician on instrumental diversity. I approached traditional musical styles from different parts of the world, composed and recorded symphonic pieces for classical orchestra, worked as a composer and performer for the theater… I have always done it all alone, writing, recording all the instruments, including mixing. It’s an advantage sometimes, but I’m starting to feel the frustration and the limits.

I’m like a newborn in the rock world! This idea popped into my head one year ago, but before that I hadn’t actually played an electric guitar in over 20 years, when I was in high school.

HK: When I first reached out to you about your grunge-rock, animal rights project LoonRise, you told me that besides a few close friends mine was the first feedback you were getting. And the project is not up on your other social media like YouTube. Why have you not wanted to share this awesome project with the world until now?

AD: I actually do have a YouTube channel which is quite well followed, thanks in particular to videos of exotic instruments. But this LoonRise project is so different that I didn’t want to mix everything up. My fear is giving listeners the impression of having engaged in yet another stylistic exercise by trying out rock music… However playing rock is an old, deep and above all sincere desire. So I chose to start from scratch and I created a new channel just for LoonRise. It’s not that I didn’t want to share this project with the world!

I’m at the very beginning of the process, my priority so far was to complete my album, I haven’t thought strategy yet. Should I find a music label ? Should I use promotion on social media ? Should I seek a financial support to start a group? These questions are not the most exciting for me, but I’ll have to seriously look into this.

HK: Since when have you had interested in the rights of animals? What motivated you to make a whole album about the subject?

AD: This position on animals comes from a long reflection, over several years. A decade ago, I was like everyone else, eating meat without even thinking about what was behind it. I began a relationship with a young vegetarian woman, who has since become my wife. Very slowly, and very gradually, her point of view began to open my eyes. The second trigger was when we took in goat kids rescued from slaughter. I quickly realized that what is usually referred to as «farm animals» are life companions as intelligent, endearing and sensitive as cats and dogs. From there, in my perspective, eating pork, beef, was no more justifiable than eating the neighbor’s dog. The line that we draw between the «friendly» and «edible» species no longer made sense – and going further, the line that we draw between human and non-human animals. So I started to learn more about the breeding and slaughter conditions of these farm animals, as well as the ecological impact of their consumption. And the more I learned, the more difficult it was for me to accept what is happening daily around the life industry.

When I decided to embark on this rock project, it was obvious to me that this was the subject I wanted to talk about. I had no desire to write about myself. Animals will never have the opportunity to express themselves in words, so I have, for most songs, taken on the role of an animal, imagined how by his eyes he could describe the tortures that humans inflicted on him – whether by his consumption, exploitation, hunting or destruction of his habitat…

But the album is not only about that, I also mention my concerns about the climate and ecological disaster towards which the human rushes blindly… but after all, animal cause and ecology are two sides of the same struggle.

This is what the name LoonRise says. I have long been moved by the call of the loons (which I unfortunately do not find in my country). These birds have a call full of mystery, one that best evokes the depths and secrets of nature. It is not without reason that it is so used, often wrongly and through, in the cinema, to create any wild nature atmosphere!

LoonRise means the uprising, the revolt of nature.

HK: When it comes to music who are some of your inspirations? What about in regards to your activism, what inspires you to use your voice and your talent in this way?

AD: Studies show that the music we listen to as teenagers will continue to affect us throughout our adult lives…  I started my adolescence in ’96, just after the grunge wave, but it still resonated in the middle school yard. Even if I listened to a lot of older rock, especially the period late 60’s – early 70’s, I remained more deeply marked by the music of the 90’s. My inspirations for this album are therefore obvious: Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, even Silverchair… and of course Nirvana.

This genre of rock also seems to me to be the most effective to carry the message I want to convey. It can be both heavy and gentle, it allows to sing, scream with rage but also whisper. It is not a necessarily dark and violent genre, there can be light, it can express hope. It suits me precisely because I do not define myself as a dark and desperate person.

Unlike metal, the melody is omnipresent, preponderant. I’m a big fan of melody, and that’s where I focus the most. It’s the key to getting into the mind of listeners. It is what we remember, that we listen above all. And in my opinion, it is what makes it possible to transmit a message…

Photo by Margaux Chalmel

HK: Why do you think music is a effective form of protest?

AD: As for the animal and ecological cause, is there really an effective way to protest? I have a lot of admiration for these young people who shout their despair at climate inaction by blocking roads, even sticking themselves to the asphalt, those who break the law by spraying red paint on butcher shops…  But they also attract exasperation and even violence. Openly protesting on these issues creates a fierce counter-reaction, and many reinforce their anti-environmentalist positions.

What seemed obvious to me is that it is very difficult to convince through dialogue regarding the animal cause. People are so much set in their ways, caring about their piece of daily flesh on the plate, that they turn away as soon as we try to question the human right to dispose of the life of animals. Many stubbornly refuse to know what is happening before the steak or milk bottle arrives in the supermarket aisle. Conversations often become aggressive, and never lead to anything. With meat, cognitive dissonance is very strong. I know, I was a willing victim of it for a good part of my life!

We need to find ways to get that message through the back door.

I don’t know yet if I will have a different impact with music. I would like to imagine that some listeners who will appreciate my music will be touched by certain sentences, certain ideas, that would emerge… But I don’t expect miracles. I won’t convert entire halls to veganism after a concert! This is a long path.

Anyway, for me, I couldn’t image expressing myself otherwise.

That said, it already worked a bit, a musician friend who helped me a few days to finish the mix decided, after leaving the studio, to stop eating meat. He was already on his way to thinking, but listening to my songs over and over prompted him to take another step. Who knows, maybe I’ve even spared the life of a chicken!

HK: What do you hope to achieve with Loonrise and the rest of your musical projects?

AD: As I said, in the LoonRise project, for the moment I am both well advanced, since the album is finished, but also at the beginning, since I have neither band nor public.

My priority is to find musicians to play the songs on stage, it’s essential if I want to expand my audience a little and make my lyrics heard by more! I’m not looking for fame or money with this project. I lead the life I want to have, and my priorities will always be to have time for myself, at home, with my wife… and goats. But I admit that I have been a solitary musician locked in his studio for too long, I would like to find again the thrill of being on the rock stage one day. Bringing these song to life together with other musicians would be a great achievement for me!

HK: What do you have coming up, project wise, musical or not?

AD: For now my life has gotten very busy, my biggest project right now is to finish renovating my house with my wife! Nothing to do with music, unfortunately, and it takes me a lot longer than making an album. Regarding the music, I should soon finish a project of Celtic « stock music » that I launched with a friend a few months ago. So it really has nothing to do with rock, since I play bagpipes, violin and harp!

In my personal projects, there is no shortage of desires, I still have many foreign instruments for which I would like to write compositions, full of symphonic themes that I would like to explore. And also, of course, I already have in mind the idea of writing new rock songs… But I think the first thing I’ll do when I get some time is make one or more video clips for the LoonRise project.

HK: Anything else you‘d like to shout from the rooftops?

AD: There are so many things I could shout from rooftops! I only mentioned the violence of humans against other species, but the violence of humans against themselves is an unlimited source of indignation. But I do not feel legitimate enough on these subjects to shout them, others are more concerned than me and will do it better. So I think I’ll just stay on the side of those who have no words, the wordless, and keep doing it for them.

Review: 25 Years Of Music Activism

This article was originally published by Inside Indonesia and written by Julia Winterflood. You can view the original here.

The history of music, though constantly being rewritten, is inseparable from that of social movements. From revolutionary symphonies to punk rock, folk to political hip-hop, most genres feature artists who’ve created works to condemn injustice and inspire change. In Indonesia, the Bali-based rock band Navicula has spent the past 25 years tackling some of the country’s biggest social and environmental ills — corruption, human rights abuses, religious extremism, pollution, deforestation — through powerful, gritty, anthemic tracks.

It was this quarter-century milestone that inspired development expert and long-term fan of the band Ewa Wojkowska to produce and host A Soundtrack of Resistance, a podcast series exploring 12 Navicula songs and the stories of why and how they were made. Along with the band, she collaborated with other music industry members, researchers, writers, and colleagues on the project. The first episode was released in mid-2021, and a few months later A Soundtrack of Resistance reached number one on the Apple Podcast charts for music interviews in Singapore and Indonesia.

As the series’ tagline goes, it’s ‘a social history of Indonesia through the songs of Navicula, the best band you’ve probably never heard of.’ If you are among those who haven’t yet heard of Navicula, comparisons could be drawn with America’s Rage Against the Machine, or in terms of lyrical content, Australia’s Midnight Oil. Navicula’s style is influenced by alternative ‘90s rock, particularly seminal groups such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains, while also incorporating indigenous influences and psychedelic rock. Many Navicula songs feature the elements of an anthem: a simple yet potent chorus, steady beat, and lyrics that unite those singing along at the top of their lungs — an integral part of the band’s live performances.

Navicula follows in the footsteps of Iwan Fals, a singer-songwriter who, as Rebekah Moore writes, was instrumental in defining the rock musician’s role as social activist in Indonesia. Vocalist and guitarist Gede Robi says in Episode 1, ‘As artists, I feel we have the ability to challenge the status quo. For me and my band Navicula, we love music and we care about social and environmental issues. We believe every generation has their own revolution — I think social and environmental issues are the crucial issue of our generation.’

Ewa speaks with Robi and his fellow band members — guitarist Dadang Pranoto, bassist Krishnanda Adipurba, and drummer Palel Atmoko — about their activism on and off the stage, along with the people behind the movements they support: prominent activists, academics, and development leaders. This is what makes the podcast a first in Indonesia: socially conscious musicians sharing a microphone with those who have also dedicated a large part of their lives to improving Indonesia, albeit using different methods.

Each podcast episode focuses on a particular Navicula song. Episode 4 explores Aku Bukan Mesin (I Am Not a Machine), which the band recorded in response to the terrorist bombings that shook Bali and Jakarta in the early 2000s. It’s an angry, frustrated track, with a propulsive guitar hook and erratic instrumental sections. Robi tells Ewa the lyrics were ‘just the pure reaction as a human being, as a Balinese.’ He was ‘thinking about the people who have losing (sic) their heart, losing (sic) their entity as a human to do such a cruel, unimaginable action. It just destroys everything. The effect of the destruction is affecting everybody.’ Ewa is also joined by Sidney Jones, Director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, who many consider as a ‘rock star’ of her field. She examines the role religion played in the bombings, what makes people turn to violent extremism, and whether it continues to be a threat in Indonesia.

Navicula at Soundrenaline Festival promoting the campaign to ban single use plastics in Bali / Kopernik

Episode 6 features Mafia Hukum (The Legal Mafia), one of the band’s most popular songs, which became the anthem of Indonesia’s anti-corruption movement. The episode includes a cast of heavy hitters in the civil society and development space: international development expert and former World Bank lead social scientist for East Asia and the Pacific, Scott Guggenheim; award-winning documentary filmmaker Dandhy Laksono; former deputy commissioner of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission, Saut Situmorang; and Indonesia Corruption Watch’s Sely Martini.

Reaching new audiences

Many of the topics at the heart of Navicula’s songs are also addressed by the Indonesia-based non-profit Kopernik, which Ewa co-founded in 2010. A research and development organisation, Kopernik works with diverse partners — including musicians and artists — to find solutions to social and environmental challenges across the archipelago and beyond. Recognising that music is a means to reach wider audiences and a key component of social movements, for the past six years Kopernik has collaborated with Navicula on various initiatives, the biggest of which is a campaign to reduce single-use plastic consumption. This collaboration culminated in the feature-length documentary Pulau Plastik (Plastic Island), which was picked up by Netflix in June this year. Alongside Tiza Mafira and Prigi Arisandi, the film follows Robi as he investigates Indonesia’s plastic pollution crisis and what can be done to fight it.

The Pulau Plastik campaign features in Episode 7 of the podcast, which delves into the song Saat Semua Semakin Cepat, Bali Berani Berhenti (As Everything Gets Faster and Faster, Bali Dares to Stop). Released in 2016, the gentle acoustic folk ballad is the band’s love letter to Nyepi, the Balinese Hindu annual ‘day of silence’, and an ode to the island’s bravery to continue celebrating its customs in the face of globalisation. During the episode, Ewa and Robi point out that Nyepi isn’t the only example of Bali’s bravery to buck the trend. In 2019, the province became the first in Indonesia to pass a regulation banning the use of certain single-use items including plastic bags, styrofoam, and plastic straws in restaurants, cafes, shops and markets, and inspired other locations in Indonesia to follow Bali’s example.

People power. As depicted in the documentary Pulau Plastik, thousands joined Navicula lead singer Gede Robi in a protest march in Jakarta / Kopernik

Navicula may not yet be that well known outside Indonesia, but the band’s music does connect with foreign listeners, even though most of their lyrics being in Indonesian. The band’s first major international exposure was with the song Metropolutan (Episode 2), which decries overdevelopment and pollution in Jakarta. The song took out the RØDE Rocks! International Band Competition in 2012. Their prize was a session at the legendary Record Plant Recording Studios in Los Angeles with the band’s ‘dream producer’, Alain Johannes to record its Love Bomb album. A viewer of the Metropolutan video, which Navicula submitted for the competition, commented, ‘I do not understand what you are singing, but I feel this song. I love it. Awesome voice, awesome grunge sound’.

Just as a foreign listener who could not understand a word of Indonesian was able to connect with Metropolutan, those who’ve never heard the band’s music will find much to engage with in the podcast. For those with little knowledge of the world’s fourth most populous nation, each episode is an accessible introduction to a particular period in contemporary Indonesian history, soundtracked by the band that has been at the vanguard of Indonesian music activism for much of its career. As Robi says in Episode 4, ‘As an artist, it’s really important to capture a moment. I see Navicula as a journalist using music as the medium, so it’s really important to capture the original feeling of what we feel at the time, like a historian writing a journal through music.’

Ewa Wojkowska and Gede Robi, A Soundtrack of Resistance, Podcast Series

Julia Winterflood (julia.winterflood@gmail.com) is a freelance writer, editor, and translator who has called Indonesia home since 2014. She contributed to the writing and production of several episodes of A Soundtrack of Resistance.

Featured Album: Pianissimo By Matthias Vogt

Photo from Matthias’ Bandcamp page.

Having lived a bit of a double-life as a musician, being a respected jazz musician by day and spinning discs at large clubs at night, Matthias Vogt has experienced the ins and outs of the music industry. By colliding these two very different musical worlds Matthias manages to create his own, unique sound for whatever project he is working on in any given moment (they are many).

His latest album has an environmental protection theme. It features Matthias’ piano compositions along with spoken word. In an introductory video Matthias posted on his Facebook page, he explains how he conducted interviews with environmental activists and integrated those conversations into the music.

This is a beautiful album that is not to be skipped through, but slowly taken in, knowing where it comes from. Take a moment out of your day to listen to Matthias’ socio-political reflections as he portrays them through his music.

Accompanying Matthias’ piano work is Demian Kappenstein on drums and Daniel Stelter on guitar.

Via Matthias’ Bandcamp you can obtain the new album on beautiful vinyl, 100% eco-friendly and made from recycled products.