Pic : Jovy Akbar
Mocca Release “When We Were Young” for Their 17th anniversary
Remember the hype when Mocca said that they collaborated with Vicky from Burgerkill in a song called “When We Were Young”? That seems like a long time ago, and that happened during Java Jazz Festival 2016. Fast forward to now, the single will officially be released in a flexi disc format on November 17th, 2016. The single release also commemorates Mocca’s 17 year anniversary of their career. The group from Bandung started their journey back in 1999 and have gone through thick and thin in Indonesia’s indie music scene. Miraculously, Mocca still stay with the four original members Arina Ephipania, Riko Prayitno, Toma Pratama dan Indra Massad in the course of seventeen years, which is a huge feat for a band. The single “When We Were Young” was composed by Riko and the lyrics were written by Arina. The song was written for their keyboardist, Agung Nugraha, as a wedding gift and it was inspired by the movie “Up”, that chronicles about a couple’s long lasting love.
Riko recalls about Mocca’s hardship through their seventeen years together, “If I recall, the hardest moment these past few years, was definitely the absence of Arina from our life in Indonesia. At that time, we were inactive on stage. We pretty much miss it, whether for us the band or the listeners who always ask when we will perform.” Now with Arina’s residency back in Indonesia, the band has picked up their momentum and it resulted in a quite busy schedule with no sign of stopping anytime soon. “When We Were Young” depicts that ups and downs in life and the involvement of Vicky Mono, the vocalist of a metal band, Burgerkill, adds something unique to the song. The single has Mocca’s signature bubbly and sweet indie-pop flavor, and the addition of saxophone and brass section adds a little retro jazzy flair to it.
Arina who is known for her strict regiment in vocal arrangement, trained Vicky with vocal coaching during the recording and wanted the result to be nothing more than perfect. Toma Pratama said that the result is not disappointing and Vicky turned out to be quite good in it. The exploration cements Mocca’s career on the right track but this won’t be the end of their experiment and they still have a long way to go. “Seventeen years is definitely not short. But we hope that this could be an important milestone for Mocca. From here, we could progress and chase many opportunity that could arise in the future. The most important thing is, we would like to keep working (red: making music),” utters Indra Massad.
The physical format of single “When We Were Young” could be purchased at www.tokomocca.com and LINE @soundpagerecords .
