Jeff Arwadi
Encyclopedia
Jefray Arwadi is a musician
, music producer, and graphic artist from Jakarta
, Indonesia
, who now resides in Calgary
, Alberta
, Canada
. He is most notable as the former guitarist and front man for avant-garde/progressive metal
band Kekal
, and as the co-founder of experimental death metal
project Altera Enigma
along with Jason DeRon of Paramaecium
. He is also known for his works as a freelance graphic designer under Soundmind Graphics, and until his 2006 move to Canada, Jeff owned and ran his own recording studio
, Vision Studio, in Jakarta.
Jeff Arwadi started playing music in 1989, and in addition to his roles in Kekal
and Altera Enigma
he has fronted the bands Inner Warfare and Excision, as well as being a member of the bands Armageddon Holocaust and Doctor D.
, and played a primitive style of punk
and thrash metal
.
Jeff decided to quit this band in 1991 to spend more time learning the guitar. In 1992 he bought his first electric guitar and joined a band called Sonic Warfare, which later changed its name to Inner Warfare. According to Jeff, this was his first serious band, and Inner Warfare wrote its own music, played shows, and recorded some demos before disbanding in 1997.
Jeff was involved in Kekal
as a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter since the band’s inception, but was not an official member until 1996. Kekal started out as an extreme metal
band, and gradually progressed into more electronic-influenced experimental
and avant-garde metal. The band has met with commercial success and critical acclaim, and has released 7 full-length albums in its career as the first metal band from Indonesia to make international inroads.
On 2006, Jeff Arwadi moved to Canada while the rest of the members remained in Indonesia, which left the band unable to play shows and do touring. At the same time the band left their longtime record label Fear Dark and status of the band was in question. After few months of uncertainty and rumors of break-up went around among fans, Kekal decided to remain together and to keep the band only as a studio project. They signed to a new label and released The Habit of Fire
, which met with international success and critical acclaim.
On 2009, Jeff announced that he and the other members of Kekal had left the band, but it was decided that the name would continue without active band members. Jeff stated that, in addition to unspecified personal reasons, he decided to leave the band because, after being closer to nature and in a less densely populated city in Canada, he was unable to continue to make dark and angry metal music which he did in the past with Kekal. Many of their fans perceived that Kekal had technically split-up/disbanded at the moment band leader Jeff announced his departure from the band, despite the fact that Kekal as an institution still existed and the institution itself was not affected by any founding member leaving. To end the confusions among their fans, the band issued a statement posted on their official Facebook page that clarified the status of the band.
Despite his leaving Kekal, Jeff still contributes to the band, which released its eight studio album, appropriately titled 8, in December 2010. In early March, Jeff announced that he and Leo were busy recording material, and new album is planned for release in 2012.
was formed in 2004 when Jeff Arwadi teamed up with Australia
n guitarist Jason DeRon
, formerly of Paramaecium
. The band was created as an outlet for the two musicians to work together on music that would push their boundaries, challenge them musically and allow them to broaden their horizons and explore progressive music in all its forms. Altera Enigma released its debut album, Alteration
, in 2006.
As of March, 2010, Jeff decided that he needed to step away from Altera Enigma, and his contribution to the project is now minimal, although according to Jason DeRon the band will continue to take advantage of his creativity and inventiveness.
service that provides computer-based graphics for web sites, multi-media, and print media for music related industries. In addition to Jeff’s own bands Kekal, Altera Enigma, and Armageddon Holocaust, the company has worked with such bands as Immortal Souls
, Slechtvalk
, Sympathy
, and Trancendus. In 2011, on Kekal Facebook page he stated that he no longer offer services as Soundmind Graphics.
, but he does not consider Christianity to be a religion. In an interview with the website JesusMetal, he said he believes that while most religions are about laws, organizations, rites, and dogmas, Christianity is about Faith. In another interview with Avant-garde Metal.com, Jeff stated: “For me personally, faith is something that drives you to the life as human being… … I happen to believe in something good, that’s why I am always looking for better life and try to improve health, for example. But it does not have to be associated with religion whatsoever. You don’t have to be religious to ever believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and you don’t have to be religious to have a good diet and workout some exercise.”
Though Jeff and the other members of Kekal are Christians, the band has maintained that it is about music, life, and universality, and does not endorse any particular belief.
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, music producer, and graphic artist from Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, who now resides in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He is most notable as the former guitarist and front man for avant-garde/progressive metal
Progressive metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...
band Kekal
Kekal
Kekal is a heavy metal band formed in 1995 in Jakarta, Indonesia. According to Allmusic, Kekal was one of the first heavy metal bands from Indonesia to make international inroads, and according to Keith Kahn Harris was one of the few extreme metal bands from Southeast Asia to ever make more than a...
, and as the co-founder of experimental death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
project Altera Enigma
Altera Enigma
Altera Enigma is an experimental death metal supergroup formed by Jason De Ron, the former guitarist and front man of Paramaecium, and Jefray Arwadi, former guitarist, vocalist, and front man of Kekal. Both of these musicians have a career that has seen them record and release nearly 20 albums...
along with Jason DeRon of Paramaecium
Paramaecium
Paramaecium was an Australian death/doom metal band formed in 1991. There is use of instrumentation like flutes, cellos and violins on some albums. Paramaecium is one of the few doom metal bands that focus on Christian lyrical themes and Christian concepts...
. He is also known for his works as a freelance graphic designer under Soundmind Graphics, and until his 2006 move to Canada, Jeff owned and ran his own recording studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
, Vision Studio, in Jakarta.
Jeff Arwadi started playing music in 1989, and in addition to his roles in Kekal
Kekal
Kekal is a heavy metal band formed in 1995 in Jakarta, Indonesia. According to Allmusic, Kekal was one of the first heavy metal bands from Indonesia to make international inroads, and according to Keith Kahn Harris was one of the few extreme metal bands from Southeast Asia to ever make more than a...
and Altera Enigma
Altera Enigma
Altera Enigma is an experimental death metal supergroup formed by Jason De Ron, the former guitarist and front man of Paramaecium, and Jefray Arwadi, former guitarist, vocalist, and front man of Kekal. Both of these musicians have a career that has seen them record and release nearly 20 albums...
he has fronted the bands Inner Warfare and Excision, as well as being a member of the bands Armageddon Holocaust and Doctor D.
Early years
Jeff started playing guitar back in 1989 when he was 15 years old. In 1990, with his high-school friends, he formed his own band, Obliteration, in which he at first played bass but then switched to drums. The project was precursor to the later band KekalKekal
Kekal is a heavy metal band formed in 1995 in Jakarta, Indonesia. According to Allmusic, Kekal was one of the first heavy metal bands from Indonesia to make international inroads, and according to Keith Kahn Harris was one of the few extreme metal bands from Southeast Asia to ever make more than a...
, and played a primitive style of punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
.
Jeff decided to quit this band in 1991 to spend more time learning the guitar. In 1992 he bought his first electric guitar and joined a band called Sonic Warfare, which later changed its name to Inner Warfare. According to Jeff, this was his first serious band, and Inner Warfare wrote its own music, played shows, and recorded some demos before disbanding in 1997.
Kekal
Jeff was involved in Kekal
Kekal
Kekal is a heavy metal band formed in 1995 in Jakarta, Indonesia. According to Allmusic, Kekal was one of the first heavy metal bands from Indonesia to make international inroads, and according to Keith Kahn Harris was one of the few extreme metal bands from Southeast Asia to ever make more than a...
as a guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter since the band’s inception, but was not an official member until 1996. Kekal started out as an extreme metal
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
band, and gradually progressed into more electronic-influenced experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
and avant-garde metal. The band has met with commercial success and critical acclaim, and has released 7 full-length albums in its career as the first metal band from Indonesia to make international inroads.
On 2006, Jeff Arwadi moved to Canada while the rest of the members remained in Indonesia, which left the band unable to play shows and do touring. At the same time the band left their longtime record label Fear Dark and status of the band was in question. After few months of uncertainty and rumors of break-up went around among fans, Kekal decided to remain together and to keep the band only as a studio project. They signed to a new label and released The Habit of Fire
The Habit of Fire
The Habit of Fire is a 2007 album by the Canadian/Indonesian avant-garde metal band Kekal. Released on May 15 in North America, Japan & Australia and March 15 in Europe & South America, it is their 6th full-length album...
, which met with international success and critical acclaim.
On 2009, Jeff announced that he and the other members of Kekal had left the band, but it was decided that the name would continue without active band members. Jeff stated that, in addition to unspecified personal reasons, he decided to leave the band because, after being closer to nature and in a less densely populated city in Canada, he was unable to continue to make dark and angry metal music which he did in the past with Kekal. Many of their fans perceived that Kekal had technically split-up/disbanded at the moment band leader Jeff announced his departure from the band, despite the fact that Kekal as an institution still existed and the institution itself was not affected by any founding member leaving. To end the confusions among their fans, the band issued a statement posted on their official Facebook page that clarified the status of the band.
Despite his leaving Kekal, Jeff still contributes to the band, which released its eight studio album, appropriately titled 8, in December 2010. In early March, Jeff announced that he and Leo were busy recording material, and new album is planned for release in 2012.
Altera Enigma
Altera EnigmaAltera Enigma
Altera Enigma is an experimental death metal supergroup formed by Jason De Ron, the former guitarist and front man of Paramaecium, and Jefray Arwadi, former guitarist, vocalist, and front man of Kekal. Both of these musicians have a career that has seen them record and release nearly 20 albums...
was formed in 2004 when Jeff Arwadi teamed up with Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n guitarist Jason DeRon
Jason De Ron
Jason De Ron is a musician from Melbourne, Australia, most notable for being the former guitarist for the death/doom band Paramaecium and co founder and guitarist of the avant garde/progressive metal band Altera Enigma.-Biography:...
, formerly of Paramaecium
Paramaecium
Paramaecium was an Australian death/doom metal band formed in 1991. There is use of instrumentation like flutes, cellos and violins on some albums. Paramaecium is one of the few doom metal bands that focus on Christian lyrical themes and Christian concepts...
. The band was created as an outlet for the two musicians to work together on music that would push their boundaries, challenge them musically and allow them to broaden their horizons and explore progressive music in all its forms. Altera Enigma released its debut album, Alteration
Alteration (album)
Alteration is the debut album by Australian/Indonesian band Altera Enigma, recorded over 2 years and released on January, 2006. The emotional and sophisticated style found on the album drew comparisons to Liquid Tension Experiment, Gordian Knot, and Cynic....
, in 2006.
As of March, 2010, Jeff decided that he needed to step away from Altera Enigma, and his contribution to the project is now minimal, although according to Jason DeRon the band will continue to take advantage of his creativity and inventiveness.
Other projects
In addition to Kekal and Altera Engima, Jeff has been involved in many other bands and projects, including Armageddon Holocaust, Doctor D, and Excision.Soundmind Graphics
Jeff Arwadi founded Soundmind Graphics on the year 2000. It is a freelance graphic designGraphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
service that provides computer-based graphics for web sites, multi-media, and print media for music related industries. In addition to Jeff’s own bands Kekal, Altera Enigma, and Armageddon Holocaust, the company has worked with such bands as Immortal Souls
Immortal Souls
Immortal Souls is a melodic death metal band from Kokkola, Finland, formed in 1991. They released a split album and their debut on Little Rose Productions in late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2002 Immortal Souls signed with Dutch label Fear Dark which released their second and third album as well as a...
, Slechtvalk
Slechtvalk
Slechtvalk is an extreme metal band from The Netherlands, formed in 1999. Previously signed to Fear Dark Record and currently to Whirlwind Records, the group has released four albums, a split-CD with Kekal, a single and a DVD...
, Sympathy
Sympathy (band)
Sympathy is a technical death metal band from Canada, formed in 1991. Sympathy got some notable attention in the Benelux, Germany and Switzerland as those are the countries where their previous label Fear Dark is usually marketing its bands. The band is known for its professional musicianship...
, and Trancendus. In 2011, on Kekal Facebook page he stated that he no longer offer services as Soundmind Graphics.
Faith
Jeff has stated in several interviews that he is a ChristianChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, but he does not consider Christianity to be a religion. In an interview with the website JesusMetal, he said he believes that while most religions are about laws, organizations, rites, and dogmas, Christianity is about Faith. In another interview with Avant-garde Metal.com, Jeff stated: “For me personally, faith is something that drives you to the life as human being… … I happen to believe in something good, that’s why I am always looking for better life and try to improve health, for example. But it does not have to be associated with religion whatsoever. You don’t have to be religious to ever believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and you don’t have to be religious to have a good diet and workout some exercise.”
Though Jeff and the other members of Kekal are Christians, the band has maintained that it is about music, life, and universality, and does not endorse any particular belief.
With Kekal
- Beyond the Glimpse of DreamsBeyond the Glimpse of DreamsBeyond the Glimpse of Dreams is the debut album by the Indonesian black metal band Kekal released in 1998. Vocalist Harry left the band after the album's release.-Recording:...
- 1998 - Embrace the DeadEmbrace the DeadEmbrace the Dead is the 2nd album by the Indonesian extreme metal band Kekal. It reached sold-out status in 2004. On August 15, 2010, a new, remastered limited edition entitled Embrace the Dead 1999 was released as a free download, for up to a 1000 downloads.-Recording:Embrace the Dead was,...
- 1999 - The Painful ExperienceThe Painful ExperienceThe Painful Experience is the 3rd full-length studio album by the Indonesian progressive black metal band Kekal. The title refers to the recording sessions for Embrace the Dead. Shortly after the release of the album, Leo left the band when he moved to Australia.-Reception:Kekal experimented...
- 2001 - 1000 Thoughts of Violence1000 Thoughts of Violence1000 Thoughts of Violence is the 4th album by the Indonesian progressive black metal band Kekal, released in 2003. The central theme of the album is moral decline and the violent nature of humanity...
- 2003 - AcidityAcidity (album)Acidity is the 5th album by the Indonesian band Kekal. It was recorded in celebration of the band's 10th anniversary, and was an official reunion album for the band. It marked the return of Leo to the band, and includes the vocal talents of founding member Newbabe...
- 2005 - The Habit of FireThe Habit of FireThe Habit of Fire is a 2007 album by the Canadian/Indonesian avant-garde metal band Kekal. Released on May 15 in North America, Japan & Australia and March 15 in Europe & South America, it is their 6th full-length album...
- 2007 - Audible MinorityAudible MinorityAudible Minority is the seventh full-length studio album by Canadian/Indonesian experimental metal band Kekal. According to the band, the album is titled "Audible Minority" because the music on the album is of extreme minority status, and is "entirely bleak, gloom and dark." They also said that the...
- 2008 - 8 - 2010
With Armageddon Holocaust
- Into Total Destruction - 2000
- Radioactive Zone 245 - 2003
- Nekrofonik - 2004