Grrrl Gang

Indonesian trio Grrrl Gang build on their considerable worldwide buzz with Spunky!, their full-length debut album. Released on September 27, 2023 by Green Island Music in partnership with exclusive licensees Kill Rock Stars (for North and South America), Trapped Animal Records (UK and EU) and Big Romantic Records (Japan and Taiwan), the album is preceded by its title track and first single which drops on May 31.

Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHNjj753YNM

Spunky! arrives following some major life changes for Angeeta Sentana (vocals, guitar), Akbar Rumandung (bass, vocals) and Edo Alventa (guitar, vocals), including a switch in locale from Yogyakarta, the city where they formed the band while still in college. “This is Grrrl Gang’s first release after we graduated and got day jobs that made us have to move to Jakarta, which is undeniably 180 degrees compared to Yogya,” says Rumandung. “But moving to Jakarta enabled us to work with Lafa on Spunky! from start to finish.”

That would be Lafa Pratomo, the in-demand producer brought in to help shape the ten tracks that make up Spunky! With a resume that includes the likes of the chanteuse Danilla and legendary singer-songwriter Iwan Fals, Pratomo might not seem the obvious choice to take the Grrrl Gang producer’s chair. But according to Rumandung, “In terms of production, this was something new for us by working with someone outside of Grrrl Gang’s comfort zone.” Indeed, Pratomo considerably beefs up Grrrl Gang’s sound – particularly Alventa’s guitar tones, Rumandung’s rumbling bass and touring drummer Muhammad Faiz Abdurrahman’s muscular beats – while preserving the band’s signature raucous energy, catchy melodies and Sentana’s attitude-filled, equal-parts-honey-and-vinegar vocals.

Speaking of the latter, when listened to in its intended sequence the album also plays like a glimpse through lyricist Sentana’s journal as she deals with feelings of isolation (“Rude Awakening”), self-loathing (“Birthday Blues”), depression (“Better Than Life”) and insecurity (“Cool Girl”), before eventually finding some degree of happiness and acceptance on “Blue-Stained Lips” and “The Star”.  “This album might be tiring to listen to because of its really depressing theme, because that's how I felt after listening to the final product,” says Sentana. “However, since the beginning of the creation of this album, the main message that we wanted to give is how to find hope, courage, and humor despite our messy circumstances, and we go through that journey in this album from stories about bad habits, chronic loneliness, and helplessness.”

Overall, Spunky! is the sound of a band not content to rest on its laurels, despite gathering an impressive list of achievements since Grrrl Gang first got together in 2016 and proceeded to take the local, regional, and international indie scenes by storm, leading to a prestigious performance slot on the pandemic-induced online edition of SXSW 2021 and an A- review that esteemed music critic Robert Christgau bestowed upon Here to Stay!, the 2020 compilation of their early singles. According to Rumandung, “We want this album to show that we’ve changed, that Grrrl Gang is a band that isn’t stuck in one place and that we always have the urge to discover new things.”

In other words, Spunky! proves that Grrrl Gang are – to borrow a familiar phrase – here to stay.