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About the Album

Indonesia meets Canada in the “The Great South East,” as Owen Hooper chronicles his odyssey of living in Jakarta as a 16 year old Canadian foreign exchange student immersed in the fusion of Muslim and Southeast Asian culture.

From the opening track sang in Bahasa Indonesia to the rest of the lyrics unfolding in English Hooper shares his journey in a musical montage of electronic dream-pop that is the soundtrack to his travels in Indonesia. Themes about seeing things from new perspectives, travelling, and love for the South-East Asian culture that adopted him appear throughout the songs.

“Coming from a small town in British Columbia with not a single traffic light, to a city of ten million people, and living with a muslim family, the differences were obvious. But the very first day I could already see the similarities.”

Track 1: Rasa Sayange, is an adaptation of a traditional Indonesian folk song. Translated, the words mean “The Feeling of Love”

“This summed up the culture for me - a traditional song which describes the emotional state — the “feeling of love,” not just of loving someone. That impressed me. I wanted to sing this song as a tribute to this culture,” notes Hooper.

Track 2: Bahasa “I recorded the first version of this in my bedroom in my home in South Jakarta. It’s about how much there is to see in the world. Something I really got for the first time there.”

Track 3: Dinosaurs, has a moody, half dreaming, half awake feel to it. The song was inspired by an exhibit about Indonesian Independence at the National Monument Monas in Jakarta. In it, Hooper explores the ephemeral nature of historical legacy:

“And if I fall into the ocean, and wind up on the sea floor
Would you tell me, am I a fossil? Or am I here. Am I here, anymore?”

Track 4: We Don’t Know. Gets to the heart of the question everyone faces as they are finishing high-school, or college, or even at a crossroads in their lives. “Even if we have a direction, none of us know where we’re going exactly,” says Hooper. “So it’s all just a big adventure. On this trip, I was with other students from all over the world, who basically put their hands up to leave everything that they knew behind, not knowing what was in store. And taking that chance was really cool.”

“For all the kids who took the chance
Fly above where the white creatures dance”

Track 5: An Imagination, features Marc Jowett’s analogue contributions of cello and guitar, as well as a sample Metalophone, which is used in Indonesian Gamelan music.

“This song is about the struggle between growing up and wanting to keep some childish innocence,” says Hooper.

“Sometimes I talk to my old friends
in their place up in the sky
and I still believe in fairies even though
That I know otherwise

You say I’ll never be a man
If I think that that’s all true
But I still think, I could be
The man for you.

We make blanket forts to hold off our imaginary foes
Our heart are inner weapons
but in battle we use pillows
we shout to our noble warriors
and we wait for their reply
because without imagination
a part of who we are dies”

Track 6: Ondel-Ondel ” This song is kind of about saying goodbye. It’s about the amazing things I saw from Bali to Lombok to the streets of Jakarta. Ondel-Ondel is a traditional Betawi ( old Jakarta) folk performance. I would sometimes drift off to sleep while stuck in traffic in Jakarta. A few times, when I opened my eyes I would see these massive costumed people dancing in the street. They were performing Ondel-Ondel to provide protection against calamities and warding off evil spirits.”