Love enables people to do anything. The power of love alone can vibrate the wild and bold desire to move one’s thought, action and creativity.

“never feel bored staring at you, from head to toes, you walk like dancing, waddling gracefully like an angel. Out of nowhere, you are a perfect stranger, may I know your name? never feel bored looking at you, hair down to shoulders pile up the beauty of your face, my heart’s vibrating when you look at me, my heart blooms when I see your smile (Tontang Batek Kandik)

The lyric above by Joe Mellow Mood is about a man who fell in love and gained so much energy out of it to go after and get to know his dream girl. In another interpretation, the girl is synonymous to reggae music. This fusion track of ‘Shaggy wise’ ragga muffin with ethnic elements from Sasak, Lombok, Indonesia is like taking us to the early stage of its singer, how he first fell in love with Jamaican music. Just like destiny, the man whose full name is Saifudin Zohri was born in Lombok in February, the reggae month, 1975, the same month as his idol, Bob Marley.    

Through a video conference with Kultur, Joe kindly explained that he used to listen to plenty of music when he was still a teenager in the 1980s like U2, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and the Beatles. Yet, it is reggae that caught his heart through songs by Bob Marley.

“I’d love to listen to many kinds of music but when I listened to reggae, it caught my heart. I don’t know, maybe due to the music, the lyrics, or perhaps because of its simplicity that I found it so blessfull!”

The love of music then leads a way to trace a further acquaintanceship when he went to live in Bali during the 1990s. In this island of gods he joined two bands, “Legend” and “Rhythm Voice” which regularly played on local gigs. They were also the pioneers to play at Indonesia’s iconic ‘Apache reggae bar.’ Here Joe honed his reggae talent and skills. He even performed on the same stage with international reggae stars like Maxi Priest and Quino (Big Mountain).   

After a few years living in Bali, Joe decided to move to Jakarta in 2003. He was invited previously by an acquaintance, the late Roy Putuhena, a bassist player of a reggae band, ‘Tuff Gong,’ who he met when they came to perform in 2001. He said that Roy wanted to make him the new front man of the band since ‘Mas Anies Saichu’ decided to quit and moved to Jogja. Besides that, after the first Bali Bombing in 2001, the situation was so quiet and tense for many activities including music gigs. He decided to find a new ambience that can endorse his passion. In Jakarta, he began his new adventure with Tuff Gong playing gigs around the capital city. The band only released a single “It wasn’t me” in a compilation album, Indonesia Reggae Revolution in 2005. Out of these routines with the band, Joe also made his own music experiment with Iwanouz (keyboardist), his compatriot in Tuff Gong before joining ‘Steven & The Coconuttreez.” Their teamwork bore some of Joe’s later masterpieces.       

Joe also shared his ups and downs as a musician living in Jakarta, the promises and lies of record companies, living in boarding houses, and owing meals in restaurants just to survive. All of these did not push him down. He just kept on doing his passion patiently and vigorously. These are the things that we can learn from reggae music, he said. As to him, reggae is not just about rebels but also simplicity and patience that will lead us to peace and harmony.

“reggae teaches us to be patient and be as what it is, like being humble and simple. I’m more to that than to rebel, it’s too tough. So I like simplicity and peace. Equality, simplicity, and peace,” he stated.

Joe decided to quit Tuff Gong and made his own album. With the help of his friends from a top 40 band ‘Topamaure’ he produced and released his first album “Simsalabim” in 2007. In this album he began to use the moniker ‘Joe the Wine.’ The name came from UB 40’s version of Neil Diamond‘s ‘Red red wine’ which he was really fond of and to make it easy to be remembered by his fans, he added.

By the end of 2009 Joe got an invitation from the late Aray Daulay to perform at the launching of Ray d’Sky album in Gili, Trawangan. Joe collaborated with Aray in a track of the album entitled “Misty Day.” Going to Gili is a coming home to Joe because after the gig he decided to stay. Here he became a regular player at ‘Sama-sama reggae bar’ owned by his old friend, Pak Basok. To make a new band Joe had to hunt new talents from local villages. He finally found them, unfortunately none of them have ever played reggae before. He had to mentor them for some time before the band finally launched in 2010 with a new name ‘Joe Mellow Mood.’ Once again the name changed. This time because, pak Basok really likes Marley’s tune ‘Mellow Mood.’ Together with the band Joe released his second album “Lombok Holiday.” The album has a unique composition with a blend of Jamaican sounds like roots reggae, dub and dancehall with the nuance of ethnic taste through tunes in Sasak language. Two distinct cultures can melt perfectly in a pot because according to Joe Indonesia has already had reggae elements in their traditional music long before any encounter. One of them would be the style of guitar chop or skanking, the difference is only on the bassline, he added.     

Kultur noticed that at a glimpse when singing Joe would sound like Bob and Shaggy and he answered “I would sound like Bob because he is my patron from the very first day while Shaggy is because of the character of my vocal, so I just try it anyway.” And when Kultur asked to pick just two songs from each of them, he reluctantly named “no woman no cry and stir it up” (Bob) and ‘Mr Bombastic and Angle’ (Shaggy) since he loves all of their songs. These two figures really influenced Joe in making songs.

When asked about the latest progress of Jamican music in the world, Indonesia, and Lombok he responded that everywhere is the same, Jamican music grows massively and rapidly where many times hard to follow. He pays great respect to all musicians especially in Indonesia who some of them are his comrades like Steven, Tony Q, and Mas Anies.

Now Joe lives in Zurich, Switzerland and keeps on the same track productively making songs with his new moniker ‘Joesai’ (https://www.joesai-music.com/about). He is working on two projects albums now. One with a band “Jameleon” and another one is a solo using Sasak language. One of the tracks with Jameleon, “Solidarity” is made for covid 19. It is a call and appeal to stay safe and keep the solidarity in facing the pandemic. The song is now available on Jameleon’s official channel. These two albums are worth awaited by reggae lovers in Indonesia and elsewhere. A unique taste from Joesai to infuse ethnic elements of Sasak, Lombok into Jamaican music. SALUTE !
(Yedi)