The musicians: Bandung band Bottlesmoker will be one of the first two Indonesian bands to perform at Singapore’s Laneway Festival in January next year.  (Courtesy of Bottlesmoker)

Bandung band Bottlesmoker is ready for their Singaporean moment.

Whether they’d like to or not, Bandung band Bottlesmoker will carry the weight of the Indonesian music scene on their shoulders when performing as one of the first two Indonesian bands to ever grace Singapore’s prestigious Laneway Festival stage in January next year.

The other Indonesian band will be eclectic pop group Stars and Rabbit — also very much worth watching.

They’ve got a couple of tricks readied up their sleeves.

Anggung “Angkuy” Suherman — who makes up the band alongside Ryan “Nobie” Adzani — said that they are readying a one-of-a-kind stage production alongside a new costume (the band is known to wear full-fledged replicas of astronaut suits on stage).

The duo will also perform a slew of new songs from their latest record, released this November.

“We actually didn’t know how we got picked”, said Angkuy, explaining his disbelief. “But then we got an email from Laneway — which was a festival we never proposed to play at because they had no open submissions, of course [...] we thought it was just another festival promotion email, but it turned out that it was actually an invitation to come play.”

The band immediately said yes, knowing that this would be another obvious milestone for their career.

Angkuy said he thinks Bottlesmoker was picked because of the hype they built in recent months, opening up for big acts such as M83 and Battles.

Back at home, Bottlesmoker is a special success story. For one thing, their songs are almost completely instrumental and for the most part feature an amalgamation of retro 1980s electronic-pop beats and toy synthesizers.

It is anything but commercial, but through their very strong work ethic, the band’s numerous releases – all of which are free to download legally from the internet – and their constant touring schedule, Bottlesmoker has gone on to show that doing it yourself (DIY) can yield very real results.

They are certainly the only local act that can claim to have reached over to the Indonesian mainstream with English-language titles and songs without vocals.

As such, it isn’t surprising that the band has won numerous awards like “Best Electro/Dance Act” from the Asia Voice of Independent Music Awards (AVIMA) in 2010 and Best Digital Music from the Indonesia Information and Communications Technology Awards (INAICTA) in 2012.

Suit up: The members of Bottlesmoker are known for wearing full replica outfits, including astronaut suits, on stage.

There is a homemade feel to Bottlesmoker’s music, with many instruments indeed having been made by the band’s own hands and everything self-recorded and self-produced. The video-game-like songs are catchy and danceable without forsaking melody and dynamics.

Part of their early success was due to the band building their brand from the ground up — offering free singles and albums through netlabels (internet music labels) and music websites.

Formed in 2005, the band’s strong and plentiful discography stood out within the then-trendy “chiptune” music scene (essentially electronic music that derived sounds from video game music of the 1980s and 1990s).

The band’s album features them collaborating with a group of American ethnomusicologists who provided the band with a series of field recordings they acquired around Indonesia.

“We have songs that are [...] they don’t sound traditional, but they are almost tribal,” Angkuy said, clearly excited about the album.

As for their Laneway set, the band promises to make it another crowning achievement.

For more details, log onto singapore.lanewayfestival.com

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