White Shoes and The Couples Company

FORMED
In August 2002, in an art institute at Cikini, central Jakarta, two lover from the fine art faculty Rio & Sari decided to form a band together with their fellow in the faculty named Saleh. This was the first formation of White Shoes & The Couples Company, which features Sari in vocal & violin, Rio on rhythm guitar and Saleh on melody guitar. The three of them made their first debut in this formation in a college event. However, the trio formation diverged from their original plan where actually Sari and Rio had keenly asked a married couple from the music faculty to join the band the couples was Ricky Surya Virgana & Mela Virgana. Yet the couple was hard to meet since they were busy lecturing and covering for orchestras. Several months later, the couple join White Shoes & The Couples Company with Ricky on Bass and cello and Mela on viola, keyboards and piano.

SONGS
The first song of White Shoes & The Couples Company was “Runaway Song” written by Sari & Rio. The next one was “Windu & Defrina”, followed by “Sunday Memory Lane” and “Nothing To Fear”.

THE MANAGER
The Band’s acquaintance with it’s current manager Indra Ameng was another story. Indra Ameng was then already a well-known manager. Previously he was the manager of an old famous band in the 1990’s called Rumahsakit. Nevertheless, White Shoes & The Couples Company and Indra Ameng did not meet in the world of music, but the world of visual art. This was because Indra Ameng happened to be a visual artist and a program coordinator in an artist' initiative space in Jakarta, called ruangrupa.



THE DRUMMER
At the beginning, White Shoes & The Couples Company did not have a drummer. Thus, Ricky initiated to ask a friend at his faculty namely John Navid a.k.a Lau Kun Sin for position of additional drummer to play in one event at the BB's Bar. How ever, as the time goes by and according to necessities, John eventually became a permanent drummer in 2004. Thus, the final formation of White Shoes & The Couples Company was set up.

THE ALBUM
White Shoes & The Couples Company recorded their debut album comprising 11 songs under Aksara Records, an indie records label that based in Jakarta. On August 2005, this album was launched by Aksara Records and distributed by Universal Music Indonesia in Indonesia. The album has sold over 15,000 copies, and it’s a major step for an indie band.



In the same year, White Shoes & The Couples Company has contributed one song in Original Movie Soundtrack “Janji Joni” produced by Kalyana Shira Films. The movie was a big hit in Indonesian Cinemas, and also the single from the band, titled “Senandung Maaf”, becoming a high rotation in every radio in Indonesia. Following this success, in 2006, White Shoes & The Couples Company join another production from Kalyana Shira Films in a movie “Berbagi Suami”. The band recorded two songs for this movie soundtrack.
www.kalyanashirafilms.com .