For the release of his new mix, Electric Soul spoke with Hilmo, one of the founders of Spectral Tribe and Room 404 Radio in Indonesia. Check it out!

1. Could you first introduce yourself for readers that might not know you?

Hello, my name is Hilmo. I'm a producer, DJ, and musician based in Batu, Malang in East Java, Indonesia.

I’m the co-founder of Spectral Tribe, which is a multi-disciplinary collective focused on music, art, and other experiments.

I’m also the founder of Room 404 Radio, a Batu based community radio, and Posh Lotus Records, a record label I run focused on electronic music and more experimental genres.

2. What musical genres are you interested in? How would you describe your style as a DJ?

I was interested in many genres, like playing disco and house a lot in my early career.

When I use the name “Hilmo”, I play disco, house, jazz and more dancey songs--though no banger songs, hahaha.

When I play  as “Hxxmo”, I play some hard bass, techno, more banger, and experimental music to make the crowd dance hard. 

It may sound weird with two names on stage, but I want to bring something different to my listeners. 

3. How did you first encounter underground electronic music? What made you take the step further from being just a listener to becoming a DJ? 

Wow, it’s a long story. First in 2014, I went to Rumah Opa, a bar in Malang. I saw Seno and the Future Room team playing some disco and house, which was something different. 

Here you more often see DJs playing like Avicii or more EDM sounds. But I’m not interested in this genre, I got interested in the disco scene after the Future Room event in Rumah Opa.

After i listened to “Dentum Dansa Bawah Tanah”, I decided I wanted to make music like this :))

In 2017, after I returned from Melbourne, I wanted to make a disco mixtape with you name it--DJs  like Todd Terje, Thomas Bullock, Justin Van Der Volgen and more.

Seno invited me to join Future Room and I thought, “Wow, my dream came true.” I make events like Gong Gong Jamz, Friday Jamz, and Alter Sound these days.

I play with other friends from out of town sometimes like Midnight Runners, Merdi (Diskoria), Archie (Scrubs) and others, to connect to each other and collaborate.

4. You’re a resident on a number of different online radio programs, could you discuss that? How did you become involved in those?

In the first pandemic season I wanted to be more productive, and I wanted to show to my other friends that “I can make it out from Indonesia”. 

I made three programs on different radio stations and featured guest mixes from radios outside Indonesia.

My programs are not much different from other radio programs, it’s all about Indonesia, to make Indonesian songs known by other listeners in the world (I hope!).

5. How did Room 404 start? What do you hope to accomplish with Room 404? In addition to serving as community radio, how does Room 404 also operate as a store?

It started in 2019 with an offline mixtape, and started to broadcast online in February 2020--up until now.

I started this radio with four friends in a different city. As time went on, my friends couldn’t keep running the radio, and now I run it alone.

I sell some stuff like t-shirts and records like vinyl, CD, and cassettes to make some profit for the radio.

6. Can you tell me a bit about Spectral Tribe? Similarly, how did that start and what do you hope to accomplish with that?

I made Spectral Tribe with Seno and Fian on 2018, hoping make something dark and different after a dance floor full of love. I want to see chaos on the dance floor, with people having fun listening to techno music with raw strobe lights and hard bass music that has bangers for the dancefloor.

This year we want to make a compilation.

7. Tell me a little about the scene in Indonesia, specifically in Malang (Is that right?). How would you describe the scene there? How do you hope to influence the scene, both as a DJ individually and as part of Room 404? Has the scene affected by COVID?

Indonesia is growing more and more internationally, with great artists from big and little cities in Indonesia.

But in Malang, just in my inner circle, there are more open minded people. We fight for our scene and our rave.

Mostly we were banned from bars, because our music was too “underground” for sales.

Only a few people in this city are involved in my radio. I hope everyone here can mutually cooperate to build the scene, not for competition.

In March 2021, I was infected with COVID-19, and now it’s getting better.

8. What have been some of the challenges of running Room 404 and Spectral Tribe? Were Room 404 and Spectral Tribe affected by COVID in any way?

For Spectral, we’re off on any activities and are focused on just making songs for our compilation. 

Room 404 had its first pandemic season active broadcast in February 2020 to have activities during the pandemic. For now, Room 404 is under maintenance and will be on air again in July 2020.

9. What comes next for you as a DJ? Any personal projects? Are there any other projects you’re involved in that we haven’t discussed that you would like to talk about?

I want to make an EP with local record labels, as well as some ambient works. I also run a hardcore band, Devil Despize, I play drums for this band.

10. Any closing words you would like to say to readers?

Let’s make something! Don't be shy about presenting to the world.