The current line-up (left to right): Lukman, Ariel, and David
Noah (formerly Peterpan) is an Indonesian Alternative Rock and Pop Rock band. Founded in 2000 as Peterpan, the band is one of the best-selling acts in Indonesia. Peterpan starts out as a band playing in cafes in the city of Bandung before being found by Musica Studio's in 2002. Their first album, Taman Langit, sold well and their second album, Bintang di Surga, becomes one of (if not the, Indonesian album sales is hard to pinpoint) the best-selling Indonesian album of all time with 3 million copies sold.Two members, Andika and Indra, left the band in late 2006, citing Creative Differences and lack of meaningful contribution to the band; they then proceeded to start a new band named The Titans. Andika and Indra felt disinclined to let the rest of the band continue with the Peterpan name, however, so after two more albums, the band, now including keyboardist David to replace Andika, officially announced that they agreed to let go of the name in 2008. The now nameless band had originally planned to announce the name change with the release of their next album, set for a 2010 release; however, the plan was derailed when lead singer Ariel was arrested that year in a sex tape scandal. The band, now using their personnel's names as a placeholder name, released an instrumental album, Suara Lainnya, to ease the transition and as an apology for the delay of their upcoming album; Ariel made his inputs during his imprisonment.
After Ariel was paroled on good behavior in 2012, the band quickly announced their new name, Noah, and released their first album under the new name, Seperti Seharusnya, later that year. The name change and the scandal didn't do much to dent their popularity, as it turned out, as Seperti Seharusnya ended up selling over one million copies, marking it as a success.
In 2014, the band announced that they are planning for a multi-album project to remake their old Peterpan songs, starting with Second Chance, which was released in December that year; their reasoning is that they wanted to both update the Peterpan songs with a more mature sound that have had grown as Noah, as well as clear the ownership of the songs, which was still tied to the old name. However, drummer Reza also announced that he would be exiting the band after the album's release out of personal reasons. Undeterred, the band released a Cover Album honoring the most prominent Indonesian musicians from the 80s and 90s, Sings Legends, in 2016, as well as working on both their Second Chance project and a brand new album, 2019's Keterkaitan Keterikatan, although the latter album ended up taking precedence. After the release of the latter album, rhythm guitarist Uki announced his resignation from the band due to similar reasons as Reza.
In 2021, Ariel announced that Noah is continuing their long delayed Second Chance project. The second part of the project, a full re-recording of Taman Langit, was released in December 17, 2021. The third part, an almost full re-recording of Bintang di Surganote was released in January 12, 2022. Finally, the fourth and last part of the project, a full re-recording of Hari yang Cerah (now without the ellipsis), was released on January 26, 2022.
Members:
- Nazril "Ariel" Irham — lead vocals, guitar, tambourine, piano (2000—present)
- Andika Naliputra Wirahardja — keyboards, piano, backing vocals (2000—2006)
- David Kurnia Albert — keyboards, piano, synth, backing vocals (additional member, 2006—2008; 2008—present)
- Hendra "Indra" Suhendra — bass guitar, backing vocals (2000—2006)
- Lukman Hakim — lead guitar, backing vocals (2000—present)
- Mohammad Kautsar "Uki" Hikmat — rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2000—2019)
- Ilsyah Ryan Reza — drums, percussion (2000—2015)
Selected discography:
- "Mimpi yang Sempurna" (2002): Single from various-artists compilation album Kisah 2002 Malam.
- Taman Langit (2003)
- Bintang di Surga (2004)
- "Menunggumu" (2004): Duet with the late Indonesian progressive pop legend Chrisye. Released as a single for the latter's final studio album, Senyawa.
- OST Alexandria (2005): The original soundtrack for the Indonesian film of the same name. Consists of five new songs and five rearranged tracks from Taman Langit and Bintang di Surga.
- Hari yang Cerah... (2007): The first album released after Andika and Indra's departure.
- Sebuah Nama, Sebuah Cerita (2008): Their last album under the Peterpan name. A Greatest Hits Album consisting of four new recordings and twenty six past Peterpan hits.
- Suara Lainnya (2012): Released under the name Ariel, Uki, Lukman, Reza, David (as the new name had yet to be announced). First album after the Peterpan name was dropped. Composed of instrumental rearrangements of Peterpan's older songs, except "Cobalah Mengerti" from Hari yang Cerah..., which had Momo of label bandmate Geisha as a guest singer, and the bonus track "Dara", which was first released by Ariel in 2011 as a solo single; he wrote and recorded the song during his imprisonment.
- Seperti Seharusnya (2012): First album under the name Noah.
- Second Chance (2014): Composed of three songs produced by British producer Steve Lillywhite (known for his work with U2), eight re-recordings of Peterpan's songs that were not released as part of their three main albumsnote , and a re-recording of "Dara". The album is part of a four-album re-recording project, also titled Second Chance, intended to update most of Peterpan's older output with their newfound Noah sound. The rest of the project, re-recordings of Taman Langit, Bintang di Surga, and Hari yang Cerah, was released in December 2021—January 2022.
- Sings Legends (2016) — A Cover Album
- Keterkaitan Keterikatan (2019)
Their music provides examples of:
- Actionized Adaptation: Peterpan's video for "Bintang di Surga" has little action besides two fatal shots to the chest for Lukman and Ariel. Noah's remake adds drones and big robots having a massive shootout against the POV hostage taker before he is shot dead (by Ariel himself, ironically).
- Album Title Drop: Hari yang Cerah... is technically named after the second track "Hari yang Cerah untuk Jiwa yang Sepi", so since said track has a Title Drop, an Album Title Drop naturally follows.
- all lowercase letters: Peterpan's name is stylized as "peterpan" in their logo. Funnily enough, Noah goes with the opposite by being stylized as "NOAH".
- Bait-and-Switch: The promotion for their August 2022 music video employs this. Noah's social media is filled with images similar to the one from the old "Tak Ada yang Abadi" music video accompanied by #takadayangabadi hashtags, implying another remake. Only to reveal at the release day that the music video is a brand new one for "Kota Mati" which uses those images to establish that this is a Prequel to "Tak Ada yang Abadi" video.
- Break Up Song:
- "Diatas Normal" has the singer insisting that he should be over a break-up, but he can't to his own frustration.
- "Mungkin Nanti" takes place around the break-up, with the singer telling his lover to get over it and not to ever talk about it again.
- "Lihat Langkahku" from Hari yang Cerah... has the singer tells his ex hat he is so over their relationship.
- "Seperti Kemarin" from Second Chance is the Over You kind where the singer boasts about how fine he feels without his ex and rejects an attempt from her to get together again.
- The Cameo: The music video of "Ku Katakan Dengan Indah" has short appearances of fellow musicians Desta, Pepeng, and Candil.
- Concept Video: "Ku Katakan Dengan Indah" video tells a full story from Ariel meeting a girl to Ariel feeling betrayed (theme of the song) after seeing the girl cheats on him.
- Cover Album: Sings Legends is entirely composed of covers of Indonesian songs famous in 80s and 90s, both recycled tracks from past releases and entirely new recordings (including a remix).
- Cover Version: They covered Chrisye's "Kisah Cintaku" in Sebuah Nama, Sebuah Cerita and "Sendiri Lagi" in Seperti Seharusnya, as well as "Kupu Kupu Malam" by Indonesian pop legend Titiek Puspa for a tribute album in 2005. All three songs were re-released as part of the Sings Legends Cover Album.
- Death by Music Video:
- Peterpan's video for "Bintang di Surga" downplay this. Half of the band (Ariel, Lukman, and Reza) play hostage takers while the other half (Uki, Andika, and Indra) play cops. The former group die one-by-one as the video progresses, while the latter half survive the video. The Noah remake averts this; the robbers are now played by other actors, while the band play different rolesnote .
- The band get killed at the end of the main storyline of "Tak Ada yang Abadi" video. Fitting since the song is about mortality.
- Determinator: The singer of "Tetap Berdiri ([2DSD)" is one, continuing to stand up and face the challenges of the world and unwilling to die from the metaphorical wound that he has.
- Digital Head Swap: Since "Kota Mati" video is a prequel to "Tak Ada yang Abadi", the face of the latter video actress Ladya Cheril is put over a new body actor Violla Georgie to preserve continuity.
- Epic Rocking: While Peterpan's version of "Ku Katakan Dengan Indah" (their longest song) falls below the 6-minutes mark (5:34), Noah's version plays this straight with the 6:11 duration.
- The Four Chords of Pop: The chord progression of their very first hit, "Mimpi yang Sempurna", is all Em-C-G-D (i-VI-III-VII or the minor type of the trope).
- Friendship Song: "Sahabat", meaning "Best Friend", appropiately talks about the singer's friendship.
- God-Is-Love Songs:
- "Terbangun Sendiri", meaning "Awaken Alone", from Seperti Seharusnya per Ariel is actually about not wanting to be left alone by God rather than by a lover.
- Similarly, "Menemaniku", meaning "Accompany Me", from Keterkaitan Keterikatan according to David is about how God never left us.
- Hearing Voices: The moment the girl loses it in "Kota Mati" music video is when she hears a whisper from an obviously-imaginary Ariel.
- Here We Go Again!: The music video for "Menghapus Jejakmu" features a girl (implied to be Ariel's ex) following Ariel around and copying everything he does. At the end of the video, she stops since Ariel now has somebody else... and proceeds to follow Uki.
- Instrumentals: All songs from Suara Lainnya are instrumental rearrangements of past Peterpan songs, except for "Cobalah Mengerti" which has vocals from fellow Musica Studio's artist Momo of Geisha.
- Let's Duet:
- As Peterpan, they have a duet with the late Chrisye in "Menunggumu", released in the latter's final studio album, Senyawa.
- As for Noah, they have a duet with Bunga Citra Lestari in "Mencari Cinta", released in Keterkaitan Keterikatan.
- Loony Fan: The protagonist of "Kota Mati" music video is clearly a fan of Ariel, but is so disappointed when he doesn't spot, let alone recognize, her during a concert that she goes on a killing spree.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Mendekati Lugu" from Keterkaitan Keterikatan is an unusually groovy and upbeat song for Noah and talks about the suffering of someone putting love over all.
- Lyrics/Video Mismatch:
- "Bintang di Surga" is about wishing for something beautiful that the singer can't have. The music video and its remake, on the other hand, is about a hostage situation.
- Ariel outright says that the director for "Mendekati Lugu" video didn't try too much to describe the lyrics with the video. It shows and the video focuses on the unusual visuals unrelated to the lyrics instead.
- Lyric Video:
- "Jika Engkau" has simplistic lyric video uploaded in Noah's YouTube channel prior to the music video.
- "Jalani Mimpi" has a lyric video, but unlike the other lyric videos, it is practically the music video for the song as the song has no other video and the lyric video is composed of scenes normally shot as a regular video.
- The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: The main concept in the music video for "Separuh Aku" is Ariel talking and pleading to his disheveled reflection.
- Non-Appearing Title:
- Taman Langit has "Tertinggalkan Waktu" which fits the theme of being but is not mentioned in the lyrics.
- From Bintang di Surga, "Diatas Normal" is not mentioned in its lyrics.
- Also from Bintang di Surga, "2DSD" is a random string which has nothing to do with song (it was meant to be a placeholder title). Noah's version averts this by moving "2DSD" into a subtitle while the main title "Tetap Berdiri" is mentioned in the lyrics.
- The last track of Seperti Seharusnya is "Puisi Adinda", meaning "Adinda's Poem", and doesn't mention the title in its lyrics.
- Obsession Song: "Khayalan Tingkat Tinggi" describes the singer being obsessed over another person and the singer's fantasiesnote with said person.
- One-Word Title: "Sahabat", "Topeng", "Aku", "Menunggumu", "Membebaniku", "Bebas", "Dara", "Hero", "Wanitaku", and "Menemaniku".
- Other Common Music Video Concepts — Backwards Action: "Ada Apa Denganmu" is about wondering what makes the singer's lover angry, so its music video (intro and outro aside) goes backwards from Ariel trying to calm down his girlfriend to the arguing that started the whole thing.
- "Pachelbel's Canon" Progression: "Semua Tentang Kita"note uses a variation (the last IV is subsituted with vi, so the progression becomes I-V-vi-iii-IV-I-vi-V) for the whole song, creating a melancholic mood fitting for a song about parting with closed ones.
- Pep-Talk Song: "Jalani Mimpi" encourages the listeners to follow their dreams in spite of their fear.
- Rearrange the Song:
- Peterpan needed more songs for OST Alexandria since they were only able to write five new songs. But since they felt simply re-releasing their older songs is lame, they re-arranged and re-recorded five ("Aku & Bintang", "Sahabat", "Mungkin Nanti", "Ku Katakan Dengan Indah", and "Di Belakangku") instead.
- Suara Lainnya, in due part to the circumstances surrounding its creation, also explored past Peterpan songs, and combined them with various genres such as jazz, orchestra and folk music.
- The theme of the four Second Chance albums is giving almost all Peterpan's songs an improved arrangement while making sure they can be called Noah's songs.
- Record Producer: Capung and Noey of the Java Jive band is the Artist as Producer type. The latter is the one who found Peterpan in a cafe and get them to record in Musica Studio's. Noah starts producing their album on their own after the name change although Capung and Noey still help sometimes.
- Second-Person Narration: "Tertinggalkan Waktu" completely lacks an "I" in its lyrics and instead describes a "you" who have wasted their time.
- Shout-Out:
- Their original name is actually an aversion. Rather than named after the Peter Pan story, Andika got the Peterpan name from the name of a roadside stall (which might be referencing that story, but we will never know).
- In the acoustic concert of Keterkaitan Keterikatan, Ariel tells the cello player to play the James Bond Theme in the middle of "Kau Udara Bagiku". Said interpolation is noticably absent when the recording is released in an album.
- Silly Love Songs:
- "Satu Hati", meaning "One Heart", from Taman Langit talks about the "one heart" whom the singer loved.
- "Ini Cinta", meaning "This is Love", from Seperti Seharusnya is the singer's declaration that his feeling is truly love.
- "Demi Kita", meaning "For Us", from the latter album is really passionate about wanting love to touch someone's heart.
- Softer and Slower Cover: Noah's cover of Chrisye's "Kala Cinta Menggoda" is a slow ballad as opposed to the original upbeat song.
- Spree Killer: The woman in "Tak Ada yang Abadi" music video is implied (and confirmed in "Kota Mati" video) to be the one who killed all those people in the streets, some rooms, and a building. Then she goes on and shoots the band before killing herself.
- Studio Chatter: Noah's version of "Aku & Bintang" starts with preparation chattering before the band play the song.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Just before the last chorus, the car which has been the focus of "Walau Habis Terang" suddenly explodes for no apparent reason (except for possible symbolism).
- Surreal Music Video:
- "Diatas Normal" music video is composed of the band performing the song, except the background, their outfits (which gets bizarre at times) and their instrument change every beat. It reflects the I-don't-understand-my-own-mind theme of the song.
- "Mendekati Lugu" video shows a girl dancing to the song and touching people around the stadium which makes them dance too, all while weird visual effects happen. At the end, the girl suddenly nearly drowns (while still struggling to dance) in the swimming pool, but she (now the size of human hand) is picked up by Ariel.
- Technician Versus Performer: David and Andika, respectively. Andika's style has been noted to be simple and easy to follow, but distinct, with a classical harmonic sound to complement Lukman and Uki's guitar. David, meanwhile, prefers to utilize his skills in technology and synths to create a more "modern" and complex, yet richer sound.
- Title In: At the beginning of "Kota Mati" music video, a text saying "2008" (the year "Tak Ada yang Abadi" was releasednote ) appears on the screen, establishing when the video take place.
- Title-Only Chorus: "Tak Ada yang Abadi" from Sebuah Nama, Sebuah Cerita only has "Tak ada yang abadi"note in its chorus.
- Title Track: Taman Langit and Bintang di Surga are named after a song in them. "Hari yang Cerah untuk Jiwa yang Sepi" is a subversion; the album's title is shortened to Hari yang Cerah...
- Truck Driver's Gear Change: "Tak Bisakah" goes up a whole tone in its final chorus.
- Unplugged Version:
- Peterpan include an acoustic version of "Mimpi yang Sempurna" in their first album.
- Noah helds an acoustic virtual concert mostly consisting of songs from Keterkaitan Keterikatan in December 2020 and released the recordings as a two-part album in the next year.
- Urban Ruins: The imaginary world in "Kota Mati" video is mostly composed of ruined buildings that falls over the course of the video.
- Video Full of Film Clips: The music video for "Tak Bisakah" and "Jauh Mimpiku", being the main singles of OST Alexandria, have many clips from the Alexandria film.
