Reality Club Celebrates Life In “Who Knows Where Life Will Take You?”

Indonesian band Reality Club is back with their fourth album, “Who Knows Where Life Will Take You?” The lineup features Era Patigo on drums, Faiz Novascotia Saripudin on vocals and guitar, Fathia Izzati on vocals and keyboards, and Nugi Wicaksono on bass. Formed in 2016, the group has steadily built a name for themselves with their distinctive sound and heartfelt storytelling.

The new record includes 13 tracks, led by the focus single “Now I’m a Diplomat.” Written during a nine-day songwriting retreat in Ubud, Bali, in May 2024, the songs were later brought to life at Tree Recording Studio in Bangkok with the help of producers Brad Oberhofer, Iga Massardi of Barasuara, and Wisnu Ikhsantama. For Saripudin, Izzati, Patigo, and Wicaksono, this album represents their most personal and assured work to date.

EnVi spoke online via Zoom with Reality Club about slices of life, the stories behind their songs, and the heartfelt moments that shape “Who Knows Where Life Will Take You?”

Get To Know Reality Club

Reality Club has quickly risen to prominence as one of Indonesia’s most successful indie bands. Their breakthrough came in April 2022 with the viral single “Anything You Want,” which spread across TikTok and Instagram and has since surpassed 100 million Spotify streams. Building on this momentum, the band has collected AMI Awards, toured North America, and even opened for superstar NIKI in Southeast Asia. Despite these milestones, the group admits they once struggled with impostor syndrome – an experience that inspired the bold mantra behind their latest album.

Fresh off their “Reality Club Presents… Asia Tour,” which brought them to Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Philippines, the band also celebrated a sold-out solo concert at Balai Sarbini in Jakarta, drawing 1,500 fans. Today, they continue to expand their presence across the region, with the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan ranking high among their top global streaming markets.

Life’s Absurdities in “Who Knows Where Life Will Take You?”

“It’s inspired by the absurdity and irony that is life. I think everyone has their own different moment, like ‘I can’t believe I’m here, wow, this is a weird situation.’ And life is stranger than fiction, I think,” Saripudin shared about the group’s latest album. In describing Reality Club’s work, Saripudin explained that it portrays various scenarios and fragments of life, encouraging reflection and revealing the beauty within everyday moments. The message they aim to convey is that life is full of surprises – you never know what lies ahead or what it has in store.

Romance remains central to Reality Club’s sound. It shines through in Novascotia’s blend of wit and sincerity on songs like “Muted Sirens” and “You’ll Find Lovers Like You and Me.” This time, however, he balances sentiment with playful humor, as heard in tracks such as “Lost Myself in Reveries,” “Finding a Catholic Man to Love the Love of My Life,” “Shut Up, Behave,” and “Thank You for Hijacking My Existential Crisis.” Sonically, the album taps back into the breezy indie-rock vibe of their debut while showcasing the polish and maturity the band has cultivated over nearly a decade together.

The album opens with “I’ll Do It Myself,” a biting commentary on toxic corporate culture and the resilience needed to rise above oppressive workplaces and people. From there, “Lost Myself in Reveries” shifts into a lighter mood, capturing the bliss of being so in love that one’s head is in the clouds, impervious to attempts to bring them back down to earth. “Enough for You” follows, expressing the frustrations of feeling inadequate in a relationship.

“Does It Happen?” reflects the giddy uncertainty of early romance, where both sides are second-guessing their feelings and intentions. “Shut Up, Behave” revisits youthful naivety, looking back at the tendency to speak out boldly when young, only to later cringe at how little one really knew at the time.

With “Finding a Catholic Man to Love the Love of My Life,” the band delivers a personal and humorous take on love constrained by external circumstances – whether religious, cultural, or social – making it one of the album’s most relatable and poignant moments. “The story is about finding love, which is already hard to find, let’s be honest. Imagine finding someone you think is the love of your life, and you can’t be together because of the external circumstances,” Saripudin mentioned.

“Muted Sirens” explores the tension of a promising first date, where inner excitement collides with outward composure. “Close to You/Jauh” marks the band’s first song in Indonesian, a spiritual reflection on the desire to feel close to one’s Creator while grappling with the sensation of distance. “Quick! Love!” captures the urgency of trying to define a relationship and where it might be heading.

The focus single, “Now I’m a Diplomat,” embodies the album’s overarching theme of unpredictability, inspired by the life journey of siblings Saripudin and Izzati’s father. “Thank You for Hijacking My Existential Crisis” turns a moment of philosophical turmoil into an uplifting love song.

In “You’ll Find Lovers Like You and Me,” the band reflects on the bittersweet stage of moving on from a breakup – still cherishing the past while accepting that both people will find new love. The album closes with “Mama’s Coming Home,” a tender portrayal of the struggles faced by working parents who balance career demands with the guilt of leaving their children, offering comfort and relatability in its calm, soothing delivery.

“On this album, we’re not trying to prove anything – not even to ourselves. That’s why it feels closest to our first,” Saripudin added.

Izzati also reflected, “It took a lot of living to write this album. As individuals, we’ve grown so much.” Patigo echoed the sentiment, sharing, “This album taught me so much through the recording and the stories we shared.”

On Vulnerability and Universality

For Reality Club, being very vulnerable, very specific, and very true to their story could lead to universality in listeners. “We have a song called ‘Alexandra,’ from our second album. That song is not only very personal, but it’s also very specific. The references there that I wrote, I didn’t think anyone could relate to. But weirdly, so many people relate to it, so many people think it’s about their story, and they can imbue their own interpretation about the song and what they think it’s about,” Saripudin said. It’s about making honest pieces of art that will hopefully resonate with as many people as the song can.

In this album, various songs were personal for each member. For Nugi Wicaksono, “Does It Happen?” – a song that he wrote – is a very rocky, simple song, but packs a punch. Fathia Izzati picked “Mama’s Coming Home,” a journey of Izzati navigating through motherhood – including being a working mom and having to leave her child for work. The song is a dedication to her son. For Era Patigo, “I’ll Do It Myself” shares his perspective, as a non-corporate worker, on his close friends and family’s corporate jobs:  “There are some stuff that I don’t really understand, [or find] really absurd, [in] how toxic corporates can be,” he mentioned.

Faiz Novascotia Saripudin chose “Thank You For Hijacking My Existential Crisis,” a song that everyone (the members, Iga Massardi, Brad Oberhofer, and Wisnu Ikhsantama) contributed to. “For me, it’s a very personal story (…) of a very real story [about] when I was having an existential crisis, and then my crush texted me and I forgot about the existential crisis. It’s like the message that love can still conquer even an existential crisis,” he shared.

Each producer contributed their own signature style in this album: Oberhofer on tracks like “Quick! Love!” and “Mama’s Coming Home;” Massardi with his guitar-driven approach on “I’ll Do It Myself” and “Shut Up, Behave;” and Ikhsantama, who crafted songs such as “Muted Sirens” and “Close to You/Jauh” while also handling the record’s overall mix. “Tama has this way of understanding the story and emotion behind each song before working on it,” said Saripudin.

So, Where Does Reality Club Hope Life Will Take Them Next?

“Of course, to bigger places. Of course, to a lot more places. We wanna reach a lot more places. We wanna have [a] much greater presence globally, of course,” Wicaksono said of the group’s next steps. The band shared plans for an Asia tour, along with ongoing discussions for a return to North America and, naturally, an Indonesia tour. They also hinted at upcoming activities to promote the album further, with the ultimate goal of performing in more places and connecting with more listeners.

Despite these ambitions, their core desire remains simple: continuing to make music and enjoy the creative process together. “It’s our most personal album, and all four of us feel deeply connected to it,” Wicaksono added.

You can listen to Reality Club’s discography on all available music platforms – and be sure to check out their new album!

New music releases from BamBam, Dayoung, Hana, and The Poles are out! Check out EnVi’s latest Sunday Spin here.