Discovering Indonesia’s Beatlemania: The Lantis
Posted on March 21, 2025
Joey Chou
The Lantis was formed in Jakarta in 2020, influenced by The Beatles and Arctic Monkeys. We sat down with them to talk about the viral hit “Bunga Maaf”.
1. Please introduce yourself and your favorite western bands.
GIRI: So my name is Giri. I’m the bassist and the lead vocalist of The Lantis.
RAVI: I’m Ravi. I’m the guitarist and also the vocalist of The Lantis. I think me, myself and Giri, we have the same hero, maybe, yeah, we very much like the Beatles.
OJAN: My name is Ojan. My favorite is Radiohead. Maybe.
GIRI: Radiohead, yes. But actually, when I was just starting doing music, like learning how to play the guitar, I listened to lots of My Chemical Romance, Blink 182 and Avenged Sevenfold, like that kind of music.
2. Why are you called The Lantis?
GIRI: Yeah. Uh, me and Ravi, we are cousins. We have the same grandparents, so our grandfather’s name is Ahmad Lanti. So when me and Ravi made this project back in like 2019 we couldn’t think of a name, and because we are the grandchildren of Mister Lanti, so we called the band The Lantis.
RAVI: We named it The Lantis. We referred to The Beatles quite a bit, actually, at that time. So we made it The Lantis based on our family name.
3. Looking up “lantis” in the dictionary, it describes someone who lives in the countryside. Did you know that?
RAVI: Maybe Seaside, if we’re talking about our grandparents.
GIRI: Yeah, our grandpa lives near the sea in a city called Makassar, Sulawesi.
RAVI: There were some of it guys ties that with Atlantis, actually.
4. Your current hit is “Boon-ga Mah-af”, is that how you pronounce it? Can you tell us about it?
RAVI: Yeah, that’s great. “Bunga Maaf”. The whole of the song is actually talking about a story of regret. Actually, it’s about me and my grandpa, because I live with my grandpa for seven years, maybe, but, yeah, I’m not a good grandchild, and now he’s now already sick, and, you know, old age, and I can no longer say I’m sorry, because maybe he couldn’t hear it. So all that’s left is just my regrets.
5. “Bunga Maaf” is blowing up in Asia, even positioned right next to G-Dragons. Thoughts?
OJAN: We’ve been very excited, and we are also grateful for all the listeners in Asia and thank you for supporting us.
GIRI: Yeah, obviously, like G-dragon and those names that you mentioned is some of the biggest names in our industry, right? So we are in shock also, because our song can compete with their legendary songs.
OJAN: Yeah G-Dragon, it makes no sense.
RAVI: Yeah, it’s kind of a shock.
6. Any chance you’ll tour Asia and let us see you in person? Or any other plans this year?
GIRI: Hopefully we can, we can tour Asia, but that’s, I don’t think that’s in a very…
RAVI: Still a long way. Still a very long way.
GIRI: But yeah, we have some, some songs, some things we’re cooking up right now for you guys. But where can you check it out, Ojan?
OJAN: You can check it out on our social media and Instagram or anything The Landis
ALL: T.H.E. L.A.N.T.I.S!
