White Shoes & The Couples Company "Road To USA"

It's a long, long way from Indonesia to the United States, but White Shoes & The Couples Company are well on their way to crossing the divide.

The Jakartan six-piece was formed in 2002 at the Jakarta Institute for the Arts, where three of the current members – frontwoman Aprilia Apsari, her boyfriend/guitarist Yusmario Farabi and guitarist Saleh – were studying fine arts. By 2004, they had added three more members, and those early days at school had played a crucial role in defining the sound of the band.

"The atmosphere in our college made the sound of White Shoes," says Saleh. "The way we dress, attitude, how we collaborate in our band artwork, and especially the sound."

"Back then we found a lot of old records," Farabi adds. "Many of them came from our senior colleagues who already left, but they forgot to take their stuff. It's amazing; some of them were still like new. We played them while we were working in the art studio, painting, printing and making other artwork.

"The major influence came from Indonesian movie soundtracks from the ‘70s, ‘60s and ‘50s," he continues. "And also Indonesian jazz musicians like Jack Lesmana Combo, Margie Segers, etc."

Add those inspriations to a love of Western music and you end up with a band that sounds something like a modern day Southeast Asian version of Burt Bacharach. White Shoes & The Couples Company specialize in gentle, retro love songs, dripping with strings and the soothing lull of "oohs" and "aahs." And while most of the songs are sung in the band's native Bahasa language, you'd barely notice thanks to their accessible melodies and vocal hooks.

It's an eclectic sound; one that has, against all odds, started winning them the attention of the Western music press. Allmusic named them one of "The 25 Most Crushworthy Bands of 2006" and Rolling Stone declared them one of the 25 best bands on MySpace that same year. With the buzz building, it wasn't long before Minty Fresh Records had signed them to an American deal and the six-piece was making the long trip from Jakarta to New York City for last year's CMJ Music Marathon.

Still, success outside Indonesia wasn't necessarily something the band was consciously aiming for.

"For me, yes," says bassist Ricky Virgana. "I really want to have great success outside my country. But as a band, with White Shoes & The Couples Company, we never think about that; it's too naïve."

Naïve or not, it's quickly becoming a reality. After having to cancel their planned appearance at this year's South By Southwest Festival in Texas (as yet another casualty of the Great Recession), the band have returned to the studio and plan to release their second full-length later this year. And if it's anything like their deubt, it's bound to bring Jakarta one step closer to the United States.