 His earlier musical experience was to join a band with Ecky Lamoh, Gideon Tengker and Henky Supit, all are Indonesian guitarists.In 1988, Negara entered ILW, a school of music in Jakarta, to gain his musical formal education, since he had his earlier knowledge just by autodidacticism learning.In this stage, he met Ivan, who later became a fellow member in Slank.