Dewa was first formed in 1986 by four students from a junior high school SMPN 6 in
Surabaya. The name Dewa originated as an acronym of the founding members' names: D from
Dhani (keyboard, vocals), E from
Erwin Prasetya (bass guitar), W from
Wawan Juniarso (drums) and A from Andra (guitar). Dewa is also an
Indonesian word meaning 'god', or 'deity'.
The band was initially based at Wawan's dorm in the Airlangga University complex.
Wanting to take a different direction,
Wawan left the band in 1988 and formed Outsider with
Ari Lasso. The name
Dewa was changed to Down Beat which became a reasonably well-known name in East Java during that time.
When Slank became well-known,
Wawan was asked to rejoin
Dewa to rejuvenate the band and Ari Lasso was invited too. As the age of the bands members was 19 years at the time,
Down Beat was changed to Dewa 19. Due to the lack of a studio that met their requirements in Surabaya, the band was forced was move to Jakarta where after a number of rejections by record companies, a
Dewa 19 master was finally recorded by Team Record.
