The journey they had to take before being a solid, established band as today was not an easy one. They started from scratch, with all the ups-and-downs of struggling for existence, being rejected numerous times by major labels. Faced with so much rejection did not make them lose their hope, however. It encouraged them even more to make more demos and traveled all the way from Surabaya to Jakarta, delivering them themselves. Having to sleep on railway carriages' connecting area as all tickets were sold out, having to bear with stale rice because when they bought some food on the train they got food with a stale rice, because they are so starving finally they have to eat the food that didn't contain the stale rice. Those were some experiences not unfamiliar to them at the time.

There was an occasion where Piyu said, "A band player should know what a hard life is like before being famous. Enduring such hard life could prepare us to have a sense of survival, and, eventually, would be able to keep our existence our own world".

Opportunity finally knocked on their door when performing at Colors, a pub in Surabaya, as representative from Sony Music Indonesia saw the gig. The next day, they were offered to make record for Indie Ten album, a medium for new bands to show their talents. Padi previously submitted a demo to Sony; and when Sony was scheduled to promote an album in Surabaya, they had an audition.

Not wanting to lose the opportunity at hand, they introduced "Sobat" (Friend). Originally, they offered 2 songs, "Sobat" and "Demi Cinta".