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Caroline Zachrie: Single-minded determination to sing
Coutesy of Saji Indonesia Model and TV presenter Caroline Zachrie is realizing a long-held dream to go into the music business
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Coutesy of Saji Indonesia
Model and TV presenter Caroline Zachrie is realizing a long-held dream to go into the music business. And she knows she has something to prove.
The statuesque 33-year-old debuted her single, the catchy “So Right (Selalu di Hatiku)”, at nightclub Dragonfly on Saturday night.
“It has been my obsession to do something in the music industry, I’ve been singing on and off
but never recording. And then the signs came and it was like, OK, now it’s time,” Caroline said during a break from rehearsals for her performance.
She says her aim from the beginning was to come out with a single that was in the dance/urban sounds genre and definitely not “pop-ish”. And also for it to be in English.
“With English, it just comes naturally for me,” says Dutch-born Caroline, who spent most of her formative years in the UK and US as the daughter of a diplomat, returning to Indonesia at the age of 18 in 1993.
“When I met my producer Larry [Aswin], I told him I wanted to do something that wasn’t Indonesian commercial, because everybody’s doing bands, this and that, pop or whatever. I wanted to do something urban, chill-out, that can be enjoyed in bars and lounges …”
It’s the music that she and her crowd of friends enjoy. An event organizer and PR coordinator, she is part of Jakarta’s well-heeled young urban set, some of whose members make an appearance in her video for “So Right”. She believes it’s the right time for the sound to hit it big with sophisticated urbanites.
“Urban sounds are really part of a lifestyle today, and I really wanted to get into this,” she says.
The irony of recording the song in English (only the opening lines selalu di hatiku, or “always in my heart”, are in Indonesian) is not lost on Caroline. When she returned to Indonesia and went from modeling to presenting, some made fun of her use of English and her strongly accented Indonesian, and dubbed her pretentious.
Confident and assertive, speaking in clipped but flawless English, with the occasional smattering of Indonesian, she says wryly that her English-language song “kind of turns the tables” on those past critics.
“People would say, ‘she’s so stuck up’ … But English is my mother tongue, what we were brought up with, and I was really afraid of saying the wrong thing in Indonesian … As for my American-accented English, well, to each their own … Now I try to do it as Indonesian as possible … I’m still adapting, but my Indonesian pronunciation has improved, hopefully, since 1993!”
Caroline says she grew up loving singing at family gatherings and enjoyed theater in high school. But she also is aware that a self-described stubborn streak and perfectionism will not be enough to convince the doubters. The pat assumption may be that she is just another pretty face trying to capitalize on her 15 minutes of fame with a little diversion into music. Or that she is restlessly trying something new based, in a way of speaking, on a song and a prayer.
“There is that feeling [from people] that, ‘you’re a model, you’re a presenter, but can you really sing?’ There were reservations from family and friends about whether I really wanted to do this, to try something completely new here ... [But] being friends with a lot of local DJs who produce music that has been accepted abroad made me even more motivated ...”
Caroline says she did her homework and took her time to find the right songwriter-producer, Lawrence “Larry” Aswin, a Berklee College of Music graduate who founded the urban music duo SOVA.
“I’m very picky in that way. I didn’t want to fall flat on my face my first time out.”
She was a fan of SOVA but had never met Larry. She called him up and explained about her urban music aspirations. She laughs remembering his nonplussed reaction at the other end of the phone, signaled by a drawn out “OK” as if he thought it was a joke.
He listened to her sing and, she says, told her that she had good vocals that needed some refining.
“It was cool. It was quite an honor for me that someone in the music industry would actually say that. I can sing, and I’ve proven it to them.”
She is particularly satisfied by overcoming the challenges that went into realizing her music dreams. She does not want to sound “all pompous”, but at 1.8 meters tall she did not have too many problems making her mark in modeling here (the hardest part was convincing her conservative family that entertainment was the right path for her, after they required she get her business degree first). It was followed by a mostly seamless transition into TV presenting, even with the gripes about her accent, and some acting.
“This was more of a struggle … I met the right people but it was the wrong song, or it sounded
weird and they didn’t like it and they wanted to go a different way … Or major labels want to mold you into something that will sell, and I am my own person, That is the idealistic part of me. I don’t want to be a puppet on a string …”
On Monday, she says by SMS that the Valentine’s Day performance went well. “I got many good wishes on the song. Some were surprised that I could sing.”
Caroline is hopeful her song will find an audience. She concedes she does not have the pipes of Whitney or Mariah, but she can still hold her own. Her confidence and determination, come what may, seem unshakeable.
“If they accept me, great. If not, well, then let’s try another song.”
