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Stellar start for Isyana Sarasvati
Before her debut album Explore! was launched on Nov
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efore her debut album Explore! was launched on Nov. 25, Isyana Sarasvati had already become a star.
Her single 'Tetap Dalam Jiwa' (Remain In Soul) dominated the music charts. She has a packed performing schedule and has become product ambassador for a number of brands.
She deserves the right to be called a pop star but the 22-year-old Isyana prefers to project herself as a musician for the time being, and perhaps a maestro in the future.
Isyana is a one-of-a-kind musician. She has mastered a number of instruments and is three-time winner of the Grand Prix Asia Pacific Electone Festival. She studied classical music in Singapore and London.
Having achieved success with her two singles, 'Keep Being You' and 'Tetap Dalam Jiwa', Isyana presented Explore!, a debut album that highlights her exploration of pop music.
'I wrote nine of the 10 songs in the album based on my thoughts, imagination and the stories of my friends,' she said at the press conference during the album launch at Soehanna Hall of The Energy Building in South Jakarta on Nov. 25.
'There is no specific genre in the album, I prefer to call it an exploration of pop,' she said.
To mark the album's launch, Isyana gave a brief show at the Soehanna Hall, which was packed with journalists and her fans, known collectively as Isyanation.
Prior to the show, she consumed two paracetamol pills to relieve a headache. It seemed like a bad omen for the show, but it turned out that Isyana delivered an exceptional, grandeur performance that night.
She opened the show by performing three opera songs, including 'Jewel Song' from Faust by Charles Gounod, where she acted as a lady captivated by jewelry.
There was not a sign of nervousness in her eyes; Isyana seemed to effortlessly nail every high note of the classical numbers before moving on to the pop songs from her debut album.
She sang six songs, including her latest single, 'Kau Adalah' (You Are), a duet with Rayi Putra of music group RAN. Occasionally, she played piano and created melodies with glasses of water.
The opera performance on the night reflected her deep interest in classical music.
Born in Bandung, West Java, in 1993, Isyana spent the early years of her childhood in Belgium, where her father was studying. Her mother ' an electone, piano and vocal teacher ' took her to watch orchestra and other classical performances in the country.
Isyana showed an interest in learning piano at the age of three and composed her first song when she was seven.
'When I was seven, my teacher asked me, 'what do you want to be in the future?', I answered with confidence 'a maestro', which means a person who leads an orchestra and composes songs. I continue to hold on to that dream,' she said.
In an effort to realize the dream, she learned to play a variety of instruments, namely flute, saxophone, piano and electone. Her skill in playing the electone has seen her win the Grand Prix Asia Pacific Electone Festival in 2005, 2008 and 2012.
'I practiced one whole year for the competition. As a participant, I was challenged to compose a five-minute musical piece using specified notes. I took the stage and played my five-minute composition in front of 3,000 people, at the Bunkamura Hall [in Japan],' she recalled.
'I felt a lot of pressure at that moment.'
Isyana received a scholarship to study music at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in Singapore, where she received Best Graduate Award 2015. She continued her studies in the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London, where she graduated cum laude.
Prior to her graduation in London, Isyana had started the recording process of the album at The Kennel studio in Sweden. Noted mastering engineer Tom Coyne, who has worked with Taylor Swift and Jessie J, mastered her songs in the US.
Her first single, 'Keep Being You', released in October 2014, racked up 10 million views on Youtube Vevo.
'Back then, I was often asked by journalists, 'why do you release an English-language single? Don't you feel concerned about how people will react to it?' It turns out that it received a positive response,' she said.
