In Tune: Adhitia Sofyan: Making himself heard

Urban troubadour Adhitia Sofyan is gearing up for his second Japanese tour

Marcel Thee (The Jakarta Post)

Sat, August 6, 2016

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Urban troubadour Adhitia Sofyan is gearing up for his second Japanese tour. Expanding on his previous solo shows there, this time the Jakarta-bred musician will perform in a whopping 10 cities around the country.

The tour will start in Fukuoka on September 9 before moving on to Kumamoto, Oita, Hyogo, Kobe, Kyoto, Kamakura, Tokyo, Sapporo and ending with one more Tokyo show on September 19.

Known for his picturesque lyricism and sentimental acoustic-guitar touches, Adithia’s humble beginnings of sending free copies of his CDs to friends has flourished into a strong career. His music has been in popular movies and television shows, and his singles are guaranteed chart toppers. His albums — he has released four full lengths so far, including the latest and his first full-band record Silver Painted Radiance — have been released internationally. This tour, to use a cliché with sentiments that ring true in this case, is a culmination of luck and Adithia’s hard work.

“I never dreamed that I would be able to go abroad to play music,” says the 38-year-old musician. He recalls “sitting in my office, browsing the web looking at pictures of glorious guitar shops in Japan, wanting to go so bad, but didn’t know how. This was around 2010.”

As a child, Adhitia went on a holiday to Japan with his parents. It was a memorable one, to say the least — it “remains crystal clear in my head”, he said.

His first Japanese tour in 2011 happened the same year his first international gig — at Singapore’s Esplanade, where several other Indonesian acts have performed.

A year prior, Adhitia had received an email from a small record store in Kobe, letting him know that they discovered his music through the internet (Adhitia’s first records were released as free downloads on the web) and were interested in stocking his albums – would he let them?

That he did. After sending them around 20 to 30 copies, he received a call back informing him that they quickly sold out, and a request for 300 CDs.

The orders kept coming. Soon enough it became clear that that record store, Dessinee, would do better borrowing the master tape and re-pressing the records themselves.

“Apparently Dessinee didn’t just sell the CDs, but they were also promoting it, until I gained quite a few listeners. This was
when the invitation for a solo tour came.”

Adhitia remembers the invitation as an immense surprise. And even though that dream of buying fine-looking guitars in Japan was a nice one, when the opportunity came, it was still a shock.

“Me and my wife were busy with our office — we had our own advertising agency back then, our daughter was just around 2 years old, and also traveling just wasn’t our habit. Thinking about the paperwork to Japan was just daunting, plus I had to bring the whole family too. And to go to Japan suddenly just because I wanted to check out some guitars?” he laughs. “Yeah right.”

Because of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami tragedy, however, Adhitia’s show had to be postponed, but he eventually made it there in September 2011, playing some of his most unforgettable
shows.

The upcoming tour is an extension of Adhitia’s growing friendship with Dessinnee’s owner Masao Maruyama. In December of last year, Adhitia when on a Japanese holiday with his whole family (he now has two children), and played one show while there, arranged by Maruyama. Seeing the positive reaction, the pair discussed a longer tour for 2016.

Maruyama booked 10 shows, which to his surprise agreed to host a relatively new-to-Japan Indonesian musician. For his part, Adhitia is looking forward to visiting a few parts of Japan he has never even heard of.

“In 2011 we went to Kobe, Fukuoka, Kamakura and Tokyo — some of the cities we will be visiting again. But I’ve never been to the other cities on this tour, so I know nothing about them. I’ve never heard of Himeji, Yufuin, and Kumamoto, so I’m curious to see what the cities are like,” he said.

It’s a mystery to Adhitia as to why the Japanese music audience has been so receptive to his music. He muses that it may be of its “quiet depth” quality, which sees him “Reaching deep” into himself and “telling buried stories I’d rather turn into songs than speak about”.

Often aware of how a guy and an acoustic guitar playing a 45-minute quiet set may be challenging for big crowds, Adhitia finds pleasure in the respectful nature of Japanese fans.

“When I first performed in front of a Japanese audience, I couldn’t believe how quiet they were during the performance. Not a single sound, it was as if I was performing in an empty room, and I mean with all 12 to 13 songs that I performed, I could have heard a pin drop.”

Silver Painted Radiance finds Adhitia finally being able to fulfill his goal of recording a full-band album. He wanted to stretch his “acoustic loner music.”

“I’m glad I did it, because it has been in my mind to do a full band recording since the third album, “How To Stop Time” in 2013. I needed to do it just to have this album available on my spectrum of work, and hopefully gain new listeners.”

The reception has been relatively-muted, at least according to the musician, who says that the next record will find him going back to his simpler form of music.

“I think I would go back to my stealthy bedroom mode. Full band recording just takes too much work for a simple person like me, and, yes, it was super expensive — it was my own money from my own pocket so, yikes!, it took forever to make, numerous errors and process, both technically and managing it. Total headache. Glad I did it, but no more thanks,” he jokes.

“Plus I don’t think the listeners are too crazy about it too. I was like ‘Why […] doesn’t anyone like it? I thought it was cool, no?” sounds of cricket. ‘Ow allright, let’s go back to the bedroom again shall we?’”

I needed to do it [record a full band album] just to have this album available on my spectrum of work, and hopefully gain new listeners.”