Music with a cause: Nova Ruth raises public awareness of social and environmental issues through music. (Courtesy of Eta Fjulieroz)

Musician Nova Ruth Setyaningtyas has a principle that songs should not only entertain, but also communicate messages as well.

A gifted musician from Malang, East Java, Nova has now gone global.

She initially started out as a rapper in Malang during the 2000s.

Nova describes rap as an expression of her emotion and irritation.

“I’m angered by the prevailing social conditions,” she said during a discussion at the Hamur Dieng Café in Malang recently.

With time, her musical capability improved and her horizons broadened, thanks in part to the guidance of her father, Toto Tewel, a guitarist for the legendary rock band Elpamas.

In the process, she once blended her father’s melodious guitar strum into the song, “Arek Malang Kudu Seneng” (Malang People Should be Happy), in collaboration with Australian Sven Simulacrum in 2009.

“My dad didn’t realize it was his strumming tone but he liked the composition very much,” she recalled.

Several foreign musicians began to invite Nova to various international shows, including Grey Filastine from the United States who made her a vocalist on some of his albums.

Filastine’s music, based on electronic sounds, is uniquely combined with gamelan and Nova’s vocals, forming a sound steeped in Eastern elements.

Some circles classify their music in the local-accent electronic genre. She also filled it with Javanese lyrics; Lek wani ngomong jujur, bumi wis kate ajur, wong gak kenek diatur, sego wes dadi bubur (To be frank, the earth is crumbling, men are beyond control, the condition is beyond repair), to depict the deadly mudslide in Sidoarjo, East Java.

Nova has also appeared at festivals in Asia, Australia, Europe and the US.

Her world tours have also exposed her to immigration and licensing red tape due to her independent artist status, which is a potential hindrance to enter some countries.

“I was once denied entry into Germany without any explanation of what documents were missing,” she said.

However, she feels grateful that under such circumstances she can still maintain her musical activity without being overwhelmed by tight schedules. This enables her to move around to find inspiration from nature, culture and nearby environments.

When she was invited to perform at a church in a mountainous area in France, the priest, who invited her, turned out to be a partner of novelist, poet, singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen. The pastor was conducting research on music and Nova’s musical character was seen as an appropriate reference.

However, her globetrotting experience is not changing her lifestyle.

“For me, the concerts serve as opportunities to meet with diverse groups of people and culture,” Nova said.

Her shows also become an arena to voice her concerns over social and environment issues, like “Colony Collapse” on her album, Loot.

Nova also likes to sing “Gendjer-Gendjer”, a traditional Javanese song about vegetable harvesting that is still banned from being performed in public due its alleged connection with the defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

“My grandfather was a soldier in 1965 and our family faced the PKI terror, but I’m also aware of the massacre of Indonesians branded as communists,” she said, adding that she was trying to save the traditional song that portrays the life of the Banyuwangi people during Japanese occupation.

Nova had an unusual experience when she worked on her single “Perbatasan” (The Border) off her album, Drapetomania, in 2017. It was inspired by her show in Calais at a refugee camp in France called The Jungle.

“I watched how refugees were struggling to cope with the cold weather in their plastic tents, which forced them to burn their donated clothes to overcome the extreme cold,” she said.

Nova has since realized that her complaints about being denied a visa and being raided while on stage for allegedly fomenting protests are no match compared to the refugees’ suffering.

“Even if I’m deported, I can still return to Indonesia and enjoy a cup of hot coffee, while the refugees may never go home or know what their fate will be,” said Nova who owns the Legipait coffee shop in Malang.

The “Perbatasan” video music was produced in Malang as a manifestation of her love for her hometown.

“I regard Malang more as an identity instead of a form of chauvinism,” said the recipient of the Kindle Project 2012 Makers Muse Artist Award. With Filastine, Nova also expresses her social criticism on this album, voicing concerns about people trapped in routine work through “The Miner” and “The Cleaner”.

While she will not be releasing a new album soon, her festival agenda will keep her going at least until the middle of this year.

“At festivals, let alone major concerts, we’ll be meeting with many more communities so that a lot more messages can be conveyed,” she pointed out. Nova is also handling an audiovisual project with dancers from the United Kingdom, India and Singapore.

Nova and Filastine sailed on a traditional pinisi boat in 2015 to Banggai Island, Central Sulawesi, in collaboration with a number of other musicians to raise awareness about plastic waste in the sea.

“I want to repeat it, sailing and staging concerts on the other islands in Indonesia,” she said.

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