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Yahya forges own folk pop journey with self-released debut LP
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Leap of faith: Folk pop singer-songwriter Yahya Fadhilah made his musical breakthrough with his viral debut single, “keepyousafe”. (Courtesy of Aditia Irfansyah) (Courtesy of Aditia Irfansyah/Courtesy of Aditia Irfansyah)
F
olk pop singer-songwriter Yahya has joined the ranks of blossoming young musicians who have decided to navigate their journey their own way, starting with putting a misunderstood genre back on the map.
It is an age-old question in any music industry: Are easy-listening folk tunes superficial?
General listeners might still dismiss such a music genre as nothing more than a breezy, audio pleasure, the type of music that belongs to artisanal coffee shops as opposed to a dazzling stadium filled with thousands of screaming spectators. After all, it is understandably difficult to imagine that a stripped musical palaver can generate the same euphoria as a rousing industrial pop extravaganza. To boot, at least to a layman's eye (and ear), folk pop music could be perceived as a musical form that yields neither complexity nor gravitas.
Folk pop singer-songwriter Yahya Fadhilah, however, strongly disagrees.
“To create music of folk pop genre that can resonate with the audience, complemented with a hook that sticks to the audience's memory, is not that easy. This is far from being 'simple',” the 22-year-old Bandung native told The Jakarta Post on May 19. “Personally, I think that making music that is catchy, relatable, but also unvarnished is harder.”
A massive fan of the genre himself, Yahya first showed his adoration for the genre with his 2020 debut single “keepyousafe”, which became one of the biggest sleeper hits that year.
Two years later, he has self-released his debut album, SOUTH, an LP (long play) record with 12 tracks that manifests both the artist's career ambition and love letter to the genre that, quite possibly, is much overdue.
