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Adrian Adioetomo: I’m Throwing Myself into the Fire
With a music career spanning 15 years, bluesman Adrian Adieotomo has done it all, but on his new album, he had to go somewhere he hadn’t been before.
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Adrian Adioetomo purposely escaped his settled life to find inspiration. (JP/Jose Riandy)
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inger-songwriter Adrian Adioetomo insists he cannot create music unless he feels a sense of urgency or something “bursting” inside of him. Digging deep into the highs and lows of his personal life over the past few years, his new release – which is officially untitled but being referred to as Violent Love, Gentle Kill after a line written inside the sleeve – sees the 48-year-old bluesman deliver a very personal album that showcases his range, both musically and emotionally.
While Violent Love, Gentle Kill still sounds unmistakably Adrian (meaning it bluesy), it borrows a lot of other elements from country to Americana, folk and alternative rock. If his previous material was more of a “pure expression,” this time, Adrian had something more specific in mind.
“I wanted the album to be picturesque,” he said, “country rhythms and Americana influences felt like the right tools to conjure images that represent the feelings and thoughts of the songs.”
Mostly known for his delta blues, which is quite rare in Indonesia, Adrian has been honing his craft since the early 2000s where he started out by playing blues covers at expat-friendly cafés and bars in Jakarta. He would record his live performances and sell them on CDs, which gave him the confidence to start writing original songs.
He then went on to become a regular on “Soul Shelter”, a routine live show held at the Star Deli venue in Kemang initiated by fellow bluesman Gugun—of blues-rock band Gugun Blues Shelter—and was featured on the 2006 Todays of Yesterday compilation alongside indie rockers Efek Rumah Kaca and electronic duo Santa Monica, among others. A year later, Adrian put out his debut album Delta Indonesia and, as they say, the rest is history.
“Blues has been around in Indonesia since the 70s rockers era, bands like Godbless experienced it firsthand,” Adrian said, “But what I did—with Gugun and (blues musician) Rama (Satria)—was trying to translate blues for the younger crowd, so it doesn’t sound old.”
Adrian started playing shows everywhere in the country, finding pockets of blues listeners that he didn’t know existed.
