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‘Just a guy who writes songs’: Pamungkas talks breaking Spotify's chart record
Running at nearly 6 minutes, Pamungkas’ rock ballad “To the Bone” has ruled Spotify’s Indonesia Top 50 for 10 weeks, showing how the global streaming platform helps unearth fresh talents and that there's no magical formula for a song's success.
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Multi-instrumentalist Pamungkas appears in a studio photograph. (Maverick/Courtesy of Maverick.)
P
amungkas is having a pretty good year. After he was crowned as the most popular Indonesian male artist in Spotify Wrapped 2020, he immediately followed up with another milestone.
By late May 2021, his single “To the Bone”, from his second studio album Flying Solo, had become the longest ruling chart-topper on Spotify’s Indonesia Top 50 at 10 consecutive weeks, breaking the previous record held by Weird Genius’ “LATHI”, featuring Sara Fajira. Making this feat more impressive is the fact that Pamungkas wrote and produced “To the Bone”.
Speaking to The Jakarta Post, the 28-year-old singer-songwriter revealed that he had no intention whatsoever to dominate any charts.
“I did not expect this because as a songwriter, I never know which [song] will get on the map,” said Pamungkas.
“For instance, I wrote this song called ‘Boy’ for my debut album [Walk The Talk, 2018] and I thought that song would change people’s minds, but nothing happened. I didn’t expect a song like ‘To the Bone’ would end up being a hit instead. It’s a huge thank you to the listeners and of course, Spotify, for bridging my songs to them,” he said.
The single could be considered a sleeper hit, as it took a year for “To the Bone” to finally summit the Spotify chart since its YouTube premiere in early 2020. It was not accompanied by a social media campaign or high-profile TV appearance, so Pamungkas admitted he had no idea why the rock ballad, at a fairly long duration of 5 minutes and 44 seconds, had resonated with so many listeners.
“When I wrote ‘To the Bone’, my intention was to write something I had never written before,” he explained.
