Vocalist Isyana Sarasvati has emerged as probably the most famous pop singer on the Indonesian music scene in the last two years.

Signed under the major music label Sony Music Entertainment Indonesia, she has managed to garner a large fanbase in the pop music scene through her singles such as “Satu Dalam Jiwa” (One In Our Souls) and “Kau Adalah” (You Are), on which she collaborated with pop band RAN vocalist Rayi Putra. Her latest album, Explore!, won three awards for best soul/R & B/urban album, best producer and best soul/R & B/urban single during the recent 2016 Indonesian Music Awards (AMI).

However, Isyana believes, deep down inside, that she has a lot more to offer than just light-hearted and catchy pop songs.

“I am known for being a pop star right now but, actually, I am currently working really hard to define myself more as a musician,” Isyana, who was born in Bandung on May 2, 1993, said during a recent interview.

“People know me as a singer these days but in fact I started from learning musical instruments, compositions and arrangements first before I learned how to sing. I was 10 years old when I started to learn singing but previously, from the age of 6 to 9, I studied music composition.”

Music has been a major part of Isyana’s life from an early age. Her mother, Luana Marpanda, studied at a music conservatory in Belgium while her father, Sapta Dwikardana, has always been a lover of music of various genres.

When Luana studied in Belgium, she was accompanied by her husband, the then 3-year-old Isyana and her sister, Rara Sekar, who is three years older.

“During our stay in Belgium, my sister and I enjoyed many kinds of music. Our mother introduced us to classical music while our father put on many kinds of recordings from artists like The Beatles, Queen and Il Divo for us to listen to,” Isyana said.

“There was no day without music and we listened to all kinds of styles and genres.”

The sisters also received piano lessons from their mother at home. From an early age, each of them showed different interests in the type of music that they loved to play.

“Rara was very into the pop music. She introduced me a lot to pop artists like Britney Spears. I, on the other hand, was very mesmerized by classical music,” Isyana said.

When the singer was 10, she and her family returned to Indonesia, where she attended a music school to further her exploration of music.

Fate led Isyana to make a splash in the pop scene even though she originally started in classical music and began her singing career as an opera performer.

“For now, I really could not choose whether performing pop or classical is better. Both of them are basically music and even if I am now a pop star, I only want to sing songs that are composed by me.”

Isyana said she felt grateful to have a solid career as a pop singer although she often wished that she could perform classical music and opera singing more often in Indonesia because ultimately she always felt that her soul was in this genre.

“I am still singing and performing in operas but I do this mostly abroad in Singapore. I rarely perform as a classical musician and singer in Indonesia. I can get to perform classical music and opera twice in a year at the most in Indonesia,” she said.

“I am really into classical music and opera because this kind of genre is very challenging and I love being challenged. When I sing in an opera, I need more than just good vocal technique. I must also be able to get into my character, which probably has different backgrounds and stories that are completely different from my own life.”

(Photo by Jerry Adiguna)MUSICAL DREAMS

To popularize classical music and opera among the Indonesian public, Isyana said that she had a dream of establishing her own music center.

“The music center will consist of a school, studios and production classes. I will formulate the system and curriculum because I believe I have a lot to share after I studied music at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore and at the Royal College of Music in London,” she said.

“I want everyone who studies in my dream music center to see that music is not just skills and technique but also interpretation.”

The music center is a long-term goal, Isyana said; for now, she is thinking about establishing more networks and collaborating with other musicians from various genres.

So far, Isyana has managed to collaborate with pop singer Glenn Fredly but she also planned to branch out into the jazz genre with a planned collaboration with jazz musician and composer Indra Lesmana.

“I also dream of collaborating with Jamie Cullum and perhaps Justin Bieber,” Isyana said.

The artist she is most interested in collaborating with, however, is not a famous international mainstream level star. She names the singer as Rara, who has a very niche yet loyal fanbase in the indie music scene through her band Banda Neira.

“Rara is very busy. She is hopping around everywhere like a grasshopper and it is very difficult to spend much time with her. The only time we can hang around together for a significant time is during Idul Fitri or Christmas holidays,” she said.

It would not be complete to talk about Isyana without looking into the rumored rivalry between her and Raisa, another famous Indonesian pop singer who has a large fanbase.

In internet forums, social media and chat groups, fans of the singers often debate who is better. The debates are sometimes accompanied by the hashtags #TeamIsyana and #TeamRaisa.

Isyana said that she and Raisa knew about the ongoing debate on them as artists but they considered it as funny and cute.

“We see that it is very normal for our fans to debate but Raisa and I are actually very close friends. We just laugh every time we hear fans arguing about us,” she said.