First love, last love: Music just won't let Tika go<\/p>\n
Paul F. Agusta, Contributor, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Born into an extended family of musicians, artists and
\ngenerally creative people, multi-faceted accessory designer\/song
\nwriter\/singer Kartika Jahya, or Tika, just can't run far enough
\nor fast enough to escape the lure of music.<\/p>\n
\"At one time, I kind of like promised myself never to sing
\nagain for the rest of my life,\" Tika said of a brief fling as a
\nsinger\/songwriter for a Seattle, Washington, USA based band.<\/p>\n
\"Then I went home to Indonesia, and I met some guys, like the
\nband 'Lain', and everybody in the independent music scene. And I
\nwas just sort of tempted to go back into singing. So here I am,\"
\nsaid the vibrant bespectacled, purple-haired young woman, who
\njust released her first solo album, Frozen Love Songs on July 10.<\/p>\n
Her on-again-off-again relationship with the art of musical
\nperformance began as a child when she would make up lyrics as she
\nwent.<\/p>\n
\"Every time they called me up on stage or in class to sing, I
\nwas just kind of like \"can I sing two songs instead of one', \"
\nsaid Tika, whose grandmother, Pranawengrum Katamsi, and her aunt,
\nAning Katamsi, are Indonesia's foremost operatic sopranos.<\/p>\n
This infatuation with singing and making up songs continued
\ninto junior and senior high school with associations with a band
\nor two, not becoming full-blown until college when although she
\nhad opted to study costume design at the Art Institute of
\nSeattle, music lured her back.<\/p>\n
\"I never really got professionally into music until
\ncollege ... I joined a band in college and it got pretty serious
\nexcept that it ended on a sour note,\" she explained about her
\ninvolvement in The Rhea Sisters Project, which eventually took
\nthe name Yoko Phono.<\/p>\n
Currently working and recording in Indonesia with her friends
\nand collaborators, Aghi Narottama, Iman Fattah, Bemby Gusti, and
\nAge, she passionately embraces honesty in any creative
\nexpression.<\/p>\n
\"The biggest problem is that I don't play any instruments. But
\nI have all these ideas in my head about how the music should
\nsound like and the people that I collaborate with ... know me and
\nI can just tell them 'ok this is what I want the music to sound
\nlike, this kind of beat, this kind of sound', \" Tika told The
\nJakarta Post.<\/p>\n
\"They would create while I am there and I would give them
\ninput, and after that's done they just sort of like leave me
\nalone in a dark room where I just put on the singing track, the
\nguide track, and write the lyrics. That's how it's usually done,\"
\nshe said, explaining her creative process as a lyricist.<\/p>\n
Tika, who writes poetry and prose as well, sees her lyrics as
\nan extension of the music that flows through her soul. \"I never
\nuse any of the poetry and what not in my new music because I
\nbelieve that when it's done it's done ... If it is poetry it is
\npoetry, and if it's prose it's prose,\" she said.<\/p>\n
For Tika, her lyrics are \"exactly what I am feeling at the
\nmoment. You know, you're in a dark room all by yourself and
\nlistening to this music and it just kind get set in a certain
\nmood, and, you know, what is unsaid is written down.\"<\/p>\n
\"What I feel when I'm writing is that I just want to be
\ntotally honest with what I am feeling at the time... I have no
\nintention of being cathartic, I have no intention of being bitter
\nor whatever people say ... that my music is really dark. It is
\ninteresting to hear people say those things about your work, you
\nknow, cause when you create it you don't have a hidden agenda
\nthat says 'my music should sound a certain way', \" she explained.<\/p>\n
\"People are always asking me whether or not I create the songs
\nmyself. I can't really say 'yes' and I can't really say 'no' to
\nthat because it's a work of collaboration. But people's response
\nin Jakarta, here, is pretty positive as far as I know,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"The album is independently released ... It is fun to see how
\npeople react to it, and I would just like to maybe just play more
\ngigs,\" said Tika of her plans moving forward.<\/p>\n
If anything is clear, it is that music has a hold on this
\ngifted young woman, and we are sure to hear her eloquent voice
\nfor years to come.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/first-love-last-love-music-just-wont-let-tika-go-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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