Trie Utami chooses to compromise in her new album
By Helly Minarti
JAKARTA (JP): The pop music world never lacks female singers, even though many rely on their glitzy appearance and the latest technology to polish up the scuffs and stains on their voices to succeed. However, this is not the case with Trie Utami, 30, who has just released her fourth solo album, Aku Cemburu (I'm Jealous).
Trie is a rarity in Indonesian pop music. Blessed with a gifted voice that covers many octaves, she enhances this natural talent with an extraordinary singing technique marked by rich improvisation. With her long experience, she is now able to master the falsetto.
She used to avoid this technique because "it was like a bumpy- jumpy ride for me to go back to my normal voice smoothly after using a falsetto."
In her new album she uses the technique quite a lot.
Iie -- as she is affectionately called by her peers -- also has colorful musical skills. Having learned the piano from the age of four, Iie submerged herself into music as an instrumentalist -- performing with various groups, from school bands to TV big bands like the 1980s Chandra Kirana Orchestra.
She can also play other musical instruments, including drums and the saxophone. More than that, Iie is also a productive songwriter. She has written 23 songs -- some of which were sung by famous singers like Harvey Malaiholo and Utha Likumahua.
Iie, who formerly married Wiwie GV and is now the wife of Andi Analta, started her professional career by joining widely acclaimed fusion-jazz band, Krakatau, in 1986. Today, she is still a member of the group.
"It was like a music school for me," Iie reflected.
Six albums and more compilations were born during her 12 years with the group. Iie also enriched her musical portfolio by winning prizes at several festivals -- one of them was the Grand Prix Winner of The Golden Stag International Singer Contest in Rumania, in 1992.
In between all of this, she produced singles and sang and/or composed soundtracks for TV miniseries.
Despite all this impressive creative achievement and being crowned BASF Award Winner for the Best Selling Album in the R&B Category 10 years ago, Iie ironically is dubbed a singer who has limited commercial value.
"They often 'warn' me not to sing intricately and that even though my voice is good, it's not 'selling'," said Iie.
Nobody doubts her voice and devotion to good music -- but it seems that the public fails to appreciate her multifaceted musical talents due to her lack of pop star appeal. The 150-cm woman is not like Reza, who is sensual, or the sexy Kris Dayanti. She is just an affable girl-next-door.
"The voice is what I have," is always her statement.
The new album, Aku Cemburu, is her effort to go commercial.
Production began in 1995 but the release was halted since the producer could not find a strong song to be highlighted as the first single. Time passed until Iie and the recording company realized that the contract was one year behind schedule. They eventually renewed the contract.
"Finally they gave me this song, Aku Cemburu, by Harry Tasman," said Iie. She liked it and wrapped the album.
It is indeed a "compromising" album.
"It's more like half the producer and half me," Iie confessed.
The producer wanted it to go R&B, like the current trend, yet with more emphasis on easy-listening melodious pop.
"If everything had been up to me than I'd have gone very 'black' R&B," said Iien.
It means, if it had been up to her, she would have done it her way -- by picking songs that would have allowed her to explore difficult melodies, improvise to challenge herself to perform her best singing techniques. In other words, she would have explored an "intricate way of singing".
Instead of doing it her way, she conformed to more mainstream easy pop tunes. "I don't challenge myself too much (in the album), by not 'climbing' to reach the high notes or 'treating' them as if I had to conquer a steep cliff as I did for Krakatau," said Iie.
Yet she was on her own for the production. She invited four music directors to arrange 10 different songs rather than the usual collaboration with a single music director. One of them is Dodo Zakaria -- a big name of the 1980s pop scene.
"I know what I want. So I don't need a (dominating) single music director to glue the whole album," said Iie.
She also "reinvented" herself. Now she is closer to the accepted portrayal of a "pop diva" on the cover as well on the video clip. Once known as "sanguine" and "dynamic" Trie Utami ("People used to call me bola bekel" - a small ball used in a children's game, referring to her boundless energy), this time she has posed as a more subdued, melancholic person on the sleeve photographed by Pinky Mirror -- who also helped Kris Dayanti adorn her portfolio with sensual photos.
"I think I'm much calmer now," she commented on her new image.
But is it in her character to go all mushy and melancholic while in the past she belted out her love songs with limitless expression -- whether performing solo or in a duet with male singer Utha Likumahua?
Exploring various music styles is her nature. Iie has been delving into everything from jazz, R&B, rock and dangdut to the ethically charged music marked by local pentatonic or diatonic scale -- by joining a group from Yogyakarta, Kiai Kanjeng, led by poet and Moslem scholar Emha Ainun Najib.
"I'm lucky enough to find other 'playgrounds' in music," said Iie, referring to her involvement to this alternative musical group which performs a specific genre.
"I know where to find what I want to know - but certainly this new album is a different thing," said Iie.
But the album is undoubtedly a compromise which is such a waste of a rare talent like hers.
"I did compromise a few things, but not all," she retorted. "If I agreed to sing a song they chose for me, I insisted on singing it my way."
Still, it feels like a betrayal of her ability. Trie does not need to push herself to win mass appreciation -- mostly marked by the scale of the sales. It's not her territory.
It would be better for her to record a black R&B album as she originally wished, or to explore other music genres she favors which would bring out the best in her. True, this would put her on the fringes of the glamorous side of pop music and result in lower sales and reduced popularity. But her work definitely would be appreciated by the more selective fans who applaud her true virtuosity. Because that is how she started when she joined her first professional band, Krakatau. And that is how Trie Utami the singer was born.
Hopefully it's not too late. She still has another record to make under the same contract and if she is lucky enough she will be able to convince the producer to do it all her way. The question is, will Trie Utami choose to dare?