If you rescue me

Now and then, the world around me gets a little boring.

Shelves & Secret Places

Meet my good friend, Aishanatasha Adisasmita. She told me she was "a little white house on a hill", when I asked her to describe herself in one sentence. I have been a fan of her work for such a long time and I so I decided, "why not put Aisha on this so called blog!". So I sent her an email and asked her a few silly questions like what art was to her and so on and so on. A magical little creature, yes she is. I'm a fan.

What is art to you? "I mean, I don't really know what art is. Does anyone know what art actually is? All I know is that it makes me happy. Its like falling in love. I get this excitement and it makes me go crazy. Though it has its dead ends too, like, sometimes when there's really no inspiration, I get frustrated with myself but then I see something beautiful and I fall in love all over again. It doesn't even have to be beautiful, it could be sad, funny, or in anyway that I somehow can relate to. I do it because I feel like it makes me feel safe."

"It comforts me in a way. I don't even have to make anything fancy or grand, just as long as it has some sort of emotional value that I can express. Maybe that's it, art is expressing yourself in any shape or form and most preferably pleasing to the eye? I don't know.. maybe I should look it up in the dictionary or something."

As usual, we always ask our artist's whether they involve drugs into their creative process. "Personally, I have never taken them for a "creative process". But hey, its a choice, right? And some artists, when using them, can truly explore and create something amazing. Although, being a science major, I understand how bodies work (almost) in extreme detail therefore am always haunted by the side effects drugs can cause to your organs and such. There is always curiosity, like everything else, but I am far too paranoid (about health) of a person as of right now. I do think that if its necessary for some people to take them - so long as they don't get dependent, then it is his/her choice."

Aisha

http://zhoor-nahl.tumblr (decided to put all the journal stuff here! way easier than uploading them to facebook!)

Our Childhood Dreams

Nothing can describe how great they are live. They are talented in every way. A musical expression of a guitar duo, Gerald Situmorang and Dimas Wibisana. Definitely bringing something to the table, they offer a different range of melodies and rhythm. With the talent they’ve got, they are surely going places.

We got a chance to interview Sketsa's very own Gerald Situmorang thanks to a generous offer from their route manager which happens to be an old friend of ours after their "Chilhood's Dream" album launch at Barcode, Kemang. Very nice couple of chaps, indeed.

1. Starting off simple. You guys are simply amazing and your songs are even better! Where and who the hell do you get your inspiration from?

I get inspired from local Indonesian acts like Tohpati, Dewa Budjana, Riza Arshad and Indra Lesmana. And I also love musicians like Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays and so much more. Inspiration comes from daily life like watching soccer, for example the song Green Field.

2. Define Sketsa?

It’s a place where I can create music as I like. I take music and making it seriously, and we want people to enjoy instrumental music just as much as any other genre, especially in Indonesia. We got the name from a song by an old fusion Indonesian jazz band called Karimata. Karimata consisted of Erwin Gutawa, Aminoto Kosin at that time and they had song called “Sketsa”.

3. One last question we always ask our artists. Do you ever use drugs to get your inspiration and whats your take on people who do?

Honestly, I totally disagree about using drugs as a tool for getting inspired. And not to brag and all but I don’t smoke or drink, well I drink a little on occasions. No drugs or anything like that because I actually care about my body and you don’t need drugs to get you inspired to make music. There are many ways to get inspired, even from daily life. You can build a song by taking note by note and compose a song. Its up to people if they want to use drugs but I totally disagree.

to hear more from SKETSA, visit www.myspace.com/sketsa