Name: Sandrayati
Nationality: Indonesian
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: Sandrayati's Safe Ground, produced by Ólafur Arnalds, is out via Decca.
Recommendations: One of my favourite albums is The Living Road by Lhasa de Sela. I recommend delving into her world.  And a book that has been a safe haven for me recently is called Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

If you enjoyed this Sandrayati interview and would like to know more about her music, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, and twitter.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

It depends on where I am. I love listening with my eyes closed, because then I feel the vibration in every cell of my body, and I allow the music to fully immerse …

If it's the kind of music that really speaks to me I will know when I feel an expansiveness behind closed eyes ... or that feeling of nostalgia and sweet longing.

What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

My mom would sing to me when I was in the womb. I think this counts as first steps.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music meant to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I had just moved from Indonesia (where I was born and raised) to the Philippines (where my mother's home is and my heritage is from) at that age. It was a challenging time to shift landscapes and communities, and I was thrown into a very religious environment.

I was in deep internal conflict at this time feeling like I had to know what I believed in, and I found sanctuary in music. I started writing songs and pouring myself into them.

I still tune into this place of sanctuary when I write today.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

Love is the key instrument, everything is born from there. The guitar has been a best friend for me for writing as well. It is a ground for my voice to walk upon.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

It's expression and reaction, and the other way around.

I am motivated by experience and emotion. Also relationships, not only with people, but with land and space

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

I am still discovering this sound. And I feel I have a strong foundation now that I have finally released Safe Ground. I love the way this record sounds and I long to keep an essence of this in all that comes next.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

There was a time when I used to walk every day on the Southern East coast of Bali where I lived. I was in a time of deep necessary healing and would consciously listen to the overtones I heard in the sounds of the sea ... they would keep expanding upon themselves in such a musical manner that I felt I could sing with them.

I made it a ritual of this every day for 9 months. I felt my ears change after this experience.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

It depends from moment to moment. Places in time call for different extremes in a way. I love to tune into the sensitivity of this, to explore what moments call for what.

I teach movement classes in a yoga studio and at the end of every class for the relaxation I end with a sound meditation and improvise with my voice.

Some days it's only one note that longs to be explored, other days it's a whole melody. I love playing with this.

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

I never think of genre when I write, that's been the best approach for me so far. I am very easily influenced though, and inspired by many genres.

I have always been confused when someone asks me what kind of music I make because for me it just feels like whatever it is that day may be totally different from the next.

The main thing is I make music based on what I experience, the stories that I express or react to, and each of these can be expressed in many ways - why not go there?

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

It is always a very personal process.

So far, I have needed to feel safe and held, to know that I could unravel myself completely into the world I am creating. Safe Ground was all about allowing this space to be born, a foundation to grow upon, a gentle coming together of many worlds.

Another thing that is very important to me in my process is my physical body. I have a movement practice that plays a significant role in getting ideas flowing involving a combination of yoga and meditation.

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

When I work with other people, I feel this more often. The writing process is always an experiment!

And when I am working with others there is always a spectrum of what we are bringing to the table that makes it feel a bit more like a laboratory.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

I have a very feminine approach when I make music, it's a diligence that has a much slower and spiralling pace than a linear fast one.

I grew up in the tropics where there is a very ‘santai’ approach in life, a relaxed state where sometimes the heat will call you to just stop and breathe, be in the sun for a moment and let go. There is definitely a relationship here. There is never a template or a daily practice to my creation process - it's about allowing one moment to inspire the next and allow life to fully be part of creation and vice versa …

Sometimes this approach is not a valued one in the world we live in today. But this is exactly why I am trying to keep tuning into this when I find myself caught in the current of mass production.
 
Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

It's different in the sense that there is something that exists outside of the physical realm when expressing in music - there is a mysticism in it that a daily task does not embody.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

Yes, there are many. Its' interesting that it even feels too vulnerable to share what these pieces are for me, so I’ll leave it there.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I would love to hear more rawness in recordings. I feel that so much mainstream music today is too overproduced. It is a stylistic preference I gues but I feel the human aspect to music is getting a but lost these days … I long to hear more of this.

I would love to see big streaming platforms place artists at the centre of their mission. What would it look and feel like to be fully supported by these platforms? I wonder.