The theme in Riddles Of A Marigold is delightful in a way that seems removed from everyday life. Dreamy and undeniably cinematic,it is the perfect tune to introduce you to the mysterious world of Andreas Arianto. Read our discussion with the artist below!
Describe your sound in 3 words!
I think it’s cinematic storytelling soundscape
Tell us a few things about your upcoming album Violet Sky. What is the main idea behind it?
I’ve been working in the music and movie industry for 14 years now, but instead of releasing my own body of work, I always spent most of my time working on somebody else’s projects. I finally released my first single in December 2021, committing myself to release 1 new single every month, leading up to the Violet Sky album release in mid 2022. I always cemented my thoughts and feelings, especially the melancholic ones, on the piano. Having recorded all these ideas in phone, I think they all share the same universe so to speak, and violet is the right colour to describe them all.
‘Not all mysteries are meant to be solved’. What is the biggest unsolved mystery in your life?
We lost our first child to premature rupture of membranes last year, but the pregnancy was never smooth from the first week. We spent the next several months in pain and sorrow, because we never found out what caused it. We finally decided to get professional help to get through the stages of grief to find peace within, by accepting what we were going through. I think acceptance is something we often oversee when we were busy trying to find answers to everything.
What moment in your career are you proudest of?
I’ve been so lucky to have been working on many interesting and rewarding projects! One of them was conducting the Budapest Scoring Orchestra for an album I produced for a harp player called Rama Widi from Indonesia. A year prior to that I produced 2 different albums for 2 different harp players (both also from Indonesia) when I conducted the string ensemble from the China National Symphony in Beijing. I was also involved as an arranger and co-producer for one of the songs being performed at the closing ceremony of the 2018 ASIAN Games in Jakarta.
Your music feels like it could work perfectly as a movie theme. If you were asked to rescore a film, which one would you choose?
That’s a really great question. I did a rescore for a very well produced short animated movie called Sintel, and made it a music video for my first single, None of Us, that you can watch in here. But your question also makes me think about the stop motion animation movie Coraline, in which Bruno Coulais did a really wonderful job with his music. It’s dark, mysterious, but also warm at the same time, and rescoring it will be fun because the movie is quite a challenge for composers to score.
What do you love/hate about Bali. And how do you relate to the music scene of Indonesia?
I really love being so close to nature. Living in Bali means I got front row seat to all the beautiful sceneries. I also love how multicultural it is in here, where you get to meet and interact with practically anyone from anywhere in the world. Only problem is that the music and movie industry are all based in Jakarta, the capital city, so I would need to go back and forth to forge relationships with my clients. The pandemic indeed forced us all to work remotely to my advantage. But there’s only so much I can do with the limited resources in Bali, especially the variety of instrumentalists available in here.
I play keyboards, clarinet and accordion in a folk-blues band called Andre Harihandoyo & Sonic People since 2006. We’re inactive at the moment but it was really fun being on the road to play different cities and getting to know many awesome indie bands that defined an emerging subculture that also contributed to the development of Indonesian music scene. Living in a country with a population of 277 millions means there are so many opportunities for us artists to grow our own audience in our own niche market. There is a growing market for non mainstream music for the last 20 years now.
When did you decide to become a musician yourself?
I have been dreaming of becoming one since high school. There was this really influential Indonesian composer/arranger called Erwin Gutawa that keeps on releasing awesome albums and setting up awesome concerts since I was really young. He’s still releasing his music until now, and I’m so lucky to be involved as a clarinet player and an arranger for his orchestra before I moved to Bali.
Artists and people who have influenced and inspired you?
I’m a big fan of Michael Giacchino, Alexandre Desplat, Christian Henson, Olafur Arnalds, but I also really admire Max Martin, Quincy Jones and Cory Wong. They all made wonderful soundtracks of my life!
Tell us one thing that not many people know about you!
Not many knows that in 2006 and 2007 I released 2 albums of my solo alternative rock project where I sang and played all the instruments myself under the moniker The Avatars (no, it’s not available anywhere online ahaha). It took me 2 albums to realize that singing is not my forte at all ahaha. I duplicated and put the labels on each of the CDs myself but I already left that chapter of my life behind me, learned from all the experiences to make great sounding albums from that point on.
Thank you!
Follow Andreas Arianto
Website/Instagram
Follow our Spotify Playlist “Metamorphosis” feat. Andreas Arianto
Secret Eclectic 