{"id":492,"date":"2017-07-07T10:02:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T03:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rossaofficial.com\/new\/rossas-new-leaf-a-new-chapter-the-journey-of-21-dazzling-years\/"},"modified":"2017-07-07T10:02:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T03:02:00","slug":"rossas-new-leaf-a-new-chapter-the-journey-of-21-dazzling-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rossaofficial.com\/new\/rossas-new-leaf-a-new-chapter-the-journey-of-21-dazzling-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Rossa’s New Leaf “A New Chapter” The Journey of 21 Dazzling Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jakarta Post –<\/strong> Being a pop star in this day and age is no easy feat, despite how easy many make it look. Even big-name singers tend to suffer from the feeling of stagnation, wondering what new direction they can go in, especially after decades in the industry and facing rapid shifts in trends.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"Some experiment with other genres, sometimes to the chagrin of their fans or label, while others form new bands with new people to keep their ideas fresh. For some, it\u2019s as simple as taking a random chance to develop their craft to suit their new influences or new times.<\/p>\n

A veteran of the Indonesian pop scene, Rossa has soundtracked countless Indonesian love stories, real or staged, for the past 21 years. Her portfolio of songs includes many pop staples, such as \u201cAyat-Ayat Cinta\u201d (Verses of Love), \u201cNada-Nada Cinta\u201d (Melody of Love) or \u201cCinta Tak Termiliki\u201d (Unreachable Love), and her music is featured in films like the blockbuster\u00a0Ayat-Ayat Cinta<\/em>\u00a0and the biopic of Indonesia\u2019s Casanova founding father Sukarno.<\/p>\n

This year she returns with an album titled\u00a0A New Chapter<\/em>, a collection of songs, with four sung in English, which literally represents a new chapter in her music. Taking cues from current pop stars and production techniques, her music emerges fresher than ever, able to take on even her younger counterparts on the radio.<\/p>\n

Her new album oozes of the high-end, savvy clean production distinctively heard in many pop songs of today, with Rossa even stating current pop stars Rihanna, Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande as influences in this album, coupled with traces of influence of her biggest idol, Celine Dion.<\/p>\n

\u201cA New Chapter<\/em>\u00a0is titled as such because to me, it\u2019s all new. I\u2019ve been in this industry for 21 years, so it\u2019s like two decades plus one year. [2017] is my \u201cfirst\u201d year after the decades. So I decided to make something different,\u201d she said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cBody Speak\u201d is a track she said helped her be featured as MTV Asia\u2019s first Indonesian \u201cSpotlight\u201d artist. What also helped is the fact that her music is quite popular in places like Singapore and Malaysia, where she has amassed a considerable fan base.<\/p>\n

A New Chapter<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>was released on KFC Records, which ironically is probably the only major music distribution platform in Indonesia that is seen as doing well. Even though\u00a0A New Chapter<\/em>\u00a0is currently gaining on 150,000 copies in its first month of release, the death of many major local record stores, such as Aquarius and Disc Tarra, has seen distribution channels for artists on her level shrink considerably.<\/p>\n

\u201cKFC is the best way we have so far. Major labels [such as Universal, Sony or Warner] don\u2019t have as many major local artists as they used to,\u201d said the 39-year-old singer.<\/p>\n

Rossa\u2019s musical ideas come not only from her personal feelings, but also from love-related experiences around her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I didn\u2019t have confidence in my material, I wouldn\u2019t bother recording it. It\u2019s hard to gather all the inspiration and material for one album, let alone the entire production process. I\u2019d rather stick to doing an album every two years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Despite her unbridled optimism and ever-positive energy, Rossa admitted that she fell into a low point around two years ago after her previous album was released. Unsure of what direction to take with her music after sailing in the business for two decades, she contemplated ditching her career and starting a business or moving elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2015, I decided to take a break from everything to deal with this feeling. But then I received an offer to soundtrack a teen-romance film called\u00a0I Love You At 38,000 Ft<\/em>. Their first trailer apparently used a very old song of mine, and I kind of felt bad, because it seemed like I didn\u2019t have anything new to offer them,\u201d she explained giddily.<\/p>\n

After recording a new song for the film, Rossa was invited to check out the Songwriters Camp in Bali, where many Western pop songwriters were congregating for a few days. Little did she know that the exposure to that crowd would further revive her inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI struck up a conversation with a fellow named Tushar Apte, who was responsible for some of Rihanna\u2019s and Chris Brown\u2019s songs. So I asked him if he\u2019d ever worked with any Asian artists, and he said he hadn\u2019t. I just went for it. Next thing I knew, I went straight to work as I got home and I was passing demos with him by the week after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rossa flew to Los Angeles to record four tracks in English. Her producer was Mitch Allen, who is also a member of early-2000s alternative band SR-71. The process, seeing it was her first time recording overseas, was fascinating to her, in as much as it made her realize details she\u2019d never realized during her entire recording career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you listen to \u2018Break It Out\u2019 [the opening track], it\u2019ll seem like I sound different in some parts of the song than others. That\u2019s because I was recording with multiple microphones that had their own character. I had never noticed this kind of technology until then,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Recording at an American studio resulted in parts of the album sounding crisper than most local songs on Indonesian radio today. Her experiment paid off in the end, with the artist emerging more confident in her music than ever.<\/p>\n

Rossa plans to hold a concert celebrating the release of the album at Singapore\u2019s Esplanade Theatre in November. The lack of considerable music or concert venues in Indonesia may have affected this decision, but ultimately it is also about giving her adoring regional fans a new taste of their idol.<\/p>\n

Because of her preference for the spontaneous, Rossa said she would just go with the flow by not really planning on what she wants to do in the future. After producing a record as personally satisfying as this one, it isn\u2019t strange for her to just enjoy the fruit of her laurels for now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really do think this album is one of the best I\u2019ve ever made, because it sounds different to what I\u2019ve done before. Maybe next year I want to do something else, I don\u2019t know, I just let things flow, to keep it fresh,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Jakarta Post – Being a pop star in this day and age is no easy feat, despite how easy many make it look. Even big-name singers tend to suffer from the feeling of stagnation, wondering what new direction they can go in, especially after decades in the industry and facing rapid shifts in trends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rossaofficial.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rossaofficial.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rossaofficial.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rossaofficial.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rossaofficial.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rossaofficial.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rossaofficial.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rossaofficial.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rossaofficial.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rossaofficial.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}