Indonesian trailblazer Hindia is owning the spotlight with his most recent mixtape Doves, '25 on Blank Canvas—the record features 16 tracks where the lyrical mastermind bares his soul to capture great emotion that reaches beyond listeners' headphones and tugs at their heartstrings—exploring deep themes of grief and vulnerability weaved into the beautiful alternative pop/rock melodies and beats.
We caught up with Hindia to learn more about his achievements as a solo artist and as a member of the bands .Feast and Lomba Sihir. Here, we picked his brain to uncover the wizardry behind creating infectious chart-topping tunes like his collaborative track with dynamic electro-pop duo White Chorus, or crafting eccentric concepts like a song told from the perspective of a sofa (no, really).
The 'Rumah ke Rumah' hitmaker also dove into his involvement in Apple's Here's to the Dreamers campaign, dissecting what this year's theme of "Dream Beyond" means to him in terms of his own journey as an artist thus far.
Doves, ‘25 on blank canvas feels like your most expansive work yet—what inspired this sonic shift?
It probably feels that way because it’s a mixtape, and I didn’t fret or think too much with my team when working on it. When making music, I usually just put out everything that comes to mind, which is why it sounds diverse and may affect the lyrics too; in a way that if an idea came out in English, I would record it into the songs.
Tracks like 'hated in the nation' and 'aku berharap ini tak terjadi padamu' dive into vulnerability—how personal was this project for you?
All of my projects are personal, but they were conceived in different phases of my life. Doves, ’25 on blank canvas is not as brooding as my second album, Lagipula Hidup Akan Berakhir, but it came to me when I was decluttering a lot of things in my life, both literally and figuratively. It was as if I was cleaning out my thoughts and feelings that had been festering inside, especially in 'aku berharap ini tak terjadi kepadamu'. That’s also probably why Doves feels like it has a lot more negative space and headroom as a body of work.
Out of all the tracks on Doves, which one is the closest to your heart, and why?
This would probably be the combination of the trilogy of 'kids', '(mimi)' and 'betty' (feat. White Chorus). When my cats passed, I lost sleep and dropped a lot of projects trying to figure out how to cope with my loss. They were really close to me and I thought of them as my actual children, so grieving for them hit me really hard.
You teamed up with White Chorus on 'betty'—how did that collaboration come about?
I am a big fan of White Chorus and had been wanting to work with Emir for quite some time. In the middle of last year, I asked him to produce two songs for the mixtape, and one night he sent me three blank tracks and asked me to choose two. After finishing the demos for those two songs that same night, I got hooked on the last track and started recording without knowing what I was going to write. Half of the lyrics on the final version were the original lyrics that I wrote, and I remember feeling some kind of looming sadness that I couldn't describe at the time.
Believe it or not, 5 minutes after I finished recording that demo, Betty had a heart attack and she passed away not long after, and the week after was when I realised that I subconsciously sang about her in that song.
Speaking of collabs, you kicked off the year with Danilla on ‘Jika’—what drew you both to reimagine such an iconic Indonesian song?
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