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Commissioned for V.
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1SAAC: GENESIS
Written by Rebecca Laurent for Musicamagz.
There is always a certain charisma that follows a rockstar around. If, for example, you enter the room and see Freddie Mercury or Billie Joe Armstrong or Gerard Way, you will automatically know that they are a somebody even when you do not necessarily listen to their music. That was what happened when 1SAAC, birth name Isaac Salim, entered the restaurant. He gave the waitress his name — although it shouldn’t have been necessary considering his fame — and walked inside, his manager and best-friend in tow.
Before he entered, there was a buzzing in the air, conversations about work and holiday and who can have the kids during Christmas but as he set foot into the room, all the white noise stopped. They did not stare, it almost felt like they thought it was a sin to, and simply asked their questions in hushed tones and low whispers. Afraid to disturb him, afraid to even speak his name. I do get the sentiment though; he is a little intimidating.
He was wearing an oversized leather jacket with a black T-Shirt underneath it. His dark hair, that had grown past the nape of his neck, was a little messy and unkept, styled in a classic mullet. Even underneath the dim lighting of the restaurant, he was still wearing his Dior sunglasses, shielding him from the observant eyes of a few patrons who had started to find the courage to finally stare at him. But when he approached my table, he made the decision to take his sunnies off before he held my hand to shake it.
“Isaac.” Again, with introducing himself even when he did not need to.
I introduced myself as well and we sat down together. His manager and best-friend excused themselves as they sat on the booth a few tables away from us, giving us the privacy to talk and giving Isaac the freedom to say whatever he wanted to. It is a little different because most of the time, an artist’s manager — especially an up-and-coming artist who had slowly started his ascend in the Billboard 100 charts — would always find the need to look over their shoulder, wanting to know how their artist answers the question, wanting to know the questions.
But Isaac was given the liberty to say whatever he wanted, a relief for me as an interviewer and a much bigger relief for him because it meant that he had reached a certain fame and security that other artists his age did not have yet. They had full trust in him — trust in how he could manage his image and trust with whatever anecdotes he might want to say.
Before we started, he ordered himself a steak with no appetizer, saying that he thought it would be a little wasteful because he did not eat much. His drink of choice was a glass of red wine, did not have to be the expensive kind (believe me, I checked). Isaac also asked for my order, which was new for artists of his caliber, and I simply declined. He insisted on buying me dinner, again, a little out of the ordinary but nothing new for rockstars like him.
Isaac, known by his stage name 1SAAC, is the second child of three. He first rose to fame when he uploaded a cover of Blink-182’s ‘I Miss You’ when he was just 13 years old; Blink-182’s official Facebook page reposted his YouTube cover and this catapulted him into a different level than his peers. Multiple record labels — both national and international — approached him after and he ultimately chose Evangelical Records — the production house that’s home for Vandalists, Winnie Liu, and Adam Oslo — owned by Kit Evander.
“I have a sentiment towards them. I grew up listening to Kit Evander’s music and he’s been one of my muses ever since. Say what you want about the man, no one does it like him.”
When asked why he chose Evangelical Records out of the bunch, he chuckled, “I have a sentiment towards them. I grew up listening to Kit Evander’s music and he’s been one of my muses ever since. Say what you want about the man, no one does it like him.”
Kit Evander tragically died in a car accident in 2014, a few years after Isaac joined his label. There was a time when everyone thought that Evangelical had lost their flair — they were not producing good tracks, their devoted fans stated that it felt empty and with the departure of one of their most recognizable talents, Larasati Risman, they were surely heading for disaster.
Then in 2015, Isaac released ‘In the Distance’, a song about longing for someone when they do not even spare a look at you. The song, the first song that Isaac released without help from Kit Evander, entered the Billboard Top 100 charts and turned the tides for Evangelical Records forever. They started putting out more music and even with a different sound — a song that is so similar to Isaac’s overall vibes — they managed to make the change bearable for their old fans.
Isaac started producing more songs for their artists, he then released his second album — Atonement — which made him gain recognition from The Recording Academy and although he was not nominated for a Grammy, and he never had been, he had made a name for himself; both as a producer and as a recording artist.
“I never saw it that way,” Isaac started, “I never thought myself as the saver of Evangelical Records or whatever, I was just happy I could continue Kit’s legacy, that’s it.”
We then started talking about his career, his parents’ expectations and what it was like for him at him because he chose music. “My parents weren’t supportive, at all, they didn’t know if there was a future in music for me. They wanted me to take business or medicine or something else that’s boring and predictable but I told them let me try, let me try with Evangelical and if they can hear my music in the radio after a year, they should just let me pursue it and 3 months later, they heard ‘Low Games’ playing in the car.”
Low Games tells a story of a teenager trying to maneuver through life when they didn’t have anything to fight for, no ambitions and dreams, no one to guide them through it. I asked Isaac whether it was autobiographical, the song, and he shrugged, “It was difficult, of course, trying to figure out if this music business was really for me but I managed well. I wanted to focus on music but sometimes this industry isn’t as glamorous as it is, kids had drugs, they drank to write, they snorted coke to be able to finish a recording session. It was hell. Low Games was a reminder for me, it served as a way for me to stay clean.”
Isaac signed with Evangelical Records back when Vandalists were still active, back before their singer and front-man, Enzo Bintara, got tangled up in a drug scandal when he was just still 16. In order to get a lighter sentence, Bintara ratted on his dealer and other users in the industry, 2013 felt like an Armageddon for musicians in Indonesia, most of them were found out to be involved in hard drugs like cocaine and heroin.
“I never felt left out, that kind of life wasn’t for me. Kit didn’t use, his son didn’t use, all the big artists didn’t use. It was a shame, though, Enzo was damn good at singing. I saw what it did to talented people like him, he’s still facing the consequences of his actions. Kit used to say that we can’t even compare to a guy like Enzo, he was made for stardom, and if a guy like him could fall that hard, I can’t imagine what it’d do for a guy like me.” And when I told him that he’s comparable to Enzo Bintara, he merely laughed, “I was being humble.”
At 27 years old, Isaac had become a household name. He headlined We The Fest in 2014, was invited to perform at Summer Sonic, Japan in 2016 and had his first Coachella invite in 2018 when he was just 24 years old. His albums, ‘Absolute Chances’, ‘Atonement’, and ‘Moments of Connection’ were all a worldwide success. He had been credited for almost 200 songs despite only being in the industry for a little over 10 years.
If there’s a word that could perfectly describe him, it would be, “Eudaemonia, sorry for the big word, but I’m just content and comfortable with where I am right now that I don’t think any other word can describe the state I am in better.”
But of course, everything came with a price. He was about to tour around Asia and had just landed in Bangkok when his phone rang, it was around 2 AM and his father was never awake at a time like that. So, he picked it up, mentally preparing himself for the worst because he knew there was no good news at 2 AM. His foot had just come contact with the tarmac when his father delivered the news to him. His mother had died of an aneurysm when he was on the plane, about to start his biggest tour yet.
“It felt like… I don’t know how to say it, it just felt like my world stopped. He didn’t have to say it, I knew by the way he said ‘mama’ that she was gone. In that moment I just wanted to get into the plane and fly it by myself if I had to, I didn’t want to start the tour if I couldn’t see my mom one last time. Man, it was supposed to be the most exciting day of my life, I was supposed to celebrate it with them on the next show in Singapore and then I got the news and I was just in a really bad place after that.” He took a long drag from his cigarette as he retold the story, I could even see his eyes welling up, “It took me to a dark place.”
His tour had to be rescheduled, people wanted refunds, they were angry because they’d bought plane tickets and paid for their accommodations and Isaac just could not pull through. His label did not want to disclose the reason before the rescheduling of the shows because their artist had wanted some privacy and although he knew that he would come back to social media to a social upheaval, he knew he wanted to mourn in private. He had shared everything with his listeners through his songs, all of his lyrics were personal to him and he had chosen to make them public so why couldn’t he have one thing for himself?
“I wanted privacy, that’s all I wanted. I became a singer at 14, I never stopped sharing my life with the people who listened to me. They went through all the highs and lows with me simply because I let them. And now when I’ve lost my mother, why couldn’t they cut me [some] slack?”
A few days after her funeral, pictures from it were leaked to the press and the news spread like wildfire — ages before he was ready to make it public, ages before he was ready to share his pain to the world. Then the support started pouring in and he was in his pajamas on a fast-food Drive-Thru when the server gave him their condolences, it was the first time in 5 days that he checked his social media and he was unpleasantly surprised by the fact that his grief had become public without his consent.
“It made me rethink my life decisions, [it] made me think if I really was cut out for this.”
It was the first time since his rose to fame that he started to view it as a curse and not a blessing, “It made me rethink my life decisions, [it] made me think if I really was cut out for this.”
In the end, his tour was cancelled and Isaac took a few months off from work. It was the first and only period in his life where he wasn’t writing. He had so much to say but the invasion of privacy certainly made him feel like he didn’t owe his listeners anything, they’d taken every shred of him and he was left with nothing.
He went to Bali for a few months to do a social media detox, a $4000 per-month cleanse for celebrities and influencers alike. When I asked him to recall what it was like, he just laughed, “It was bullshit, really, I woke up at 5 to meditate then we ate nothing but fruits and veggies then we drank a bunch of juice. I lost a lot of weight and then my dad picked me up at the third month and that’s when we had our first real conversation after my mom’s death.”
“He told me that I chose this life, I chose to be a musician and sadly, things like this happen. I will always be under the microscope and I won’t have any privacy but that’s the price I have to willingly pay for all of this. Then he told me I could just back out, stop being a musician but he knew he didn’t raise a quitter.” Isaac paused; he looked like he was close to tears. “I think it was the first time my dad actually said it out loud, that he was proud of me, that he understood me. Then I bought the first plane out from Bali to Jakarta and started writing again, my first song after my mother’s death is ‘My Darling’ because that’s what she used to call me. [It] was a hit but I didn’t really care for the charts, I just wanted to write something for her.”
Of course, it is challenging to talk about the impact of his career on his personal life without asking the intrusive questions. He is a rockstar and one that is still hiking up the fame ladder; and what is a star without a companion? Therefore, as I hinted at that small part of his life, he caught on pretty fast as he let out a roar of laugh.
He took a sip from his wine before answering and I really thought that he’d say it, confirm a relationship or at least hint at it but he merely said, “I don’t know, I guess I’m just too consumed with my work to think about relationships right now, it’s hard trying to balance everything.” Of course there had been rumours circulating about his involvement with various models and singers–even his label-mate, Quinn–but he shook his head, “I don’t like mixing work and personal life, these days I value a line between those two a lot.”
When his wine had depleted and he had devoured the cut of steak that was served on the porcelain plate in front of him, I thanked him for his time and candid answers. He was kind and asked me questions back, seemingly interested in everybody’s lives regardless of their social status. He even autographed a few napkins on the way out.
Though I did not spend too much time with him, Isaac — or 1SAAC — is definitely a refreshing change in the Indonesian music industry. He is different, in a good way, and talented at what he does. But above all else, he is humble and hardworking, all of the achievements he has received, all of the glamour and the glitz and the awards, they were all a well-deserved pat in the back for him.
It seems like the only way is up for Isaac Salim.
Get tickets to 1SAAC’s ‘Genesis’ World Tour here.
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Transcript from the interview [off the record]
Isaac [23.11.05]: Your questions, they’re interesting.
Rebecca [23.11.08]: Thank you.
Isaac [23.11.11]: Got me thinking that you’re genuinely interested in me, you know, di luar interview ini.
Rebecca [23.11.16]: He-he, it’s my job, glad to know that you think my set of questions was nice.
Isaac [23.11.20]: Musicamagz, right?
Rebecca [23.11.24]: Right.
Isaac [23.11.28]: Is it appropriate… to you know… buy you drinks after this? Tadi lo engga makan sama sekali dan cuman minum Aqua, are you sure I can’t buy you anything?
Rebecca [23.11.36]: I’m still working, I don’t think my boss would approve of me saying yes to that offer.
Isaac [23.11.47]: Well, your boss doesn’t have to know, right?
Rebecca [23.12.01]: I’m afraid that it’d be a little unprofessional.
Isaac [23.12.08]: Sure, my bad.
Rebecca [23.12.15]: Thank you for the offer and this really nice interview, don’t tell anyone I said this but you’re like… different.
Isaac [23.12.20]: Good different? Bad different?
Rebecca [23.12.29]: Different… just different.
Isaac [23.12.38]: Well, don’t tell anyone I said this too but I think this is the first interview where it didn’t feel like an interview. You didn’t ask the same questions, you were brave, I’ll give you that. Rasanya lebih ke first meet.
Rebecca [23.12.45]: Good way? Bad way?
Isaac [23.12.47]: Good way, definitely.
Rebecca [23.12.56]: Oh, thank you, put in a good word for me to your friends.
Isaac [23.13.05]: I’ll try.
Rebecca [23.13.10]: Thank you once again. Makasih juga udah nerima interview-nya, I’ll see you around then.
Isaac [23.13.20]: What about next Friday after 5 PM? What does your boss say about that?
Rebecca [23.13.25]: Hah?
Isaac [23.13.28]: The drinks, Friday after 5 PM, would your boss approve?
Rebecca [23.13.35]: Hmm… I don’t think so, sorry.
Isaac [23.13.40]: It’s OK, code understood.
Rebecca [23.13.50]: How about after the 26th?
Isaac [23.14.01]: What’s after the 26th?
Rebecca [23.14.05]: Your article goes live on the 26th, I’m free after that. I don’t want you to steer my perspective of you. Gue engga mau impression gue berubah sebelom artikel ini keluar. After the 26th, drinks.
Isaac [23.14.15]: Got it, after the 26th. I’ll see you then.
Rebecca [23.14.19]: I’ll see you then.
Recording terminated at 23.15.06.
Disclaimer: All the events and characters depicted here are fictional. Please do not relate the characters to their muses. I do not condone my stories being uploaded into other platforms or taken out of context. Do not quote retweet, tweet or talk about my characters in posts about their muses. Everything that happens in this account stays in this account.