While visiting Puti Chitara at the hospital after she'd given birth, we got to talking about her other "baby", namely her recently-released solo single "Gelembung Kaca". A few months ago she told me that she had a new song that she wanted Cholil Mahmud of Efek Rumah Kaca to sing on, and she was worried that he was going to say no for whatever reason.
I said of course he was going to say yes, considering the shared history that Efek Rumah Kaca and Barasuara, Puti's band, have had over the past few years. There was that landmark collaboration in 2015, of course. Then there was Cholil as a surprise guest star at Barasuara's album launch. There was the repeat of the Efek Rumah Kaca and Barasuara collaboration a few months after in Bandung, in which Cholil joined Puti on her cover of Efek Rumah Kaca's "Cipta Bisa Dipasarkan". Puti was also one of the surprise guest stars at Efek Rumah Kaca's 2016 concert. The point being, there was already more than enough reasons for Cholil to say yes.
She was going to discuss it with him when he was due to return to Indonesia for Synchronize Festival last October, but a family emergency meant he had to stay in New York. But she got in touch anyway, and the next thing I know she was worried about trying to get him to send his vocals from New York so she could get the song mixed, mastered and released before she gave birth.
It looks like her efforts paid off, because "Gelembung Kaca" is a fine song. One of the best things she's done so far. As expected, their voices go well together. Even if Cholil had to record his vocals on his own in New York with all the technical imperfections that implies, there's more than enough soul to add a haunted quality to Puti's already gloomy tune. Puti's friend Olivia Kristina Sinaga wrote the lyrics inspired by someone who died in a motorcycle accident. I couldn't figure that out until Puti told me, and now that I know the story the lyrics seem more literal than my previous interpretation, which was more or less, "I think this is about death." (Turns out I wasn't too far off, though.)
Anyway, it looks like there's been a great response to the song so far. In the few years I've known her, Puti can be her own harshest critic, so I hope this song encourages her to keep creating and following her muse, be it in her own work or with Barasuara. I feel the best is yet to come. And I hope she gets to sing this song with Cholil in person soon.
