Thursday, January 3, 2013

Featured in Free Malaysia Today

4 days a go, Free Malaysia Today published an article about me related to VIMA2013. Thanks so much FMT & VIMA. Here's the original link to the article and here's the article:

Yacko, rapper who likes teaching
December 29, 2012
The rapper from Indonesia is a lecturer by day, and a rapper by night.

Yacko signed her first record contract when she was 16 years old. She and her group Pumpkin Crew joined a compilation called Pesta Rap 2 (1996) with a single called Nongkrong.Then, after finishing her masters degree in Business Administration & Applied Science in Australia, Yacko’s first solo hip hop album entitled Refleksi (EMI Music Indonesia) was released in 2005.

The album was produced by Sydney’s DJ and musician DJ Edo under the record label of Arqetech Studios. Two years later, Yacko released Mendua (RizkyRekordz) which was under heavy gauze layers of catchy hooks and melody.

In 2010, Brrapp! (produced by NSG), Yacko’s first single from the upcoming album was released and managed to capture lots of attention from the crowd. All Nite Long (produced by Doe) featuring Lloyd Popp came next and followed the huge success. Eleven remixes were crafted by various DJs and the song was on heavy rotation in the clubs. Third single, Filthy Rich feat. Lawrence Philip was number 1 at Paranoia Dance Chart for two weeks in a row.

She’s the one who’s living a double life, hectic & busy 24/7. A college lecturer by weekdays and a rapper as fate would have it. Having performed at different venues in Indonesia and alongside international artist like Lil Jon in Singapore, Yacko definitely caught people’s attention. If you are into a performer that is high-caliber, full of stamina and energy, Yacko’s performance is surely not to be missed.

How does it feel to be nominated for a VIMA award? What does this nomination mean to you?
Being nominated for a VIMA award makes me feel deeply honoured. But being nominated in 7 (supposed to be 6. sorry typo) categories? I am shocked!! Never really thought about this since I only want to contribute and share my passion to others but it feels amazing to know that my music has been recognized outside of my own country.  Of course I won’t go this far without the help of the music producers I work with, NSG and Lawrence Philip. They are equally responsible for being nominated for the awards.

What efforts have you made to promote your nominations to your fans?
I post every single news about VIMA nominations in my official blog which also linked to my other social media site such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, ReverbNation, Path, Instagram, and others. I also announced the nominations when I perform and urge my friends and fans to vote. Moreover, my management team (2313) also help creating press release about this nominations and distributing it to local media. As a result, you will be able to read this news in online local media. Few radio interviews were also conducted to gain awareness.

Do you believe that social media platforms such as Facebook, Youtube and twitter are relevant marketing and publicity tools for a musician? What efforts have you made to engage with your fans using social media?
Definitely! Publicity at no cost. It helps you to share any news that you would like share and highlight right to your targeted market, friends and fans. I believe people that follow you in Twitter, like your page in Facebook and subscribe to your social media site at least will be disclosed to and aware of the information. But of course in order to increase the possibility for them to vote, needs to be supported by more integrated strategy. For example, providing the link to vote in the post and giving those who vote my unreleased track send to their e-mails. Please read the efforts that I have made in the answers above and visit http://itsyacko.blogspot.com to read the posts.

How would you best describe your music?
Raw and Other Hip Hop. Raw because l like raw sound, lots of distortion, and crazy sound. Other Hip Hop means my basic is always been in Rap music and Hip Hop culture. Where Hip means digging more knowledge where I interpret in my lyrics and Hop means to jump and to explore to other sound and noise. That’s why I add the term “other” since you might hear other forms of Hip Hop music which also explain the reason that I tend to work with range of different music producers to capture their signature sound.

Share with us two of your favourite quotes.
“I reached my dreams by having the courage to pursue them, you can do it too” – I always believe that it is not enough just by having a dream. Courage is another element that you need to pursue your dreams and if I can do it, others can do it too. It’s a self-motivation quote but also can be used to motivate others.
“Tak pernah sekalipun aku mundur dari jalan yang kupercaya” – another quote that I make to focus on the things that I believe. Never doubt the things and the paths that you choose. I choose to be a lecturer and a rapper because those are things that I really passionate about. Both have the same roots, to share and be shared, as well to inspire and be inspired.

What are your songs about?
Pretty much ranging from I-don’t-care-about-haters-attitude to criticising the government to lesbian, gay and transsexual. I am just trying to reveal all the feelings that I have by writing it down to my lyrics. But I have to admit, writing about love has always been a difficult one for me. LOL.

What is your biggest achievement to date?
This year I have been nominated in three different awards, in total I received 11 (supposed to be 10. sorry typo) nominations. Shocking and grateful to know that you work has been recognized not only locally but also in SouthEast Asia.

What is your advice to up and coming musicians ?
Be consiflex. Be consistent to your objectives but stay flexible in your approach. Means you have to set up your objective. For example, if your objective is to make an album, you have to stick with it. What you need to be flexible is the strategy, choose who you want to create network with, get support from a (management) team, friends and fanbase, gain more experiences and knowledge to add to your original style, absorb any ideas to your flavor and you don’t have to always listen to what other people say to develop your song. At the end of the day, you cannot please everyone and haters will always be there to watch you fall. One thing for sure, you cannot fall apart, if you are being true to yourself and have the courage to pursue your dream.

What was the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you while performing?
There was one time that I had to use ear monitors since the room where I performed didn’t really have a clear and good sound monitor to listen to the beat. To tell you the truth, I hate ear monitors because they do no good and most of the time it ends up in technical errors where I can’t hear anything. That gig was a big failure to me, nothing came out of my ear monitors and I lost the tempo of the beat.

What are your thoughts on music piracy?Would you give your music away for FREE?
It might be difficult to stop but you can trick it. You can try to legalize it by officially giving your music for free. Means that you can choose your own platform for your music to be downloaded for free, for example I use www.likelovelife.com to direct the people to download my music for free and legal. This way you can track how many people download it legally. I also use the free download to trigger the people to listen to my music. Eventually, if they like my music, they will buy the official CD or purchase it in iTunes. I also differentiate the bit rate of the song between the free download and the one in the store. If you want the best quality one you can purchase it.