GLOWING AND GROWING
Dipha Barus and Jackie Castro find common ground between traditional and contemporary
IN what could only be described as a masterstroke of fate, rising Indonesian music star Dipha Barus and American alt-pop singer Jackie Castro release “Flower,” a fascinating electro pop single that combines modern and traditional cultures into a refreshing finish.
According to Dipha, he first envisioned the beat and melody of the song prior to his marriage, reminding him how just a few years ago, he was going through a rough spot in his life.
“After this song came out, I began to appreciate all the processes in my life because I had gone through a very tough process two years ago, and I felt really good writing this song,” he said. Afterwards, he produced more demos and melodies, hoping that at least one of them would be able to see the light as a full song. Eventually, that moment came organically last January 2020 in a Los Angeles studio.
“So me, Jackie and one of the song writers, Lena Leon, collaborated and it just happened organically,” he recalled. “It was a fun collaboration and it was easy to translate my music into the lyrics. It was magical,”
A great lover of his culture, Dipha always found ways of incorporating and sharing the traditional Indonesian sound into his music, resulting in a unique body of work that set him apart from other artists.
“I’ve used traditional Indonesian instruments since my first song in 2014. I always put traditional instruments in all my songs. We create and sample it because it’s beautiful and there’s a lot of it,” he said.
Jackie Castro, meanwhile, found the track Dipha produced to be ‘grateful’ sounding, which led her to reflect on the times she was still maturing both as a person and as a partner. After discussing this with Dipha and fellow song writer Lena Leon, the project came together almost magically. It was writer Lena who came up with the idea after the three of them talked about their process of “growing and glowing,” and so the single was born.
“It’s about that season of growing pains when you’re dealing with your insecurities and flaws, and as a result you start taking out your unhappiness on the person closest to you. But because they love you and believe in the person you’re going to become, they’re there for you during that whole season, pushing you to be the best version of yourself and being patient with you during your growth,” shared Jackie.
“I think sometimes when you’re growing there is that struggle. So it’s really cool to think about that and pausing and respecting the process. You are going to have those growing pains and that’s just a part of it and that makes the ending a little more beautiful. And I think it’s cool that we wrote this right before lockdown, we had no idea this was coming and it was a very hard season just for everyone. People had to face what they wanted to change about themselves from being alone so much, so it’s cool to release this a year later because people were able to breathe and come into a different, maybe better, space,” she added.
“Flower” by Dipha Barus and Jackie Castro is now available in all major streaming platforms.