Artist : Mian Tiara
Album : The Comfort of My Own Company
Label : Demajors Independent Music Industry/Ragadi Music
“Among the crowd of thrown voices and dialogues, she still talks to herself.” – Mian Tiara
In our daily activities like meeting thousands of people along with the voices and sounds around us or even standing in the middle of busy crowds, there are moments when our minds fly away from the scene and have a conversation with ourselves thoroughly, just between us and our own thoughts alone, nothing more and nothing less. And we have to admit that we need to have it sometimes. Some artists have been living in the rushing music scene for quite some time. They have to deal with schedules, deadlines and activities, and they also need some moments where they can draw themselves away from everything and find the comfort of their own company. In such a case we have Mian Tiara, who speaks out honestly and personally about her inner self in deep resulting in a brilliant album with the title that explains the whole things, “The Comfort of My Own Company.”
Mian Tiara’s name might not be familiar to some people yet but actually she’s not a new comer in the music industry. Mian Tiara (4)She’s definitely not someone who has just been found, being given some songs then splashed into the market. She’s not the result of instant industrial product either. She has started her dream since long, long time ago, that one day she will give amount of contributions in music and will be listened by many music lovers. She didn’t stop by just for dreaming, she has been persistent to pursue her dream she has since she was still a little girl. She attended a classical guitar course when she was in 6th grade of elementary school. It might be a surprise that she could even play drum and piano as well. The blessings don’t stop there since she is also gifted in vocal. Her vocal is able to pour out her feelings to reach our hearts in no time. She’s able to speak out her heart and mind, from the simplest thing she feels to the most painful ones to scream out in poetic lyrics, heartfelt melodies and touching vocals. With all these gifts dwelt inside her, it’s not difficult to believe that she will emerge as one of the most important artists to look for in the near future.
Tiara started her talents in song writing. She can write meaningful lyrics in poetry either in Indonesian or English. Many artists have tasted her magic touch as she has shared her signature with Indra Lesmana, Riza Arshad, Ermy Kullit, Humania and Andien to name a few. She’s also supporting the independent community as well since she is involved heavily in some projects of indie bands from White Shoes and the Couples Company, Good Night Electric, to the most recent one, sharing her voice joining SORE on “The Hitman”, one of the song found in SORE’s newest album, “Sombreros Kiddos”. She’s also active in making jingle as backing vocal for her friends and acted as tour manager for White Shoes & The Couples Company. But perhaps the most noticeable achievement came when she won AMI (Anugerah Musik Indonesia) Awards for “The Best Original Jazz Song” category with Indra Lesmana for Rumah Ketujuh OST. Mian Tiara shines brightly with her “behind the scenes” career, and now it’s about time for her to take some time to find her soul, what comforts her the most and bring them out for us to listen. “The Comfort of My Own Company” is the album in which Tiara speaks out her feelings about many things in honesty, just totally being herself. It’s a diary-like debut solo album that mirrored her soul in lovely writings and arrangements.
Having met the like of EQ Puradiredja of Humania, Indra Lesmana or Riza Arshad has helped her to sharpen her sense in several aspects especially in deeper encounter with jazz. For this project she got many supportive friends. 
Her long time partner whom she has been working with for 10 years Riza Arshad contributed as the playing music director for the album. Indra Lesmana also backed her up, along with Nikita Dompas, Indra Perkasa, Anda Perdana, Avi Bortnick, Elfa Zulham Syah and John Navid. You can catch her “free as a bird” soul in this album that somehow reminiscence the soul of Fiona Apple, Feist and the like. She also has the artistic touch of Joni Mitchell within. She is told to be inspired by wide range of artists from Joni Michell, Tori Amos, Led Zeppelin, John Coltrane to Imogen Heap or even the legendary maestro of Indonesia, Ismail Marzuki to name a few. With this colorful source of inspiration and the journey she’s been walking through, it would be impossible to trap her into a small segmented box. As Riza Arshad also said, “With all her experience, she’s simply can’t be put into a particular box.” And that’s something we can’t help but agree. Listen to “The Comfort of My Own Company”, you will sense many musical essences in variety. Folk could be a major influence in this album, but there is nuance of jazz which is really stronger in some songs, acoustic pop even rock embedded nicely in her songs. Some songs are light, but some can be real dark and deep, either way she’s giving strong artistic touches that are still easy to love by the music lovers in general.
The album starts with a folk-ish ballad “The Memories of You”. If you like Joni Mitchell this song will surely hit the spot. It’s a perfect song to introduce Mian Tiara completely describing who she is and what she feels in beautiful poetic lyrics as a part of the song says: “I’m a lonely writer, I live in box of words, I took memories of you and make it into my songs.” The next song “Little Space in Between” captures the soothing and relaxing nuance of Kings of Convenience with the acoustic guitar backing her in telling the story of breaking up in different perspective, as something that is supposed to be that way. “Disapih” is a word in Indonesian that literally means the moment when a baby is weaned from his mother. Tiara used this word to describe the situation that she can’t fight anymore. Through this song she expressed her disappointment in the sorrowful moan over haunting set of melodies. She gives her emotion out through her vocal completely and brings us to feel the pain. It sounds lighter in the band version on the 3rd track along with some jazz ambiences, while later in the acoustic version she brings it differently in a lot darker and sadder.
The next song is “Selalu Ada”, again showing her ability in pouring herself poetically in ear catchy acoustic folk. “Am I The One” starts with lovely piano textures that accompanies her on telling her sadness. Interestingly she chose to deliver this song in English and Indonesian, showing her expertise to express her feeling in both languages. Another song in two versions follows, “Not Even in Love”. In the band version she brings some nuance of world music by bringing kendang into the song, while in the acoustic version she offers the sadder version in slower tempo. She changes the atmosphere on the next song entitled “Against the Obvious”. Funky, chunky and bluesy guitar helps Tiara to show her rockin’ side in playful melodies. This is a song which appears differently compared to most tracks in the album. And let’s talk about the last song to mention, “Ini Rindu”. This song is simply a winner. She only needs 1:41 minutes to give a masterpiece, as if the maestro Ismail Marzuki had written it. With the thickest jazz nuance compared to the rest of the songs, this one brings back the beauty of classic style of songs in the purest and most honest way.
Listening over Mian Tiara’s “The Comfort of my Own Company” is like peeping through her own diary. There are some moments in her life she wants to share with all her listeners. Interestingly this is not a boring heart-pouring sessions, instead Tiara invites us into a journey from one topic to another. With the brilliant writing and heartfelt melodies, Mian Tiara is ready to bring you into the comfort zone, despite what your favorite style of music is. She doesn’t necessarily has to be placed into one small particular box, her talent is far too big to be fitted in that, what matter most is the honesty she pours in each line. As she finds the comfort of her own company, now we are all invited to feel it as well. Ear catchy melody, poetic lyrics, pure and honest, all these aspects will burst all over the tracks. This album is personal and more than enough to show who she really is, both in person and creativity. This album will just be perfect to accompany you in finding the comfort of your own company. Simply put, it’s the kind of album that will be too bad to be missed.
The band:
Aditya Bayu (guitar)
Chaka Priambudi (double-bass)
Reza Achman (drums/percussions)
Tracklist:
Memories Of You
Little Space In Between
Disapih (Band Version)
Selalu Ada
Am I The One
Not Even In Love (Band Version)
Against The Obvious
Ini Rindu
Disapih
Not Even In Love
