I Hear Aray Daulay

Aray Daulay releases a new single and album this month, which will be launched at The Orchard next week. The Beat takes a closer look at Aray and his music.
Aray Daulay is one of Indonesia’s great musicians. Born in Bandung in 1976 and now resident of Bali, Aray has been a professional musician since the age of 19. He’s been a member of nationally acclaimed touring bands since the mid 90’s; rock band Plastik and later reggae outfit Steven and the Coconut Trees, who had the national and international hit ‘Welcome to My Paradise’ and later a folk project, Ray D’Sky from 2009 to 2012. Aray continues, “I’ve been playing in the Indonesian music industry since the 90’s. I was based in Jakarta with my first band PLASTIK and we released three albums. Steven and Coconutreez (2005 – 2010) was a reggae band. After that I had a folk project Ray D’Sky from 2009 – 2012.”
At that stage, Aray did some time in Western Australia’s northern outback and stayed with family in Fitzroy Crossing. This was a sabbatical period with not a lot of music opportunities, but he did manage to record his first solo album and sometimes flew back for gigs in Indonesia during his more than three years there. “Yeah, Fitzroy Crossing is in the middle of nowhere, in the desert, but I have family there. I was just with family, played music a bit, cut grass a few times to get some cash. Fishing. There’s not really much to do out there, but I did make my first solo album, ‘On The Move’. It was a good experience.”
Coming back to Indonesia and Bali, Aray began forging his solo music career ahead with what he calls his mix of blues, rock and roll, folk and reggae. He manages to play all those genres in his music today.
“Yeah, I thought it was the time to go solo. I wanted to explore my music more and create whatever I wanted with my music. I got a band together and I gave the boys playing with me now the name Island Souls in the process as we are all just that, island souls.”
The Bali live music scene has exploded in the last few years and Aray has been one of the standouts of the new crop passing through or based on the island full time. “The music scene here is so good. I love it! There are so many different and awesome music scenes to get amongst here, which is good for my motivation. And so many very talented musicians from all over Indonesia now living in Bali too.”
Aray will be releasing a new album this month. The first one since his 2014 effort. There is a new single too, which will be launched with its video on 23 June and the album on 29 June, both at The Orchard. The single and video will also be launched in Canggu’s Deus on June 24.
“This second album took some time as I was moving around a lot. You know, sometimes these things happen fast or slow, it’s all the process,” Aray says.
The single is called “Aku Dengar”. “The song’s a dialogue between two friends coming together and feeling comfortable about sharing their true feelings about life with each other. You know, talking naturally amongst friends is good for you.” Aray is at his folkie, blues best with this new single and album, which is called Lagu Perjalanan – Journey Song. And what’s the story behind the album? “It’s my musical journey from the 90’s till now. I recycled a few songs from my earlier bands, projects I worked on before and I put two new songs in, too. There are two songs from Plastik, two songs from Ray D’Sky and it’s all folkie, ballads and bluesy. Just the way I like it.”
You can catch that single launch next week at The Orchard on Saturday, June 23.
[Text: D. Trauts]