By the time when this article was written, Uyau Moris or Amoris already has 27,955 subscribers on Youtube. He has been quite successful in attracting people to hear traditional Kalimantan and sapeh music. Here is our interview with him on his music and his way to introduce traditional music to young people.
What is your musical background? Is sapeh your first instrument?
I have been playing this instrument since I was 8 years old. There were some factors that made me learn sapeh in the first place. The first one was my grandfather, Majan Kasit, who was a player and also a sapeh maker. Secondly, my parents who always asked me to go to every traditional sapeh-related events when I was a child.
Traditional music of Borneo is not the same as european diatonic music and harmony. How did you modify your sapeh to be able to play pop music?
In general Indonesian music instruments are pentatonic. That is what makes these instruments unique, but I've stumbled upon some problems when I tried to explore more music with sapeh, so I modified my instrument to be able to play diatonic music. I've also added more 3 more strings so that my sapeh has 6-7 strings. I needed it for my show in order to explore more music for sapeh.
What is your mission for sapeh music? Do you have a message for people who want to learn traditional instrument?
My mission is very simple. Traditional instruments are being forgotten in time of modern age. Who will introduce and still play this music if we don't start to do it ourselves? It is not easy to make traditional instruments appealing for young people. I tried a lot of ways to introduce this instrument and spark interest in young people, for example by making covers of popular songs.
Do you have interesting experiences during your time playing traditional music? Has anybody ever commented that you don't play authentic traditional music because you put modern elements such us drums in it?
Of course there are people who said things like that. Some even complained, why don't I just play only traditional music? Like I've explained before that, in some videos that I made, I've included fragments of traditional music or traditional sapeh elements.
What is your ideology in playing pop music with traditional instruments?
Playing pop songs with traditional instruments is actually only a camouflage for me to bring more people to know traditional music. In covers that I made, I've slipped in traditional sapeh and music patterns that many people probably are aware of. But by doing this, slowly people start to recognise the patterns in traditional music such as datin julut, urau, and sapeh leto.
