Time For A Picnic Together With Dead On Saturn

JAKARTA - Newcomer soloist from Malang, Mas'aril Muhtadin - known by his stage name Mati Di Saturnus - released his debut album, Balada Orang-Orang Piknik. This album presents the acoustic guitar playing and vocal character typical of an Aril - as he is called.

Starting from a prank to kill boredom between his daily activities by playing guitar, Aril proceeded to write several songs.

"Everything just flows," said Aril about the birth of Mati On Saturn.

"Maybe this is because it is my personal desire to make music projects but until now I have not found a suitable partner," he continued.

In fact, Die On Saturn is not Aril's first musical project. Previously he was part of a grindcore genre group called Voice Of Throat which later changed its name to Drophate.

Together with this band, Aril et al had produced several single songs and were involved in several compilation projects, one of which was a tribute compilation for a veteran grindcore band from Malang, Extreme Decay. The album was released through Playloud Records.

Unfortunately, the personnel's busyness is the main reason why the band is running slowly.

The great desire to keep playing music underlies Aril to have the courage to take the decision to give birth to Mati Di Saturn. Although from the beginning he realized that this project had only been started with courage and simplicity.

"At the beginning I was really confused because I didn't know about the production of the record, finally I came to the Virtuoso studio and asked if I could record a solo, uh the operator answered 'never mind solo, you can just snore'," he recalled laughingly remembering his innocence.

Since then the name Mati On Saturn was born. He recorded several songs and distributed them for free to his friends by using broadcast chat and the internet.

Not satisfied, Aril began to learn about tools and software so he could record his own songs in the room.

At the end of 2019, through the Koalisi Nada netlabel, Mati Di Saturn released three free download songs that he worked on independently in his room. At its peak, an album titled The Ballad of the Picnic People was born which has just been released on several digital music platforms.

The ballad of the Pinik people became Aril's media with Mati Di Saturn to voice his anxieties, worries, and fears about the surrounding conditions he felt and saw.

"In essence, through this album I invite listeners of my work to empathize, not hate others because of differences," hopes Aril, who admits to be more or less influenced by musicians like Andy Shauf, Bob Dylan, Franky Shahilatua, Iwan Fals, Jason Ranti, and Silampukau.

In the future, after the pandemic is over, Mati Di Saturn plans to produce the Ballad of the Picnic People in physical form. Including plans to make a small release party event.