By Nina Huang
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Chong the Nomad. Photo credit: Austin Santiago.
From playing traditional Indonesian music in her church choir to opening for Death Cab for Cutie and Odesza, Chong the Nomad (real name Alda Agustiano), 29, continues to shine in the city of angels through her songwriting and production.
Agustiano was born and raised in the Renton/Kent area. She played piano growing up, but she had a love/hate relationship with piano lessons.
She played the trombone in her elementary school band and her parents are also very musical—they led a worship group at one of the churches they went to.
“My mother taught me how to sing and my father taught me how to listen,” Agustiano said.
As a teenager, she and her family moved around a lot—spent some time in Maryland, but eventually returned to Seattle in 2012.
The beginning of a musical career
Chong the Nomad from her favorite TV series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” was a character that she related to. She chose it as her handle for online forums and such, and she just always stuck with it.
Agustiano studied music composition at Cornish College of the Arts. Her passion was electronic music, but she told her parents she wanted to score films.
In 2017, during her final year of college, she signed up for a beat making competition. She lost in the second round, but met her manager there and that summer, she started playing her first shows in 2018.
Her first major show was at the 2019 Deck the Hall Ball. It went really well and she gained a lot of new fans from it, and also went on to perform with Death Cab for Cutie and Odesza that same year.
She got connected with these artists through the internet, and it was during that time that an artists and repertoire (A&R) talent scout from Atlantic Records discovered Agustiano.
In 2022, she played at the Paramount Theater when she was the opening act for Death Cab for Cutie.
“It was probably one of the toughest shows of my life. It did change me as a performer,” she said.
Agustiano’s parents got dressed up and went to that concert to support her.
Photo credit: Austin Santiago
“That big of a scale, I never thought I could do. It was a big deal for me. I have the blessing to say that Ben Gibbard is a musical colleague of mine. The band believed in me and you can’t say no to a Death Cab for Cutie show. When you’re performing dance-oriented electronic music, it was very terrifying to perform in front of a full room like that with 99% of the people who have no clue who I am,” she recalled.
She described the first night as a trainwreck with the mic not working as soon as she got on and a few other hiccups. But she learned from her mistakes and the second night was better.
“It was a difficult show to pull off. I’m very minimal with my stage production and Death Cab has dozens of people, guitar techs, and such, but it was just me, my lighting tech and my manager. It was tough, but I learned a lot from it,” she said.
Opening for Death Cab was a long-term goal that she was able to complete.
Fast forward to her 26th birthday on Aug. 16, 2021, Agustiano walked the red carpet for “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”
She landed a production credit on the movie soundtrack that gave her the chance to attend the premiere.
“It was a ‘how the hell did I get here’ moment,” she said.
Photo credit: Connor Jalbert
Musical influences
Some of Agustiano’s musical influences include Benny Blanco, Solange Knowles, and the late Sophie Xeon.
She shared that Xeon’s death was hard on her.
“I woke up to that news and it did feel like the world stopped,” she said.
When Xeon’s album “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” was released in 2018, Agustiano listened to it on the way back from a trip and it was a very profound moment for her.
“I was still early in my career and she’s my North star. That album is unapologetic. The sound is unapologetic and so singular. It’s just her, and I’ve always gone back on that, she’s one of my main influences,” she shared.
When she was living in Maryland, Agustiano performed in youth choirs and orchestras. They would perform on Indonesian Independence Day.
“That community really cemented the musicality in me. I did that every year, and me and my sisters learned these traditional folk songs. Furthermore, when I was in college, they had a gamelan ensemble. It’s one of the most beautiful complex genres ever. It doesn’t follow Western scales or theory and it’s its own thing, and I’ve been really influenced by gamelan arrangement and trying to translate that into my music. It’s really cool to hear my Indonesian friends say they can pick it out a little bit,” she said.
“My parents were so happy with it. Any Indonesian representation in Western culture is just such a wonderful thing and it stuck with me for sure,” she recalled.
Photo credit: Travis Gillet
Starting anew in the city of angels
She moved to Los Angeles a few months ago. She made the choice last year to give it a try.
Agustiano shared that writing music and making beats for other people is a more consistent way to generate income.
She’s currently signed to TruSauce, a production label that was started by her mentor, Roget Chahayed. She’s been working with him since 2019 and he signed her in 2020.
The move was a hard choice because she loves Seattle so much.
“I think I got to the point where I’d be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t try,” she said.
Agustiano will continue to make music and write songs for other people. Last summer, she released her debut LP album last June, “Do We Make of This.” She’s very proud of it.
Agustiano shared how her mother was hesitant about her career choice at first.
“Although they did want me to succeed, from an early age, they were very ‘Oh you love this, go for it,’ but my mom wanted me to find a backup plan,” she said.
When Agustiano was 17, she showed her mom this orchestration arrangement on her music software and she gave her the same look that she would have when she was really spiritual at church and that has always stuck with her. Ever since then, her parents have always been supportive of Agustiano.
“I’m very lucky, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
Nina can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.
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