Words: Tara Ghaisani
Photo: Agung Hartamurti/Whiteboard Journal

After seven years into their career and taking home the Best Contemporary R&B Duo from AMI Awards last year, Galdive has finally returned home to make their first ever performance in Indonesia through Joyland Sessions. The duo consists of Tisha as their sole vocalist and writer, along with Osvaldo—better known as Os—as their composer and producer.

Not a small number of people were surprised to learn that the R&B duo that’s been sitting in their playlists for so long are, in fact, Indonesians—especially after they garnered more attention through their latest album, Blue. Carrying the same whimsical visuals and immaculate sound as they did in their debut, Blue has definitely widened Galdive’s range sonically. The duo “swerves in and out of genres” (their words!) and one of the best proofs of that is “Night Charade,” where they incorporate Indonesian traditional instruments into their production such as suling, talempong, kendang, and angklung. Their entire discography becomes the very testament of how they’re not just another R&B act, but instead, they aim to push beyond the constraints of being boxed into one genre.

After releasing a number of singles since December 2023 leading up to their album earlier this year, Galdive now has their debut tour awaiting them next year, with several stops across North America. In the intimate Joyland Sessions 2025, we had a brief chat with the duo to share the excitement that is their first local performance (which we also witnessed).

Setelah debutmu pada 2018 sebagai Galdive, akhirnya kamu perform live di Jakarta di Joyland Sessions! How does it feel to finally perform in front of your Indonesian fans and was there anything different than how you’d prepare for your overseas shows?

Osvaldo: Pastinya ada. Aku personally malah lebih deg-degan untuk perform di Jakarta, karena takutnya ekspektasi orang tinggi banget… karena kita kan main musik yang sebenarnya kita suka, jadi kita harap semoga kita bisa ngasih performance yang terbaik.

Kalau dari sisi persiapan, karena kita orangnya beda-beda tempat, latihannya kita itu harus ketemuan, dipastikan dari sebulan sebelum itu kita sudah latihan buat semuanya.

Tisha: Kalau latihan, kita tetap latihan seperti biasa kayak kalau kita mau perform sebelum-sebelumnya. Justru, yang Jakarta kemarin sempet latihan lebih banyak, soalnya kita kali ini nawa bassist kita, Zico Zikri, karena yang kemarin-kemarin dia sempet berhalangan hadir dan tidak bisa Ikut perform, terus kita excited juga soalnya Zico ini bisa mengangkat suasana. Terus abis itu, paling kalau aku latihan ngomong karena aku deg-degan untuk aku nanti ngomong kayak ‘Halo Joyland, terima kasih, selamat datang!’

Talking about your overseas shows, you’ve held a lot of shows in countries abroad and you even have an upcoming North America debut tour. Congratulations! How was it like the first time you went abroad to perform?

Osvaldo: Pertama kali kita perform abroad tuh kebetulan di China, di Shenzhen (dan aku tuh bahkan nggak tahu cara pronounce nama kotanya waktu itu!).

Tisha: Kita bahkan nggak tahu apakah akan ada yang datang menonton.

Osvaldo: Iya, karena itu kan acara yang memang beli tiket cuma buat nonton kita, jadi bukan festival dan nggak ada opener, jadi kita kayak “Emang ada yang dengerin kita?”

Terus waktu pertama kali perform, kita bener-bener nervous parah, terus kelihatan banget kalau kita tuh pertama kali perform! Jadi bener-bener banyak banget mistakes yang kita bener-bener stress-in setelah selesai perform, tapi setelah itu mulai banyak pengalaman jadi kita sadar bahwa, misalnya, mistakes are bound to happen ‘cause we do it live.

Terus yang kita bersyukur banget, waktu kita perform pertama kali itu, fansnya were so forgiving! Dan mereka banyak yang hafal lagunya, kita nyanyi bareng. Jadi kita bener-bener merasa appreciated sama senang kalau ternyata musik kita connected with people that we never expect…

Tisha: …and knew before! Terus soalnya pas di tour pertama kali kita manggung itu, aku sempat nervous, terus penontonnya kayak bergestur ‘It’s okay!’ Terus aku juga jadinya rasanya ‘We got this!’

You’ve teamed up with a lot of interesting musicians like RINI for “Stay”, even co-wrote DEAN’s single “DIE 4 YOU”, and many more. If you could choose to collaborate with any musician right now, who would it be?

Osvaldo: Definitely Galimatias, karena dia inspirasi nomor satu kita sebagai musisi. Terus… banyak sih, sebenarnya… banyak banget! Jadinya…

Tisha: Aku Thee Marloes!

Osvaldo: Yup, betul! Kita fans Thee Marloes. Kita suka banget Thee Marloes.

Lastly, for the people who have just discovered you through Joyland Session. What’s one song you’d recommend to people who are interested in getting into Galdive?

“Maybe I!”