I Wayan Balawan

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I Wayan Balawan
Born	September 9, 1973 Gianyar, Bali Indonesia
Genre(s)	Jazz/Fusion
Affiliation(s)	Batuan Ethnic Fusion
Label(s)	Sony BMG Music Indonesia
Notable guitars	Julius Sakala Balawan Series Ibanez SA Series
Years active	1997 - Present
Official site	http://www.wayanbalawan.com

I Wayan Balawan or Balawan (born September 9, 1973 in Bali) is an Indonesian guitarist and songwriter. He is best-known as Batuan Ethnic Fusion guitarist. Since he went back from Sydney, Balawan has developed the "8 fingers tapping" technique or known as "Touching Tapping Style".

1 Personal life
2 Career
3 Technique
4 Equipments
5 Discography
6 Sources
7 External links

[edit] Personal life

Since he was born, Balawan has used to listen to Balinese Gamelan, a traditional music style from Bali. At the age of 8, he began to play guitar autodidactly and joined his first band when he was 14 years old. Although he grew up in a Balinese traditional culture, Balawan played more rock songs rather than gamelan, some of his favorite bands were Scorpions, Deep Purple and Beatles.

However, lately he was bored with rock music and decided to learn jazz music.^[1] To accomplish his will, he went to Sydney, Australia to learn jazz guitar and vocal at Australian Institute of Music. Furthermore, he also got a scholarship for three years in Diploma of Music. While studying in Sydney for about 5 years, he also gained popularity for his exceptional talent of playing guitar and jazz music. After he got his diploma of music, he went back to Bali in 1997 and formed a band called Batuan Ethnic Fusion, which combine the traditional Balinese gamelan music with jazz/fusion style.

[edit] Career

His first professional band is Batuan Ethnic Fusion, which is still present in these days. Besides being a band member, Balawan also working in his solo career and has released three albums. His first solo album was "Balawan", which released in 1997 under Acoustic Music Label, a German company. Later, he worked with Indonesian company, and with his band, he released his first band album, "GloBALIsm", under Chico&Ira production in 1999. Recently Balawan launched his second solo album, now under label Sony-BMG Music Indonesia. This album titled "Magic Fingers". Magic Fingers really showcases Balawan's ability in arranging, composing and his ability to blend modern music with traditional Balinese gamelan.

"It's always exciting to find new things in art and Batuan Ethnic Fusion is a perfect example of artist who explore into the great spectrum in art with passion, love, beauty and freedom..." - Indra Lesmana^[2]

As Balawan is considered as the only Indonesian guitarist who able to develop and use the "Touch Tapping" style, he often plays in Germany and Norway. In 2000, Balawan collaborated with many international guitarists at "East Meet West Gitarren Festival Edekoben Germany 2000 Tour". He also has had a tour in 20 cities in Germany in 2001. In the same year, Balawan played at "Hell Blues Festival" in Norway in September.

[edit] Technique

Balawan has developed and expanded a technique called "Touch Tapping" style. The technique ables the guitarist to play two or even three different music progression at the same time using the same instrument continuously. Another notable player with the ability to play this technique is Stanley Jordan, an American jazz/fusion guitarist. Balawan developed the same progression with Stanley Jordan, that he is able to produce a piano, bass and guitar at the same time using just one instrument.

When he plays, usually he uses his right hand, with all 4 fingers to create the melody progressions and his left hand to create the bass and rhythmic sounds. Another unique thing is that there is no pattern or repetition whatsoever between the left and right hand. Thus Balawan has a very exceptional skill of playing guitar.^[1]

Balawan also plays drum, both to fill the tracks on his albums and to develop the "Touch Tapping" style.

[edit] Equipments

Since he plays a unique style of technique, Balawan needs a special guitar with two necks so that he can play rhythmic progression and melody at the same time. To fulfill this need Balawan contacted a small guitar manufacturer shop that also created a guitar model for another Indonesian guitarist, Dewa Budjana. However, this shop is not a company whatsoever, and just consists of one man at the age of 30s who leads the shop with 6 other workers. Julius Sakala, the manufacturer, said the production of Balawan's guitar was his biggest challenge because he needed to create such a guitar so Balawan could play with the technique perfectly. The guitar was a double neck guitar with 6 strings on the upper neck and 7 strings on the lower one.^[3]

Balawan also has been endorsed by Ibanez and Laney to use their equipments exclusively. In addition, Balawan uses Ibanez SA series and Laney amplifiers.