Saturday, November 22, 2025

Andresa Nugraha - "Nothing Lasts Forever"

Andresa Nugraha, the artist behind the one-man garage punk phenomenon The Battlebeats, has released something very different under his own name. The new single "Nothing Lasts Forever" was created in loving memory of his mother, Suryati. I have to say this single has absolutely blown me away. 

Stylistically, this is a big shift for Andresa — from budget punk to noisy indie rock. It's also a big shift in tone. These songs represent part of his grief cycle. The title track was written a couple months before Suryati's passing. "I never knew the meaning of the song by then," says Andresa, "but I do now, as if my future self in the past writes songs for me in the present time." What an incredibly profound thing to say! Andresa wrote "The Time Machine" after his mother's passing as he was cleaning up her room and viewing old photographs of when she was young and full of life. This caused him to reflect on his own days as a young adult, realizing that his mother was once just like him, and that if he's lucky, he'll live to be as old as she was when she passed. These reflections have changed the way he views life. He's found himself wanting to live in the present, spending time with the people he loves, "not thinking too much about the future or regretting past." Again, that's remarkably profound. 

Doing a punk/garage/power pop type blog, I don't often write about music that brings me to tears. But holy cow, Andresa has really hit all the right notes here. And the thing is that this isn't him doing something different just for the sake of experimentation. This is true personal inspiration. It's as if the songs came to him, and he pulls off this more indie pop style remarkably well. He fills these songs with genuine feeling and remarkable wisdom for such a young man. The reason why music (along with all art) exists is to create something that speaks to the human experience, to reflect on the things that are most important in life. What could be more important in life than the love of a parent — someone who brought us into this world and helped mold us into who we are? And lately as I've been thinking a lot about how much I'm like my mother, these songs have me wanting to cherish the time I still have with her. Andresa may have created this music to help process his grief, but I'm so happy that he realized these songs needed to be shared with the world. If you're a fan of his, you absolutely need to have this single.

No comments: